Editorials
Ten Noteworthy Genre Movies You Can Stream at Home in November
Halloween may be in the rearview, but the holiday spirit remains alive and well, judging by the continued onslaught of horror releases. It’s another horror feast this month!
November brings a plethora of new releases, gory cult gems, family-friendly offerings, and brand-new titles on streaming.
Here are ten noteworthy horror titles available for streaming in November 2022 on some of the most popular streaming services, along with when/where you can watch them.
Deep Fear – Screambox (November 1)
The claustrophobic element of subterranean horror always compounds the frantic terror, so expect things to get intense. A post-graduation celebration turns into a fight for survival in the catacombs of Paris in Deep Fear. Three students celebrate their graduation by visiting the Paris catacombs. When they discover a bunker formerly occupied by the Nazis, little do they know it’s not the only thing left behind. Something, someone, is now hunting them. Grégory Beghin directs from a script by Nicolas Tackian.
Satan’s Slaves: Communion – Shudder (November 4)
In 2017, writer/director Joko Anwar’s Satan’s Slaves topped the list of highest-grossing films in Indonesia and scared up new fans when it found a home in Shudder. November brings its sequel, Communion, the first Indonesian movie shot with IMAX technology. The sequel sees the first film’s family now living in an apartment after escaping the terror unleashed by their mother’s passing. But the horror follows them home. If Communion features even a fraction of the potent chills Anwar delivered in the first film, we’re in for a frightfully good time.
All Jacked Up and Full of Worms – Screambox (November 8)
Those that like their horror as weird and transgressive as possible need look no further than writer/director Alex Phillips’s feature debut. Working at a seedy motel, maintenance man Roscoe (Phillip Andre Botello) is always searching for his latest fix. His days of dime-store drugs are over when he stumbles upon a powerfully hallucinogenic worm. Along with his new love interest (Trevor Dawkins), the pair embark on a delirious odyssey of sex, violence, and becoming one with the dirt.
Slash/Back – Shudder (November 13)
It’s up to Maika (Tasiana Shirley) and her friends to save their arctic hamlet of Pangnirtung, Nunavut when they discover an alien invasion. Maika and pals pull together their collective knowledge of horror movies and makeshift weapons, giving the aliens a fight for their lives. The aliens may be dangerous, but you don’t underestimate the girls of Pang. Nyla Innuksuk’s feature debut brings the genre fun, a gorgeous setting, and spirited leads worth rooting for in this delightful alien romp.
Vietnamese Horror Story – Screambox (November 15)
Tran Huu Tan’s horror anthology became an unexpected box office hit earlier this year in Vietnam, and now it’s headed to Screambox. Based on local folklore, Vietnamese Horror Story comprises three chapters and follows an actress seeking everlasting beauty, a magician who makes a deal with evil, and a psychic seeking the remains of a deceased girl. Considering the gruesome images unveiled so far and the fact that the VFX was handled by Thierry Nguyen’s (Mad Max: Fury Road) Bad Clay Studio, horror fans are surely in for one gnarly good time.
The Boxer’s Omen – Arrow (November 18)
Don’t miss this absolutely unhinged Hong Kong horror cult classic when it hits Arrow later this month. The late Shaw Brothers production sees a man seeking revenge on a Thai boxer that paralyzed his brother in a match. While that seems straightforward, the path to vengeance becomes anything but when black magic enters the equation. The Boxer’s Omen has it all in one insane and insanely stylish horror-packed experience; live eel-vomiting, kickboxing, wizardry, gore, creatures, and more. Truly, don’t skip out on this pick.
Nope – Peacock (November 18)
OJ Haywood (Daniel Kaluuya) struggles to keep his recently passed father’s horse ranch afloat. The arrival of OJ’s lively sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) adds to his stress as he tries to maintain faithful responsibility toward the family ranch. But then, an eerie phenomenon begins swooping over their valley; the siblings become determined to capture it on camera. On the surface, Nope is an accessible, straightforward sci-fi horror movie that nails its humor as much as it elicits gasps. Below is a darker examination of media and those it abused and left behind. Jordan Peele effectively captures the scope and spectacle of a summer blockbuster, packing it with chill-inducing moments, gasp-worthy thrills, and endless endearing characters.
