Credit: Netflix

Sundays with Netflix have officially turned into a showbiz getaway, and this one is no different.

With the horror season doing its thing, the spooky spirit deserves a shout-out on our watchlists too. After all, what’s better day than Sunday to dive headfirst into the house of horror?

Although you’ve already taken a little trip down the scary lanes given the seasonal demand, this watchlist spotlights the best of the best.

So, if you’re buckled up to hop on the spooky train, here are the five best movies to stream on Netflix this Sunday while in it.

The five best movies to binge on Netflix this Sunday:

Nosferatu (Robert Eggers, 2024)

It is officially that time of the year when viewers need no petty excuse to revisit the modern horror classics. With Nosferatu streaming on Netflix, how can we start the spooky journey with someone else? Directed by Robert Eggers, the gothic horror film opens with a young, lonely girl, Ellen, whose urge for companionship eerily leads to an inadvertent call to a dark force, ultimately forming a deep psychic connection with the ancient vampire Count Orlok.

Nosferatu cuts to 1838, Wisburg, Germany, when Ellen has grown up and married estate agent Thomas Hutter, whose employer, Herr Knock, secretly works for Orlok. In Eggers’ horror movie, Knock sends Thomas to Transylvania to finalise the sale of a dilapidated manor to a reclusive count. But after he arrives at the forbidden villa, Thomas finally understands his host’s true monstrous nature and his plan to trap him in the castle, legally bind Ellen to him, and wreak deadly havoc back in Germany.

Disappear Completely (Luis Javier Henaine, 2022)

Considering the ongoing hype around Mexican thrillers, it makes sense to go all in on Mexican horrors this Halloween. Directed by Luis Javier Henaine, Disappear Completely highlights the horrors of unchecked ambition. The Mexican thriller follows ambitious and naturally unethical tabloid crime photographer Santiago in New York City, who clicks pictures of accidents and murders for front-page coverage, without paying heed to the deceased or their families.

While he makes no exception for the corpse of an influential politician, Santiago fails to realise his subject was cursed with black magic. Soon after photographing the body, Santiago mysteriously starts losing his five physical senses, one each day, starting with smell, then taste and touch. However, upon finding an eerie voodoo item inside his home, he’s left with no choice but to consult a local occult practitioner, who brings bad news with him.

Apostle (Gareth Evans, 2018)

Horror movies have many sub-genres, but if we were to pick a favourite, it is folk-horror without a second thought. So, the third spot on the Sunday marathon is Gareth Evans’ Apostle, a quintessential gothic horror to make you sweat. Set in 1905, the 2018 film follows former missionary Thomas Richardson, who infiltrates an isolated community on the remote Welsh island of Eirsten, posing as a new convert to rescue his sister, Jennifer.

The head of the commune is Prophet Malcolm Howe, alongside fellow founders Frank and Quinn, who claim the barren island was made fertile by divine grace. But upon infiltrating the community, he realises the fertility is maintained through animal and human sacrifices to an ancient goddess or witch held captive underneath the settlement. Jennifer’s abduction is largely related to the sacrificial ritual, and in Apostle, Thomas must find a way out to end the reign of terror.

El Conde (Pablo Larraín, 2023)

Just in case the horror marathon feels too unsettling so far, add a bit of humour with Pablo Larraín’s El Conde. The dark vampire comedy kicks off in the 1780s, where royalist French soldier Claude Pinoche is revealed to be an immortal vampire. So, following the French Revolution and the execution of Marie Antoinette, he pretends to die, only to travel across the world to squash revolutions before arriving in Chile in 1935 as Augusto Pinochet.

Largely a political satire, El Conde follows Pinochet, who takes charge of the 1973 Chilean military coup, reigning as an unforgiving dictator, whose secret crimes fulfil the agenda of sustaining his immortality. But when active public investigations start taking place, a 250-year-old Pinochet fakes another death and finds his way back to a dilapidated mansion with no urge to live, only to deal with his dysfunctional, money-hungry family in the pursuit of his fortune.

Phenomena (Carlos Theron, 2023)

To wrap up the Sunday spooky show, we recommend a Spanish film with equal parts humour and horror: Phenomena. Set in Madrid in 1998, the horror-comedy follows a paranormal investigation group called the Hepta Group as they set out to investigate a haunted antique store. But when one of their members, Gloria, steps back due to health issues, they postpone the investigation. Despite that, the group’s gravitas, Father Pilon decides to check out the shop on his own.

The impulsive decision almost costs him his life as he’s attacked brutally by a supernatural entity, leaving him incapacitated and unable to continue the probe. So, the rest of the group, including Sagrario, Paz, and of course, Gloria, take over the case, alongside a highly sceptical Pablo. But once they dig deeper into the shop, they realise the mission is far from an ordinary ghost haunting (as if there’s anything called an ordinary ghost hunt).