Hulu Streaming One of the Best Horror Movies of the 2010s (But You’ll Want to Skip the Sequel)

The horror renaissance of the 2010s led to a resurgence in mainstream appeal. Following a decade of torture-focused horror in movies like Saw and Hostile, horror in the 2010s pushed boundaries with movies that explored deeper social and psychological themes, rose to critical acclaim, and even led to the rise of elevated horror. Amid releases like Get Out, The Conjuring, and Hereditary was a sleeper hit that became one of the best horror movies of the decade and really one of the genre’s better installments, and it just arrived on Hulu along with its sequel.

After Don’t Breathe 2 arrived on Hulu on November 10th, the even better original film Don’t Breathe is now also streaming on the platform as of November 15th. Directed by Fede Álvarez, the 2016 horror thriller stars Stephen Lang as Norman Nordstrom, aka The Blind Man, a veteran blinded by shrapnel in the Gulf War who becomes the target of a burglary. When a group of young thieves breaks into his home thinking it will be an easy hit, he quickly turns the tables, leaving the intruders trapped in his home and hunted.

Don’t Breathe Is a Tense, Edge-Of-Your-Seat Thriller

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Don’t Breathe isn’t for the faint of heart. Described by critics as “the best American horror film in twenty years” and “a thriller of a generation,” the movie is a relentlessly tense and brutal home invasion thriller that will have your heart pounding. Álvarez’s film flips the script on the typical home invasion trope, and in doing so creates a film that is a non-stop thrill ride of constant tension and suspense as the burglars suddenly find themselves in a claustrophobic game of cat-and-mouse. Through the tight close-quarters setting and direction and masterful sound design, Álvarez crafts a masterful build-up of suspense where even the “quiet” moments are moments excruciatingly tense.

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We also can’t forget to mention Lang’s performance as the Blind Man. Despite a lack of dialogue in the film, Lang’s performance is captivating, the actor transforming from a character that initially garners sympathy from the audience into one that is ferocious and physically imposing.

Although Don’t Breathe 2 isn’t necessarily bad, it lost much of what made the original so great. The movie, which scored just a 43% Rotten Tomatoes critic score compared to the original’s “Certified Fresh” 88% rating, completely shifted its tone from a tense horror-thriller to a more straightforward, and sometimes ludicrous, action film. The movie lacked the paralyzing tension of the first and made an effort to transform the Blind Man into an anti-hero.

Other Horror Movies Now on Hulu

Don’t Breathe and Don’t Breathe 2 are just two titles in Hulu’s horror catalog, a lineup that saw several great additions throughout November. Hulu subscribers can now stream titles like Season of the Witch, Apollo 18, and Osiris. The streamer has two more additions to make to its horror catalog this month, with both The Ugly Stepsister and The First Omen set to drop on November 25th and November 30th, respectively.

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