“Awake,” starring Gina Rodriguez, imagines a world in which a global event wipes out humanity’s ability to sleep. The film is Netflix’s latest foray into the horror genre and premieres on the streamer Wednesday. In the meantime, let’s look back at Netflix’s in-house thrillers and chillers and see which were downright scary and which were just scary bad.
1. Calibre (2018)
Tomatometer: 95%
The best-reviewed Netflix thriller is “Caliber,” which tells the story of two friends on a doomed hunting trip in Scotland. The Ringer’s review of the film said, “Excellently shot and acted, and gutsy enough to not cop out when it counts, ‘Calibre’ is one of the year’s best genre efforts.”
2. Hush (2016)
Tomatometer: 93%
The next best-reviewed Netflix original horror film is 2016’s “Hush,” which centers on a deaf woman being stalked by a killer in her home. Directed by Mike Flanagan of the “Haunting of Hill House” series, The Guardian described the film as a “sharp, finely tuned thriller that goes down familiar paths but with flair and skill.”
3. Cam (2018)
Tomatometer: 93%
Techno-thriller “Cam” was edged out by “Hush” due to the films’ vastly different audience scores, 54% and 72%. But it seems that the Chicago Reader would disagree with the ranking. The publication’s review said “Cam” is “horror at its best.”
4. Little Evil (2017)
Tomatometer: 92%
One critic review described this (generally) positively received demonic possession flick as “‘Omen’ by way of ‘Shaun of the Dead.’”
5. Gerald’s Game (2017)
Tomatometer: 91%
This twisted Stephen King adaptation garnered rave reviews for Carla Gugino’s performance. A glowing review from The Hollywood Reporter argued that the film was Mike Flanagan’s “most accomplished to date.”
6. 1922 (2017)
Tomatometer: 91%
This Stephen King adaptation has fallen victim to yet another audience score tiebreaker. Despite audiences’ general distaste for the tale of a rancher plotting to murder his wife, The Guardian claims that the film possesses “an unshakable menace that lingers, a tale of guilt and regret that burrows its way under the skin.”
7. Vampires vs. The Bronx (2019)
Tomatometer: 90%
Neighborhood kids band together to fight vampires in this horror comedy. RogerEbert.com called it “agile, charming, and funny.”
8. Cargo (2018)
Tomatometer: 88%
This low-key zombie flick scored the ultimate compliment from a RogerEbert.com reviewer, “I think George A. Romero himself would have liked it.”
9. Apostle (2018)
Tomatometer: 79%
Cult thriller “Apostle” did not benefit from the various “Wicker Man” comparisons. Vulture‘s lukewarm review described the movie as “an absorbing, horrifying movie that’s maybe not as smart as it wants to be.”
10. The Ritual (2017)
Tomatometer: 73%
An ancient evil spirit stalks hikers in this film that, according to The Village Voice, “on occasion achieves a tense and devilish power.”
11. The Babysitter (2017)
Tomatometer: 72%
This Bella Thorne-starring satanic teen horror-comedy introduced many viewers to the talents of Samara Weaving. Most critics were underwhelmed otherwise, with one review dragging the cliche-reliant film as “woefully archaic.”
12. The Perfection (2018)
Tomatometer: 72%
The New Yorker declared this musical thriller starring Allison Williams a “trite jumble that confronts its ripped-from-the-news theme as an impersonal check box.”
13. Before I Wake (2016)
Tomatometer: 65%
The review from RogerEbert.com admitted that “Before I Wake” is a “flawed” film with “elements that really work, especially the lead performance and some of Flanagan’s gifts with composition.”
14. Bird Box (2016)
Tomatometer: 63%
An inventive viral marketing campaign made “Bird Box” a hit. For most critics, the Sandra Bullock-starrer did not live up to the hype, with NPR station KPCC daring to call it “bird-brained.”
15. Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)
Tomatometer: 61%
The reteaming of “Nightcrawler” star Jake Gyllenhaal and writer-director Dan Gilroy did not “add up to much” for one Vox critic, but they added that it’s “darkly enjoyable as long as you’re into all that.”
16. Fractured (2019)
Tomatometer: 59%
Here’s where things start to get rotten. According to The Hollywood Reporter, this is “the sort of psychological suspenser that proves grueling for all the wrong reasons.”
17. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)
Tomatometer: 58%
This haunted house tale started out promising by casting formidable TV actress Ruth Wilson in the lead role. But Variety said that even Wilson “can’t render a familiar character type fascinating enough in a vacuum, with so little support in the writing.”
18. Malevolent (2018)
Tomatometer: 55%
Even with then-up-and-comer Florence Pugh in the lead role, this ghost story failed to spook critics. One reviewer slammed it as a “depressing journey that lacks genuine scares and any real direction.”
19. The Babysitter: Killer Queen (2020)
Tomatometer: 48%
The sequel to 2017’s “The Babysitter” did not improve upon its predecessor’s shortcomings. A one-star review from RogerEbert.com found it to be a “defiantly stupid movie, with references so bizarrely dated that it verges on fascinating.”
20. Eli (2018)
Tomatometer: 48%
The Guardian described this horror mystery as “scattered with a number of familiar horror sequences, from a couple of nasty dreams to some extended jump scares, but none of them really land.”
21. Mercy Black (2019)
Tomatometer: 45%
According to IGN Movies, this Blumhouse production has a “disturbing premise, some decent performances and a few good shocks, trapped inside a generic presentation and an unremarkable plot.”
22. Things Heard & Seen (2021)
Tomatometer: 39%
A far cry from her critically acclaimed “Mank” the year prior, this Amanda Seyfried-starring dud is “overwrought horror starring an overqualified cast,” per the Chicago Sun-Times.
23. Death Note (2017)
Tomatometer: 38%
Even with a host of young talent involved, including Margaret Qualley and Nat Wolff, “Death Note” is a film loosely adapted from a Japanese manga with an “ending will have you switching off your Netflix app in disgust. If you don’t die from boredom before you get there,” according to RogerEbert.com.
24. In the Tall Grass (2019)
Tomatometer: 36%
This eco-thriller starring Patrick Wilson fails to sell the audience on its threat. The Los Angeles Times said the film “runs too long and repeats itself too much to be as gripping as its source material. Turns out there’s a limit to how scary weeds can be.”
25. Extinction (2018)
Tomatometer: 32%
Michael Peña and Lizzy Caplan star in this extraterrestrial thriller that RogerEbert.com asserts is “a B-movie with a blockbuster attitude, and not in a fun way.”
26. The Silence (2019)
Tomatometer: 29%
Not even Stanley Tucci can save this “A Quiet Place” ripoff. At least that’s what a review from IGN Movies claims, referring to it as “deeply mediocre.”
27. Rattlesnake (2019)
Tomatometer: 28%
Perhaps Netlix’s desert thriller “Rattlesnake” would’ve made for a better short film or TV episode. One review regrettably described it as “an interesting idea that couldn’t survive being stretched out to feature-length, topped off with a limp ending.”
28. The Woman in the Window (2021)
Tomatometer: 25%
A film only an Amy Adams superfan could love. The prestige actress’s misstep was described as “a series of clichés and deranged narrative twists” by one reviewer.
29. The Open House (2018)
Tomatometer: 13%
Nabbing the top honor, or rather dishonor, is 2018’s “The Open House,” which was generously described by one critic as “a virtually tension-free, depressingly bland horror flick is tough to recommend to anyone but the most undemanding horror fans looking for something gentle to stream on a hungover Sunday afternoon.”
