The Best Valentine's Day Movies for Nerds

We don’t even have to explain why this one is on the list. But even if you can already quote every line of this 1987 fairy tale from director Rob Reiner and writer William Goldman, it still holds up again and again during multiple hundreds of viewings. (Disney+)

She’s a mute custodian working at a top-secret government lab at the height of the Cold War; he’s a... fish-man that both the U.S. and Soviet agents who’re aware of his presence hope to exploit and/or destroy. Who’s to say these two crazy kids can’t find love in spite of everything? Guillermo del Toro’s critically acclaimed 2017 monster epic swooned and swam its way to 13 Oscar nominations, eventually winning four, including Best Picture and Best Director. (Fubo, FXNow, DirectTV, Freevee)

While we’re on the subject of sexy fish people, let’s not overlook Ron Howard’s 1984 fantasy about a regular-guy fruit salesman (Tom Hanks) who unexpectedly reconnects with the beautiful mermaid (Daryl Hannah) he first encountered as a child. Sure, there are romantic complications in this literal fish out of water story, but true love finds a way of overcoming obstacles, including inter-species ones. The Disney+ version made waves, har har, when viewers realized the studio had digitally and hilariously obscured a certain body part, but that’s been fixed. There’s also plenty of intentional comedy by way of supporting players John Candy and Eugene Levy. (Disney+)

After a freak accident in the 1930s, a woman (Blake Lively) stops aging—a condition that keeps her young and beautiful for decades, but also means she has to watch her daughter (Ellen Burstyn) grow into an elderly woman, not to mention settle into a life revolving around changing her identity every few years while avoiding any attachments. That last one becomes difficult when she meets a man (Michiel Huisman) she’d like to spend the rest of her life with, if only she weren’t, y’know, inconveniently immortal. Will true love be enough to break the spell? Will it never not be surprising to see Harrison Ford randomly pop up in a supporting role in this movie? The answers are yes and no. (Netflix)

Her life’s a disaster, and he’s a certified goofball. When they find themselves trapped in the same time loop while attending a wedding in Palm Springs—well, a lot of wild stuff ensues, but it all builds toward them falling in love. Stars Cristin Milioti and Andy Samberg are delightful (as is co-star J.K. Simmons, who plays the third unwitting occupant of the time loop) in an unconventional rom-com that somehow makes its familiar Groundhog Day set-up feel sparkling and new again. (Hulu)

After Joel (Maze Runner’s Dylan O’Brien) gets separated from his sweetie Aimee (The Matrix Resurrections’ Jessica Henwick) in the wake of an apocalyptic event—sure, asteroids are bad, but what about an asteroid that causes an outbreak of ferocious mutant beasts?—he sets out on a quest to find her again. It’s a lightweight story that’s mostly about Joel’s journey, which is heavier on “monsters” than “love,” but you get bonuses like Michael Rooker and a heroic dog being among those Joel meets along the way. (Prime Video, Fubo, Paramount+, MGM+, DirectTV)

This 2021 release is based on a short story by The Magicians author Lev Grossman, who also wrote the screenplay. Mark (Kyle Allen, who will play He-Man in Netflix’s upcoming Masters of the Universe movie) and Margaret (Kathryn Newton from Freaky and Big Little Lies) play teens who get to know each other—and, naturally, fall for each other—while they’re trapped in the same time loop. It’s far more cute and familiar than Palm Springs, but the leads are appealing together, and there are definitely worse things to spend your time doing than watching the movie version of a catchy pop song. (Prime Video)

The 1932 Universal Horror classic is full of creepy chills, courtesy of Boris Karloff’s masterful performance and the genius of make-up artist Jack Pierce. However, it’s not without its heartfelt moments, as Karloff’s ancient mummy—who masquerades as an Egyptian historian after he’s brought back to life—desperately tries to connect with a woman (Zita Johann) he believes is the reincarnation of his long-lost love. The romantic vibes evaporate when he attempts to transform her into his mummy bride, but still. (Rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu)

