It breaks my heart to hear one of my friends tell me they took a notion to watch a genre movie on Netflix streaming and fished out a turd. It's all too easy to do. I'm often asked what might actually be worthy of a watch, so I'm going to begin scanning what's available periodically and posting recommendations. These are by no means the only worthy genre movies on Netflix streaming, just a sampling of movies that I'm familiar worth that I think might otherwise be overlooked.
Availability changes often, but all of the following titles were available to stream from Netflix at the time of this posting. The genre listed after the title (Foreign, Comedy, or Horror) describes where you'll find each movie in your onscreen groupings. Try doing a manual search if one seems to be missing.
If you have recommendations of your own, please share in the Comments section after the post.
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Horror or Comedy / 1h 28m / R / HD
Convulsively funny and surprisingly sweet spoof of every "cabin in the woods" movie you've ever seen. Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine excel.
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The Innkeepers (2011) Horror / 1h 41m / R / HD
Atmospheric slow-burn ghost story directed by Ti West. Turn the lights out when you watch it. See also The House of The Devil (2009) by the same director, available via Search on Netflix.
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Prince Of Darkness (1987) Horror / 1h 41m / R / HD
Cerebral, underrated John Carpenter effort . Second installment in what Carpenter refers to as his "Apocalypse Trilogy" along with The Thing (1982) and In The Mouth of Madness (1994). The "transmission" haunts me.
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Black Sunday (1960)Foreign or Horror / 1h 26m / NR / Standard
Gorgeous black and white gothic by legendary Italian director and cinematographer Mario Bava, probably his best work. Netflix currently has a number of his movies available if you like this one.
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Grave Encounters (2011)Horror / 1h 33m / NR / HD
Handheld camera footage, so fair warning. Uses "Ghost Hunters" type television shows as its jumping off point. It's slow to get rolling, but undeniably effective when it does. A sequel is available on VOD.
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Let The Right One In (2008)Foreign or Horror / 1h 54m / R / HD /Subtitled
Damn near perfect genre movie, touching and poetic. Needlessly remade as Let Me In (2010), I suppose because Americans are too stupid to read subtitles. I've never shown this one to anyone who didn't love it.
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The Sentinel (1977)Horror / 1h 31m / R / Standard
Fantastic star-studded cast. You'll never see Beverly D'Angelo in quite the same way again. Infamous for utilizing real human oddities in its finale.
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Audition (1999)Foreign or Horror / 1h 55m / NR / Standard / Subtitled
Somewhat laborious first half leads to an unforgettable endgame. Very well regarded in genre circles, and curiously, never remade for American audiences.
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Deadgirl (2008)Horror / 1h 41m / NR / HD
Rough and raunchy subject matter definitely won't be to everyone's taste, but interesting if you have the stomach for it. It was released in both R rated and NR versions in the U.S. This appears to be the NR cut.
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The Girl Next Door (2007) Horror / 1hr 31m / R / Standard
More rough material, this time based upon a true story. Excellent movie, but anyone who's ever suffered abuse might want to steer clear. It's horror in the truest sense of the word.
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Deranged (1974) Horror / 1h 22m / R / HD
About as close as any movie has gotten to a proper account of the real-life crimes of serial killer Ed Gein. It's highlighted by a stellar performance from Roberts Blossom.
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Battle Royale (2000) Foreign or Horror / 1h 53m / NR / HD
If you liked The Hunger Games (2012), check out this Japanese precursor that was so controversial that it remained undistributed in North America for over a decade after its release.
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