The 20 best movies on Freevee

Atomic Blonde (2017)

A stylistic Cold War action film based on the 2012 graphic novel The Coldest City, Atomic Blonde is the movie that earned Charlize Theron her place on Hollywood’s shortlist of cinematic badasses. Theron stars as MI6 spy Lorraine Broughton, an agent tasked with recovering a list naming every British spy active in the Berlin area. Is the film’s plot slightly derivative? Yes. Does Theron’s character sometimes come across feeling like a female response to James Bond or Jason Bourne? Absolutely. But with fight choreography this impressive, who really cares?

Atomic Blonde might not elevate the genre, but the film has pizzazz to spare. As EW’s critic puts it, “The pounding ’80s soundtrack (New Order, Depeche Mode, Ministry) couldn’t be cooler, the ultraviolence is relentlessly brutal, and Theron’s guns-and-garters wardrobe is sexy as hell.” —Ilana Gordon

Where to watch Atomic Blonde: Freevee

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: David Leitch

Cast: Charlize Theron, James McAvoy, John Goodman, Til Schweiger, Eddie Marsan, Sofia Boutella, Toby Jones

Candyman (2021)

Nobody knows how to subvert horror tropes and transform them into social commentary quite like Jordan Peele, who wrote the script for the urban legend slasher movie Candyman. A sequel to the 1992 version of the film and the fourth movie in the Candyman franchise, Peele’s take — directed by Nia DaCosta — centers the story in a quickly gentrifying area of Chicago, near the now shuttered low-income housing section called Cabrini-Green. The movie’s monster is Candyman, a killer with a hook for a hand who has terrorized the area for decades, and can be summoned by repeating his name five times in front of a mirror.

When visual artist Anthony (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) learns the story behind the legend from a longtime Cabrini resident, he becomes obsessed with the killer, and his obsession overtakes both his artwork and sanity. A cult classic horror film adapted for modern audiences and peppered with the social and cultural criticism that distinguishes Peele’s work, Candyman will grab you with one hand and hook you with the other. —I.G.

Where to watch Candyman: Freevee

EW grade: B– (read the review)

Director: Nia DaCosta

Cast: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo

Cruel Intentions (1999)

The ‘90s were all about teen drama, and there's nothing more scandalous than the exploits and misadventures enjoyed by the very rich, young inhabitants of New York’s Upper East Side. Gossip Girl before Gossip Girl was even a thing, Cruel Intentions is a romantic, teen drama loosely adapted from the 1782 French epistolary novel Les Liaisons dangereuses. If you take the sexual dynamics and political power struggles of Game of Thrones and infuse them with ‘90s fashion, lingo, and the spiciest version of Sarah Michelle Gellar you’ve ever seen, you’ll get Cruel Intentions.

Is it high art? Definitely not. But as EW’s critic at the time writes, “Cruel Intentions is calculatedly, wantonly naughty; no passing character is too negligible to ridicule.” —I.G.

Where to watch Cruel Intentions: Freevee

EW grade: B– (read the review)

Director: Roger Kumble

Cast: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, Reese Witherspoon, Selma Blair

Escape From New York (1981)

John Carpenter's actioner stars Kurt Russell as prison inmate Snake Plissken, who's tasked with saving the president (Donald Pleasence) from infidels in an apocalyptic 1997. One of the director's last films from his most furtive period, Escape From New York is an assured blend of sci-fi thriller and the Howard Hawks Westerns he grew up loving as a kid. —Declan Gallagher

Where to watch Escape From New York: Freevee

Director: John Carpenter

Cast: Kurt Russell, Adrienne Barbeau, Lee Van Cleef, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes

The Forever Purge (2021)

The most recent of the five movies in The Purge franchise, The Forever Purge is here to break all the rules. Set in Texas in 2048 after the titular tradition has been reinstated, the film follows the events surrounding the 2049 Purge, in which a group of masked killers intends to racially purify the country indefinitely. When the violence fails to stop after the formal Purge ends, two families must band together to escape the anarchists by crossing into Mexico, but with the United States under siege, surviving the Forever Purge will be much more difficult than just surviving the night.

Creator James DeMonaco previously implied that this would be the final installment of the franchise, but he appears to have had a change of heart. But until a formal release date is announced, this horror movie is here to keep fans engaged and terrified. —I.G.

Where to watch The Forever Purge: Freevee

Director: Everardo Valerio Gout

Cast: Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta, Cassidy Freeman, Leven Rambin, Josh Lucas, Will Patton

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015)

Scientology is notoriously litigious, but that didn’t stop documentarian Alex Gibney from going after the church in the 2015 film Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief. A critically lauded exploration of the organization’s formation, the history of creator L. Ron Hubbard, and the church’s recruitment and retention of celebrities, the film interviews key ex-members who describe some of the most abusive and exploitative practices in vivid detail.

