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Horror is a fascinating cinematic beast that simply isn’t understood in as many shades as it should be. Indeed, it’s not all steak knives, sacrifices, and sorority-turned-slaughterhouses; some horror films are grounded in another genre altogether, while others don’t adhere to the usual set dressing you’d expect from such features.
Others, however, are precisely the sort of nightmare-inducing state of affairs that have funded the nightlight industry for decades now. But today, perhaps in honor of October, the Max streaming charts are playing host to all three aforementioned shades of horror, all at the very top of the podium.
Per FlixPatrol, this day of Oct. 4 has seen Tim Burton‘s Corpse Bride, Alex Garland’s Civil War, and the Bill Skarsgård-led It all ascend to the top of Max’s Top 10 film rankings in the United States, claiming first, second, and third place, respectively.
Corpse Bride, directed and produced by resident shadow-whiz Tim Burton, commits to a horror vibe more than a horror story. Indeed, for a plot involving an undead woman proclaiming herself as the wife of a hapless husband-to-be before whisking him away to the “Land of the Dead,” Corpse Bride is more of a whimsical fantasy flick that nevertheless roots itself in decidedly mature emotion and overtones befitting of Burton’s reputation. And with Halloween — itself a disciple of macabre whimsy — just around the corner, it looks like everyone was eager to revisit the Academy Award nominee this week.
Such was also the case for Civil War, and before you begin suggesting that Alex Garland’s horrifically violent ode to journalism isn’t a horror movie, know that is, actually, a horror movie disguised as an action film. Dread permeates most every frame of this masterpiece, allowing its apathetic antagonists to wreak their full-metal havoc on anyone unlucky enough to be burdened with the “them” label. Think not about its “lack” of a political stance, but rather the stance it takes on aggression’s place in deciding those political stances.
And as for It, what more is there to say about what it brings to the horror movie banquet? It’s one of the most famous Stephen King stories ever put out by the legendary scribe, and director Andy Muschietti brought it roaring life at the box office, hauling in over $700 million and cementing itself as a mainstay in the cultural zeitgeist. Such is the power of an adaptation that fully understands how to wield the power of its source material, from Pennywise’s brutality all the way up to its powerful, adolescent-centric themes.
The Max podium isn’t the only spot on the Top 10 celebrating horror today. At fifth place is the Brad Pitt-Tom Cruise definitely-a-rom-com Interview with the Vampire, while seventh place houses Wes Craven’s all-time classic A Nightmare on Elm Street. Tenth place, meanwhile, is home to It‘s less-successful successor It Chapter Two, while the very-arguably horror-coded Gremlins sits nestled in eighth place.
And this is just the first week of October. Once we reach the tail-end of the month, there likely won’t be a ranking in sight that isn’t partial to a spook or two. See you at the witching hour, fellow Max denizens.