We Got Netflix Covered: Time Travel, Killer Aliens And Vincent Price!

Welcome back to our recurring recommendation article, We Got Netflix Covered, a place where numerous writers will be discussing their specific genre-based favorites that you can stream on Netflix Watch Instantly this very second. To prove that we certainly do have this covered, we’ve developed a list of genres that we’ll be providing recommendations for every other week – 11 total genres – and the writers responsible for each section have been established. While these might change week to week, here’s today’s roster: Independent: Sarah Myles Classics: Lauren Humphries-Brooks Television: Eric Hall Action & Adventure: James Garcia (no entry this time) Foreign: Paulo Lazo (no entry this time) Documentaries: Adam Donaldson Dramas: Isaac Feldberg Horror: Matt Donato Family/Children’s Movies: Christian Law (no entry this time) Comedies: Gem Seddon (no entry this time) Sci-Fi: Al Lowe (no entry this time) Look at those names – a real “almost” Dirty Dozen if I do say so myself. Enough chatting though, let’s see which Netflix movies you should be streaming this week! United Kingdom Pick - John Dies At The End (2012) John Dies At The End is the perfect demonstration of why independent movies are just so darned brilliant. Unconstrained by the often rigid requirements of studios, this film adaptation of David Wong’s novel of the same name is as wacky, funny and gross as you could want a horror-comedy to be. After a bold pre-credits opening - featuring the lead, Dave, decapitating a zombie before engaging in an existential discussion of the nature of the axe he used – this non-linear tale is framed within a conversation between Dave and a writer, who wants to tell his story. That story, we discover, involves Dave stumbling upon a new street drug known as Soy Sauce, which opens the user’s mind to the extent that they can cross time and dimensions. The inhabitants of those other dimensions are not always human, however. Sometimes they are the weirdest, grossest creatures imaginable. The use of this drug precipitates a kind of silent invasion threat, which means that Dave and his friend John are on the hook to save mankind. Written and directed by Don Coscarelli (Bubba Ho-Tep), the film stars Chase Williamson (The Guest), Rob Mayes (Enough Said), executive producer Paul Giamatti (12 Years A Slave), Clancy Brown (SpongeBob Squarepants), Glynn Turman (Super 8) and Fabianne Therese (The Trivial Pursuits Of Arthur Banks). It presents a time-hopping, dimension-bending view of reality, through the eyes of two college drop-outs who are themselves racing to understand what is happening. It is a glorious mixture of Naked Lunch and Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey, with the tiniest hint of Shaun Of The Dead added in for good measure. The result is a joyous, hair-raising ride through a tight plot and great performances - and it comes highly recommended. Classic Pick - House On Haunted Hill (1959) Yes, it’s still fall and that means there’s still space for some quality horror movies. William Castle’s House On Haunted Hill (not to be confused with The Haunting or The Haunting Of Hell House) is a B-horror classic, featuring one of Vincent Price's more gleefully sinister performances. Price is Frederick Loren, a millionaire living in a high-modern mansion atop a hill with his beautiful and nasty wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart). He invites five strangers to his home for an evening of murder and mayhem – if they can stay the entire night in the house (and survive), they stand to receive $10,000. But there is a catch, of course: the house is haunted by murderous ghosts and Price has equipped every one of his guests with a “party-favor” in the form of a loaded gun. Sweet dreams, he tells them. Castle was well-known for his peculiar form of horror - less a well-structured ghost story, more a carnival ride with ghosts, skeletons, and severed heads springing out to make you jump for a moment. House on Haunted Hill is one of his more effective films, despite plot holes that gape as widely as that acid pit in the basement of Loren’s house. The film is very much about the mechanics of fear, as the characters (besides Loren and his delightfully venal wife) are barely even types. They’re just people in a deadly amusement park, trying hard to hang on to their sanity while placing themselves in increasingly insane situations. While The House on Haunted Hill receives no points for verisimilitude, it is a cracking good time all the same. Television Pick - Twilight Zone (1959-1964) While there's no shortage of creepy television programs available on Netflix (American Horror Story, Alfred Hitchcock Presents), why bother with any of those when you can sit down with the greatest of them all? Yes, I am of course talking about The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling’s iconic anthology series. While not as scary as American Horror Story, it’s tales of oddity and eeriness make for a more enjoyable binge experience. Originating as a radio show, The Twilight Zone debuted on CBS way back in 1959. Created by the team of Serling, Charles Beaumont and Richard Matheson, the show ran for five seasons and received strong critical acclaim throughout its run. Outside of the hour long episodes that made up the entirety of season 4, all other seasons of the program are currently available on Netflix. As previously mentioned, The Twilight Zone is an anthology program, which means that every episode is its own self-contained story. This allows viewers to jump into any episode they want and not be completely lost. And since the writers for each episode didn’t have to worry about plot threads from previous episodes, they were free to create anything their minds could think of. The creativeness of each episode is just one of the many reasons why the show is