In this 1998 fantasy, Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman play witch sisters whose family is cursed to be tragically unlucky in love... until Bullock’s character meets her soul mate (Aidan Quinn), who is also, unfortunately, the lawman who suspects her (correctly) of murdering her sister’s abusive boyfriend (though he doesn’t realize there was magic involved). I know what you’re thinking, but just because Practical Magic is on your Halloween movie list doesn’t mean you can’t also watch it for Valentine’s Day! (Rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu)

Most of this 1984 musical follows the Muppets’ struggle to get their theatrical production Manhattan Melodies mounted on Broadway. While the best scene in the movie is probably the gleefully chaotic make-up counter face-off between Miss Piggy and Joan Rivers... this is also the movie where Kermit and Miss Piggy get married onstage (but also married for real, to Kermit’s surprise and no one else’s) at the end. (Paramount+, MGM+, DirectTV)

Weirdly, one of two entries in the “Rachel McAdams dates a time-traveler” rom-com subgenre. In Richard Curtis’ About Time, McAdams she falls for a guy named Tim (Domhnall “General Hux” Gleeson) who’s able to Groundhog Day his own life by returning to precise moments in his past to ensure the future he wants.

A big part of that is wooing McAdams’ character, of course; that’s where the Richard Curtis signature brand of romance (he’s the guy who also did Notting Hill, Love Actually, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Four Weddings and a Funeral) comes in. But the real sweetness of the movie is its exploration of the relationship between Tim and his father, James (the delightful Bill Nighy), who has the same talent but makes sure to teach his son how to appreciate life one day at a time, even with the magical benefit of nearly unlimited do-overs. (Prime Video)

Kiyoshi Kurasawa—whose filmography includes 2001's Pulse, probably the scariest entry in the Japanese horror wave that unleashed so many nightmares 20 or so years ago—doesn’t really specialize in a genre so much as a mood, bringing fiercely intimate stories to life in settings that other filmmakers might not be able to resist exploring on a much larger scale. Case in point: Before We Vanish, maybe the most existentially propelled alien invasion movie ever. Three extraterrestrials arrive on Earth ahead of a planned invasion, taking on human forms and roaming around extracting human concepts that they don’t otherwise understand—“family,” “freedom,” “work,” “self,” etc.—from people they encounter.

Each visitor has their own narrative as part of this journey, but the only part resembling romance concerns Shinji (Ryuhei Matsuda) and Narumi (Masami Nagasawa). The young married couple is edging toward a breakup thanks to Shinji’s infidelity and general checked-out-ness until he’s suddenly replaced by a new version who’s curious, childlike, and definitely not the same annoying dickhead Narumi’s come to resent.

Before We Vanish is overall a film about figuring out what being human really means—and all the confusion, paranoia, uncertainty, joy, frustration, fear, and just utter weirdness that goes with it—but the rebuilding of Shinji and Narumi’s relationship is the heart of this remarkable sci-fi tale, even if it doesn’t exactly end in a happy place. (Kanopy)

Ang Lee’s stunning blend of romance, tragedy, history, intrigue, and gravity-defying fight scenes turns 23 this year, but even with all its special effects, the multiple Oscar winner (Best Foreign Language Film, Best Original Score, Best Art Direction, and Best Cinematography) still feels timeless. Though Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon obviously has many more praise-worthy elements than just its twin love stories—damn, what love stories they are.

The younger couple, a haughty governor’s daughter and a scrappy bandit, have a dramatic meet-cute after he pounces on her desert caravan, though the social barriers between them are something even the fiercest of passions has trouble overcoming. The older couple—played by the sublime Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-fat—aren’t even a couple, not technically, but has any other movie ever captured stoic, soulful longing so heartbreakingly perfectly? (Streaming on aha / For rent on Amazon, Vudu, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube)

Jérémy Clapin’s Best Animated Feature nominee has a romantic element that you might not expect from a movie about a severed (yet surprisingly resourceful) hand. I Lost My Body actually follows two stories—one about the misadventures of that disembodied hand as it rambles around Paris, and another set in the past, following the young man to whom it was once attached as he awkwardly tries to woo a girl he meets over an intercom while delivering her a pizza.

