Just like every other streaming service out there, Netflix is currently overflowing with horror films to help make your fall season an especially spooky one. From frightful franchises to stand-alone originals, the platform has more than enough content to keep you terrified all October long. If Squid Game didn’t make you cringe, then odds are you have the stomach for much meatier fare. Netflix has you covered there as well, with a vast array of gory movies that take the horror genre to a whole new level. It’s the perfect time to watch these bloody blockbusters as we anxiously wait for Netflix to renew Squid Game for a second season.
Here are some of the goriest movies that Netflix has to offer, some of which make Squid Game look like Sesame Street.
The Fear Street series
The films in the Fear Street series have been some of the most successful of 2021. The trilogy of teen slasher flicks based on R. L. Stine’s book series of the same name follows a group of teenagers as they try to break a curse that has haunted their town for hundreds of years. The films span multiple time periods, with the first one taking place in 1994, the second in 1978, and the third in 1666. Even though they’re marketed toward young people, all three flicks are rated R, and for good reason. The experiences these characters have are certainly gory, which is why it’s best to watch them after your kids are in bed.
The Babysitter and The Babysitter: Killer Queen
Anyone who thought The Babysitter was going to be a straightforward teen comedy was in for quite a shock when they reached the 30-minute mark. Just like pre-teen protagonist Cole, viewers quickly realized that his babysitter Bee is more than just a pretty face⏤she’s actually the leader of a devil-worshipping cult that’s about to give Cole the craziest and most traumatic night of his life. If you think a group of bloodthirsty psychos would never really harm a child, this film will make you think again. As funny as it is disturbing, it was well-received upon release and enjoyable enough to earn a sequel⏤The Babysitter: Killer Queen⏤which stars many of the cast members from the original.
Blood Red Sky
There have been many airborne thrillers over the years⏤Red Eye, Flightplan, Snakes on a Plane⏤but Blood Red Sky takes things to a horrific new level. A woman and her young son are on a flight from Germany to New York when they realize that their flight is being hijacked by terrorists. When the woman is shot and her son is taken by the hijackers, she must decide whether or not to divulge the secret she’s kept from her son and release the monster within in order to save him. The title is basically a dead giveaway about what the mother decides to do, and the result is a bloody, edge-of-your-seat thriller that will forever make you wonder if you really know the person sitting across the aisle from you.
The Platform
Nobody wants to go to prison⏤right? In The Platform, many of the characters feel like they don’t have a choice. Due to their dystopian landscape’s lack of resources, some of them wind up in The Hole, a vertical underground jail with one cell per level and two inmates per cell. The food platform, which feeds them once a day for a set amount of time, begins at the top of the prison and works its way down. This is great for the inmates at the top, who get first dips on the spread, and awful for the ones on the bottom, who get the leftovers and sometimes nothing at all. The resulting carnage can only be described as an inhuman fight for survival in a film that doubles as a gory horror flick and a social commentary on mankind’s incessant greed.
Apostle
If you’re looking for something particularly disturbing to watch this spooky season, look no further than the period horror film Apostle. Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens stars as Thomas Richardson, a British man on a mission to save his sister from a sinister religious cult who is holding her ransom on a remote island. The things he encounters as he infiltrates the cult, posing as a convert, will stay with you long after the film’s shocking conclusion. This one is pretty brutal, so squeamish viewers might want to keep their distance⏤unless, of course, you don’t mind watching a slowly-churning corkscrew enter a man’s skull.
Day of the Dead: Bloodline
Ah, zombies. The harbingers of gore. Whether they exist in a PG-13 or rated-R universe, we know by now what to expect from them. In Day of the Dead: Bloodline, the savage corpses have once again taken over the world, this time in the form of “rotters.” While survivors of the initial outbreak are sent to refugee camps, the rotters slowly but surely continue to infect innocent people. As usual, the good guys are searching for a cure before they are turned into rotters themselves, and even though the film was pretty much universally panned, it offers plenty of gross, squirm-inducing moments that will make you happy to still have your own skin firmly attached to your body.
Army of the Dead
A zombie heist film?! Don’t mind if we do. Building on his 2004 debut film Dawn of the Dead, Zack Snyder helms this spiritual successor to his previous work, which finds its central characters attempting a Las Vegas casino heist amidst a zombie apocalypse. Marvel fans will be pleased to see that the cast is led by Dave Bautista, who plays Drax in the Guardians of the Galaxy films, with Snyder delivering plenty of visual candy for viewers to savor. Army of the Dead has become one of the most-watched Netflix originals since its release in May 2021 and is sure to stand out amongst the other zombie and heist films you may have seen purely for merging the two concepts in such spectacular fashion.
Malevolent
Before she was Yelena Belova, Florence Pugh starred in Malevolent as Angela Sayers, a fake medium who, along with her brother Jackson, leads a “paranormal investigation team” that scams people who claim to live in haunted houses. They bite off more than they can chew when they venture into the home of Mrs. Greene, a new client with a horrifying past who does not believe that Angela and Jackson are running an authentic operation. The eye-popping drama that ensues will change all of their lives forever, with cringeworthy imagery that is equally likely to stay with you whether you want it to or not.
The Perfection
The Perfection boasts one of the more startling trailers in the horror genre and offers a few hints about the shocking twists and turns that lie within the psychological thriller. Allison Williams of Girls fame stars as Charlotte, a prodigious cellist who quits her promising career to care for her ailing mother. When she reconnects with her former mentors after her mother dies and finds that they are taken with a talented new musician, the twists and shocking turns begin. With Get Out already in her acting arsenal, Williams cements herself as a scream queen in this tense tango with major revenge vibes.
It Comes At Night
Allison Williams’ Girls costar Christopher Abbott stars in this psychological horror flick about an Earth-ravaging, highly contagious disease (too soon?) that spells danger for anyone who encounters it. As one father (Joel Edgerton) tries to protect his family from the outside world, another (Abbott) tries breaking into his house in search of fresh water not knowing that anyone is home. Their meeting results in difficult choices on both of their parts, not to mention devastating consequences as they try to discern whether or not they can really trust one another. Like many of the other gory horror films on this list, It Comes At Night will give you all the bloody grossness you could ever want as Halloween draws nearer.
