Now Scream This: The Wildest And Most Surprising Horror Movies Streaming Now

(Welcome to Now Scream This, a column where horror experts Chris Evangelista and Matt Donato tell you what scary, spooky, and spine-tingling movies are streaming and where you can watch them.)Matt: This week's theme of "Wild Surprises" is 100% brought to you by Charles Philip Moore's Demon Wind. As Chris can confirm, there was going to be a Demon Wind sighting on my list no matter what. My own topical suggestion was "Matt writes about Demon Wind and Chris does what he wants." If you've been good little boys and girls, you've already read through my ode to insanity posted Friday – a breezy 2,000 word regurgitation of my first Demon Wind experience – so you know what to expect. Or what not to expect? Nothing can prepare you for Demon Wind! And the four other movies I recommend that totally aren't Demon Wind but you can watch instead, I guess. Not sure why other movies exist besides Demon Wind, anyway.Chris: This might be my favorite Now Scream This entry yet, just because almost all these movies are so abnormal that you might think we're making them up. But no, I swear: these movies are real! Will you enjoy them? I have no idea. But if you do dare to watch any of these movies, I swear to you, you will not be bored. You may come away muttering, "What the hell did I just watch?" But boredom certainly isn't an option on the table here. 

Matt: Demon Wind is not passively watched. Demon Wind is an all-immersive experience. Nothing makes sense, but scenes fly by with effortless entertainment value. Some might describe dialogue and performances as "so bad they're good," and they wouldn't be wrong. My choice descriptors are more "midnight madness perfection" or "an inherently enjoyable mess of subgenres in the vein of Trolls 2." You can expect bumpy faced demons, gusts of time-warp fog, heaps of Sam Raimi inspirations, invisible cabins, hambone cheesiness – there's no point in explaining further, really. Watch the trailer and try to prepare. Go ahead. You'll still be spit-taking liquids and enthusiastically scratching your head as Charles Philip Moore stumbles through what appears to be a slapdash possession story with nasty practical makeup work and sentiments that could only have come out of the '90s. A hidden gem in every sense of the phrase that epitomizes long forgotten oddities. Demon Wind is a beautiful anomaly and should be worshipped with cult-like enthusiasm. I drank the Kool-Aid. You should too.Chris: I'm almost afraid to watch Demon Wind at this point, just because I'm finding it hard to believe it'll live up to the hype. But I will give in and watch this curiosity sooner rather than later, and I look forward to having it blow my mind.

Matt: There's no greater joy than watching a movie you've not heard of, nor seen a trailer for, that delights in every way. David Guy Levy's Would You Rather won me over under those exact circumstances, mixing an age-old genre formula with tight execution. Down on their luck "players" are invited by a "sadistic aristocrat" to participate in a deadly game based on the film's title. The likes of Brittany Show, John Heard, Sasha Grey, Rob Wells, June Squibb and more are "tortured" by question asker Jeffrey Combs. Stakes increase as the rounds move on, including everything from electrocutions to stabbings. Drownings to miniature explosions. You're correct to assume there are underlying complications and sometimes things don't go as planned, but survival instincts never go out of style. People are promised second chances and given choices, forced to weigh what's most important in life. Impulses create rivalries, panic erupts and the game turns into a slumber party nightmare. If you missed this indie when it coasted onto VOD and was never really heard from again, rectify your situation. In the post-Saw era of competition based horror, Would You Rather is one of the better efforts to capitalize off popular trends.Chris: As much as I love me some Jeffrey Combs, I've avoided Would You Rather, but Matt makes it sound much more interesting than I suspected it of being. So I guess I need to make a date with this film.

