Now Scream This: 10 Streaming Horror Movies With Crazy Plot Twists
(Welcome toNow Scream This, a column where horror experts Chris Evangelista and Matt Donato tell you what scary, spooky, and spine-tingling movies are streaming and where you’re able to watch them.)Matt:With the impending continuation of theSawfranchise only days away, Chris and I are highlighting twists and murderous mysteries within horror’s imprisonment. You’ll hear things like “reminiscent ofClue” or “out of left field,” because what is horror without suspense?A horror comedy. Alright. BUT STILL. Horror hinged on whodunit intrigue sustains the cat-and-mouse chase of unidentifiable slashers or creatures of unknown origins. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll glimpse a hybrid ofMurder On The Orient ExpressandA Nightmare On Elm Street. Keep me guessing, keep me happy!Chris:What a twist! Now Scream This is back with some horror movies with big twists to pay tribute toSaw, since, as I’m sure you know,Spiral: From the Book of Sawis about to open and unleash all new twists and turns. I tried not to betooobvious with my picks –The Sixth Senseis currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, but c’mon, you know that one already. Anyway, since we’re dealing with twist movies here, I’ll try not to betoospoilery. But I can make no promises.
Now Streaming on Shudder and Amazon Prime
Matt:My hot take onDeep Murderis, “ImagineDude Bro Party Massacre IIIbut if a slasher interrupted a softcore porno?” If you’ve seen the magnificent shortGreat Choice—where Carrie Coon gets stuck inside a Red Lobster commercial—that’s the vibe. It’s not a latex-hardcore killer on a porn set. Characters played byJerry O’Connell,Katie Aselton, andChris Reddcontinue being the softcore porno stereotypes that would exist on video, except they trade boning and moaning for a narrative reminiscent ofCluewithPleasantvilleinfluences ifPleasantvillewas slippery with lube. DirectorNick Corirossibrings with him years ofFunny Or Dieexperience to make a non-stop hilariousAdult Swimcousin that shouldn’t work but commits to its ongoing gag with tremendous conceptualization that, again, stands right next toDude Bro Party Massacre III.Chris:I prefer shallow murder myself. But seriously folks! I haven’t seen this! But I do loveDue Bro Party Massacre III, so I’m going to have to check it out.
Now Streaming on Netflix
Matt:From the maestro of mayhem—Mr.Álex de la Iglesia, comesThe Bar—Patrons inside a cafe establishment watch two exiting others drop to the ground outside after being shot. The rest stay inside, where suspicions of a guilty party arise amongst the group. Betrayals, bickering, and the works erupt as tensions froth over like a poorly poured draft ale, and then the real fun begins. Frankly, that’s where I’m leaving things as Iglesia has a lot more story to tell.Chris:Going two for two here in the “I haven’t seen this” department. I’m a failure.
Now Streaming on Hulu
Matt:Ifwe’re highlighting twisted endings, allow me to point towardsShawn Linden’sHunter Hunter. Maybe we’ve done this already? Even so, let me stress how woodland trappers shift from predators to prey with a killer on the loose. I’ll admit the buildup isn’t my favorite of last year, but what visual violations occur as the film comes to a close clamp down like a bear’s formidable chomp. To even equate a specific French Extremism comparison would be a dead giveaway—but if we’re invoking such a subgenre, I think there’s enough foreshadowing to reveal what you’ll never be able to shake.Chris:Hunter Hunteris incredibly tense, and it definitely builds up to an ending that is bound to make squeamish audience members lose their lunch.
Matt:Themost Los Angeles thing that ever happened to me after crossing coasts from New York City occurred the night whenParasitewon Best Picture (still pissed atJim Jefferies)—but that’s a story for barroom banter once we’re all back inside again. For now, I includeParasiteas an astonishingly piercing thriller about greed, class warfare, and an ending that proves what boundariesBong Joon Hois unafraid to cross. The mark of a masterpiece is its ability to linger after credits have dropped, and I’m still thinking about peach fuzz years later. I mean, you’ve seenParasitealready…right?Chris:I remember when I sawParasitefor the first time I hadno ideawhere the hell it was going, and it made me incredibly tense. I also spent the majority of the film worried that the dogs that live in the house would end up dead. Thankfully, they didn’t. Some humans weren’t so lucky, though.
