Night of the Living Dead (George A. Romero, 1968)- I’ll be honest, I don’t enjoy this film. Not only that, controversially, I enjoy its famous sequel only marginally more. These films do nothing for me, but that doesn’t mean they won’t for you. In actuality, I can quickly identify what makes them work: the zombie thriller exploits the hunter-hunted evolutionary kick horror movies often use. Images of the dead are innately unsettling, let alone the walking dead, or undead, and there’s no better place to start than the start. This is the original that truly kicked off the genre, and even if I don’t, millions find it terrifying. Watch it.









The Blair Witch Project (Eduardo Sánchez, Daniel Myrick, 1999) - Revolutionizing horror movies by being the trendsetter of the found footage film, the original my still be the best of this idiosyncratic sub-genre. The question of if the first person point of the view adds or subtracts realism is a valid one, but here it proves to be a hauntingly visceral experience. The film follows three student filmmakers who set out to document a famous ghoul, the blair witch, and as the opening card ominously forebodes, they were never heard of again. Even in 2014 it’s bone chillingly scary, although we’re desensitized to the style that made it change the genre.









Catching Fire (Francis Lawrence, 2013)- Improving upon its predecessor in almost every way, a bigger budget gave Lawrence the technical freedom to make a beautiful, scary, but believable world that resonates as the killer action crackles. The explosion of The Hunger Games’ popularity continues to expand, and with two films to go in the massively successful franchise left (BO), don’t expect it to for a few years. Including Catching Fire in this edition of Netflix Picks is more of a Let’s revisit the great second Hunger Games before Mockingjay than an ordinary recommendation, but it needn’t be included if the film wasn’t as thrilling or complete. With a fully realized vision led by what’s for my money Jennifer Lawrence’s second best performance, it’s a great sci-fi by any standard.