Netflix killed my favorite video store (okay, it’s no Scarecrow, but it was MINE). When streaming started the promise was that limited selection was temporary, that eventually every movie ever made would be at the tip of our fingers. But nothing has changed. The complaints of 2011 are now the complaints of 2014. In fact, things have gotten worse, as now Netflix has seemingly stopped maintaining its DVD selection. Having killed the video store, they are now neglecting the one venue the normal consumer had to find obscure or rare titles.
And so, in the selection wasteland that is Netflix, a new mini-genre of online writing has emerged: what’s the best I can get?
It’s October now, so everyone is putting out there “best horror films available on Netflix” lists:
iHorror’s “Top 31 Horror Movies on Netflix October 2014”
Paste Magazine’s “The 25 Best Horror Movies Streaming on Netflix”
Complex’s “Permanent Midnight: The Best Horror Movie Sleepers Streaming On Netflix Right Now”
The Wall Street Journal’s “10 Horror Films to Stream This Month”
But did I mention that Netflix not only has a paltry selection, but also killed my favorite video store?
So let’s look at 13 great films that aren’t available on Netflix.
13 Best Horror Movies Not on Netflix
The Fly
1986
96 min.
This is the finest horror movie of the 1980’s and the height of David Cronenberg body horror. Watch Jeff Goldblum descend into savagery as his body deteriorates due to a freak accident with a teleporter. Plus, this is where “Be afraid, Be very afraid” came from. It is not available on Netflix.
The Bride of Frankenstein
1935
75 min.
The best of the original Universal monster movies cannot be seen on Netflix. It’s not really all that scary anymore, but for atmosphere it’s impossible to top. Plus, the ending is downright devastating.
Black Pit of Dr. M
1959
71 min.
Did you know Mexico was putting out amazing horror movies in the 50’s or 60’s? If you stick to Netflix, you never would get the chance to see a single one of them. “Black Pit of Dr. M” is one of the most atmospheric, genuinely chilling films of the era.
American Movie
1999
107 min.
A documentary about Mark Borchardt, a wannabe horror movie director with more heart than sense. It’s one of the greatest documentaries of all time and Netflix doesn’t have it because Netflix killed all the video stores.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
1974
83 min.
One of the most infamous and genuinely frightening horror movies of all time can’t be found on Netflix. It’s filthy washed-out aesthetic and documentary feel makes “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” absolutely as disturbing today as it ever was.
Deep Red
1975
126 min.
The perfect representative for the Italian crime-thriller-horror hybrid genre known as giallo. Netflix actually has a good smattering of giallo films, but it’s missing “Deep Red,” which may be the very best.
Onibaba
1964
103 min.
One of the most common genre’s in Japanese horror is the ghost story, and few have a better sense of atmosphere and dread than “Onibaba,” which follows a mother and daughter who pillage the corpses of dead samurai. Another entire genre that doesn’t even exist on Netflix.
The Hitcher
1986
97 min.
For sheer 80’s sadism nothing is better than “The Hitcher.” You’ve got Rutger Hauer, kinetic car chase sequences, and some pretty creative ways to kill people.
Don’t Look Now
1973
110 min.
Don’t look up anything about this British arthouse chiller. Just let it’s aura of uncertainty, psychological dread, and inevitability wash over you.
Drag Me To Hell
2009
99 min.
It’s a toss-up between “Drag Me to Hell,” “The Mist,” and “Cabin in the Woods” for best horror movie of the past decade. “Drag Me to Hell” is hilarious, disgusting (so many different kinds of bodily fluid), and full of some very effective jump scares. Plus, it features the best seance scene ever put to film.
The Beyond
1981
87 min.
Italian horror nonsense of the best kind, “The Beyond” is nominally about a New Orleans mansion with a portal to hell in the basement, but it’s really an excuse for all sorts of gory whackiness. You’ve got spiders, head smashing, undead, eye gouging, hell dimensions, puddles of blood, and devil dogs. It’s awesome.
The Seventh Victim
1943
71 min.
One of the several horror movies famously produced by Val Lewton in the 40’s, “The Seventh Victim” may not be as well-known as “Cat People” or even “I Walked with a Zombie” (Guess what? Neither of them are available on Netflix.), but it’s just as good. Satanic cults are a timeless source of terror, and this one feels more real than most.
Halloween
1978
91 min.
Do I even need to describe this one? Can any company that killed my favorite video store and claims to have horror movies on offer but doesn’t have “Halloween” even look itself in the mirror?
Netflix Ruined Halloween, Children
And that’s just scratching the surface of Netflix’s inadequacy. Some other great horror movies also not available on Netflix include “The Exorcist,” “Fiend Without a Face,” “Spider Baby,” “Society,” “The Thing,” “Tenebre,” “Alien,” “The Omen,” “Nightmare on Elm Street,” “Suspiria,” “Near Dark,” “Altered States,” and “Jaws.”
How should you watch these movies? Well, you could buy them. But I know you’re not going to do that. So if you don’t have a local video store to support, I suppose you should rent them from iTunes or Amazon. And if they’re not available there either? Bittorrent isn’t as tricky as it seems.
Through convenience Netflix has made it harder to find new movies that fall outside of its contractually-assembled new canon. Access to some movies has prevented access to most movies. It’s remarkable that in a time of insane interconnectedness, where the promise of access to all of human knowledge is regularly proffered, we’ve found ourselves with a film landscape impoverished and narrowed to a minute band of material.
And yeah, there are a handful of good films on Netflix. There’s no way to go wrong watching “Night of the Living Dead,” “Day of the Dead” (another annoying Netflix feature… incomplete series), “Silence of the Lambs,” “Evil Dead 2,” “Scream,” “Scream 2,” “Carrie,” “The Cabin in the Woods,” “Nosferatu” (the Herzog/Kinski one!), “The Re-Animator,” “The Innkeepers,” “Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer,” “American Psycho,” “Funny Games,” “Hellraiser,” or “House of the Devil.” But is this really the best we can expect out of the “future” of movies? A selection worse than my local Blockbuster? I’ve been to video rental sections in gas stations (remember that?) with just as good a selection as Netflix has streaming.
Netflix, your options don’t even begin to replace what we’ve lost. All it does is narrow our movie landscape, selecting a list of viewable films like an authoritarian review board. But instead of our movie options being determined by a political agenda, they are determined by contractual snags and neglectful mismanagement of what is likely the largest DVD collection ever assembled.
Watch horror movies, yes, yes, yes, but don’t let Netflix be the only arbiter of what you see. Settling for what we’re offered, accepting when Netflix says it’s doing its best, will only make it worse.
