There’s nothing supernatural in this Paul Walker–starring road movie, but that doesn’t mean it’s not scary as hell. The late Fast & Furious lynchpin got back in a car for this thriller just a few months after the now ubiquitous franchise made its debut, but this time he—alongside Steve Zahn—is a hapless near-victim of a rage-filled truck driver pissed off after the pair catfish him via CB radio. It’s all made even more intense because you never see the driver pursuing them, you just hear his voice, provided by the great Ted “Buffalo Bill” Levine. Director John Dahl made his mark in the early 1990s with a series of desert-set noir films, detoured into whatever Rounders was (Oreo spon?), and you could feel him exhaling and having a blast with this very funny, very scary film. Ever made a cross-country road trip and been unsettled when you see the same driver again and again? This movie is the worst-case version of that.
The Ring (2002)
Available on: Netflix, Peacock, and Kanopy
While some prefer the original Japanese version, Ringu (AMC+ and Kanopy), Gore Verbinski’s English-language adaptation streamlines the scares to a stiletto point. For many Americans, this movie was the first time they were exposed to the “creepy pale girl with long hair” trope, now common to the point of parody. But the story of a cursed video tape somehow manifested by an evil kid named Samara holds up, jam-packed with unsettling images backed with an actual plot (yes, friends, it’s possible). Even after 22 years of rip-offs, Samara’s final reveal is still best viewed through one’s fingers.
Sinister (2012)
Available on: Hulu, Peacock, and Kanopy
Ethan Hawke’s author/shitty person, Ellison Oswalt, is my favorite horror movie scribe, and I’d wear all of his writerly cardigans in a heartbeat. (I’m not counting Jack Torrance of 1980’s The Shining—available on HBO Max—as a writer; that guy never managed to produce.) Oswalt somehow manages to move his family into an infamous murder house without them finding out, then assumes he’ll be forgiven once his book about the case makes its inevitable splash. Surprise, surprise, the crime had a supernatural basis—and is linked to a number of others, all brutally depicted in reels of film left in his attic. Over a decade before Weapons’s Aunt Gladys (Amazon Prime and HBO Max) was luring kids to the basement, Sinister’s monster was enticing them to do far worse.