There's so much to discover on Netflix, ranging from action to horror to science fiction and
beyond. Sometimes finding the perfect movie for your mood can be tough. Not to worry, we're here
to help and we've spotlighted some hidden Netflix gems that you can add to your must-watch list.
Fashion designer Tom Ford scripted and directed Nocturnal Animals,
a mind-bending, and deeply unsettling thriller in which the plot itself blends, interferes,
and gets confused with a story being told by the film's troubled characters. Amy Adams plays Susan,
an unhappily married art gallery owner who receives a fascinating novel manuscript called
Nocturnal Animals, written by her vindictive first husband, Edward, played by Jake Gyllenhaal.
The action in the film shifts to depict the book, a horrifying story about Tony, also portrayed by
Gyllenhaal, a man whose car breaks down in rural Texas just before a gang of criminals kidnaps his
wife and daughter and leaves him stranded. It's up to Detective Bobby Andes, a strong-but-silent
type to help Tony exact his revenge. Meanwhile, back in Susan and Edward's world,
viewers learn about the emotional devastation that led to the demise of their marriage.
Neil Pond of Parade called Nocturnal Animals an...
"Arty and grotesquely gorgeous, but hardly an uplifting tale. [...] Think
No Country For Old Men meets CSI: West Texas, by way of Twin Peaks."
Jason Momoa looks like a superhero in real life,
so it's logical he gets to play larger-than-life figures like Aquaman and physical characters
like Khal Drogo on Game of Thrones. These roles seem like a natural fit for Momoa.
"I dig it."
In Braven, Momoa gets the opportunity to play a regular guy for once. Albeit,
a regular guy thrust into a stressful situation and forced to do heroic things.
A humble family man named Joe Braven takes his father and daughter to
their cabin in the woods to forget their troubles for a couple of days.
Unfortunately, they don't get any rest and relaxation because they run afoul
of drug traffickers who have been using the Braven's property as a stash house.
A violent and bloody standoff ensues as Braven fights to protect his property and his family.
Joe Leydon of Variety perfectly summed up the film…
"To put it simply and gratefully, Braven is the sort of unpretentious yet thoroughly
professional popcorn entertainment that brings out the best in everybody involved."
A Monster Calls might
sound like the name of a horror movie, but it's actually a Spielberg-like fantasy. Director J.A.
Bayona crafts an allegorical, eye-popping film about all-too real and difficult emotions from
the point of a view of a child, which makes it all the more heartbreaking. A Monster Calls is about
grief, but it's also about a walking, talking, tree creature with the voice of Liam Neeson.
Conor is 13, and his mother is dying. He's just old enough to know what's going on,
but young enough to have no idea how to cope;
he can't turn to his stern grandmother for help and his father isn't a big part of his life.
An unlikely and impossible ally arrives just when Conor needs him: He is the Monster, a massive,
sentient yew tree who offers to tell Conor three grand tales. After that, Conor must share his own.
"Stories are wild creatures, Conor O'Malley.
When you let them loose, who know what havoc they may wreak?"
It's all a little frightening and also wonderful, and the revelation of where
the tree learned his stories will definitely leave the viewer misty-eyed, which is rare
for a movie about a giant monster who may or may not be a figment of a child's imagination.
Television has been graced with many reality and game shows that pit a group of strangers against
each other, requiring a vote to eliminate all but one last-standing champion. Alliances are formed,
but it's ultimately every person for themselves. The provocative and frightening 2015 film Circle
takes the idea and ups the stakes considerably. 50 strangers, all facing execution, are placed in a
darkened room and made to choose among themselves which one of them shall get to walk out alive.
"It's us."
"Us?"
"What do you mean?"
"We're choosing who dies."
The sparse film's sparse 87 minutes fly by as various unnamed,
desperate characters passionately argue and bargain on behalf of their
own futures while time and chances run out. Of course, they also have to fear immediate
eradication by the wicked forces holding them in the room if they so much as move.
John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter wrote about the film, saying...
"[Circle] keeps suspense alive, building to a final tableau that, silently,
says nearly as much about human nature as does all the talk leading up to it."
At the beginning of Elizabeth Harvest, the film seems like an examination of a newlywed couple's
life. Henry and Elizabeth Kellenberg appear to be delicately adjusting to life as married people.
Elizabeth moves into the wealthy and prominent Henry's beautiful, well-appointed home
filled with luxuries and creature comforts. In the spirit of their new partnership,
Henry gives Elizabeth free rein over his house, and suggests that they'll live in
wedded bliss so long as she doesn't go poking around one mysterious room in the basement.
"That sounds ominous."
Naturally, Elizabeth can't help herself and investigates the forbidden zone. This is when the
film takes a turn and gets really interesting. She discovers a shocking secret that sends her down a
mysterious path filled with danger and intrigue. With elements of science fiction and horror,
Elizabeth Harvest is a dark fairytale that explores man's darkest impulses.
War movies are,
by their nature, action movies. The best ones re-create true events with emotional honesty
and visceral realism that exposes viewers to an approximation of the nightmarish world of combat.
The Outpost is such a movie, taking place during the Battle of Kamdesh, a crucial, and deadly
2009 event in the ongoing Afghanistan War. At the Keating combat outpost, set in a valley of three
mountains, outnumbered American soldiers fight an onslaught of well-armed Taliban combatants.
Presented as a series of episodes, The Outpost doesn't just re-create an epic
battle from recent history, but it tells a story which allows the audience to get
to know the characters. The members of the troop are mostly just regular, decent people
thrust into a difficult and clearly terrifying situation, with everything leading up to the
can't-look-away battle scenes. In fact, Matt Fowler of IGN described The Outpost as...
