A sort of companion piece to my 15 Best Horror Films To Watch On Netflix This Halloween, this list looks at the best horror films not currently streaming on the site. As outlined in the introduction to the aforementioned piece, Netflix's selection for the horror genre leaves a little to be desired, and while there's certainly a few bonafide classics on there - Rosemary's Baby, Let The Right One In, The Omen - the fact remains that the list, bar perhaps the top five, is made up of pretty good films, rather than outright great ones. To counteract that, here's the 10 Best Horror Films Not On Netflix, which could alternately be titled The 10 Greatest Horror Movies Save A Few, or 10 Of The Greatest Horror Movies Ever Made. Note: this list adheres to the US version of Netflix.
10. Carrie
Untarnished by the 2013 remake, Carrie remains the quintessential horror film in director Brian De Palma's canon. Starring an unforgettable Sissy Spacek in the title role, it's the story of a shy, doe-like high-school senior who's far from your average student (Carrie is also far from your traditional horror chick; she's a girl shifting into womanhood and finding it hard to cope, one with her own neuroses and complexities, and it's this depiction which partly makes the film so great). Blessed with telekinesis, Carrie sets about getting revenge on the girls who bully her by wreaking havoc at the school prom. This sets up the infamous "pig's blood" scene, surely one of horror's most iconic moments. Based on Stephen King's first novel, Carrie is elevated by Brian De Palmas controlled direction, with the director, so used to flashy virtuosity, reigning it in to go deeper into a character than he ever has before (and arguably since). The last quarter of the film is especially brilliant, with Carrie (the film and the character) even attaining an eerie kind of beauty as she and her date swirl uncontrollably on the dancefloor.