The decisions he makes aren’t always the right ones, but we see—in sepia-toned flashbacks to his troubled childhood—that he’s not a sinister stalker in the making, just an earnest guy eager to make a connection. That said, that expressive, determined hand is the real star here, and its scenes in I Lost My Body are what make this one of the most visceral and imaginative films in recent memory. (Netflix)

Watch the ultimate break-up horror movie on Valentine’s Day and be glad that whatever your relationship status happens to be, you’re not Dani (Florence Pugh) dating a guy like Christian (Jack Reynor). Along with its many grim twists and turns, Midsommar explores the painful process of letting go of the toxic people in your life, and the importance of embracing self-love and acceptance as a way to work through your grief. It is also a cautionary tale about vacation planning, cultural desecration, and the very dark things that can happen even under a blazing sun. (Showtime, Kanopy, DirectTV)

Joe Johnston (who went on to make Captain America: The First Avenger) directed this 1991 fantasy adventure set in and around Hollywood just before the start of World War II. When a dashing but sorta down-on-his-luck stunt pilot (Bill Campbell) discovers a jet pack—designed by Howard Hughes (Terry O’Quinn) but stolen by mobsters (led by Paul Sorvino) on behalf of a swashbuckling movie star (Timothy Dalton) who’s in cahoots with Nazis (hey, it could happen!)—he uses it to rescue another pilot in distress during an air show.

His newfound celebrity as “the Rocketeer” makes him a target for all the baddies who’re dying to get their mitts on that jet pack; things get even more complicated when his sweetheart (Jennifer Connelly, flawless as always), an aspiring actress who’s starting to question whether or not their relationship has much of a future, gets pulled into the action. Fortunately, there’s nothing like a fiery showdown aboard a Nazi blimp to get a splintering couple back together in record time. Aww. (Disney+)

Disney’s 2002 adaptation of Natalie Babbitt’s classic children’s novel bumps up the age of the main character, Winnie—star Alexis Bledel was peak Gilmore Girls at the time—so it can dive right into turn-of-the-century teenage romance when she meets the mysterious Jesse Tuck (Jonathan Jackson) and his family. It’s a classic boy meets girl, girl realizes the boy’s family is immortal because they’ve discovered the fountain of youth, girl must decide whether to also become immortal tale.

Tuck Everlasting is a simple story—though it does dig into some darker ideas about the considerable drawbacks of living forever, and the responsibility the Tucks feel about protecting their mythical secret—but for some reason, this version has an almost unbelievably stacked cast. Ben Kingsley plays the yellow-suited baddie, Amy Irving and Victor Garber play Winnie’s wealthy mom and dad, William Hurt and Sissy Spacek play Jesse’s sympathetic but cautious parents, and occasionally Elisabeth Shue stops by to narrate. For Valentine’s Day, though, the scenes of Jesse and Winnie falling for each other in the forest are soft-focus young love at its sweetest. (Disney +)

Pixar’s elegant and prescient classic proves that romantic tales need not be limited to humans or even flesh-and-blood creatures; the bond between highly advanced, extremely adorable robots can be just as strong… if not stronger. (Disney+)

Wrapped deep within Buckaroo Banzai’s nutty plot—about a genius scientist-slash-rock star and his equally eccentric pals working to prevent a long-brewing interstellar and inter-dimensional war—is a love story. Jamming onstage with his Hong Kong Cavaliers, Buckaroo (Peter Weller) notices Penny (Ellen Barkin) sobbing in the audience and stops the show to talk to her. After she’s arrested for—oops!—firing a gun in the club, he goes the jail and realizes his déjà vu was onto something, because she’s the long-lost identical twin sister of his late wife. Hey, stranger things have happened!

Before long, she’s entangled in the main adventure, and though she has a pretty small role in a movie where a lot is going on at all times, the two characters share a tender and meaningful moment at the end when a little alien interference zaps her back into Buckaroo’s life. If only they’d made the promised sequel Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League, we would’ve seen their relationship grow even more, and no doubt Penny would’ve had a chance to kick some real ass. (Fubo, Paramount+, MGM+, Sling)

The love shared by Barbara and Adam Maitland (Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin) is so powerful they were obviously destined to die on the same day—none of that “till death do us part” bullshit. In the afterlife, the Harry Belafonte superfans get to be ghosts together, doing their adorably terrible best to haunt their beloved New England home after it’s invaded by a new family hellbent on tacky renovations—not to mention a certain conniving bio-exorcist. In the end, Barbara and Adam’s strong bond helps makes all the humans who’re in their orbit happier and more loving...and that goes for the characters in the movie and even the most black-hearted types watching at home. (Rent on AppleTV, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu)

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy realizes girl has had him erased from her memories, boy decides to undergo the same procedure but regrets it midway through. Then, after all that, boy and girl meet for a second time, and decide to try again despite everything, because love is irresistible like that.

