This week brings the release of M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin, an adaptation of author Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World. The premise sees a vacationing family held hostage by four armed strangers that make harrowing demands under the claimed threat of an apocalypse.
This week also continues HBO’s compelling “The Last of Us,” an apocalyptic series based on the video game. The fourth episode will air this Sunday on HBO and HBO Max. Naturally, it feels apropos to continue the apocalypse theme in this week’s streaming picks.
While horror’s apocalypse starter often falls to zombies, these five apocalyptic movies showcase other means of humanity’s doom, from Gates of Hell to extraterrestrial takeovers.
As always, here’s where you can stream them this week…
The Beyond – AMC+, Fandor, Kanopy, Peacock, Screambox, Shudder, Tubi
One of Lucio Fulci’s most beloved horror films and the second entry in his unofficial “Gates of Hell” trilogy, The Beyond is also the director’s most influential. Set in Louisiana, a young woman inherits a hotel and discovers it was built over one of the gates to Hell. Bleak, surreal, and dreamlike in its storytelling, The Beyond toes the line between beauty and horror. Essentially, The Beyond is what happens when you cross Fulci with H.P. Lovecraft. The result is a foreboding, apocalyptic horror movie with a tangible sense of doom.
Abel Ferrara’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers remake shifted the story from its California setting in favor of a military base in Alabama, making for an interesting parallel between the structural army and the conformity of the alien invasion. It follows teen Marti Malone (Gabrielle Anwar), the daughter of an Environmental Protection agent studying the effects of the military on the ecosystem, as she uncovers a paranoid plot of aliens covertly taking over humanity. The impressive cast ensures this propulsive thriller maintains airtight suspense, but look for Meg Tilly to steal the movie with a bone-chilling monologue.
The Girl with All the Gifts – Kanopy, Pluto TV, Roku, Tubi, Vudu
Based on the novel by Mike Carey, The Girl with All the Gifts is set in the near future when a parasitic fungus has ravaged the world. Those infected turn into mindless “hungries.” Only a small group of children seem immune; they still hunger for flesh but retain the ability to learn and think. Among them is Melanie (Sennia Nanua), the most intelligent and remarkable. When the military base holding the children captive falls, Melanie embarks on a quest with her teacher and the survivors, discovering her new place in the world. Nanua’s casting lends a new layer to the narrative, and Glenn Close makes for a formidable, icy antagonist in an already brutal world.
Pulse – AMC+, Mubi, Plex, Roku, Vudu
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s supernatural chiller Pulse (Kairo) gives an eerie supernatural spin to the apocalypse. A heavily overcrowded afterlife caused the dead to spill over into the world of the living to a chilling effect. They invade like a viral infection via technology, plunging the globe into hopeless despair and death. Kurosawa spins this tale through two distinct halves, as different groups of characters discover that ghosts are invading through the internet. The more methodical pacing allows the sense of unease to unfurl slowly, eventually stripping away any semblance of hope through terrifying spectral encounters and devastating loss.
Take Shelter – Hulu, Tubi
Writer/Director Jeff Nichols, a writer on the upcoming A Quiet Place: Day One, already established his apocalyptic horror chops in Take Shelter. Michael Shannon stars as Curtis, a construction worker and family man suddenly plagued by visions of the apocalypse. But are these visions real or a symptom of inherited mental illness? Nichols toes the line between haunting drama and apocalyptic thriller, centering this tale around an emotionally charged performance by Shannon. The fallout and paranoia that arises from Curtis’s unraveling make this a worthwhile watch.
This content was originally published here.