Slumberland – Netflix (November 18)
A young orphan travels to the realm of dreams and nightmares, searching for her late father. She’s joined by an eccentric outlaw, the half-monster Flip (Jason Momoa), in what looks to be a charming yet epic-sized adventure for the whole family. This family-friendly feature is based on the comic Little Nemo in Slumberland by Winsor McCay, and it’s directed by Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Constantine).
Dual – Hulu (November 20)
Riley Stearns’ follow-up to pitch-black comedy The Art of Self Defense again puts his knack for off-kilter humor on display. Only this time, the writer/director applies it to a high-concept sci-fi story that uses an end-of-life decision as the starting point. Sarah’s (Karen Gillan) simple existence gets shattered by a sudden terminal illness diagnosis, prompting her to examine options to ease the blow for her loved ones. Sarah’s encouraged to participate in a cloning procedure that will allow her double to assume her life once she’s gone with her loved ones none the wiser. But Sarah’s double is a little too effective at her job as a replacement, eventually leading to a court-mandated duel to the death. Dual uses deadpan delivery and oddball performances to capture the strangeness of life, especially when faced with death.
Blood Relatives – Shudder (November 22)
Writer/Director Noah Segan’s feature debut brings a charming soft touch to the vampire tale, favoring dad jokes and affecting bonds over savage bloodletting. Francis (Segan) is a drifter with a specific routine and holds a few material possessions dear. But his comfortable yet niche way of living on society’s outskirts changes when 15-year-old Jane (Victoria Moroles) shows up at his hotel door. Her mother just passed, leaving her alone in the world, and she has a few peculiar characteristics that she wonders if she inherited from her dad. Traits like super strength and an appetite for meat so rare it’s practically still bleeding. Francis balks at the idea of a daughter, but showing Jane the ropes of vampirism slowly erodes his carefully guarded walls as they embark on a road trip. Blood Relatives delivers an infectious and charming horror comedy.
Due to a complex series of anthropological mishaps, the Wayans Brothers are a huge deal in Brazil. Around these parts, White Chicks is considered a national treasure by a lot of people, so it stands to reason that Brazilian audiences would continue to accompany the Wayans’ comedic output long after North America had stopped taking them seriously as comedic titans.
This is the only reason why I originally watched Michael Tiddes and Marlon Wayans’ 2013 horror spoof A Haunted House – appropriately known as “Paranormal Inactivity” in South America – despite having abandoned this kind of movie shortly after the excellent Scary Movie 3. However, to my complete and utter amazement, I found myself mostly enjoying this unhinged parody of Found Footage films almost as much as the iconic spoofs that spear-headed the genre during the 2000s. And with Paramount having recently announced a reboot of the Scary Movie franchise, I think this is the perfect time to revisit the divisive humor of A Haunted House and maybe figure out why this kind of film hasn’t been popular in a long time.
Before we had memes and internet personalities to make fun of movie tropes for free on the internet, parody movies had been entertaining audiences with meta-humor since the very dawn of cinema. And since the genre attracted large audiences without the need for a serious budget, it made sense for studios to encourage parodies of their own productions – which is precisely what happened with Miramax when they commissioned a parody of the Scream franchise, the original Scary Movie.
The unprecedented success of the spoof (especially overseas) led to a series of sequels, spin-offs and rip-offs that came along throughout the 2000s. While some of these were still quite funny (I have a soft spot for 2008’s Superhero Movie), they ended up flooding the market much like the Guitar Hero games that plagued video game stores during that same timeframe.
You could really confuse someone by editing this scene into Paranormal Activity.