Director Michel Gondry and writer Charlie Kaufman, along with actors Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, capture the excitement of discovering new love—and the utter grief that comes with seeing it fade—in ways that no movie has before or since. And while Eternal Sunshine is certainly a fantasy, it downplays its sci-fi elements (the memory-wipe company Lacuna is amazingly lo-fi) in favor of trying to explore the most secret nooks and crannies of the human mind and heart. A lot of it’s gut-punchingly sad, but there’s an undeniable sense of hope, too. (Prime Video)

There’s no better time to revisit the 1988 cult classic that satirizes how hellish high-school cliques can really be. All the Westerburg High School queen bees are named Heather, except for the one named Veronica (Winona Ryder), who’s already grown weary of popularity politics by the time she meets bad boy J.D. (Christian Slater).

While their relationship ends up being rather problematic, to say the least, their nascent romance is rather delightful—“Our love is God, let’s go get a slushie!”—until things get out of hand with that whole murders-staged-to-look-like-suicides spree. In the end, Veronica realizes that preventing one’s psycho ex from blowing up the school is a drastic, but very efficient first step toward restructuring the teenage social order so that the long-suffering misfits can finally come out on top. (Prime Video, Roku Channel, Hoopla, Tubi, Shudder, Plex)

In Spike Jonze’s offbeat, near-future romance, a newly-divorced man named Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) rebounds by falling in love with his computer operating system, which is powered by Samantha, an alluring AI (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). In the world of Her, human-AI “romances” aren’t totally uncommon—which is understandable considering how manic-pixie-dreamgirl perfect Samantha turns out to be—but neither are they totally accepted, a point of view that comes through when Theodore’s incredulous ex-wife makes fun of him for “dating a computer.”

We know from the start that there’s no real future for Theodore and Samantha, for obvious reasons—though the fantasy almost feels real for most of the movie, and their eventual breakup (for the surprising reason that Samantha, along with countless other AIs, has evolved too far beyond her intended purpose) has real, relatable poignancy. (Rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu)

It’s no secret that we’ve become big fans of Hulu and Blumhouse’s Into the Dark holiday-themed horror series (standouts include New Year, New You and Pooka!)—and if you haven’t gotten around to this installment, Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse. Why? Well, because that’s the holiday that Down is tied to, though if you’ve seen the other episodes you know Into the Dark is very much focused on horror above everything else.

Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism) directs this one, about corporate co-workers (Natalie Martinez and Matt Lauria) who get stuck on an elevator together after working late on you-know-which red-letter day. Annoyance turns to panic turns to... well, other stuff, which we won’t spoil here, other than to say Down is a cautionary, timely tale that gets very dark indeed. (Hulu)

Yorgos Lanthimos has achieved his greatest critical success and mainstream reach to date with The Favourite, but many people first heard of him thanks to black comedy The Lobster, the Greek filmmaker’s 2015 English-language debut. The Oscar-nominated screenplay offers one of the bleakest and yet weirdly hilarious takes on relationships ever, imagining a world that forces all people to couple up, though there’s also an outsider community of “loners” who aren’t nearly as free as you’d think.

The basic premise—that all humans must have a designated partner or be turned into an animal—is absurd enough on its own, but it gets exponentially weirder once you add in the hotel-resort setting (and adjacent forest, as well as a heavily-policed nearby city) and all of the cruel quirks that continuously crop up in The Lobster—like the fact that humans must share a physical or mental flaw in order to be matched. Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz are perfectly understated as a would-be (and probably should-be) pair who struggle to negotiate their feelings in a world that does everything it can to regulate everything about love. (HBO Max, Kanopy, DirectTV)

Even if you think the title character (played by Michael Cera) is an irritating little turd, there’s still plenty to love (and plenty of other very cool characters, some of whom also think he’s a turd) in Edgar Wright’s 2010 adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s comic. Slacker wannabe rock star Scott already has an adoring girlfriend, but he goes utterly ga-ga for new girl in town Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).

