New on Netflix is a weekly feature here at Wicked Horror where we take a look at the latest additions to everyone’s favorite streaming service. It can be tough sifting through all those horror titles, not really knowing what’s worth watching and what isn’t. Sometimes, you know exactly what you’re looking for, but when you go to watch it the title has already been taken down. Here, we do our best to let you know what’s been added and re-added from week to week.
As always, the beginning of the month hits us with a lot of strong material, with some current favorites and old classics alike. Hopefully, this keeps up throughout the month.
So kick back, relax, make some popcorn or maybe even munch on some candy corn as we bring you what’s new on Netflix for the week of November 6th.
Candyman: Farewell to the Flesh
The second Candyman feature returns to Netflix and though it’s not as good as the first, it is a respectable and underrated follow-up with a new score by Philip Glass. Replacing Bernard Rose is Bill Condon who would go on to work with Clive Barker again on the Academy Award winning feature Gods and Monsters. The second Candyman takes away some of the mystery of the first by diving into the Candyman’s backstory, but it makes sense for the sequel to take this direction and it’s handled in an interesting way.
Fright Night director Tom Holland gave us one of the—no pun intended—leanest, meanest and altogether underrated Stephen King adaptations with Thinner. It’s still, to this date, the only film adaptation of any of the books King wrote under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. As a result, it’s more mean spirited than King is known for, more in line with the darker writing of the Bachman persona. It’s about a morbidly obese man who is cursed to rapidly lose weight after killing an old man’s daughter in a car accident.
The Haunting (1999)
If I were to do a list of my least favorite remakes, this would be right at the top of it. It seems to be made under the mistaken idea that the original Haunting didn’t show any of the ghosts or paranormal phenomena because it couldn’t afford them or didn’t have the technology for them. In reality, everything you don’t see in the original Haunting was extremely intentional because it creates a sense of paranoia and plays into the imagination of the audience. But then you have this, which tosses out both the book and first movie in favor of a visual CGI feast.
The Legend of Hell House
Luckily, one of the most underrated haunted house features has returned to Netflix, that being Richard Matheson’s The Legend of Hell House. For whatever reason, perhaps because it first appeared as a TV movie, this one still does not quite have the audience it deserves. But this one has a great atmosphere and a great cast, especially a mousy performance by Roddy McDowall, so it’s well worth checking out.