Of course, that didn’t stop Tiddes and Marlon Wayans from wanting to make another spoof meant to lampoon a sub-genre that had been mostly overlooked by the Scary Movie series – namely the second wave of Found Footage films inspired by Paranormal Activity. Wayans actually had an easier time than usual funding the picture due to the project’s Found Footage presentation, with the format allowing for a lower budget without compromising box office appeal.
In the finished film, we’re presented with supposedly real footage recovered from the home of Malcom Johnson (Wayans). The recordings themselves depict a series of unexplainable events that begin to plague his home when Kisha Davis (Essence Atkins) decides to move in, with the couple slowly realizing that the difficulties of a shared life are no match for demonic shenanigans.
In practice, this means that viewers are subjected to a series of familiar scares subverted by wacky hijinks, with the flick featuring everything from a humorous recreation of the iconic fan-camera from Paranormal Activity 3 to bizarre dance numbers replacing Katy’s late-night trances from Oren Peli’s original movie.
Your enjoyment of these antics will obviously depend on how accepting you are of Wayans’ patented brand of crass comedy. From advanced potty humor to some exaggerated racial commentary – including a clever moment where Malcom actually attempts to move out of the titular haunted house because he’s not white enough to deal with the haunting – it’s not all that surprising that the flick wound up with a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes despite making a killing at the box office.
However, while this isn’t my preferred kind of humor, I think the inherent limitations of Found Footage ended up curtailing the usual excesses present in this kind of parody, with the filmmakers being forced to focus on character-based comedy and a smaller scale story. This is why I mostly appreciate the love-hate rapport between Kisha and Malcom even if it wouldn’t translate to a healthy relationship in real life.
Of course, the jokes themselves can also be pretty entertaining on their own, with cartoony gags like the ghost getting high with the protagonists (complete with smoke-filled invisible lungs) and a series of silly The Exorcist homages towards the end of the movie. The major issue here is that these legitimately funny and genre-specific jokes are often accompanied by repetitive attempts at low-brow humor that you could find in any other cheap comedy.
Not a good idea.
Not only are some of these painfully drawn out “jokes” incredibly unfunny, but they can also be remarkably offensive in some cases. There are some pretty insensitive allusions to sexual assault here, as well as a collection of secondary characters defined by negative racial stereotypes (even though I chuckled heartily when the Latina maid was revealed to have been faking her poor English the entire time).
Cinephiles often claim that increasingly sloppy writing led to audiences giving up on spoof movies, but the fact is that many of the more beloved examples of the genre contain some of the same issues as later films like A Haunted House – it’s just that we as an audience have (mostly) grown up and are now demanding more from our comedy. However, this isn’t the case everywhere, as – much like the Elves from Lord of the Rings – spoof movies never really died, they simply diminished.
A Haunted House made so much money that they immediately started working on a second one that released the following year (to even worse reviews), and the same team would later collaborate once again on yet another spoof, 50 Shades of Black. This kind of film clearly still exists and still makes a lot of money (especially here in Brazil), they just don’t have the same cultural impact that they used to in a pre-social-media-humor world.
At the end of the day, A Haunted House is no comedic masterpiece, failing to live up to the laugh-out-loud thrills of films like Scary Movie 3, but it’s also not the trainwreck that most critics made it out to be back in 2013. Comedy is extremely subjective, and while the raunchy humor behind this flick definitely isn’t for everyone, I still think that this satirical romp is mostly harmless fun that might entertain Found Footage fans that don’t take themselves too seriously.
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
‘Ready or Not’: Radio Silence Filmmakers Tease the “Absolute Banger” of a Sequel That’s Taking Shape
‘Sting’ Review – Throwback Creature Feature Entertains With an Impressive Practical Monster
Looking for New Episodes of “Chucky” on Peacock? Here’s What Changed
“We Built Every Creature” – ‘Alien: Romulus’ Goes Heavy on the Old School Practical Effects!
You must be logged in to post a comment.