Horns
Directed by Alexandre Aja
Written by Keith Bunin, Adapted from the novel by Joe Hill
Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Max Minghella, Juno Temple, Kelli Garner, Joe Anderson, James Remar, Kathleen Quinlan, David Morse, Heather Graham
Blu-ray | DVD | Amazon Instant Video | Netflix Streaming
Original Release Date: October 31, 2014

Kids are asleep, significant other is in bed, and you can’t sleep. I know what you’re thinking… “What’s new on Netflix?” One new release that leapt out at me was Horns. Horns is the perfect storm for horror geeks: directed by French gore-maestro Alexandre Aja, based on book by Joe Hill (son of Stephen King!!!) and starring Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, who was surprisingly effective in his first horror film, 2012’s The Woman in Black.

We all react differently to adversity and personal trauma: we drink, we lash out, we stay close to our best friends who won’t judge us, we get makeovers. Ig Perrish (Radcliffe, in a roll that will smash your cutesy memories of a certain young wizard) does all the above, except his makeover isn’t a new haircut or trip to the day spa… it’s friggin HORNS! Yep, demon-like horns growing out of his skull. Of course, if he didn’t look guilty of murder before, he certainly looks the part now.

Every month, Netflix Instant adds a bunch of new titles to their instant streaming service, so I’m here to give you some recommendations from their new offerings in movies and television.

Some of my favorite picks include M.A.S.H (Seasons 1-5), the rebooted RoboCop, the Starz original drama Spartacus (The Complete Series), the Robert DeNiro-Sean Penn comedy We’re No Angels, and the Dead Snow sequel. There’s plenty more, but below are some of my favorite picks for the month, along with descriptions, original release years, and Netflix launch dates.

Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy
Netflix l Blu-ray l DVD l Amazon Prime
Directed by Daniel Farrands & Andrew Kasch
Written by Thommy Hutson
Starring Heather Langenkamp, Wes Craven, Robert Englund, Robert Shaye, Lin Shaye, Sara Risher, Rachel Talalay, and David Chaskin
1428 Films/ Panic Productions
Not Rated | 240 Minutes
Release Date: May 4, 2010

Horror movies were becoming one-dimensional and sequel-crazy. By mid-1984, three Halloweens, and four Friday the 13ths had come out. Then along came Freddy Krueger.

Freddy was different from all his horror icon predecessors. Whereas Michael Myers and Jason were silent masked stalkers, Freddy had personality. A child killer murdered in an act of town-coordinated vigilante justice, he unfortunately becomes a dream demon and stalks the children of his killers while they sleep. His grotesquely burned face left nothing to the imagination, and his ability to work within the dream world made him limitless as a killer and gave the filmmakers the freedom to go crazy with off-the-wall kills.

Wondering what’s new for December 2014 in Netflix Instant? There’s a bunch, so I’m here to give you some recommendations from their new offerings in movies and television series.

Some of my favorite picks include Almost Famous, Anchorman 2, American Horror Story, Oculus, and The Wolf of Wall Street. There’s plenty more, but below are some of my favorite picks for the month.

Housebound
Written and Directed by Gerard Johnstone
Cast: Morgana O’Reilly, Rima Te Wiata, Glen-Paul Waru, Cameron Rhodes, Millen Baird, Mick Innes, Ross Harper, Ryan Lampp
XLerator Media
Not Rated | 106 Minutes
Release Date: October 17, 2014

In Housebound, the feature film debut from New Zealand’s Gerard Johnstone (The Jaquie Brown Diaries), Kylie Bucknell (Morgana O’Reilly) is court-ordered to return to her childhood home after being placed under house arrest.

Her punishment is made worse by the fact she’s cooped up with her mother Miriam (Rima Te Wiata) – a well-meaning chatterbox who’s convinced the house is haunted by a ghostly figure in tattered white cloth.

Initially, Kylie dismisses Miriam’s superstitions as nothing more than a distraction from an unfulfilled life of boiled vegetables and small-town gossip. But when she starts to hear whispers and strange bumps in the night, Kylie wonders if she has inherited her mother’s overactive imagination, or if the house is actually possessed by some kind of hostile spirit.