When ancient man first huddled around the primordial campfire telling ghost stories, man鈥檚 best friend showed up to offer snuggly confidence against the night. But what about all those beasties who stayed lurking in the dark?
Creature features, at their best, beam a headlamp on cryptids, hell hounds, and interstellar invaders, and defang them with survival smarts, grit, and the occasional ax. Whether you鈥檙e in the mood for a belligerent B-movie, a stark indie scare, or a high-budget thrill, we鈥檝e got a fun Halloween flick for you.
鈥楾he Ritual鈥 (2018)
Killer Cryptid
The tropes that set up this Netflix original are as well trodden as the trail our protagonists obviously should have stuck to.听Of course the four middle-aged bro-trippers take a shortcut through a Swedish forest so decoratively haunted it would give the Blair Witch FOMO, complete with runes, carcasses, and compass malfunction. As the lads crack under the strain of aimless hiking and sinister nightmares (or ARE听they nightmares?), you鈥檒l feel like you鈥檝e seen all this before. But wait for it: the film鈥檚 big, bad slow-stalking Norse cryptid is a wickedly fresh monster and masterfully done.
鈥楢苍苍颈丑颈濒补迟颈辞苍鈥櫶(2018)
Alien Abominations
There was no shortage of bloodthirsty creatures in the听Summer of Blockbuster Megafauna (see: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Meg, Rampage). But the award for most psychologically disturbing megafauna goes to Annihilation. The film follows a five-woman team on a research mission to explore the mysterious Area X, an iridescent wonderland of mind-bending听mutations. The movie is a weird, psychedelic departure from the typical expedition film (and a bit of a departure from the of the same name), and it doesn鈥檛 always work. But when the jump scares come, they come hard. As for the megafauna, let鈥檚 just say there鈥檚 a bear thing that is deeply upsetting.
鈥楾he Cleanse鈥櫶(2016)
Gut Gremlins
This one鈥檚 for weird-indie-movie lovers who don鈥檛 super听dig Halloween flicks, plus anyone else who feels a little broken but also judgy about cleanses. It鈥檚 a spare but effective narrative about a sad man who eats his feelings and a sad woman who puts up walls, brought together at a mysterious detox-and-therapy retreat to manifest and confront their literal (and frankly adorable) inner demons. The frights are few, the honesty is subtly brutal, and the Anjelica Huston (as the retreat director) is resplendent.
鈥楾he Witch鈥 (2015)
Historical Hellions
When William gets his wife and kids kicked out of their 1630s New England colony for being too Puritan, you figure the family will make it to exactly one hard winter before their starving, isolation-addled brains start seeing witches. Except there really is a baby-stealing witch in the nearby woods. Satanic wildlife starts hanging around, and the family goat goes psycho, and you start to understand why people moved to Boston:听for Puritans this wilderness, though sun-dappled and benign to our modern eyes, was the oppressive and terrifying realm of the Devil. That goat truly steals the show, though. Not for nothing,听during filming听he in the chest and dislodged a rib tendon.
鈥楤lood Glacier鈥 (2014)
Climate-Change Critters
There is real cause for concern that Arctic warming could some kind of unthinkable plague. But don鈥檛 worry about that while watching Blood Glacier! Just kick back and enjoy as heartbroken sot Januk and his听team of climate-change researchers in the Austrian alps discover a red glacial ooze with the power to unleash amusingly CGI鈥檇 upon the world. It鈥檚 cheesy B horror done right, with good-quality dubbing to boot. For a double feature, pair with John Carpenter鈥檚 The Thing (1982).