Popular Australian streaming service Binge is crammed full of great movies to get you through many movie nights in front of the TV. Check out our top 10 picks and click through to watch or sign up for a free trial!
PSYCHO
Why you should watch: As a 10-year-old I was unimpressed when I was not allowed to go to the cinema with my older sisters to see this movie. It would be some time before permission was granted. It began a lifelong love of Hitchcock films. Disillusioned Phoenix office worker Marion Crane is fed up with the way life has treated her. One Friday, Marion is trusted to bank forty thousand dollars by her employer. Seeing the opportunity to take the money and start a new life, Marion leaves town and heads towards her married lover Sam’s California store. Tired after the long drive and caught in a storm, she gets off the main highway and pulls into the Bates Motel. The motel is managed by a quiet young man called Norman who seems to be dominated by his mother. Horror films have now become huge productions, but I still think this is one of the best.
Director: ALFRED HITCHCOCK
Cast: ANTHONY PERKINS, JANET LEIGH, VERA MILES, JOHN GAVIN, MARTIN BALSAM, JOHN MCINTIRE, SIMON OAKLAND
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)
Why you should watch: Freddy Krueger with his knife-styled finger glove has been scaring everyone since 1984 and is still considered your worst nightmare. Wes Craven writes and directs this horror favourite where Nancy Thompson and a group of her are being tormented by a clawed killer in their dreams named Fred Krueger. Nancy must think quickly, as Fred tries to pick them off one by one. This was Johnny Depp’s first feature film.
Director: WES CRAVEN
Cast: ROBERT ENGLUND, HEATHER LANGENKAMP, JOHNNY DEPP, RONEE BLAKLEY, JOHN SAXON, AMANDA WYSS, LIN SHAYE, JSU GARCIA
THEY LIVE
Why you should watch: John Carpenter directs and writes this sci-fi thriller, although he doesn’t appear in the credits as the writer. Nada, a down-on-his-luck construction worker, discovers a pair of special sunglasses. Wearing them, he is able to see the world as it really is: people being bombarded by media and government with messages like “Stay Asleep”, “No Imagination”, “Submit to Authority”. Even scarier is that he is able to see that some usually normal-looking people are in fact ugly aliens in charge of the massive campaign to keep humans subdued. With wrestlers and aliens combined, this one is a favourite of many kids from the 80s.
Director: JOHN CARPENTER
Cast: RODDY PIPER, KEITH DAVID, MEG FOSTER, JASON ROBARDS III, PETER JASON, GEORGE ‘BUCK’ FLOWER
SCREAM
Why you should watch: When this film was released I forbade my daughter from going to see it, but I have my suspicions that she did anyway. Unlike myself who would not have dared to do such a thing. Wes Craven directs this tale of a teenage girl who, a year after her mother is murdered, is terrorised by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game. His phone calls usually consist of many questions, the main one being: What’s your favourite scary movie? This one would be at the top for many horror fans.
Director: WES CRAVEN
Cast: NEVE CAMPBELL, COURTENEY COX, DAVID ARQUETTE, SKEET ULRICH, DREW BARRYMORE, MATTHEW LILLARD, ROSE MCGOWAN
HANNIBAL
Why you should watch: 1991’s Silence of the Lambs was the first time we became acquainted with Anthony Hopkins’ Dr. Hannibal Lecter. With Ridley Scott directing here, Lecter, who was arrested for cannibalism, now lives at an unknown location under a new identity. One of the victims, Mason Verger, makes an elaborate plan to find him and avenge himself, and he wants Grace Starling to lure him out. This one was R18+ in the cinema so be prepared for some unsettling gory bits.
Director: RIDLEY SCOTT
Cast: ANTHONY HOPKINS, JULIANNE MOORE, GARY OLDMAN, RAY LIOTTA, FRANCESCA NERI, GEANCARLO GIANNINI, FRANKIE FAISON
RED DRAGON
Why you should watch: I remember way back in 1981, a friend giving me this novel by Thomas Harris. I believe I ignored everyone for a whole weekend to finish it. But I was a little apprehensive about seeing it all up on a big screen until I saw the excellent cast attached. As another monstrous serial killer known as “The Tooth Fairy” terrorises Baltimore, Will Graham turns to Lecter, the evil mastermind who’s been under lock and key for three long years, to lend a hand in this challenging and time-sensitive case. But, to delve deep into the demented mind of a killer, one must first face his inner demons, and Will already knows that his insane imprisoned assistant is a gifted manipulator.
Director: BRETT RATNER
Cast: ANTHONY HOPKINS, EDWARD NORTON, RALPH FIENNES, HARVEY KEITEL, EMILY WATSON, MARY-LOUISE PARKER, PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN
IT
Why you should watch: We start off the more recent scary films with this offering, which has one of the Skarsgard boys starring as the dreaded Pennywise – although he doesn’t get to say much. If you already have a clown phobia, this one is not for you. In the Town of Derry, the local kids are disappearing one by one. In a place known as ‘The Barrens’, a group of seven kids are united by their horrifying and strange encounters with an evil clown and their determination to kill It.
Director: ANDY MUSCHIETTI
Cast: BILL SKARSGARD, JAEDEN MARTELL, FINN WOLFHARD, SOPHIA LILLIS, OWEN TEAGUE, JACK DYLAN GRAZER, JAKE SIM
THE BLACK PHONE
Why you should watch: I wasn’t sure about Ethan Hawke being scary, but he does get very creepy and sinister in this chilling horror story. Finney Blake is a shy but clever 13-year-old boy who is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of no use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead-set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.
Director: SCOTT DERRICKSON
Cast: ETHAN HAWKE, MASON THAMES, MADELEINE MCGRAW, JEREMY DAVIES, E. ROGER MITCHELL, TROY RUDESEAL
HALLOWEEN ENDS
Why you should watch: Although many fans were somewhat unhappy with this finale, by all accounts Jamie Lee Curtis was excited at getting back into her Laurie Strode character for the final time to do battle with Michael Myers. Four years after last year’s Halloween Kills, she is living with her granddaughter Allyson and is finishing writing her memoir. Laurie has decided to liberate herself from fear and rage caused by Michael Myers and embrace life. But when a young man, Corey Cunningham, is accused of killing a boy he was babysitting, it ignites a cascade of violence and terror that will force Laurie to finally confront the evil she can’t control, once and for all. It’s supposed to be the final in the series, but there are rumours that that may not be the case.
Director: DAVID GORDON GREEN
Cast: JAMIE LEE CURTIS, ANDI MATICHAK, JAMES JUDE COURTNEY, ROHAN CAMPBELL, NICK CASTLE, KYLE RICHARDS