Category Archives: Netflix

31 Days of Horror: Extinction (2018; TV-MA; 95 mins.)

Posted on October 18, 2026 | Leave a comment

I’m always up for an alien-invasion movie, so I was excited to find this 2018 Netflix outing I had somehow missed. Overall, I’d say this is worth your time, if you don’t mind getting through the first half hour of very slow storybuilding, annoying character decisions, and whiny kids. Did I just lose you? I try to be truthful here, so that had to be stated, but do hold on, because things do kick up several notches and then the real fun begins.

In this story, set in an undated future filled with sharp-dressed people and angular buildings, Peter has been having nightmares involving aliens attacking his town, home, and family. His wife Alice has gotten pretty fed up with his nightly wakenings and erratic behavior, and his daughters–teenage Hannah and younger Lucy–have given up on his keeping his word regarding outings and family time. Even Peter’s boss has gotten tired of Peter’s mistakes at work and suggests he visit a health and wellness clinic. E–vent–tual–ly though, otherworldly pods and their inhabitants DO actually invade, and Peter suddenly isn’t seen as cuckoo anymore. As many of those around him are falling, he strives to save his family and get them to safety, which he considers to be the large futuristic place where he works. However one particular pod inhabitant is on his trail, and the race is on. This is when the movie becomes so much more than a simple alien invasion story and acquires a deeper storyline, with themes of family, futures, limitations, and much more.

Top Scare: Alien Scene

Hearbeats: 2 1/2 out of 5

Gore Factor: 3 out of 5

Scare Factor: 2 out of 5

Recommended for: 14 or 15 and up, due to gore

31 Days of Horror: Nope (2022; R; 130 mins.)

Posted on October 9, 2026 | Leave a comment

Sometimes a movie comes along that defies, um, logic/explanation/reviewability, and I’m not quite sure how to proceed (or even exactly how I feel about said movie). This is one of those times.

In Jordan Peele’s Nope, a California family that supplies horses to Hollywood has hit hard times. The patriarch has passed in a freak event, so the son OJ is trying to keep the ranch afloat. When his (extremely annoying) sister Emerald arrives for a visit, the two realize something has set up shop near their ranch, something otherworldly. VEEEERY slowly, the plot progresses as they talk to a nearby ranch owner Jupe–who experienced a morbidly odd event as a child star featuring a live monkey who went rogue and viciously attacked Jupe’s sitcom family it supposedly lived with as Jupe hid nearby watching–and install cameras to capture the phenomena with the help of a local sales clerk, all in an effort to get on Oprah and become rich.

Little by little, glimpses of the visiting craft are given, as are moody shots of the (gorgeous) land, various (beautiful) horses that spook, Emerald being more annoying, and OJ barely talking, until the visitors kick things up a notch or five and try to get what they’ve come for while OJ et al try to capture it all on film. Can they figure out how to outsmart this predator? Will they be able to capture it on film after trying and failing SO. MANY. TIMES? Why the gory monkey throwback scene? How patient can one brother be? And why is this considered a horror movie? All great questions and ones you can try to figure out if you have the desire to sit in a catatonic state of boredom for two-plus hours. My recommendation: NOPE.

Top Scare: None

Heartbeats: 1/2 out of 5

Gore Factor: 1 1/2 out of 5

Scare Factor: 1/2 out of 5

Recommended for: 15 and up due to language and some gore

31 Days of Horror: Host (2020; NR; 57 mins.)

Posted on October 28, 2025 | 3 comments

I was looking for a short horror/supernatural movie, and stumbled upon this Lockdown-era gem. Set in the online Zoom world we’ve all come to know so well, this surprisingly tense and creepy movie really got my heart rate going once the stage had been set.

When Haley hires a medium and gets five of her friends to join her for an online seance, the friends are mostly skeptical, ready to play drinking games and laugh it off. But when one friend goofs off and accidently invites an evil spirit into the group–one which can access each of their homes–and they lose contact with the medium, they can only watch as one by one each must battle to stay alive. Will anyone survive the literal meeting from hell? Will they be able to send the spirit back to where it came from? Or will the timer on Zoom–and their lives–run out first?