Matt: For me, Jon Schnitzer's horror attraction documentary is a "wild surprise" primarily because of the lengths some owers push their patrons. Onlookers too often question those who'd subject themselves to situations of such fearful abuse, to whom I'd urge a watch of Haunters: The Art Of The Scare. The film does a good job diving into "Haunt Widows" (spouses who never see their loved ones around Halloween), scare veterans who live to bring characters to life, and the paying customers who drop everything to be sensationally destroyed by haunts. But more enthralling are the ones who go "too far," and where that line is drawn. Particularly Russ McKamey and McKamey Manor. You'll witness footage that'll speed your heart rate and cause a queasy feeling, as McKamey revels in his victim's pleas for release – which go unanswered. No safe word, no escape. There's a blurry boundary that Schnitzer never takes a side on, but positions for viewers to debate like a good documentary should. Just, maybe don't sit down for dinner in front of this one? Russ McKamey is a merciless sonofabitch who likes to put things back from where they came – I'll leave it at that.Chris: I've never even heard of this. Nice try, Matt. You clearly made this movie up. I'm on to you.

Matt: Some of you might object to my classification of Alex van Warmerdam's Borgman as horror, but no 2014 movie better captures true evil's many charismatic forms. Jan Bijvoet's portal of Camiel Borgman staunchly hardwires a very "mysterious grifter with no readable characteristics" brand of invasiveness. He's a displaced hobo looking for hygienic refuge when Warmerdam's film begins. No one extends their shower the drifter's way, until a wife starts caring for Borgman in secret after her husband denies such a request. From this point on, Borgman begins forcing himself into the otherwise picturesque household and it's all 'effing downhill for the film's protagonists. Who is Borgman really? What are his true intentions? Is that what you get for trying to pay it forward unto the universe? Still don't know, obviously nothing good and this is why I'm an ass to everyone. What I do know is that Borgman is a tantalizingly tense thriller from start to finish that's loaded with sinister surprises and one hell of a befuddling but tremendous slow-burn watch. Worth enough for the look on Borgman's face as he sips wine in the tub. Goddamn this movie is as bizarre as it is moody and traumatizing.Chris: Hey, finally! A film on Matt's list that I've seen! I thought Borgman was an artfully made piece of weirdness. But by the film's admittedly shocking, unsettling conclusion, I'd sort of given up on the whole affair. But I definitely think it's worth watching at least once.

Matt: Humor me, if you will, as nostalgia transports me back to the very first movie I ever streamed on Netflix. It was Steven Kastrissios' The Horseman. A brutal Australian revenge thriller directed, written, edited and produced by Kastrissios. Everything here is a callback to exploitation era darkness and sadistically violent retribution, as a divorced father sets on a warpath after receiving a video tape of his daughter being mistreated. This movie is nasty, angry and everything you'd expect from an exterminator with nothing to live for (re: tools of torture), but noticeably in-tune with the subgenre's penchant for character rebuilding. Enter a hitchhiking girl who becomes the man's defacto daughter figure, and The Horseman digs for something deeper than bashed skulls. Admittedly not straight forward horror in the sense of ghosts and spooks, but you better believe the savages in this movie getting picked off are nothing short of ghouls or demons. Think of it more as horrors of society if you need justification.Chris: At first, I thought Matt was talking about the terrible 2008 horror film The Horseman, starring Dennis Quaid. I had this whole write-up planned based on that movie, and how bad it was, and how no one talks about it anymore. Then I realized Matt was referring to a completely different movie. So...never mind. The Horseman!

Chris: Oh, boy, how does anyone even begin to explain House? This super-weird, super-brilliant Japanese horror film from Nobuhiko Obayashi could've easily been a standard haunted house film. Instead, it's a batshit insane trip through a blend of comedy and being whacked out of your mind on LSD. A school girl and her six classmates travel an aunt's house, and get more than they bargained for. Blending animation and other camera tricks, House is really unlike any other film you've ever seen. I know that sounds like hyperbole, but there's a scene in this movie where a severed head jumps up and bites one of the main characters right on her butt. You just don't see that everyday, folks.Matt says: Everyone remembers their first viewing of House. 40 years after its release and we're still talking about how this movie is one of the wildes* genre watches ever to be summoned to screen. Floating heads, blood-spitting painted cats, cartoon effects – House never ceases to please those in need of a bonkers horror watch. Full recommendation from me as well!