A documentary that isn’t afraid to describe how Scientology is protected as a religious entity, Going Clear clearly benefited from the work the church put into discrediting it, making it one of the most well-reviewed and awarded documentaries of 2015 — even if it was snubbed by the Oscars. —I.G.

Where to watch Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief: Freevee

EW grade: A (read the review)

Director: Alex Gibney

Grizzly Man (2005)

One of the most powerful documentaries of the early aughts, Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man is a tragedy and a love story disguised as a nature documentary. The film follows Timothy Treadwell, a wildlife advocate, who spent summers living with the bears in Alaska's Katmai National Park. In 2003, the bodies of Treadwell and his girlfriend were discovered inside the park, partially eaten.

Herzog’s documentary uses hundreds of hours of Treadwell’s own footage to explore the story of a man who dedicated his life to grizzly bears, in more ways than one. Herzog, ever the delicate and conscientious filmmaker, does not include the footage that captured the attack, but his reaction upon viewing it helps remind viewers of the true tragic nature of Treadwell’s story. A meditation on the harshness of the natural world, as well as the optimism of the human one, Grizzly Man is a must-see. —I.G.

Where to watch Grizzly Man: Freevee

EW grade: N/A (read the review)

Director: Werner Herzog

The Hunt (2020)

In Blumhouse's Hunger Games-esque action-horror, a group of 12 working-class people are forced to become prey in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, hunted by elites who view them as "deplorables." However, one of the hunted, Crystal (Betty Gilpin), flips the script on their evil pursuers. An on-the-nose cautionary tale about the American political divide, The Hunt faced backlash before its release, with Donald Trump publicly claiming its creation was "to inflame and cause chaos" on Twitter (now X). Although Universal temporarily shelved the film in response, the movie eventually made its way to theaters a week before the global pandemic forced their closure in 2020, followed by a streaming release.

Screenwriter Damon Lindelof defended the film to EW, explaining how horror allows "a way to speak to whatever the interior anxiety we're feeling, both personally and societally" and "to show people the manifestation of their nightmares. And then they get to walk out of the theater and [turn on the news.]" —James Mercadante

Where to watch The Hunt: Freevee

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Craig Zobel

Cast: Betty Gilpin, Hilary Swank, Wayne Duvall, Ethan Suplee, Emma Roberts, Ike Barinholtz, Sturgill Simpson, Justin Hartley

The Invisible Man (2020)

If you’re going to remake one of the most iconic, foundational horror movies (and novels) of all time, this is how to do it. Director Leigh Whannell, who’s come a long way from co-creating the Saw franchise that made him a household name, modernizes the premise to empathetically explore an abusive relationship and the ways in which the specter of a violent partner can resurface even after a split. Elisabeth Moss is fantastic as the ex of a monstrous tech mogul who can’t find rest until she knows he’s out of her life for good. 

“A lot of the story’s grip-hold is owed to Moss’s performance: raw, jittery, almost unbearably tense,” EW's critic writes. “She’s a woman whose own body is a prison, as long as her ex walks around without one.” Speaking to EW, Whannell also addresses the film’s most shocking scene, which unfolds where you’d least expect it. “I wanted something that felt very safe to the audience, so that when [it] happened, the audience would be knocked on their arse.” —Kathryn Vandervalk

Where to watch The Invisible Man: Freevee

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Leigh Whannell

Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Aldis Hodge, Storm Reid, Harriet Dyer, Michael Dorman, Oliver Jackson-Cohen

Ip Man (2010)

Eight years before Donnie Yen portrayed a stoically deadly warrior in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the Hong Kong superstar played the titular martial arts master most famous for teaching Bruce Lee. Ip Man takes place long before that, though, with Yen's Wing Chun master reluctantly proving his superior skills against rival martial arts schools, and, eventually, the invading Japanese. Playing loosely with the biography of the very real Ip Man, Wilson Yip's film is a jingoistic mix of anti-Japan sentiment and stunning action set pieces.

