Now Scream This: Forget the Avengers – Stream These Horror Movies Instead

(Welcome to Now Scream This, a column where horror experts Chris Evangelista and Matt Donato tell you what scary, spooky, and spine-tingling movies are streaming and where you can watch them.)

Matt: The week on “Now Scream This” – Matt got super busy and couldn’t throw together a theme! Don’t blame Chris. We tried to come up with something Avengers: Endgame related, but hey, life comes at you real fast sometimes. To make up for the lack of shared context between picks, we’ve got a grab bag of freakish favorites you can stream at this very moment. Even better, I know Chris is going to raz me something fierce for at least two of my selections, which has become my favorite part since partnering for /Film’s most excellent (and only) horror streaming column. 

Chris: Sometime it’s nice to kick-back with a grab-bag of titles. Sure, a theme is fun, but you know what’s equally fun? Giving us a break and reading whatever the heck we’re offering you! Matt and I have returned from the moldy crypts of the streaming world and brought back ten terrifying titles to traumatize. 

The Nun

Now Streaming on HBO Go

Matt: Corin Hardy’s lesser-received “Conjurverse” entry boasts a stinkin’ 26% Rotten Tomatoes score, but my review is one of the few positive logged for The Nun. I respect how Hardy doesn’t deliver another James Wan carbon copy à la Annabelle or The Curse Of La Llorona because neither of those films recreate Wan’s signature aesthetic. The Nun could have been “just another,” but Hardy’s “Hammer Horror” vibes paint a more lively picture of monsters, mayhem, and maybe some zombification subplots? Demián Bichir and Taissa Farmiga battle Valak’s “Waniverse” evil, while Jonas Bloquet’s Romanian guide “Frenchie” allows for B-Movie comedy to succeed in bursts. It may be a more generic horror flavor, yet is still tasty as a bite of investigative convent chills.

Chris: I’m a fan of this entire series, but The Nun left me cold. It has a great premise, and some neat production design, but I wanted more. Oh well, there’s always The Nun 2.

The Collector
Now Streaming on Shudder

Matt: After a few Saw and Feast franchise entries, Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan whipped up an idea for The Collector. A bit Home Alone, a bit Saw, a bit The Strangers. Josh Stewart plays an ex-con trying to scrub some debt through a robbery scheme, but little does he know a second criminal has targeted the house. This “collector” of sorts as the title states, who imprisons the Chase family in their home and rigs traps in each room that Stewart must avoid. Sounds incredibly Saw-like, correct? That’s because Melton and Dunstan originally pitched the concept as a Saw sequel, but the idea was rejected. No bother, since The Collector is a savage serial killer story that oozes tension and takes credit for spawning one of my favorite horror sequels in recent memory.

Chris: This is a nasty movie, as its sequel. That’s a compliment.

Await Further Instructions

Now Streaming on Netflix

Matt: Johnny Kevorkian’s Await Further Instructions is the Coherence of Christmas horror. Having released less than a year ago, this sci-fi screamer about screen obsessions is one of the newer dysfunctional holiday treats available to viewers. Racists grandparents, survivalist siblings, lockdown quarantines dictated by flashing words on television screens – it’s everything we fear about family dinners around the holidays. No way out and no explanations, just tasks being issued by an unknown force. Act I seals the exits, Act II tears blood relatives apart, and Act III drops a trippified A-bomb of unexpected practical oddness that’s of no use to anyone spoiled. Kevorkian’s film has a lot to say about being enslaved by technology, and in my opinion, doesn’t get the love it deserves. Time to change that!

Chris: It wouldn’t be Now Scream This without at least one Matt rec that I haven’t seen!

Grand Piano

Now Streaming on Shudder

Matt: Grand Piano is Speed in a concert hall where Elijah Wood plays a virtuoso pianist, scripted by Damien Chazelle, and starring John Cusack as the film’s antagonist. A+ tension is taut like finely tuned music wire. Any further words I type in this paragraph are obsolete given how you should already be logging into Shudder with Grand Piano on your mind. As Wood tickles the ivories, his life depends on striking every single note with exact precision. “Play one wrong note and you die,” his sheet music reads in red marker. What in the name of Beethoven’s ghost are you still doing here?! Grand Piano deserves a national holiday dedicated in its name given how impeccably the premise is executed and is one surprisingly fun-filled watch given the “trapped” premise.

Chris: Oh hell yeah, I love this Brian De Palma homage.

The Unseen
Now Streaming on Amazon Prime

Matt: I caught The Unseen during 2016’s Fantasia Film Festival, after which Geoff Redknap’s “Invisible Man” riff evaded US distribution until only a few months ago (if even). Veteran makeup artist/SFX guru directs one father’s vanishing act as former NHL prospect Bob Langmore (Aden Young) hides away from society as his body becomes more exposed – or unseen – by the day. That’s until his daughter goes missing, and Bob straps on his ass-kicking boots. Expect more fatherly fist-pounding than pure terror, but visual effects make for some frightening Frankenstein and Hollow Man homages. Damn fine invisibility glimpses reveal muscular tissue, pumping veins, and the inner-workings of Bob’s body as his form becomes more see-through by the day. Not like Redknap needs to peel away Bob’s exterior to feel the beating heartbeat powering this touching parental thriller.

Chris: Thought I was going to get through this week’s entry with only one Matt pick I had yet to see. But no! I guess you could say The Unseen remains…unseen. Thanks everyone!

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