Whether you squirm at the thought of a scary movie, are sick of the clichés of the horror genre, or are just looking for something to watch that’ll put you in the Halloween spirit, you’ve come to the right place! Each day from now through Halloween day, I’ll post about a movie or TV show that is emblematic of the season, free of slashing, spurting, or exorcising. The only requirements are thus: it must be available on a major streaming service (Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, or Disney Plus), and it mustn’t be a well-known blockbuster. Sorry, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
Entry 6- Prisoners (2013)
Some of the entries on this list thus far have been spooky or unsettling, while others made the cut with a story of enthralling mystery. Prisoners fits the Halloween bill, but it doesn’t create the same fun energy that most of its fellow list representatives do. In fact, if I had to describe it in one word, it would be dread. However, Prisoners is perhaps the most engaging and thought-provoking member in this watchlist, and if you have the stomach to delve into it, I think you will find that it provides an entirely different kind of satisfaction, one that some viewers might find superior to that of the other watchlist entries.
Prisoners opens on the Dover family sharing Thanksgiving with the Birch family. Keller Dover and Franklin Birch have enjoyed a long friendship, and their 4 children get along as well. After dinner the children go outside to play, and each man’s daughter, Keller’s Anna and Franklin’s Joy, go missing. Local Detective Loki jumps on the case, and a mystery, maybe even a conspiracy, unravels as he dives deeper and deeper into the case. The families are grief-stricken, and Keller is practically unhinged, eventually conducting an investigation of his own, where he uncovers horrible truths while staying frustratingly distant from his goal of finding Anna. Up is down, down is up, and truth is hard to come by in this riveting thriller.
If you browse through Netflix, or most streaming services for that matter, crime procedurals are a dime a dozen. They are just as impactful any time of year, and when you finish one, two more are sure to take its place on your suggestion list. What makes Prisoners a great crime-centric thriller is not just the quest to find the missing daughters, but the disturbing truths that are revealed and the puzzles that must be solved to reach the ultimate goal. To say any more would be to spoil the plot of Prisoners, and that’s the last thing that I wish to do, but trust me when I say that as the story moves, so will the hairs along your neck.
Prisoners is streaming now on Hulu.
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