Now Scream This: Don't Get Gaslit By These Streaming Horror Movies

(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: We're still stuck in February so that means Chris and I are still writing about relationship horror! This time, in honor of Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man, we have disastrous relationships in horror. The ones that make us shiver, our stomachs churn, and warp memories of "evil exes" into infinitely fonder daydreams. Love can be a savior, and love can be a monster. These picks we have lined up appeal more to the latter's demeanor.Chris: The Invisible Man is a timely tale of a woman being gaslit by her abusive boyfriend. But Leigh Whannell's fantastic flick isn't the first film to explore this storyline. So if you're in the mood for more terrible relationship movies, Matt and I have put our heads together to bring you some that are streaming right now. Right this very second. Go watch them!

 1. Girl On The Third Floor

Now Streaming on Netflix

Matt: I believe it was filmmaker Joe Lynch on Twitter who dubbed Travis Stevens' Girl On The Third Floor "moist," and how fitting a descriptor. One ugly word that makes you shudder and recoil, fitting for a haunted house flick that's "slimepunk" or "googorey" or whatever words you end up inventing. C.M. Punk aka Phil Brooks renovates a rundown fixer-upper for his "growing" family, but forms an unhealthy relationship with his new home sweet home. What plays out is a sludgy washover that scrubs at toxic masculinity cultures while fluids ooze from drilled holes and electrical sockets. This production is sopping wet, its themes slippery, and execution fluid. Keep a cleansing bath ready for when the credits begin.Chris: While I appreciate the goo and gore that's all over Girl on the Third Floor, it ultimately didn't work for me (what in the hell is that ending about?).

2. P2

Now Streaming on Hulu and Amazon Prime

Matt: Relationships still count if they're one-sided, right? Like when Wes Bentley tried to score a Christmas date with Rachel Nichols by trapping her inside a concrete parking structure? Franck Khalfoun's holiday horror cat-and-mouse is more frantic than generic architectures let on, with both actors overselling their mindsets. One the obsessed stalker, the other a workaholic fighting for more than her next raise. You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime – don't try this way! Unless you're making a creepy "passion thriller" that turns into a nightmare for one woman who just wants to spend Christmas Eve without being objectified and claimed by a "nice guy" she never knew.Chris: P2 has some fun moments – mostly via Wes Bentley's whacked-out performance.

3. Killer Sofa

Now Streaming on Amazon Prime

Matt: Killer Sofa. Yes. Hear me out. There's a whole stalker obsession subplot going on in this movie about, uh-huh, a KILLER SOFA. Through some ritualistic vileness and whatnot, the soul of an unstable human is transferred into a recliner that starts slaying victims. Some deaths are actually gory, but my favorite moments are the satirical cutaways to the sofa making fun of generic suspense cinematography. A woman leaves her apartment, the camera tracks her down the driveway, it slowly pans up to reveal the sofa staring through the window as she walks away. Magic. Goddamn magic. Never the smartest midnight movie or splatteriest for that matter, but you know what, gets the job done with the right crowd or a few...um...substances.Chris: Longtime readers of Now Scream This will likely not be surprised to learn I have never seen Killer Sofa

4. Nina Forever

Now Streaming on Amazon Prime

Matt: I may have recommended Nina Forever on "Now Scream This" before, but when talking about nasty love triangles, it bears repeating: SEE NINA FOREVER. For those needing a quick logline, one man finds himself in a threesome sandwiched between his new girlfriend Holly (Abigail Hardingham) and his deceased ex Nina (Fiona O'Shaughnessy). For a while, things are going...fine? Then, as assumed, situations get messy (giggidy) in ways that no longer promote bedroom shenanigans. Ben & Chris Blaine achieve more than entertaining zombified hanky-panky, as photography is rather catching and Nina Forever unfolds as a sharp, hilarious, pitch-black take on relationship dramas.Chris says: I've still not seen this, and who knows if I ever will? Life is fleeting!