Chris: Society was one of those video store movies. If you're too young to know what that even means, let me explain, children. There used to be brick and mortar stores that rented movies to people. Wild! Whenever I went to the video store, I would spend hours perusing the horror section. Walking up and down the rows, scanning the shelf, always looking for something. Certain covers would always pop-out – the grossier, and weirder, the better. The cover for Society was like that – featuring a woman in a dress literally ripping her own face off while some guy in a tux stands in the background, nonchalant about the whole face-ripping thing. Let's just say the film lives up to that VHS art....and then some. Brian Yuzna helms this whacked-out film about a teen (Billy Warlock) who suspects the wealthy upper class people in his town – including his parents – are up to something nefarious. To say more would to give too much away, but let's just say there's a lot of body horror here, specifically in a big climatic scene that will have your jaw on the floor.Matt says: Brian Yuzna is no stranger to gross-out effects, but does it get better than Society? The body horror here is enough to make Cronenberg blush, as humans are turned inside out and rearranged like Stretch Armstrong dolls. Like it or not, you've never seen something like Society.

Chris: I decided to be a big jerk and include yet another film called House on this list. This American film isn't a remake of the Nobuhiko Obayashi film, but is rather a goofy horror-comedy from Steve Miner. The film focuses on a Vietnam vet who has become a successful novelist. He moves back into his childhood home, only to discover it's haunted by all sorts of malevolent spirits. Many of the ghouls in this film materialize as a big, weird, special effects makeup heavy monstrosities, and it's a hoot. House never quite works, because Miner can never nail down the tone. But that's kind of what makes this film so special – is it horror, is it comedy? Does it even know what the hell it wants to be?Matt says: Blind spot alert – I've never seen House even though it's been on my watch list for ages. Chris didn't lie about Tourist Trap, so I have a feeling he's right again. Maybe. Or I'll tweet at him sarcastically after watching House one night this week. Time will tell.

Chris: Ken Russell, a filmmaker who specialized in psycho-sexual mind-trips, helmed this 1988 curiosity featuring a very young Hugh Grant (and also Peter Capaldi!). The film is based very, very loosely on a story from Dracula author Bram Stoker, but really, it's just an excuse for Russell to throw his own brand of sexually-charged weirdness up on the screen. The plot involves the discovery of a strange skull that's tied into an ancient cult. None of that really matters, though. You don't watch Lair of the White Worm for plot; you watch it for Russell's dreamy, nightmarish visuals, which somehow never seem rooted in the real world. Quality-wise, this movie is bad. But when it comes to style, this is a must-see.Matt says: Stuart Klein of Fox Channel 5 called Lair Of The White Worm "droll, kinky fun," and I'm pretty sure I have a new favorite marketing pull-quote. Also this trailer is bonkers so if you're in need of supplementary material to Chris' recommendation, I highly encourage a watch. How can you say no to Hugh Grant?

Chris: You may think this isn't really a horror movie, but I beg to differ, because I was horrified with myself for watching it. So why am I recommending it here? Because this thing is like the curse from The Ring – I need to pass it on to someone else before it kills me. This "documentary" is supposedly a secret confession recorded by George Harrison – yes, the George Harrison, of The Beatles. In the confession, Harrison reveals that Paul McCartney died in a terrible car accident at the height of the Beatles' fame. Now, you may be aware that there's actually a ton of conspiracy theories about this very topic (click here for more info), because people are nuts. Here's what happened, according to this movie: rather than announce McCartney's death to the world, MI6 hired an imposter to take Paul's place, and forced the Beatles to cover it up. The reasoning was that because the Beatles were so popular, the government feared that announcing McCartney's death would cause anarchy. You might think all this stuff is presented in a jokey, tongue-in-cheek fashion. But no! All this insanity is played entirely straight, and presented in the most low-budget way possible, with terrible cinematography, awful recreations and stock music piped-in because there's no way in hell the makers of this film could afford the rights to the Beatles' actual music. I first watched this movie over five years ago, and not a day has gone by where I haven't thought about it in some capacity. It's so stupid and so strange that it has to be seen to be believed. Now sit down and watch it, please, and lift this curse from me.Matt says: What the actual fuck.