Yen, already a global martial arts star, studied Wing Chun under fellow Hong Kong action star Sammo Hung, and makes the unassuming Ip Man a riveting blur of jackhammer punches and balletic movement whenever anyone proves unwise enough to disturb his quiet life. You might guess the outcome, but the spectacle of Yen's real-life prowess will still knock you on your heels. —Dennis Perkins

Where to watch Ip Man: Freevee

Director: Wilson Yip

Cast: Donnie Yen

Last Night in Soho (2021)

Edgar Wright takes viewers on an aesthetic, murderous journey through England's swinging ‘60s in his psychological thriller, Last Night in Soho. When aspiring fashion designer Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) moves to London for school, she finds herself fixated on Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy), a blonde bombshell she meets in her dreams. But the more time Eloise spends asleep and observing Sandie’s glamorous nightclub life, the more she finds herself thrown into a decades-old mystery that has her questioning her own sanity.

A stylistic caper featuring Diana Rigg's final role before her death, EW’s critic says, “An original Avenger and former Bond Girl, she might have actually come closest to embodying the mad, mod world Wright so lovingly recreates here on screen.” —I.G.   

Where to watch Last Night in Soho: Freevee

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Edgar Wright 

Cast: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Rita Tushingham, Michael Ajao, Terence Stamp, Diana Rigg

Lion (2016)

Finding your way home is impossible when you don’t realize you’re lost, as is the case for Saroo (Sunny Pawar). Raised in Tasmania by adoptive parents who found him as a 5-year-old in Calcutta, twentysomething Saroo (Dev Patel) has a revelation: He was discovered there after being separated from his biological mother and brother. This prompts him to embark on a journey to locate his birthplace and reunite with his long-lost relatives. Based on the autobiography by Saroo Brierley — the author’s birth name, Sheru, translates to "lion" — the film offers outstanding, compassionate performances from its cast, coupled with a visually captivating odyssey.

Described by EW's critic as "a complicated true story has been airbrushed into a postmodern legend," Lion is praised as "a celebration of global citizenship." —Sammi Burke

Where to watch Lion: Freevee

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Garth Davis

Cast: Dev Patel, Sunny Pawar, Rooney Mara, David Wenham, Nicole Kidman, Abhishek Bharate, Divian Ladwa, Keshav Jadhav, Priyanka Bose 

The Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

Promoted in the trailer as a film “Where a man-eating, talking plant gives homicide something to think about,” The Little Shop of Horrors represents an unlikely fusion of botany, comedy, and true crime. Who among us hasn’t accidentally raised a homicidal plant monster that demands to be fed in blood? Such is the problem facing Seymour Krelborn, an employee at a Skid Row florist shop, whose cultivation of a unique plant ends in a series of hard-to-explain murders.

An American horror comedy that served as the loose inspiration for 1982’s hit Off Broadway musical, The Little Shop of Horrors is smart, funny, and achieves the ideal level of camp. Directed by Roger Corman and featuring a young actor named Jack Nicholson in one of his earliest cinematic roles, the film is heavy on laughs but light on gore, making it a solid pick for viewers with lower fright tolerances. —I.G. 

Where to watch The Little Shop of Horrors: Freevee

Director: Roger Corman  

Cast: Jonathan Haze, Jackie Joseph, Mel Welles, Dick Miller, Myrtle Vail, Jack Nicholson 

Margin Call (2011)

Set in a fictional Wall Street firm and transpiring over a 24-hour period, Margin Call offers a fast-moving, high-stakes retrospective into the 2008 financial crisis as told by the perpetrators who enkindled it. Stanley Tucci plays the company’s risk assessment manager who, after suffering a layoff, passes a zip drive containing an unfinished project along to his co-worker (Zachary Quinto). The information on that drive is enough to incite a panic, driving the firm’s key players back into the office as they strategize late into the night, plotting a way to save the company from bankruptcy — moral and economic implications be damned.

Also featuring Demi Moore, Paul Bettany, and Jeremy Irons, and showcasing an impressive debut from writer/director J. C. Chandor, Margin Call offers up an ensemble cast “at the top of their game,” EW’s critic writes, capturing “with a reality that can’t be shaken off, how our financial institutions became secret havens to a selfishness so undiluted it was sociopathic.” The movie is all the more impressive when you consider the turnaround: Principal photography began in June of 2010, less than two years after Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy in September of 2008. —I.G.

Where to watch Margin Call: Freeve

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: J.C. Chandor

Cast: Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Mary McDonnell, Demi Moore, Stanley Tucci

The Mist (2007)

The average reader doesn’t open a Stephen King book expecting a whimsical romp, but even the most emotionally impenetrable of King fans will find themselves sucker punched by the ending to 2007’s film adaptation of The Mist. Starring an ensemble cast that includes standouts Thomas Jane and Marcia Gay Harden, The Mist follows the residents of a small town in Maine as they resupply on groceries after a storm, only to find themselves trapped inside the store as a supernatural mist — and whatever’s lurking inside — descends upon them. Distinguishing The Mist from your standard meat and potatoes sci-fi fare is the thematic suggestion that religious fanaticism is as dangerous of a threat as mutant creatures.

