Now Scream This: '90s Horror Gems, The Greatest Horror Comedy Ever, And The Best 'Resident Evil' Movie

(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 on "Now Scream This," our theme is "Matt's Really Tired And Needs Something Easy." Jetlag is for real, and 2019 is already becoming a workload avalanche, so Chris graciously agreed to another freebie selection entry. Thank you, Chris. My sanity and throbbing exhaustion headache are in your debt. Maybe this is the week I'll finally catch up with my sleep? Although, not while watching the movies listed below.Chris: While I love the themed editions of Now Scream This, I'm also happy with a nice old grab bag approach. Anything goes! Take your pick! We'll be back next time with a clever theme that will make you chuckle, say "Mm, that's clever," and then forget all about it.

Matt: Yes. Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil is not only an underappreciated video game adaptation, but stands alone like a mad scientist funhouse stocked with flesh-hungry infected employees. The inaugural incarnation of Milla Jovovich's franchise-dominant Alice, where she earns every damn sequel no matter how dodgy future titles register. You get a little grunt-tough Michelle Rodriguez, some laser slice-and-dice security measures, zombie wall clingers with saliva-slick tongues – in my opinion, a proper representation of Resident Evil canon in a contained outbreak setting. It's no Resident Evil: Apocalypse - forever my favorite – yet serves as the "Patient Zero" for this widespread horror culture phenomenon.Chris: Of all the Resident Evil movies, this is the only one I actually remember – even though I've seen several. That has to count for something, right?

Matt: Robert Rodriguez's schoolyard bodysnatcher invasion flick The Faculty is quintessential late 90s horror content. Punk goths, dweeby nerds, and jocks must settle their clique-ish differences when teachers reveal themselves as extraterrestrial invaders. Usher Raymond, Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood, and Jordana Brewster among the students. Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen, Robert Patrick, and Jon Stewart their inhuman instructors. Study sessions turn to survival plotting once it's revealed that a homemade ecstasy drug kills the wiggly creatures taking over Herrington High School. Detached heads, "hive" queens, and mixtapes full of alt-rock teenage angst – a solid "B" flick in the best way.Chris: 15-year-old Chris had a major crush on Clea DuVall in this movie when it hit theaters in 1998. The Faculty is a lot of fun, although I think the ending – where characters we've seen slaughtered are still alive and well – is a bit of a cop-out.

Matt: As the resident "workspoitation" stooge around these parts, Brian James O'Connell's Bloodsucking Bastards deserves to be talked about as much as Mayhem or Severance. Sure, metaphors aren't thinly veiled – vampires proving themselves master salespeople – but O'Connell's command of tone does horror workplace comedy right. Doesn't hurt to have a cast that includes Fran Kranz, Pedro Pascal, Joey Kern, Emma Fitzpatrick, and other suited-up flesh sacks. One by one employee being to morph, slaving away with a thirst for profits (and gore). One of the goofier underrated analogies when it comes to corporate greed, but a through-and-through Donato party pick.Chris: One of these days, I'll have seen every entry on Matt's list. This is not that day.

Matt: Do I even need to waste typed words on why Edgar Wright's Shaun Of The Dead is a masterful zombie comedy? Five stars. Edgar Wright ever the cobbler of bromance, romance, intestines-spun flesh tearing, whip-pan edits, bar defense needle drops – any tier of horror fan's seen Shaun Of The Dead by now. Right? Even so, streamability will be responsible for countless repeat watches because that's the power of Simon Pegg's loser who finds meaning during England's unforeseen apocalypse. Forever in my rotation when hungering for a comfort horror watch guaranteed to turn my frown upside down.Chris: After An American Werewolf in London, Shaun of the Dead is the greatest horror-comedy of all time. If you don't agree, well, you're wrong.

