10 horror hidden gems on Netflix

9. Creep

Answering an online ad is always a risky business, but though amateur video-maker Aaron goes into his new gig with some reasonable suspicions, he has no idea what’s waiting for him at the end of the long drive into the mountains. At a remote house sequestered in the woods Aaron meets Josef, an odd guy who claims to be dying of brain cancer and wants to record a video for his son to watch after Josef has died.

Aaron sets out to help Josef record a series of deeply personal videos—weirdly personal videos, in point of fact. One involves Josef stripping naked in the bathtub and miming the actions of washing his son’s hair, the way Josef clams his father used to do for him. Time and time again Josef pushes the boundaries of what’s socially acceptable, frightening Aaron with “pranks” that leave no one laughing but himself.

Josef’s strange, manic, and off-putting mannerisms constantly ratchet up the tension in Creep. It’s impossible to get a read on him. At one moment he seems to be a consummate liar; in the next, he reveals some new information that makes him seem utterly sincere. Through it all Aaron can only struggle to keep up, struggling at first to help Josef and then placate him. As time goes on and things get weirder, Aaron wants only to escape.

Similar to another movie on this list, Creep uses the constriction of social expectations as a form of claustrophobia; both in the way Josef’s actions are unacceptable and therefore upsetting, and the way that Josef manipulates Aaron’s sense of obligation to get him right where he wants him.