Skip to main content

3 underrated Peacock horror movies you need to watch in February

Although you may have originally subscribed to Peacock for The Office, or even to check out a football game, you may have realized once you got into the app that it has a surprisingly deep bench of great TV shows and movies that are well worth exploring.

Among the many great titles that the service has to offer, there are some genuinely excellent horror movies on offer. While you’ll definitely find plenty of masterpieces of the genre on the service, there are also some underrated horror movies on Peacock that are definitely worth checking out. Here are three of our favorites.

Freaky (2020)

FREAKY - Official Trailer (HD)

Body swap comedies are a genre unto themselves, but no one has ever approached the subject quite the way that Freaky does. The movie tells the story of a serial killer and teenage girl who switch bodies, leading to plenty of grisly kills, and some truly excellent comedy from Vince Vaughn. Freaky is a horror comedy in the best sense, and it maximizes both of those elements from start to finish.

The movie might not have seemed like a sure-fire hit on paper, but it’s one of the best horror movies of recent years, in part because it’s equally interested in terrifying its audience and making them burst out in laughter.

The Exorcist: Part III (1990)

The Exorcist III (1990) - Official Trailer (HD)

The original Exorcist may very well be one of the very best horror movies ever made, so it would seem rather foolish to suggest that any of the sequels could live up to it. The Exorcist: Part III might not be quite as good as the original, but it’s pretty close. At the very least, it ranks high on the best movies and TV shows in The Exorcist franchise.

Following a police captain as he attempts to solve a series of horrific murders in his town, The Exorcist Part III digs into the themes of faith and death that fascinated the first film, and is also pretty perfectly directed until its rather perfunctory final sequence. Add in a committed, hilarious, riveting performance from George C. Scott, and you’ve got yourself a great movie.

The Black Phone (2022)

The Black Phone - Official Trailer 2

Ethan Hawke is great in basically whatever role you want to put him in, but he doesn’t get to be a creep nearly enough. In The Black Phone, Hawke plays a killer of children who has kidnapped a child. The child discovers that he can use the phone in his captor’s basement to contact the killer’s previous victims and uses the knowledge from them to plan his escape.

The Black Phone is deliberately small-scale but genuinely tense from start to finish. It’s exactly the kind of great small-budget horror film that we don’t get to see in theaters often enough these days, and Hawke is truly great in it.

Editors' Recommendations

Joe Allen
Joe Allen is a freelance writer based in upstate New York focused on movies and TV.
3 underrated movies you need to watch in May 2024
A man leans against a wall in The Fall Guy.

April was a bit of a low-key month for movies, but there was still plenty of pleasure to be had at the theater. Indies were well-represented with the surreal sci-fi movie The Beast while multiplexes enjoyed the social commentary and IMAX action set pieces of Alex Garland's appropriately divisive Civil War.

May, however, will be a different story, as the summer season is set to begin on May 3 with the premiere of The Fall Guy, an action comedy starring everyone's favorite actor of the moment, Ryan Gosling. May will also see apes conquesting another planet, a biopic about Amy Winehouse that's already enraged people on social media, a different take on the slasher movie genre, and one of the most highly anticipated prequels of the last decade. Oh, and Garfield's back. Again. Which of these are worth seeing? Find out by checking out our top three picks out of all the movies scheduled for release in May 2024.
The Fall Guy (May 3)

Read more
Fallout’s breakout star is Walton Goggins. Here are 3 movies and shows you need to watch now
Walton Goggins as the disfigured Ghoul in Prime Video's Fallout.

The video game adaptation trend continues with Amazon Prime Video's Fallout, and Walton Goggins was among the hit streaming show's standout performers. His casting as the former Hollywood actor and mutated ghoul was pitch-perfect for the dystopic world's atmosphere and sardonic humor.

One of the best character actors around, Goggins typically specializes in morally ambiguous or outright evil characters. Aside from Fallout, the actor has played compelling roles across film and TV over the last decade. Check out these critically praised movies and TV shows if you're looking for more of the Fallout star's career highlights.
Justified (2010-2015)

Read more
Like the horror movie Abigail? Then watch these 3 movies now
Alisha Weir in Abigail.

April 2024 has been a pretty big month for horror or horror-adjacent movies at the box office. The First Omen was much better than many suspected, and now we're getting Abigail from directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. If you loved Abigail's combination of comedy and horror, then you might be surprised by how many other movies hit that same sweet spot.

Abigail, which tells the story of a group of kidnappers who inadvertently kidnap a vampire, is both a horror movie and a comedy, and its ability to strike that tonal balance has been a hallmark of Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett's career to date. Here are three other movies that achieve a similar feat and are worth your time.
Ready or Not (2019)
READY OR NOT | Red Band Trailer [HD] | FOX Searchlight

Read more