Modern horrors with over 80% on Rotten Tomatoes to see on Netflix – Metro.co.uk

It, Hereditary, Hush and Geralds Game are all among the best horror movies of the last 10 years (Pictures: Warner Bros. Pictures/A24/Netflix)

Were living in a Golden Age of horror and Netflix are wise to it.

Yes, a genre once associated with schlock, camp and gratuitous violence has returned to its former glory, with recent waves of smart, restrained but also genuinely terrifying movies recalling the best of eras past think The Shining, The Omen and Psycho.

And while Netflix doesnt have everything (head to Amazon Prime for last years stunning Midsommar starring Florence Pugh), its selection does feature some absolute modern classics.

Heres our pick (and their respective Rotten Tomatoes score) including a psychological rollercoaster starring an Oscar nominee and the highest-grossing horror film ever made.

We hope we havent ruined your Friday night

It (2017) 85%

Based on the door-stop Stephen King novel, this story of small town kids battling a mysterious evil force was previously adapted for the small screen in 1990, with Tim Curry a memorable Pennywise the Clown.

But Bill Skarsgrds Pennywise is of course the posterboy of the 10s horror renaissance: a chilling creation now as recognisable as Freddie Krueger or Chucky from Childs Play.

He first terrified audiences in 2017s simply-titled It, which grossed a record-breaking $701 million (535m) worldwide.

It Chapter Two came out last year, but, with a bloated running time and mostly adult cast, lost some of the Stranger Things-esque magic of the first. But its predecessor remains a masterclass in how to redefine a genre.

Hereditary (2018) 89%

Toni Collette first earned her genre stripes in arresting ghost flick The Sixth Sense in 1999, gaining on Oscar nomination for best supporting actress to boot.

Some 20 years later, she turbocharged Hereditary through screaming, crying and facial expressions alone.

A metaphor for the pain and trauma we inherit from our parents, the story involves a family dealing with the loss of a grandmother and the fallout of an evil scheme she devised years before.

Like many of the films on this list, Hereditary eschews the humour and self-awareness that pervaded horror of the 90s and 00s for a serious, grownup tone with a complex, multi-layered storyline that rewards close concentration. The payoff is utter terror.

Geralds Game (2017) 91%

From The Dark Tower to Pet Sematary to It, there have been a mind-boggling number of blockbuster Stephen King adaptations in recent years, and all of varying quality.

But Geralds Game a Netflix original, and thus probably never leaving the service operates in a different gear. It is one of the all-time best.

An intimate portrait of a woman handcuffed to a bed in a remote lakeside home with no way of escape after her husband dies of a heart attack, Geralds Game finds hidden dimensions in a simple concept.

Most of said dimensions are in the mind of protagonist Jessie (a very game Carla Bruni) as she enters rivetingly honest dialogues with visions of her husband, her father, herself, and a man made of moonlight.

Annihilation (2018) 88%

The long-awaited Mulan remake might be going straight to streaming (and for an extortionate price thanks Disney Plus), but its hardly the first blockbuster to tread this complicated path.

The Natalie Portman-starring sci-fi-horror hybrid Annihilation crash landed on Netflix two years ago after Paramount reportedly decided it was too complicated and too intellectual to please US and UK cinema-goers. (Of course, this was music to the ears of hardcore horror fans after decades of dumbed-down fare.)

As Metro.co.uk said in a review, Annihilation deserves to be seen on the big screen, what with its big visuals (namely mutated animal-humans) and big ideas.

But there was something curious at the time about being able to watch the movie of the week with the press of a button. In it, Natalie leads a quintet of women into the dangerous, alien terrain of a mysterious zone thats cropped up on the US coast.

Hush (2016) 93%

Geralds Game director Mike Flanagan has since gone on to helm high-profile projects like (the surprisingly good sequel to The Shining) Doctor Sleep and the utterly flawless Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House.

But Hush is a hidden gem in his filmography, starring Hill Houses Kate Siegel.

At a glance, youll think youre in familiar territory: Kate plays Maddie, a young woman whose remote woodland home is invaded by a masked madman. But through being deaf and mute, Maddie has become extremely resourceful.

A nimble thrill-ride despite a tiny cast and minimal dialogue and clocking in at just 81 minutes Hush modernises an inelegant and hackneyed idea.

The Invitation (2015) 88%

No, thats not the lost member of Kings of Leon, but rather Logan Marshall-Green (whos been in everything from The OC to Prometheus) as an LA hipster navigating the deepest, darkest depths of Hollyweird.

In The Invitation, Will and girlfriend Kira attend a dinner party thrown by his ex-wife Eden (already weird) in the Hollywood Hills.

But what might have been a fun reunion with friends soon turns into a nightmare when it emerges the bereaved Eden has recently joined a cult and is looking for new recruits.

Worth a watch simply for the property porn the house the dinner party takes place in is absolutely amazing.

A Quiet Place (2018) 96%

Another stunning financial success, the John Krasinski-directed A Quiet Place which stars him and wife Emily Blunt made $259million (197m) against a $21million (16m) budget in 2018.

The film follows a family living in a post-apocalyptic future where super-sound-sensitive aliens have obliterated most of humanity.

The family are coping well enough, living a silent and locked-down life (which is eerily relatable in 2020). But, as a heavily-pregnant Evelyn (Blunt) approaches her due date, detection becomes inevitable.

A Quiet Place Part II was meant to be released in March, but was pushed back to 2021 after coronavirus-induced cinematic chaos.

The Cabin In the Woods (2011) 92%

Want to add a touch of class to your horror film? Then cast the awesome genre veteran Sigourney Weaver, whose filmography includes Alien, Ghostbusters and The Village!

(Avatar is also pretty scary, when you think about it!).

Featuring Liam Hemsworth in one of his earlier film roles, this mind-bending movie literally throws takes the concept of the cabin in the woods and expands on it exponentially.

How? The grisly goings-on that occur inside the cabin which extends deep underground are actually being controlled by scientists, like a horrific video game.

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Modern horrors with over 80% on Rotten Tomatoes to see on Netflix - Metro.co.uk

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero