Three Of The Best: Netflix Horrors

With its weird selection I often find it hard to choose anything on Netflix, but here are three horrors on the current roster that deserve a watch!

 

Oculus (2013)

This was an adaptation of director Mike Flanagan’s own short. It’s clever, quite spooky and ends with a bang. The centrepiece is a haunted mirror and the film flips between the present and past as siblings Kaylie and Tim try to understand some very odd stuff that happened in childhood. It builds tension nicely and keeps you on your toes. Ghouls, hallucinations, murderous parents…nice.

 

The Babadook (2014)

I don’t think it is as good as some claim, and the antagonist is derivative of a few things (Tim Burton comes to mind), but The Babadook does have a fresh premise and is more hit than miss. Noah Wiseman is a decent child actor, you really feel the mother is put through the worst kind of stress and the while not the most inspired the baddie does have a lot of style. The children’s book is a clever portal to evil. Bonus points for that.

 

The Conjuring (2013)

I’d imagine most have seen this by now considering it’s one of the more celebrated modern efforts, but I thought I’d give it another shout as I preferred it to the sequel. This story of possession in the 1930s is sort of based on reality, or the legend of ghost hunters Ed and Lorraine Warren. It nicely captures that gritty ‘70s vibe, the monitoring of spooky events is well done and the possession scenes pack a punch.