Matt: Clocking in as my lowest of budget indie recommendations this week is Jeremy Gardner's The Battery. A low-fi zombie survival story unafraid of "character study" labeling that uses undead attackers in lesser roles than, say, Shaun Of The Dead. Ben (Gardner) and Mickey (Adam Cronheim) hit the road as a pitcher/catcher tandem with living on their mind, as they go on to encounter other survivors including a bit part by Larry Fessenden. Two friends, certain death, and how their relationship evolves throughout their road trip from hell.Chris: Oh look, another movie I haven't seen. Cool. Guess I'll go eat some glass.

Chris: A scathing indictment of capitalism and the shameless materialism of the 1980s that still resonates to this day. Just kidding, this is actually about killer robots. Chopping Mall tells the very relatable story of a new high-tech mall that employs roaming security robots. One night, a group of young folk (including Barbara Crampton!) decide to hide out in the mall after it closes. Big mistake! These '80s youngsters now find themselves the targets of the killer robots! Who will survive, and what will be left of them? And which floor is the food court on?Matt: Based on what you know of me so far, do you really think I'm not here for a movie titled Chopping Mall? C'mon. WATCH THIS MADNESS.

Chris: The idea of making a sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's legendary Psycho, decades after the fact, may seem like a terrible idea. But 1983's Psycho II is surprisingly good! Don't get me wrong: it's no Hitchcock flick. But this follow-up, which finds Anthony Perkins returning as Norman Bates, is sharper than a high-priced kitchen knife. It's clever, creepy, and surprisingly funny. Some 22 years after his killing spree, Norman Bates is released from the insane asylum and returns home to the Bates Motel and the big, spooky house behind it. But is Norman really cured? Or is "Mother" waiting to return? There are twists aplenty here, and Perkins is wonderful and sympathetic as the aging Norman.Matt: Blind spot alert!

Chris: After Scream cut up the box office, studios rushed to cash-in on the slasher craze. Enter I Know What You Did Last Summer, adapted from the YA novel by Lois Duncan. Give IKWYDLS some credit: if it were made today, it would be watered-down and rated PG-13. But in 1997, it was rated R, and featured some surprisingly brutal kills. The story is simple: "teens" –  Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr. – on a joyride accidentally run someone over, and cover up the crime. A year later, they've all changed – for the worse. But guilt isn't the only problem they're going to have to deal with. There's also a serial killer dressed as the Gorton's Fisherman, killing them off with a big hook. Of all the post-Scream slasher flicks, this remains one of the most entertaining. Whatever you do, though, avoid the sequels.Matt: For how much we overlook 90s horror – and I Know What You Did Last Summer is far from my favorite – time has made me wish for a renaissance of these types of teen thrillers.

Chris: Director Robert Harmon and writer Eric Red crafted this strange, nasty, kind of homoertoic thriller. C. Thomas Howell plays a rather bland young man who picks up hitchhiker Rutger Hauer. This proves to be a big mistake, as Hauer is a psychopath who becomes obsessed with Howell, following him on a cross-country killing spree. Critics did not like this movie upon release (Roger Ebert gave it zero stars), but over the years, it's developed a strong cult following (and spawned a crappy remake). Featuring Jennifer Jason Leigh, and also a scene where C. Thomas Howell eats a finger he thinks is a french fry.Matt: Rutger Hauer just being a crazy killer – you shouldn't need more convincing.

Chris: Aislinn Clarke's The Devil's Doorway is set in the 1960s, but it's also a found footage film. To pull this off, Clarke makes the footage grainy and the audio somewhat muddled to play up the primitive recording technology of the era. That could've backfired and become annoying, but it actually adds an extra level of eeriness to the proceedings. In the film, two priests are sent to a  Catholic asylum in Northern Ireland for "immoral women." They're supposed to be investigating claims of a Virgin Mary statue weeping blood, but what they find is possible demonic possession. Much like the recent The Nun, The Devil's Doorway is a movie that understands that nuns – with their black clothes and shadowy hoods – are inherently creepy.Matt: This was one of my fun little surprises from 2018 – agree with Chris 100%. Period found footage shouldn't work as well as this one does.