The Darkest Movies You Can Watch On Netflix Right Now

Nietzsche said, "If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." But if you're willing to risk a little darkness looking back at you, we have the perfect set of film recommendations. These movies — all located on Netflix — venture down to the bottom of that pitch-black abyss ... and some of them even decide to stay there.

Darkness isn't a genre but a state of mind, so we've rounded up a list that includes horror, crime, science fiction, fantasy, and drama. All of them will leave you with chills and fill you with dread. Movies like this let us live out our worst fears in blow-by-blow detail, and we get a sense of catharsis. They let us see the gritty, bloody underbelly of the world, and we get a new sense of truth. And sometimes, of course, they just scare us — and for whatever reason, we've always liked being scared.

So if terror, cynicism, or catharsis might appeal to you, check out the movies below. We know you'll find the darkness worth gazing into.

There's a lot more to Paul Thomas Anderson's "There Will Be Blood" than milkshake memes. The film is a dark, atmospheric, rich historical epic following the career of Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis), a cutthroat oilman who voraciously snatches up all the power he can. And he winds up in a decades-long feud with young pastor (Paul Dano) whose veneer of staunch morality can't cover up how much he craves his own kind of power and influence. Grim and grand at the same time, "There Will Be Blood" is an experience as brutal as it is thrilling. It's a kind of 21st-century sequel to "Citizen Kane," and if you want a staggeringly great cinematic experience that hits as hard as a bowling pin to the head, this is the movie for you.

The film gathered up a whole host of Oscar nominations — including two wins, for Best Cinematography and Best Actor — and received nearly universal acclaim. As The New York Times' Manohla Dargis said, "The film is above all a consummate work of art. ... It reveals, excites, disturbs, provokes, but the window it opens is to human consciousness itself." If you haven't seen it yet, seek it out immediately, and be prepared to have your world rocked.

"The Invitation" perfectly captures the feeling of an awkward, stilted dinner party, and it heaps on additional unease, taking the experience beyond "awkward" and into "unsettling and horrifying."

Will (Logan Marshall-Green) has reluctantly agreed to go to a dinner party hosted by his ex-wife, Eden (Tammy Blanchard). Their marriage fell apart after the death of their young son, and seeing each other again won't be easy. Nothing about the night will be easy for Will's girlfriend, Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi), who's agreed to accompany him. Fun evening, right? No amount of wine and determination can prepare them for the strange swerves the party ultimately takes. Eden has fallen under the sway of a cult with a lot of out-there ideas about how to live and how to die. For Will and Kira, it's almost impossible to determine when they should run. When does something cross the line between uncomfortable and disturbing?

"The Invitation" is a dark, streamlined experience that works by grounding all of its horror in real-life social difficulties we've all felt from time to time. Heather Wixon with Daily Dead called it "one of the more realistically raw portrayals of loss that the genre world has seen in some time" and added that it's "one of the most devastating horror films I've seen in years."

Nothing in "The Devil All the Time" is likely to inspire anyone to move to its rural Ohio setting. This country gothic noir is almost unrelievedly bleak and grotesque. If you're used to snake-handling preachers, try a spider-handling one who dumps them all over his face ... and who's eventually convinced that he can murder his wife and then resurrect her. Have another reverend — this one uses his position to groom and abuse teenage girls. Of course, the darkness of the story's world isn't limited to the church. We also have a pair of husband-and-wife serial killers, a corrupt sheriff, and a father who sacrifices his son's dog. The one ray of light is the love Arvin (Tom Holland) has for his adopted stepsister, Lenora (Eliza Scanlen), and it's all too easy to imagine one or both of them being snuffed out.

Whew. That can be a draining viewing experience, but "The Devil All the Time" makes it all bearable by assembling a terrific cast who turn in some remarkably charismatic performances. Robert Pattinson's slimy preacher alone is worth tuning in for, with the actor's sense of horrible glee giving the movie enough energy to power through all the sorrow and pain. And Tom Holland provides a much-needed bend of grit and goodness. You might come for the noir, but you'll stay for the performances.

A powerful cocktail of demonic possession and depression, "The Blackcoat's Daughter" follows three separate, interlocked storylines. Kat (Kiernan Shipka) is a lonely freshman at a Catholic boarding school. When her parents mysteriously fail to pick her up for a vacation, her sense of isolation deepens, and she becomes obsessed with the idea that they've died. Her only real companion is senior Rose (Lucy Boynton), who's understandably more concerned with her own possible pregnancy. Meanwhile, we see a young woman named Joan (Emma Roberts) hitchhiking towards the school. The way all these stories connect is clever, fascinating, and disquieting.

The darkest aspect of "The Blackcoat's Daughter" is its gradual revelation of how profound loneliness and trauma have shaped its characters' lives. What happens when someone feels like even a demonic presence is better than no company at all?

"The Blackcoat's Daughter" is moody, atmospheric, and well-crafted. It might be too slow for some viewers, but if you're patient, it has a lot to offer when it comes to the weird pleasures of existential dread. As The New York Times put it, "Slow and seductive and deliberately vague, this deeply unsettling tale of lost parents and troubled daughters exudes atmosphere while hoarding facts. Yet the movie is so perfectly acted and gorgeously filmed ... that we don't mind its coyness; the twanging notes of trepidation make us almost grateful for the leisurely build."