"A cleverly, and respectfully, crafted war film."
Knock Knock is a home invasion thriller with a couple of twists. The criminals have an important,
if cynical, lesson to teach about the baseness of men, and it's also one of
the few movies where the universally beloved Keanu Reeves plays an unlikeable character.
This dread-inducing and quick-moving 2015 thriller from writer-director Eli Roth
begins innocuously with a knock on the door of the beautiful home of seemingly happily
married architect Evan Webber. Because of work obligations, he's home alone, with his dog,
Monkey, over Father's Day while his family takes a quick vacation.
Genesis and Bel, two young, flirtatious women, played by Lorenza Izzo and a pre-Knives Out
Ana de Armas, gain entry, claiming to be lost and looking for a house party.
"Not everyone would just let two total strangers into their house these days."
"Well, you don't look that dangerous."
The women aggressively come on to Evan, and he eventually gives in to
his base carnal urges — and that's when the terror and violence begin.
Knock Knock is actually a light remake of the 1977 B-movie Death Game,
which has gained a cult following in the years since its release. Just like the original,
this film is packed with thrills, suspense, humor and over-the-top performances.
An elite squad of secret operatives
hunting down and punishing those who committed unspeakable acts of terror against their community
is a small film genre unto itself — and a good one at that. Among such stories,
one can find as much action and drama as cathartic psychology and shocking real-world history.
In the same vein of Steven Spielberg's Munich, which told the story of Israeli Mossad agents
going after the terrorists who killed athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics, comes Operation Finale.
The film details the early '60s mission of a team of highly-trained, top secret
Israeli operatives who travel to Argentina in order to bring to justice Adolf Eichmann.
He was a high-ranking Nazi official who masterminded the logistics of the Holocaust,
responsible for the deaths of millions of Jewish people. Oscar Isaac plays
real-life Mossad agent Peter Malkin, leading the charge against Eichmann.
M.V. Moorhead of Phoenix Magazine called Operation Finale…
"Crisp and absorbing and satisfying, both as a thriller and as a moral drama."
On one level, viewers know exactly what
they're getting when they click on a movie called Vampires vs. the Bronx.
"We got vampires in the Bronx."
It is indeed a violent tale of creepy bloodsuckers hailing from Eastern Europe,
in the classic vampire movie style. But this time, they're in a modern-day urban setting,
specifically one of New York City's five boroughs. However, Vampires vs. the Bronx is so much more
than that — it's a socially conscious celebration of Bronx culture, the story of a bunch of smart
and capable kids coming together to save the day, and a deeply satirical horror-comedy.
The vampiric real estate agents at the center of the story represent wealthy individuals
and businesses that want to gentrify older neighborhoods,
and a scrappy bunch of young people have to stop them before nothing is left and no one is alive.
"Don't go there, Ma."
"He's...he's a really bad man."
"Of course he is, he's in real estate."
Like many critics, Ben Travis of Empire had positive things
to say about Vampires vs. the Bronx. He called the film...
"A witty and likable horror-comedy that manages to
put a stake to the heart of some real issues while it tickles your ribs."
Based on Joe Ballarini's series of gently
spooky kids novels of the same name,
The Babysitter's Guide to Monster Hunting is a family-friendly movie directed by Rachel Talalay,
a filmmaker best known for her work on Tank Girl and the Nightmare on Elm Street series.
Ballarini and Talalay were the ideal combo to make what could be a kid's first horror-comedy,
a dark, funny, and twisted take on the '80s classic Adventures in Babysitting.
Teenage babysitter Kelly gets a gig looking after a kid on Halloween night. That's a bummer in and
of itself, made worse when the child is kidnapped by the actual Boogeyman. Kelly has to do her best
to rescue the little guy. Luckily, she's helped along the way in her fight against monsters,
goblins, and pure evil by a secret society of elite and well-equipped babysitters.
"Ugh, I hate babysitters."
Nell Minnow of Movie Mom said the film delivers...
"Gorgeously imagined settings, a great cast,
and an exciting story that hits the exact sweet spot between funny-scary and scary-funny."
The 12th Man is a war movie, a survival tale, and, amazingly,
it's also a true story. Jan Baalsrud worked for the Norwegian resistance during Nazi Germany's
occupation of his country during World War II. Trained as a commando by the British military,
Baalsrud attempts an escape to neutral Sweden following a sabotage mission gone wrong. To get to
freedom, he has to face the punishing weather of Scandinavia in the winter. The Norway-based Nazis,
however, notice almost immediately that Baalsrud has disappeared and chase him through the icy
mountains, where conditions are so severe that frostbite and hypothermia may claim him first.
Among many other positive reviews, Frank Sheck of The Hollywood Reporter wrote...
"The 12th Man proves consistently engrossing and suspenseful,
with its lead performances further enhancing its impact."
The best horror movies consist of a lot more than just a few jump scares
and some terrifying form of bone-chilling menace — the good ones reflect and comment
upon the everyday things that trouble human beings. Little Evil is that kind of movie.
It's a horror-comedy, with the emphasis on comedy,
about an eager-to-please guy who marries a woman who has a son from a previous marriage.
He's desperate to connect with the inscrutable little guy so his relationship can thrive and they
can all come together as a happy family. That's a difficult task, as the kid is actually the spawn
of Satan and he's not afraid to unleash pure evil and terror on his well-meaning new stepdad. And
that's where the horror comes into play; that, and with a creepy hand-puppet named Reeroy.
"I'm your step-father now."
"Get out."
"Yeah, okay. We'll just talk later or whenever you want."
Amanda Sink of The Hollywood Outsider perfectly described the film in one line.
"Little Evil is [The] Omen by way of Shaun of the Dead."
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