Not every movie gets the recognition it deserves. This was true long before the advent of the streaming services multiplied the number of films that are released every year. Now, there are far too many movies for anyone to watch all of them. However, the streaming age has also provided a digital afterlife for films that didn’t get followers while they were still in theaters. In some cases, even the movies that never got a theatrical release can get a second chance.
This month on Peacock, there are three underrated movies that you need to watch before the end of September. Two of them are horror flicks, and one is a throwback action comedy that turns 20 this year. But all three are really fun films and very enjoyable.
The Rundown (2003)
Very early in his acting career, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson hadn’t yet bulked up to superhuman proportions, and it made him a very effective action hero in The Rundown. For one thing, Johnson believably looks like he could lose a fight. That sense of potential vulnerability helps his performance as Beck, a bounty hunter who wants out of the game so he can chase his dream of owning a restaurant. But first, Beck has to track down Travis Walker (Seann William Scott) and bring him back to his father.
This turns out to be much harder than Beck expected when he catches up with Travis in Brazil. Travis is on the trail of a legendary artifact from El Dorado, and both men soon find themselves in the middle of a fight between rebels led by Mariana (Rosario Dawson) and a corrupt mine owner named Cornelius Bernard Hatcher (Christopher Walken). To get out of the jungle alive, Beck and Travis are going to have to reevaluate their choices.
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The Frighteners (1996)
Five years before he brought The Lord of the Rings to the big screen, director Peter Jackson made his first big stab at success in Hollywood with the supernatural horror comedy The Frighteners. Back to the Future‘s Michael J. Fox stars as Frank Bannister, a man who has developed the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. After befriending a trio of ghosts named Cyrus (Chi McBride), Stuart (Jim Fyfe), and The Judge (John Astin), Frank sets up a recurring con where he pretends to banish the spirits from the homes of his clients.
Things go sideways when Frank realizes that one of his recent clients, Lucy Lynskey (Trini Alvarado), is being targeted by a malevolent spirit that has the ability to kill the living and the dead. And if Frank is going to have a remote chance of stopping this monster, he may have to give up the ghost himself.
Watch The Frighteners on Peacock.
Curse of Chucky (2013)
The Child’s Play franchise was dormant for nearly a decade before Curse of Chucky breathed new life into it. This may have been a direct-to-video flick, but it’s the best Child’s Play film since the original movie in 1988. Brad Dourif reprises his role as the killer doll Chucky, while his daughter, Fiona Dourif, made her first appearance as Nica Pierce, a paraplegic young woman who has no idea that she is linked with Chucky’s previous life as the serial killer Charles Lee Ray.
Following the death of her mother, Nica is sent to live with her sister, Barb (Danielle Bisutti), and her husband, Ian (Maitland McConnell). While Nica bonds with her niece, Alice (Summer Howell), she soon becomes alarmed by evidence that the Chucky doll is alive. And once the murders begin, suspicion falls on Nica herself.
Watch Curse of Chucky on Peacock.
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