Top Scare: End of Movie

Heartbeats: 3 3/4 out of 5

Gore Factor: 2 3/4 out of 5

Scare Factor: 3 1/2 out of 5

Recommended for: 15 and up

3 Comments

Posted in 31 Days of Horror, Entertainment, Halloween, horror, Horror Movie, Movies, Netflix, Paranormal, Reviews, scary movies, Streaming

Tagged Entertainment, Halloween, haunting, Horror, Horror Movies, movie, October, Seance, Supernatural

31 Days of Horror: Until Dawn (2025; R; 103 mins)

Posted on October 8, 2025 | 2 comments

I’m a sucker for time-loop movies (hello Groundhog Day!), so I wanted to give one a try in the horror genre. And coming from the director of Lights Out, I expected some good things. And while I didn’t LOVE the movie, I also didn’t hate it. It had some decent scares, but a bit too much gore for my taste.

After her sister Melanie disappears a year earlier, Clover and four of her friends take a road trip to the remote area where she was last seen. When they happen upon a visitor’s center that seems to not have been, well, visited, in a long time but still has electricity and the such, using teen logic, they start exploring. One of them discovers an unusual hourglass, one a notice board full of missing posters, and another a sign-in log with Melanie’s name written numerous times. Hmm. Might be time to get out while they can. But, very quickly they are gruesomely slaughtered one by one. Don’t worry…that was not a spoiler. Because they also quickly come alive again and remember what had happened.

As time moves forward, the group realizes they must avoid each progressively more violent slaughter long enough to not only learn more about how to find Melanie but also how to ultimately escape. They also realize this time loop has a “dead”-line in sight, that previous visitors who signed in never signed in more than 13 times.

Will they find Melanie? Will each friend survive each night to make it to dawn? Will they figure out the time loop? Will they escape this creepy visitor’s center and gruesome deaths? Time, and time again, will tell.

Top Scare: Underground

Heartbeats: 3 out of 5

Gore Factor: 4 1/2 out of 5

Scare Factor: 3 out of 5

Recommended for: 17 and up due to excessive gore

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Posted in 31 Days of Horror, Entertainment, Halloween, horror, Horror Movie, Movies, Netflix, Reviews, scary movies, Streaming

Tagged Entertainment, Halloween, Horror, Horror Movies, movie, October, Until Dawn

31 Days of Horror: Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre (2023; TV-MA; 12 Episodes)

Posted on October 6, 2025 | Leave a comment

Sometimes I’m looking for something completely different in my 31 Days of Horror, and boy, did I find it! My grown daughter introduced me to this adult animated series from the “horror manga maestro” Junji Ito, featuring some of his most bizarre tales. Bizarre, creepy, odd, disturbing…the list goes on.

For example, in “Hanging Balloon,” a beloved young idol is found hanging outside a building. Suicide? Murder? The fans and world are grieving, especially her boyfriend. When a local school girl hears rumors of the idol’s head floating in the sky as an apparition, she doesn’t believe it. But when the boyfriend, whom she knows, calls her and says yes, it’s true, come see, she does. There she witnesses the boyfriend climb a tree to be closer to the apparition, only to have a dangling rope with a noose on the end capture/kill him. Soon, the entire town is full of balloons floating with dangling nooses, each with the face of a townsperson it is meant to capture. The school girl hides, along with her friends and family, but how long can they hold out? Will they make it? Will she?

Besides creepy death balloons, other tales involve ice cream trucks, ancient burial sites, mold, tombstones, and many more topics, each turned into the twisted and macabre. In some, animated gore abounds. So if you are looking for something to watch in short bursts, while expanding your horror horizons, consider this unusual–but beautifully illlustrated–series from a master.

Top Scare: Different for each Episode

Heartbeats: Varies

Gore Factor: 3/5+

Scare Factor: Varies

Recommended for 16 and up