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Prime Video has arrived like the man in red himself, ready to gift us a sterling slate of new arrivals for the holiday season. While a great deal of the forthcoming content is of the saccharine, feel-good variety—and you can’t be too mad, really—there are still plenty of horrific gems coming your way. While we all collectively wait for Terrifier 3’s release next year, check out what Christmas scares are coming your way this December. While it’s regularly more of the thriller variety, it certainly isn’t a lump of coal.
The Gift
Blumhouse regularly gets a bad rep, but it’s worth remembering that for every bottom-barrel PG-13 offering, there are some bonafide gifts in their filmography. Joel Edgerton’s 2015 The Gift flew under the radar when released, and it’s a shame since it’s one of the finest psychological thrillers of the century. Edgarton stars as Gordo, an old high school buddy of Jason Bateman’s Simon who worms his way into Simon’s life, intent on righting a cryptic past wrong. Rebecca Hall, co-starring, is sensational throughout, and while some of the twists are lifted from adjacent thrillers, The Gift has style and scares to spare.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
While The Conjuring 2 would make for better holiday viewing, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is the next best thing. Continuing the ongoing Warren saga (a saga considerably removed from reality), this entry sees Ed and Lorraine contending with a witch, a trial, and a smattering of franchise fatigue. That it manages as much heart as it does is a testament to the series’ innate strengths, and if nothing else, it opens with one of the most thrilling exorcisms this side of Russell Crowe.
The Northman
As we eagerly anticipate the long-gestating Nosferatu remake from The Witch’s Robert Eggers, now is as good a time as any to revisit The Northman, Eggers’ most commercial offering, but one that still manages to effortlessly blend genres. Eggers goes full Shakespearean here as Alexander Skarsgård’s Amleth seeks vengeance for the murder of his father. Awash in dense mythology, occult symbolism, and plenty of graphic, Viking violence, The Northman proves that Eggers can deliver like no other, even when constrained by mainstream studio expectations. Don’t miss it on Prime Video this month.
The Night of the Hunter
Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter is one of the most chilling movies ever made. The bar is raised so high here, that it’s been impossible for similar films to compete for decades. Serial killer Preacher Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) is one the scariest movie villains of all time. Here, he’s posing as a preacher, and romantic, to get his hands on a hidden cache of stolen money. It’s a psychological power play with a consistent undercurrent of menace, the apex of “dangerous” cinema that manages to not only chill but enrapture. There are dozens of perfect shots here, no doubt accounting for why The Night of the Hunter has endured for more than half a century.
The Ring
Gore Verbinski’s The Ring needs no introduction. Responsible for the J-horror craze of the early aughts, it remains the strongest remake of the time. Its analog terror—cursed video tapes, big tube television sets, landlines—remains as indelibly frightening now as it was more than twenty years ago. The Ring ably proves that less is more (something subsequent entries, what with their deer and in-flight entertainment, would forget), making for one of the scariest iterations of a cursed anything around. If you’re looking for something to watch with family and friends this holiday season, make like the cast of Saltburn and catch The Ring on Prime Video.
While October was a high mark for Prime Video’s horror offerings, there are still plenty of gems worth checking out this month. Procedural fans won’t want to miss Kiss the Girls, bowing December first, and anthology nuts will want to catch Tales From the Darkside: The Movie, landing the same day. What do you think? Anything you plan on checking out on Prime Video this month? Let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
Every New Horror and Thriller Title Coming to Prime Video
Hotel Transylvania (2012)
Men in Black (1997)
Men in Black II (2002)
The Gift (2015)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
The Purge (2013)
Kiss The Girls (1997)
Tales From the Darkside: The Movie (1990)
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)
The Dead Zone (1983)
The Machinist (2004)
The Ring (2002)
The Northman (2022)
December 31
Fringe (Seasons 1-5)
Categorized: Streaming Guides
