Editorials
Stay Home, Watch Horror: 5 Aquatic Horror Movies to Stream This Week
Between the recent VOD release of Sea Fever, Robert Eggers’ sophomore feature The Lighthouse hitting Prime Video on the 16th, and Underwater arriving on Blu-ray on the 14th, it only seems fitting to declare this Aquatic Horror Week. Like those new releases, this week’s streaming picks stretch the imagination of what’s lurking in the depths of the sea. Bizarre and fantastical monsters that defy natural biology, from Lovecraftian deities to man-made beasts.
These five nautical nightmares and underwater creature features reinforce the idea that the ocean can be a rather inhospitable place, especially for humans outside of their element.
All are available to stream right now…
Dagon – Tubi
Loosely based on H.P. Lovecraft stories “Dagon” and “The Shadow Over Innsmouth,” this Stuart Gordon film induces ichthyophobia. While on a boating trip, Paul Marsh (Ezra Godden) and his girlfriend Barbara (Raquel Merono) are shipwrecked by a sudden storm. They make their way to a nearby fishing village for aid, but find the residents inhospitable and not so human. These half-fish humans worship a monstrous sea god, Dagon, and intend to use their unwanted guests as sacrifices. Eerie, slimy, atmospheric, a little sleazy, and with a whole lot of gory creature work.
The Host – Hulu
Bong Joon Ho (Snowpiercer, Parasite) is a master of blending genres and tone, and his epic creature feature offers a perfect example. Deftly wrapping up the family drama, dysfunctional humor, and political satire in one thrilling creature feature bow, the plot sees a monster from Seoul’s Han River wreak havoc. When a young girl is snatched up by the beast, the girl’s family bands together to get her back by any means necessary. This big-budget spectacle will make you laugh one minute and cry the next.
The Fog – Shudder
A coastal town approaching their centennial celebration instead find themselves combating mysterious evil brought in by an unnatural, dense fog. Evil in the form of vengeful ghosts of shipwrecked leprous sailors from a century ago. John Carpenter gives a classic ghost story a nautical makeover, with his own sense of style. The Fog boasts an all-star cast of horror stalwarts, from Jamie Lee Curtis to Tom Atkins, but it’s Adrienne Barbeau’s radio DJ Stevie Wayne that steals the film.
Shock Waves – Prime Video
A strange weather anomaly and a ship that appears out of nowhere leave a yachting party shipwrecked on a remote island. One that happens to be inhabited by a reclusive Nazi scientist that’s created Nazi super-soldier zombies. Zombies that have an affinity for water. Cue the tourists getting stalked and slain all over the island and the surrounding water. From director Ken Wiederhorn (Return of the Living Dead Part II), Shock Waves stars Peter Cushing, Brooke Adams, and John Carradine.
Leviathan – Prime Video
Deep-sea miners stumble upon a Soviet shipwreck, and the cargo they bring back to base unleashes a genetic mutation that threatens to destroy them all, one by one. With a hurricane pummeling the surface, these blue-collar workers are entirely trapped and abandoned by the corporation that employs them. It’s very much an Alien film set underwater, but oh so much fun. Leviathan stars Peter Weller, Amanda Pays, Richard Crenna, Daniel Stern, Ernie Hudson, Meg Foster, and Hector Elizondo. Above all, the film offers fantastic creature design and gnarly body horror.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
You must be logged in to post a comment.