In "His House," all the ghosts in the world — and the film has some truly terrifying ghost action — are nothing compared to the grinding day-to-day horror and bleakness of trying to scrape by as Sudanese refugees in contemporary Britain. Director Remi Weekes does an excellent job wringing terror out of both the real and the unreal as he follows the story of Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial (Wunmi Mosaku), a husband and wife who, after a tortuous journey to safety and the death of their daughter, finally arrive in Britain.

However, they soon discover nothing about their new sanctuary is going to be easy. They're assigned to a shabby, miserable house in a neighborhood full of people who fear and resent them, and their situation has endless strings and draconian restrictions attached. And while they're struggling to figure out how to survive and belong in their new country, they quickly suspect they're haunted and maybe even cursed.

"His House" is an unusual, thoughtful, and viscerally effective movie, and it received rave reviews. Don't think it lacks for scary payoff either. As Bloody Disgusting said, "It's a strong debut by Weekes and nails the essential part of a horror movie: the horror. For all the existential terror that Bol and Rial face in their new lives, the director keeps a firm grip on the supernatural, too. It's clear 'His House' aims to scare you, and it succeeds."

Few fantasy movies are as effective as "Pan's Labyrinth," and few horror movies have the same amount of visual imagination. Leave it to Guillermo del Toro to give viewers the best of both genres with a film that combines an unbearably close look at Franco's Spain with an enormous monster, the Pale Man, who places his eyes in the palms of his hands. We admire del Toro's imagination, but we'd probably sleep better at night for not having it.

The movie is a dark fairy tale where Ofelia's (Ivana Baquero) fantasy quest — undertaken at the behest of the Faun (Doug Jones), who tells her she's the secret princess of the underworld — blends with the banally brutal and relentlessly violent real-world story of her stepfather, Captain Vidal (Sergi López), with each tale supporting and magnifying the horror of the other.

Roger Ebert dubbed "Pan's Labyrinth" the best movie of 2006 and said, "The special effects are nightmarish and effective, including the faun and a giant toad, and it takes courage to go into that labyrinth — and also to emerge again into a world of politics and cruelty. Del Toro doesn't compromise on the fantasy or the reality." Both sides of the story are bound to have a lasting impact on you.

Hungry? Don't watch "The Platform," the emotionally grueling Netflix original. One way or another, it'll make you feel worse.

A great, weird bit of Spanish sci-fi horror, "The Platform" takes place in a close-to-home future with one big change: There's an ominous concrete facility called the Pit, which contains over 200 levels of two-person cell blocks. People can be sent there for crimes — or, like protagonist Goreng (Iván Massagué), they can enter voluntarily, to get some time to themselves. Except Goreng's plan is a horrible mistake. The Pit runs on a cruel system. An elaborate banquet is loaded onto a moveable platform at the top of the tower, and as it descends the length of the Pit, every floor has a chance to eat — or gorge themselves. By the time the platform reaches the lower floors, there's nothing left, forcing some inmates to cannibalize each other or risk starvation.

The film puts Goreng through a physical and emotional wringer. None of the dilemmas he faces are easy, and the movie's view of humanity is pretty hard to stomach — as are some of the more grotesque (and slobbery) images. But it's impossible to look away. As Now Toronto said, "It has everything: low comedy, political allegory, left-field twists, crowd-pleasing surprises, spectacular violence, sadism, altruism and yet more spectacular violence, all wrapped up in a high-concept horror movie." All you can do is sit back while its horrors beat you into stunned submission.

We're going to do you a favor here — don't choose "Gerald's Game" as a date night movie.

One of the very best Stephen King adaptations, the film — a spectacularly tense and gory psychological survival thriller — focuses on Jessie (Carla Gugino), a woman who's reluctantly agreed to go along with her husband's plan for some kinky plans at their vacation cabin. But once she's handcuffed to the bed and Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) is ready to go, Jessie realizes that this isn't even close to what she wants. In fact, for reasons she can't completely think about yet, it's nightmarish for her. Making things worse, that's when Gerald kicks the bucket, leaving his wife still chained to the bed. 

The setup is hellish, and as the hours go on and Jessie's situation worsens, it gets even harder for viewers to watch. Luckily, the film is anchored by Carla Gugino's charismatic performance, and she makes Jessie's quest for escape and survival as riveting as it is grueling. The Daily Beast also sings her praise, noting, "Her eyes alive with anxiety, fear, and resolve, often at the same time, Gugino is a marvel, capturing a piercing sense of Jessie's beaten-down brokenness as well as her underlying strength."

"Cam" is the inventive and engrossing story of camgirl Alice (Madeline Brewer) — or "Lola," if you ask her fans — who finds that her online persona has escaped her control. Alice is smart, ambitious, and playfully weird, and the shows she puts on for her channel include provocative burlesque bits and explosions of fake violence. Her hard work is paying off, and her channel is slowly creeping upwards in the site's rankings. But then everything starts going horribly wrong.

Soon, she finds herself locked out of her account, but the video is still streaming. Someone who looks and sounds just like her is live and interacting with her fans just like always. Her identity has been stolen in a more visceral way than most of us can imagine, and to add insult to injury, the new Lola is incredibly successful. Alice's quest to solve the mystery and get her life back makes for a fascinating, eerie film with a lot to say about sex work, identity, capitalism, sexism, and survival.

Brewer's performance is a particular highlight, but everything here works. Reviewers almost universally recognized "Cam" as an unusual, creative horror film. As Brian Tallerico, writing for RogerEbert.com, commented, "This is the kind of clever jolt to the system we want from horror thrillers — an unexpected commentary on today's society burrowing its way through an intense story."