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Five Office Workplace Horror Movies to Stream This Week
It’s Monday; welcome back to the work grind. As if to capture the hells of the workplace, this week brings the release of horror comedy Corporate Retreat, in theaters on May 22.
Corporate Retreat centers around a group of young executives whose luxury team-building trip descends into a bloody fight for survival against a vengeful retreat leader, described as “a gory mix of The Menu and Saw.“
Odeya Rush (Goosebumps) leads an eclectic cast that includes Alan Ruck (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), Rosanna Arquette (Pulp Fiction), and Sasha Lane (Twisters), all fighting for survival of both the work week and each other in director Aaron Fisher‘s film.
But they’re hardly alone.
Horror offers no shortage of films that explore the hells of a corporate environment, corporate retreats, and more. Work out those workplace frustrations with five office horror films that get intimately acquainted with cutthroat coworkers and nightmarish bosses.
Read on for where to watch them this week on streaming.
The Belko Experiment – Cinemax
A sadistic social experiment traps 80 American employees inside their corporate high-rise with harrowing commands to kill each other. If they don’t, they’ll be killed themselves. Think Battle Royale in a white-collar setting. Written by James Gunn and directed by Greg McLean, The Belko Experiment gives the corporate grind new grim meaning with intense survival horror thrills. McLean’s vicious violence is on full display, with tragic fates befalling a large portion of this stellar cast of characters. John Gallagher Jr. leads, but look for notable actors John C. McGinley, Sean Gunn, Michael Rooker, and Tony Goldwyn to take up arms and combat their colleagues.
Bloodsucking Bastards – Fawesome, Hoopla, Kanopy, Pluto TV, Prime Video, Roku Channel, Screambox, Shout TV, Tubi
This horror-comedy takes the concept of a soul-sucking corporation literally, featuring a new boss, Max (Pedro Pascal), who shakes up the office productivity through vampirism. The only one standing in his way is the meek, overworked Evan (Fran Kranz) and his love interest, Amanda (Emma Fitzpatrick). Bloodsucking Bastards bides its time setting up mundane office hijinks before picking up speed and unleashing bloody B-horror fun. Once again, Kranz makes for an endearing everyman lead, while Pascal oozes charm and menace as the big bad.
Mayhem – AMC+, Shudder
Living up to its title, Mayhem offers the employees of a ruthless law firm the chance to unleash their repressed rage thanks to a contagious virus that removes all inhibitions for hours. For recently fired Derek Cho (Steven Yuen) and desperate client Melanie Cross (Samara Weaving), that means slaying their way up the corporate ladder for retribution. It’s violent, it’s bloody, but most of all, it’s fun. Director Joe Lynch’s office revenge fantasy will leave you cheering with glee. It certainly helps that Yuen and Weaving are a dream team in doling out punishment to the law firm’s most corrupt.
Send Help – Disney+, Hulu
High-strung, socially awkward employee Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) gets denied the promotion she was promised when her boss’s spoiled son Bradley (Dylan O’Brien) takes over dad’s company. Linda’s luck chances when a work trip instead maroons the pair on an island, and escalating work frustrations lead to violence. It’s a splatstick battle of wills and wit in director Sam Raimi’s splatstick workplace comedy of errors. It’s not just Raimi’s comedic, gross-out signatures that make this original thriller so fun, but the formidable lead performances by its warring duo.
Severance – Hoopla, Kanopy, Philo
The Triangle and Black Death director, Christopher Smith, shows off his funny bone in this comedic slasher. A military arms corporation’s sales division embarks on a team-building retreat in the mountains but finds itself under siege by a masked killer instead. Aside from the wry office humor involved, the fact that this sales team works for an arms company means you can expect a wide array of weaponry at the characters’ disposal. You can also expect things to get very violent. It’s always cutthroat in sales, after all.
Corporate Retreat releases in theaters this Friday; get tickets now.
A luxury team-building trip descends into a bloody fight for survival against a vengeful retreat leader in Corporate Retreat, out today in theaters. It’s the latest entry in a cathartic subgenre of workplace horror that examines every harrowing aspect of job employment.
No job is safe from horror, either, from babysitting to even the most white-collar gigs. But if you work an overnight shift? All bets are off. Vengeful co-workers and bosses aside, the night shift is likely to come armed with witches, creatures, demons, and all manner of things that go bump in the night. Even deadly outbreaks.
Corporate Retreat, along with these five horror movies centered around some of the worst night shifts, will make you glad the weekend has finally arrived.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Passenger director André Øvredal goes full throttle for the scares in this quiet little chiller that sees a father and son coroner team stumped over the bizarre mysteries contained within the body of an unidentified young woman during an unexpected night shift. Well-executed scares, clever twists, and earnest performances by Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch give this supernatural haunter serious heft. While the narrative bides its time unveiling the truth behind Jane Doe’s battered body, it’s heavily steeped in witchcraft. In other words, The Autopsy of Jane Doe presents a new take on the subgenre. More importantly, it’s seriously scary.
Cold Storage
COLD STORAGE, StudioCanal 2023
A lethal, mutated fungus breaks free from confinement deep within the bowels of a storage facility. At the frontlines of the madness are Teacake (Stranger Things’ Joe Keery) and Naomi (Barbarian‘s Georgina Campbell), two employees thrust into the middle of the chaos when they investigate an alarm beeping somewhere deep within the building. Director Jonny Campbell (Netflix’s Dracula), working from a script by David Koepp based on his novel, helms the goopy madness with workman efficiency. This lighthearted, goopy horror comedy romp makes the deadly night shift a bit more bearable.
Graveyard Shift
Graveyard Shift follows new hire Hall (David Andrews) tasked by his mean boss Warwick (Stephen Macht) to assist with the insane rat infestation beneath their mill. They find something much most monstrous as the cause. Though the film was panned, it’s a fun creature feature with an always welcome appearance by Brad Dourif as the intensely eccentric exterminator. The film also opts for a happier ending, whereas (spoiler), the story sees both Hall and Warwick getting devoured by the mutated rats, the crew in the upstairs mill none the wiser.
Last Shift
‘Last Shift’
Rookie Officer Jessica Loren (Juliana Harkavy) has been assigned to watch over a closing precinct on its final night of operation…alone. With nearly everything already moved over to the new station, including rerouted 911 calls, it should be a pretty quiet night as she waits for a Hazmat team to arrive to remove biohazardous waste. Instead, it becomes a waking nightmare as she’s forced to deal with unsettling visitors. Last Shift, co-written by Scott Poiley and director Anthony DiBlasi, brings the scares.
Intruder
The overnight stock crew of a local grocery store finds themselves falling victim to an unseen killer in this highly infectious late ‘80s slasher. The deaths are delightfully gruesome and inventive; look for this killer to make excellent use of grocery store items as weapons. Frequent Raimi collaborator Scott Spiegel directed this bloody slasher, which means a lot of overlap with the Evil Dead II. That means putting Sam Raimi in front of the camera for a change, along with Ted Raimi and Evil Dead II’s Dan Hicks. Look for a cameo by Bruce Campbell as well!
Corporate Retreat releases in theaters today; get tickets now.
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