Now Streaming on Shudder
Matt:Admittedly,Super Dark Timesisn’t exclusively a mystery. It’s more true crime through the eyes of 90s nostalgia and hapless children who accidentally commit murder—but is it murder if it’s an accident? Counterpoint. What if it wasn’t an accident?Ben CollinsandLuke Piotrowskiof upcomingHellraiserfame prove they’ve got the “super dark” goods without any additional demonism here, as the film is like one Mayweather gut-punch after the next. The way realities leak through social facades is all thanks to director Kevin Phillips, who seals the deal in this dreadfully dismal work of malicious magnificence.Chris:I’ve heard this movie is very unpleasant and that’s kept me from checking it out, primarily because I am in a constant fragile state. Maybe one day!
Now Streaming on The Criterion Channel
Chris: Herk Harvey’s low-budget creepshowCarnival of Soulsfollows a very nervous young woman (Candace Hilligoss) who survives a car accident only to find herself haunted by terrifying, unexplained apparitions. It’s creepy and strange, and you can see the seeds of many horror titles to come buried within (Twin Peaksand other Lynchian entries seem particularly influenced by this one). This one is up there withNight of the Living Deadin terms of movies that prove you don’t need a huge budget to create an iconic horror film.Matt:Chris is always nice enough to remind me that I’m not using my Criterion subscription to the fullest. Maybe one day I’ll get better!
Now Streaming on Max GO
Chris:The politics ofBrian De Palma’s riff onPsychohave not aged well, and there will be those who find this film abhorrent. That’s perfectly fair. But if you’re able to get beyond that, you’ll find a twisty, sexy, strange thriller about a prostitute (Nancy Allen) who teams up with a murder victim’s son (Keith Gordon) to try to solve a mystery. You might see theDressed to Killtwist coming, but it won’t make it any less shocking.Matt:De Palma is an overall blind spot for me. There’s a De Palma marathon weekend in my future.
Chris:Nicolas Cage is surprisingly reserved in this creepy disaster pic fromThe CrowdirectorAlex Proyas. Cage plays an MIT astrophysics professor who discovers a code left in a time capsule by a young girl in the 1950s. When deciphered correctly, the code predicts disasters, be them natural or man-made, and their death tolls. Can Cage crack the code and stop more death and destruction? Or is it already too late?Knowingis a film that’s somehow both very silly and weirdly effective, and it has a twist to end all twists.Matt:It’s somehow not the Cage-ified apocalypse flick you’d expect, but it’s been so long I can’t remember my actual thoughts on the film beyond, “Wait—am I rememberingKnowingor2012?”
Now Streaming on HBO Max
Chris:The story goes thatRobert RodriguezandQuentin Tarantinowanted to keepFrom Dusk Til Dawn’s big twist – that it’s a vampire movie – a secret. They wanted all the marketing to make it look like a gritty crime thriller with hopes that unexpecting audiences would go in and suddenly be caught off guard when vampires start showing up. That didn’t happen, though – the marketing put the twist front and center, which makes sense, really. If you have a movie whereGeorge Clooneyis fighting stripper vampires, you’re probably going to want to put that in the trailers.Matt:Forever and ever a Donato favorite as criminal seediness turns into vampire sleaze. I’ll be writing about this film until I croak. The zoom-out ending still gets me with that out-of-left-field final zinger.
Chris:Identity’s twist issucha whopper that it soured a lot of people on the flick. But I still dig this stylish, weirdJames Mangoldpic that traps a bunch of people (including John Cusack as a miserable ex-cop turned limo driver) at a roadside motel. In true locked room mystery fashion, the guests at the hotel start getting bumped off one by one. But things get even weirder from there, and the mysterious soon turns to the inexplicable.Matt:Identityis the realest of reals if we’re talking about whodunit horror. Chris has good taste.
