For a while, it looked as though horror movies were going to be left in the dust when it came to Netflix’s insatiable appetite for original content, but there’s been a few relatively recent titles that managed to stand out from the pack.
Remi Weekes’ His House was one of the best-reviewed films of 2020 in any genre, boasting a 100% Rotten Tomatoes score from 118 reviews, which is a stunning return. Airborne vampire thriller Blood Red Sky wasn’t quite so rapturously received by critics, but it did draw in 50 million subscribers in the four weeks after it was added to the platform in July, cementing it as one of this year’s biggest hits so far. Then there’s the Fear Street trilogy, which director Leigh Janiak wants to transform into the Marvel Cinematic Universe of horror.
Today marks the arrival of another scary title, and this one has the potential to become a major success. Based on the novel of the same name by J.A. White, Nightbooks follows young Alex, who finds himself being kept prisoner by a witch, played by Jessica Jones and Breaking Bad‘s Krysten Ritter. He needs to tell one spine-tingling story every night, or he’ll be trapped forever in her clutches.
Produced by Sam Raimi, Nightbooks is aimed much more at a family audience than the standard glut of R-rated titles released close to Halloween, but the trailer promises a fun and atmospheric spin on a well-worn genre that looks to have Ritter on prime scenery-chewing form.
