Culture Crash: Three Halloween Horror Picks

Halloween is just around the corner and every streaming service is busting out the horror movies like clockwork. Here are some recommendations of what you could enjoy for a dark, spooky night in.

If you’re looking for something new, The Black Phone is available to rent on VOD and is currently streaming on Peacock. The movie stars Ethan Hawke as a masked kidnapper in the 1970s and tells a supernatural tale of a young boy, Finney, who is taken by Hawke’s character and is desperate to escape. Spooky but not too terrifying with some visual flair, The Black Phone is one of the best horror movies of the past few years.

Meanwhile, Hulu is now streaming The Night House, which stars Rebecca Hall as a widow living alone in a home by the lake. Quickly, things begin to unravel and Hall’s character begins to suspect there may just be more to the house her husband built for them than she ever realized.

And if you want a recommendation from the aughts, The Exorcism of Emily Rose is also currently streaming on Hulu. We all have a movie that scared us straight when we were 12 years old, and The Exorcism of Emily Rose is that movie for me. The movie is loosely based on a real exorcism and… well, the reviews say its not that scary but my nightmares from 2005 say otherwise. A creepy, disturbing, and I think overlooked movie with a really great central performance from Jennifer Carpenter of Dexter fame.

Horror classics are always fun to revisit, but there is something special about checking something out for the first time. I don’t think you can go wrong with The Black Phone, The Night House, or The Exorcism of Emily Rose. ‘Tis the season.