Per director Frank Darabont’s preference (he also helmed stellar King adaptations The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile), the film was shot in black and white, but released in color for theatrical audiences. It’s a King film that is not to be missed — but enter into The Mist at your own peril. —I.G.

Where to watch The Mist: Freevee

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Frank Darabont

Cast: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurie Holden, Jeffrey DeMunn, Alexa Davalos

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

George Romero thought Night of the Living Dead would be a “one-off,” but his seminal zombie flick has persevered to fundamentally shape the modern horror landscape. The Dead franchise spawned numerous entries and imitators, most notably Dawn of the Dead and its well-regarded remake, and one of the most successful TV series of this century arguably wouldn’t exist without his low-budget lark.  

Named one of EW’s scariest movies of all time, Romero’s slow-burn, documentary-like approach to the apocalypse is as mundane as it is violent; the end comes not with an explosion, but the slow encroachment of our dead loved ones. Notable, too, is Duane Jones, a Black actor, as the film’s protagonist, not to mention the film’s final moments, which resonated deeper than Romero would ever have imagined. As he tells EW upon hearing how much his film had impacted Frank Darabont, co-creator of The Walking Dead, “It’s still hard for me to realize how influential that film was." —I.G.

Where to watch Night of the Living Dead: Freevee

EW grade: A+ (read the review)

Director: George Romero

Cast: Duane Jones, Judith O'Dea, Marilyn Eastman, Karl Hardman, Judith Ridley, Keith Wayne, Russell W. Streiner

Secretary (2002)

In recent years, Secretary’s marketing campaign (or whatever you call it 20 years later) has rebranded it as the original Fifty Shades of Grey. Unfortunately, that is both a hack assessment and a wholly accurate one. The difference is that Secretary has crackling dialogue, is gorgeously shot, and actually works as a story. You care about the two lost souls — James Spader as the deviant boss literally named Mr. Grey, and Maggie Gyllenhaal as his willingly submissive assistant — at the center, and root for them to connect rather than wonder if you should call the authorities to report what you’re seeing. It’s kinky, but it isn’t empty. —D.G.

Where to watch Secretary: Freevee

EW grade: N/A (read the review)

Director: Steven Shainberg

Cast: James Spader, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Lesley Ann Warren, Jeremy Davies, Amy Locane

Stillwater (2021)

If Taken was written as an ethically nuanced thriller instead of a campy action movie, it would be Stillwater. The drama from Academy Award winner Tom McCarthy follows an Oklahoma father who moves to France to reconnect with his estranged daughter, Allison — and to attempt to spring her from prison where she is serving a murder sentence for a crime she claims she did not commit.

A story reminiscent of Amanda Knox’s cursed study abroad experience — Knox does not approve, by the way — Stillwater benefits from the performances of its cast, led by Matt Damon in the role of Allison’s tortured father, Bill Baker. EW’s reviewer writes the film is a “slow-churn character study of a man who is arguably more lost than the incarcerated daughter he's so desperate to free will ever be.” —I.G.

Where to watch Stillwater: Freevee

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Tom McCarthy

Cast: Matt Damon, Camille Cottin, Abigail Breslin

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

One of the forebears of the horror genre, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre built the sadistic road map followed by many modern films — the Saw and Hostel franchises among them. A movie that inspired nine sequels, the most recent being 2022's X, this ‘70s torture film only needs a chainsaw and a leather facemask sewn from human skin to drive its viewers into spasms of terror. Following a group of young hippies who visit an old family farmhouse and end up encountering the home’s murderous next-door neighbors, EW deems The Texas Chainsaw Massacre the “template for modern horror.”

As EW's critic writes, “What Chainsaw channeled, far more than any other horror film of its time, was the dementia, the terrifying insanity, of violence. It made you feel like you were really experiencing what it was like to be murdered.” —I.G.

Where to watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Freevee

Director: Tobe Hooper

Cast: Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, Gunnar Hansen

They Came Together (2014)

Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd star in this luminously silly parody of generic rom coms from Wet Hot American Summer director David Wain. Though a broader target than his summer camp comedies, They Came Together hits an uncommon number of bull's eyes with its succession of Airplane-style gags. It limps to its conclusion, but that may be interpreted as a meta wink. After all, how many romance flicks peter out by the 75-minute mark? —D.G.

Where to watch They Came Together: Freevee

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: David Wain

Cast: Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Michael Shannon, Jason Mantzoukas, Christopher Meloni