Even More Quarantine and Chills

Trilogies are commonplace in the film industry, so it's only fitting a third round of terrors and thrillers be recommended for your viewing pleasure

Culture Shock (Hulu)

Living in Mexico and longing for a fresh start, Marisol (Martha Higareda) joins a group planning to make a run for the U.S. border. After an eventful journey, she finds herself in Cape Joy, a quaint, little American town full of smiling faces. With each passing day, she realizes neither the idyllic, lily-white community or the "American dream" is all it appears to be. Acting as sort of a hybrid between "Get Out" and "The Stepford Wives", this inventive immigration horror story delivers its message without being too heavy-handed. Directed by Mexican-Canadian filmmaker Gigi Saul Guerrero and featuring familiar faces like Creed Bratton and Shawn Ashmore, "Culture Shock" is a relevant and entertaining satire for the current sociopolitical climate.

High Tension (IMDbTV and Amazon Prime Video)

This French import bears a stunningly apt title, as it pummels viewers with tension and bloodletting at a relentless pace. It starts quietly enough, as Marie (Cecil de France) heads home with Alex (Maiwenn) to her family's countryside farm for the weekend. The young women are soon targeted by a demented and perverse serial killer. Directed by horror specialist Alexandre Aja and associated with the New French Extremity movement (which includes other notables like "Inside", "Irreversible" and "Martyrs"), it's an intense, full-throttle slasher that leaves little to the imagination. Disclaimer: While the freebie version on IMDbTV is advertised as NC-17, it's actually the R-rated American cut which has atrocious dubbing and trims some of the most gruesome bits. Even with the edits, it's still incredibly violent and not for the squeamish.

I Am Mother (Netflix)

After an extinction level event, a young girl (Clara Rugaard) is born and raised in a remote facility by a robot affectionately known as Mother (Rose Byrne). She grows up in isolation, believing the only humans left are frozen embryos within their compound. However, she begins to question everything she's known when a mysterious stranger (Hilary Swank) shows up at their door. Written by Michael Lloyd Green and directed by Grant Sputore, this compelling sci-fi thriller manages to put a fresh spin on some cliched genre tropes and should lead to thought-provoking theories about its plot by the time the final credits roll.

The Invitation (Netflix and Amazon Prime Video)

Director Karyn Kusama's filmography almost reads like a cardiac monitor, working behind the camera on films like the award-winning indie darling "Girlfight", the ill-fated "Aeon Flux" adaptation, the Golden Globe-nominated "Destroyer" and the critical bomb turned cult favorite ,"Jennifer's Body". Among those peaks and valleys is this delightful piece of domestic horror. A man (Logan Marshall-Green) and his girlfriend (Emayatzy Corinealdi) receive an invite from his ex-wife (Tammy Blanchard) and her new husband (Michiel Huisman) for a dinner party in the Hollywood Hills. There are hints throughout the evening something is amiss, but things really start to go off the rails towards the climax. It's a carefully crafted suspenseful thriller with a ton of atmosphere and some truly killer performances.

Mom and Dad (Hulu and Amazon Prime)

At this point, Nicolas Cage films have almost become their own subgenre. No longer headlining blockbusters like "Con Air", "The Rock", or the "National Treasure" series, he remains a star due to a seemingly never-ending stream of DTV movies and indie releases. This stretch of his career has led to appearances in films with some bizarre, ultra-violent content like "Color Out of Space", "Mandy" and this dark comedy. Cage and Selma Blair play seemingly normal, white-bread parents to a playful son (Zackary Arthur) and a daughter (Anne Winters) that despises them. Their world quickly turns into a suburban nightmare when an inexplicable hysteria starts driving parents to murder their own children. While some of its stylistic choices may cause a slight headache, it's a wildly over-the-top, humorous horror flick that often borders on self-parody while dialing up its body count.

Radius (IMDbTV and Amazon Prime Video)

After waking from a car accident, a man (Diego Klattenhoff) realizes he has no memory and even worse, any living thing that comes within 50 feet of him dies. He eventually crosses paths with an equally amnesic woman (Charlotte Sullivan) who's looking for answers just as he is. With its chilling premise and a few interesting twists, this mystery-thriller nicely builds the anticipation as plot points are slowly revealed. The acting is solid and while nothing it presents is mind-blowing, it has its clever moments. Plus, you can watch it for free.