5. Hansel & Gretel Get Baked

Now Streaming on Shudder

Matt: In this stoner's version of "Hansel & Gretel," the wicked witch (played by Lara Flynn Boyle) is serving up "Black Forest" of the dankest variety. No cakes, no cookies, just the ickiest, stickiest Mary Jane on the market. Gretel's (Molly C. Quinn) boyfriend goes to pick some more up, but his munchies get the best of him and imprisonment follows. It's up to Hansel (Michael Welch) and his sis to part the cloudy haze of confusion on this Grimm retelling, and maybe save all the token idiots who keep getting carved up by the cul-de-sac's newest drug Queenpin. Ugh, and now I'm hungry.Chris says: Haven't seen this, either. But I have seen Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters...and I love it.

1. Gerald’s Game

Now Streaming on Netflix

Chris: Stephen King's Gerald's Game long seemed like an unadaptable book. But Mike Flanagan found a way, because he's very good at what he does. Jessie (Carla Gugino) and her husband Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) go to a secluded lake house for some time away. Their relationship is not in the best place, and Gerald has decided to spice things up – unbeknownst to Jessie – with a little light bondage, via some handcuffs. Unfortunately, he then ends up having a heart attack, leaving Jessie alone, and cuffed to the bed. From there, the film focuses on Jessie's plight while also providing flashbacks to her traumatic childhood, creating an intimate, disturbing film in the process. It eventually leads to one of the most gruesome gore moments in recent memory – no matter how strong a stomach you have, you're going to cringe. I promise.Matt says: What's wrong with a little handcuff bedroom play, Chris? Oh, it's the whole skin-degloving scene and the psychological horror. That's right.

2. Unsane

Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Chris: Steven Soderbergh's throwback to movies like Shock Corridor has Claire Foy as Sawyer Valentini (what a name!), a woman who has been stalked by a total creep, played by Joshua Leonard. Unfortunately, as seems to be par for the course for many women, people don't really believe Sawyer. The stalking ends up wrecking her life, to the point where she's having mental issues brought on by the stress and trauma. This inadvertently lands her in a mental hospital, unable to escape. And to make matters worse, her stalker is now working at the hospital as an orderly. And of course...no one believes Sawyer. Shot entirely on iPhones, Unsane is a low-budget thriller that shows how much you can do with so little, and Claire Foy is quite good as the woman no one believes.Matt says: I wanted Unsane to work for me a hell of a lot more than it did.

3. Sleeping With the Enemy

Now Streaming on Starz

Chris: Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man owes a few things to Sleeping With the Enemy. Julia Roberts plays a married woman who seems to have it all. But unbeknownst to the outside world, Roberts' husband, played by Patrick Bergin, is an abusive psycho. Roberts comes up with a plan: She fakes her own death and tries to start a new life. But her husband soon catches onto the rouse and comes looking for her. This is the type of sleazy '90s thriller they don't really make anymore, which is either a good or a bad thing, depending on how you feel about sleazy thrillers.Matt says: Wait, is this movie a reverse The Invisible Man?

4. Magic

Now Streaming on Shudder

Chris: Not all bad, gaslighting relationships are of the romantic partner variety. There are also the terrible relationships we have with, uh...ventriloquist dummies. We've all been there, right? In Magic, Anthony Hopkins is Corky Withers, a ventriloquist who performs with his dummy Fats. The act is a hit, but the relationship between Corky and Fats is not healthy, because Fats may or may not be alive. And even if he's not, Corky certainly thinks he is, and is unable to control his dummy off the stage. It's a weird, weird movie, and kind of wonderful. It was also directed by Richard Attenborough, aka John Hammond from Jurassic Park!Matt says: Don't be a dummy, watch Magic. Get it? See what I did there?

5. What Lies Beneath

Now Streaming on Netflix

Chris: I'll be honest: I don't love What Lies Beneath. But it fits in perfectly with this week's theme, so here it is! Directed by Robert Zemeckis, back before he decided to only make movies about scary CGI cartoon people, this Hitchcock throwback stars Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer as a wealthy couple who seem pretty darn happy! And then they start experiencing the supernatural. This movie came out 20 years ago, so I'm going to give away a few spoilers. For one thing, Pfeiffer learns her perfect husband actually had an affair, and the ghost they may or may not be facing could be the ghost of Ford's mistress. But there's more than meets the eye here, and it really boils down to Ford being a creep. Spooky!Matt says: I'm super tired this week and nothing punny is hitting, so I'll let Chris win here and admit I've never watched What Lies Beneath all the way through.