It’s finally the end of the week. As we head into the weekend, there are numerous movies available on streaming, keeping you with plenty to watch as you enjoy your days off.
Two of the biggest movies of the year are now available to watch from home. Backrooms, directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons, is now available on VOD. The horror movie is one of the biggest box office hits of the year, putting the spotlight on a young and exciting filmmaker. The project is based on his YouTube videos, a series of shorts following people lost in creepy liminal spaces.
Obsession is also available on Peacock. Curry Barker’s directorial debut is also the mark of another rising star, this time, centered on a story of smaller dimensions yet still plenty creepy, following a guy who gets his dream girl, only to find there are some terrifying side effects he should account for. Happy watching.
10
Backrooms
bac
Available on VOD
Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 45m
Director: Kane Parsons
Cast: Renate Reinsve, Chiwetel Ejelfor
Based on Kane Parsons’ string of YouTube videos and brought to the screen with the support of some of the leading filmmakers in the industry, among them James Wan and Shawn Levy, Backrooms is one of the year’s biggest hits. It’s also an incredibly interesting movie. Set in the ‘90s, the movie follows Clark (Chiwetel Ejiolfor), a frustrated architect who works at his local furniture store and vents his problems to his therapist (Renate Reinsve). One night, he runs into a strange and terrifying space located on the store’s basement.
Per our Polygon review:
Parsons proves effective at expanding his own shorts into a feature-length story that still captures the unsettling otherness of liminal space. The sheer illogic of the Backrooms feels threatening and alien; the remixing of commonplace objects and architecture into new forms feels nightmarish. The omnipresent fluorescent hum hanging over it all is oppressive enough to keep viewers’ nerves on edge.
9
Obsession
Image: Focus Features
Available on Peacock
Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 48m
Director: Kane Parsons
Cast: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrete
Obsession is now streaming on Peacock. The movie marks Curry Barker’s directorial debut, following a 20-something guy who’s lonely and kind of going through it. In a moment of desperation, he turns to a silly trinket he bought in a shop, wishing for the girl he’s been obsessed with over the past couple of years to love him back. She does and it’s awful!
Per our Polygon review:
This turn positions Obsession as a kind of supernatural stalker movie. In true monkey’s-paw fashion, the undying affection Bear sought from Nikki becomes frightening, as she dotes and fixates on him to an unhealthy degree, the details of which are best left for the audience to discover.
8
The Bay
Image: Brainstorm Media
Available on VOD
Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 27m
Director: Phil Volken
Cast: Francesca Eastwood, Alexander Wraith
It’s summer, and thus the perfect time to get your fill of shark movies. The Bay follows the classic trappings of a this type of story, this time, centered on two best friends who must work to ensure each other’s survival after their tour boat sinks in a shark sanctuary.
7
Heartstopper Forever
Image: Netflix
Available on Netflix
Genre: Romance
Run time: 1h 51m
Director: Wash Westmoreland
Cast: Kit Connor, Joe Locke
Heartstopper has been a cultural hit ever since it first came out as a web series published on Tumblr. Years later, the series was adapted into a hit Netflix show exploring the sweet romance between Nick and Charlie and their relationships with their family and friends. The story is concluding this weekend, in movie form.
6
Jinsei
Available on VOD
Genre: Sci-fi
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Ryuya Suzuki
Cast: Ace Cool, Taketo Tanaka, Shohei Uno,
Jinsei is an animated sci-fi movie that follows an unnamed hero throughout 100 years, with him pursuing different paths, including a J-pop idol, an oracle, a leader, and more.
5
Mirorrs No. 3
Image: Metrograph Pictures
Available on Mubi
Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 26m
Director: Christian Petzold
Cast: Paula Beer, Enno Trebs, Barbara Auer
Christian Petzold, one of the most exciting directors, is back with a new movie. Mirrors No. 3 follows a piano student who survives a car crash and is taken in by a local woman and her family.
4
They Fight
Available on Hulu
Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 33m
Director: Sheldon Candis
Cast: Andrew Holland, Samira Wiley, Wendell Pierce.
Led by a talented cast, They Fight follows a reformed ex-convict who returns home to build back his life, finding a job working under a coach to mentor a group of boys training for a boxing tournament.
3
Exit 8
Image: NEON/Everett Collection
Available on Shudder
Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 35m
Director: Genki Kawamura
Cast: Kazunari Ninomiya, Nana Komatsu, Yamato Kochi
Based on the video game of the same name, Exit 8 poses the terrifying question: What if you were stuck in an endless and looping subway stop with no way to get out?
Per our Polygon review:
Exit 8 the movie isn’t necessarily as scary as Exit 8 the game, but the ways Kawamura uses that creepy white corridor to tell a much more personal story make this a worthy adaptation. It’s fascinating to see how the game’s digital corridors take material form in the movie, but with a completely different meaning. Instead of simply being an eerie place where bizarre events take place, they become the manifestation of a visceral uncertainty so many of us deal with in our own lives.
2
The Souffleur
Image: Magnify
Available on VOD
Genre: Dark humor
Run time: 1h 18m
Director: Gastón Solnicki
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Lilly Lindner
Who doesn’t enjoy watching Willem Dafoe slowly lose his grip on reality? The Souffleur follows Dafoe as a hotel manager in Vienna, who begins to lose his mind when he engages in a battle of wills against a real estate developer.
1
Is God Is
Image: Amazon MGM Studios
Available on MGM+
Genre: Thriller
Run time: 1h 39m
Director: Aleshea Harris
Cast: Kara Young, Mallori Johnson, Vivica A. Fox
Made in the style of cool revenge stories like Kill Bill, Is God Is follows twins Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson), who survive a traumatic childhood where their father set their home on fire, presumably killing their mother. When the twins grow up, they learn that their mother is alive, sending them on a journey of vengeance against the man responsible.