Movies
Where to Watch All Five Osgood Perkins-Directed Horror Movies Ahead of ‘Keeper’
Keeper, the dark new nightmare from filmmaker Osgood Perkins, is out this week, the seventh film under the director’s belt since his feature debut released in 2017.
Perkins isn’t slowing down either; he’s already in production on The Young People, the fourth film with NEON due next year. In anticipation, NEON has curated an Osgood Perkins triple feature hitting theaters tomorrow night, ahead of Keeper’s arrival. If there are no showings near you or the cozy comfort of your couch is simply too irresistible, we have good news.
All five Perkins-directed horror movies are now available to stream. Here’s where to watch.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter – Pluto TV, Tubi
Perkins’ feature directorial debut follows Kat (Kiernan Shipka), a quiet freshman at a boarding school who has nightmares of her parents’ death. Kat’s nightmares soon give way to strange behavior, and eventually, her loneliness makes her a perfect target for evil. It’s as moody and atmospheric as its wintry setting, an early precursor for Longlegs’ style of icy horror. What makes this such a standout film, though, is its unique approach to possession horror and its meditative examination of the aftermath. What happens to the victim after the demon has been expelled? Perkins’ answer is both chilling and heartbreaking.
I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House – Netflix
Perkins slows down pacing even further for his sophomore effort, a no frills ghost story centered around a retired horror writer suffering from dementia, one whose most popular novel has come back to haunt her. There are ghosts here, but not always of the dead kind; the film also doubles as Perkins’ own attempts at connecting with his dead father, Anthony Perkins. The director opts for slow-burn dread over scares, and a melancholic look at lost time. Whereas The Blackcoat’s Daughter retooled possession horror, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House toys with the concept of a ghost.
Gretel & Hansel – Pluto TV, Prime Video, Roku Channel, Tubi
The horror filmmaker shifts gears dramatically with a visually lush reconfiguration of a classic Grimm fairy tale, though no less moody than previous efforts. Think unparalleled production design with impressive sound design and score to match, but with its story told in an unconventional and sometimes enigmatic way. Sophia Lillis stars as Gretel, the elder sister tasked with protecting her brother from Alice Krige’s mesmerizing Witch, eager to gobble them up. It’s a coming-of-rage sort of fairy tale that operates on mood over narrative.
Longlegs – Disney+, Hulu, Kanopy
Longlegs plays it close to the vest as it follows young FBI recruit Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), whose uncanny sense of intuition draws the attention of the tenured Agent Carter (Blair Underwood). Harker is so naturally gifted that Carter pulls the agent into his ongoing investigation of serial killer Longlegs (an unrecognizable Nicolas Cage), a demented figure so elusive that the trail to catch him has gone cold. Perkins injects a true crime story with putrid Satanism, packing Harker’s quest with foreboding atmosphere and chilling background scares. But it’s deeply personal, with Perkins drawing from his own upbringing when it comes to the central relationship between Harker and her mother (Alicia Witt).
The Monkey – Disney+, Hulu, Kanopy
This adaptation of Stephen King’s short story uses its source material as a loose framework for a Final Destination-style, gory comedy romp filled with a nonstop onslaught of over-the-top, Rube Goldberg-like elaborate deaths. All of it is a comical, carnage-fueled reminder of the film’s core thesis: Death comes for us all, and it’s quite silly to presume you can stop it. It follows twins Hal and Bill Shelburne, played by Christian Convery (Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein) as kids and Theo James(“Castlevania”) as adults, as they discover dad’s strange wind-up monkey and its unique connection with death. Perkins weaves a raucous cautionary tale that smashes subtlety with a sledgehammer, leaving a gloriously splatstick trail of bodies in its wake.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallis.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
You must be logged in to post a comment.