such a masterpiece. What other television program could go from having an episode featuring a man with the ability to change his face to one about a group of humans trying to escape their planet in succession? The Twilight Zone may not be wholly unique, but it’s certainly the best at what it sets out to do. Another interesting aspect of the series is the amount of famous faces that show up during the run of the show. Whether it be then popular stars such as Burgess Meredith and Buster Keaton or future stars like William Shatner, Robert Duvall and Veronica Cartwright, there are excellent performances to be found in just about every episode of the show. With Halloween quickly approaching, you could stay in and launch one of the many good (and not so good) horror films found on Netflix. But if you are in search of something a little more strange and a little more eerie, it’s hard to go wrong with The Twilight Zone. Drama Pick - The Gift (2000) With Keanu Reeves toplining a genuinely good movie (John Wick) for the first time in a while, there's no better time to look back at what other quality productions the admittedly hit-and-miss actor has popped up in. And out of all Netflix's offerings that include the Matrix star, few are more eerily effective than 2000's The Gift. Starring Cate Blanchett as a fortune teller with extrasensory perception who becomes wrapped up in a gruesome murder investigation, The Gift is all about atmosphere-building in its swampy Southern setting. Director Sam Raimi really digs into the sweaty, grimy underbelly of rural Georgia, and the performers all go for realism in their portrayals of Southern stock figures. Reeves in particular stands out as the terrifying, abusive husband of one of the fortune teller's clients. The Gift is an intriguing, rarely-seen combination of drama and thriller, preferring to take time to deepen its characters before throwing them into a pressure cooker. Though it's not a perfect film, and its conclusion leaves a little to be desired, it's certainly worth a watch. Documentary Pick - Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) This year marks an anniversary for a seminal work by documentarian Michael Moore. No, I’m not talking about the one you’re thinking of, I mean the one that he made 15 years later and was much, much, much more controversial. Much. Roger & Me brought Moore a lot of praise for his acerbic and thorough takedown of General Motors CEO Roger Smith. But in 2004, when Moore took out his knives for the administration of George W. Bush and their handling of foreign policy post-September 11, he went from populist to pariah faster than you can say “Taliban.” What’s interesting in looking back at Fahrenheit 9/11 10 years later – and I don’t think I’ve watched it since 2004 – is just how uncontroversial it is. At the time, Moore was just a couple of rungs above Osama bin Laden on the ladder of America’s most hated for having the temerity to question the motivations of Bush and his advisers to wage war on a country that had nothing to with 9/11. But 10 years on, and with the ISIL threat pushing the U.S. and allies back on a war footing in Iraq, the veil that Moore was some kind of fink out to ruin America’s good name with Fahrenheit doesn’t have the weight it once did. From a filmmaking standpoint, Fahrenheit 9/11 represented a different type of Michael Moore movie. Although Moore had won on Oscar for Bowling For Columbine, there was still something scattershot about that movie, as if the director were throwing stuff at the wall to see what would stick. By comparison, Fahrenheit was more focused, more pointed. Moore was also conspicuous by his absence, and although his narration is omnipresent, the man himself doesn’t appear on screen till the 40 minute mark, and his total screen time is probably less than 10 minutes. The typical Moore gags and pop culture references are there, as are the streeters and interviews with various instigators and experts, but Moore manages to stay on target through it all. Fahrenheit 9/11 captures a difficult moment in American history for all the various complicated issues it represents. Caught between the bombastic patriotism of the early Iraq War and the moment Cindy Sheehan blew the protest movement open just one year later, Moore’s work here was, polemic. As Iraq is now back dominating the headlines, it’s also now a useful reminder of how we got this far. Horror Pick - Almost Human (2013) While I don't care that much for alien abduction fare, Almost Human is one of the few recent extraterrestrial films that managed to get me exited about a little probing and abducting. Writer/Director Joe Begos redefines the alien genre by mixing practical elements of 80s slasher flicks with an alien invasion that doesn't waste time with measly green men. In short, Begos got me to stomach a genre I'm not fond of by hiding it, like when your mom used to cover your broccoli with melted cheese - damn genius! The whole ordeal follows a pretty simple plot, as a body-snatched abductee goes on a murderous rampage after his alien captors plop him back on earth. Josh Ethier plays said hulking backwoods psychopath, a dominating force on camera that transforms into a soulless killing machine for director Joe Begos. Other characters start to notice the change in Ethier's character, and after doing some investigating, decide they must thwart the possessive end-goal bestowed by his extraterrestrial rulers. It sounds very silly, and I assure you it is at times, but Begos finds so much inspiration in a bevy of different places. Think Invasion Of The Body Snatchers meets John Carpenter's The Thing - that doin' anything for ya? It takes a lot to get me excited about alien horror movies, yet Almost Human slapped a grin on my face that not even the Joker could match.

We Got Netflix Covered: Time Travel, Killer Aliens And Vincent Price!

Drama Pick – The Gift (2000)