Soon, however, he realizes that in order to woo her, he’ll need to win a series of battles with her variously “evil” exes—as well as break up with the younger lass who thinks he’s the most rad thing ever. There’s never been a rom-com quite like this vibrant, energetic, video game-inspired tale of young love, whose (mostly) endearing cast is filled with future big names like Chris Evans, Brie Larson, Aubrey Plaza, and Anna Kendrick. (Netflix)

Ok, we had to include one movie that’s isn’t afraid to be extremely schmoopy and corny... though the very complicated relationship at its center is about as sci-fi as can be. Rachel McAdams plays the title character; Eric Bana plays the guy who zips through time, a genetic ability made way less awesome by the fact that he can’t actually control it whatsoever. He appears as randomly as he disappears, a rough life no matter how you look at it, but made even worse by his growing desire to just be able to, like, hang out with his beloved, a woman he’s been “visiting” since she was a little kid (though their romance doesn’t spark until it’s totally age-appropriate, of course).

The best-selling novel by Audrey Niffenegger also became an HBO series in 2022, but this film version of The Time Traveler’s Wife came out in 2009, which—fun fact—makes it the first of McAdams’ series of films (with later entries Midnight in Paris and About Time) in which her character is romantically involved with a time traveler. Apparently all that drama is worth it, when true love’s at stake. (Rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu)

You really should watch both Pearl and its sequel X to get the full romantic arc between Pearl and her husband, Howard. He’s absent through most of Pearl because he’s off fighting in World War I, dreaming of the day he can return to his beloved wife and farm in Texas. It’s sweet. But Howard’s true level of devotion becomes clear at the very end of Pearl, when he finally arrives home and discovers a scene of horror that makes The Texas Chainsaw Massacre look almost tame—and sticks around. We know this because many decades later during the events of X, he’s still standing by his beloved… despite what we can kindly call some exceedingly bloodthirsty flaws. (Rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu)

Screenwriter Lorene Scafaria made her directorial debut with this quirky take on the run-up to the apocalypse. Neighbors Steve Carell and Keira Knightley meet soon after it’s announced that an asteroid is hurtling toward the Earth. Fortunately for the odd couple, the time they have left is enough to take a wacky road trip (and, inevitably, fall for each other) amid the chaos, with amusing characters played by Patton Oswalt, Melanie Lynskey, Derek Luke, Martin Sheen, Connie Britton, and William Peterson all popping up before doomsday hits. (Rent on Apple TV, Amazon, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu)

In this girlie spin on Big, a wannabe-popular teen named Jenna wishes to be older and cooler and magics herself into her future life—where she happens to be a big-time magazine editor played by Jennifer Garner. Garner is believably charming as a dorky kid from the 1980s flailing around a glamorous grown-up life in 2004, doling out life advice from Pat Benatar songs and saving a work party with a “Thriller” dance-off.

Of course, unlike the kid in Big, Jenna has actually lived those intervening 17 years and realizes (to her horror) that she transformed into a ruthless snake along the way. Oops! You’ll see the ending of this formulaic rom-com coming a mile away, but Garner’s performance and the above-average supporting cast (Andy Serkis, Judy Greer, Mark Ruffalo) actually make it worth your while. (Peacock, Hoopla)

Joe Dante’s feature has the horror elements you’d expect from the guy behind Gremlins, The Howling, and The ‘Burbs. And it also factors in romance, although things turn gruesome pretty damn fast. Anton Yelchin plays a nerdy cult-movie fan who realizes too late that his seemingly perfect girlfriend (Twilight’s Ashley Greene) is a control freak—but before he can end things, she’s hit by a bus. Things go from “I guess the universe did me a sick favor” to “holy shit!” when she returns in zombie form, ready to resume their relationship... just as he’s begun to pull himself out of his guilt spiral by dating someone new. Awkward! Burying the Ex does play into the well-worn psycho ex-girlfriend stereotype, but all the horror-movie flair that’s infused into the story does give it a (dismembered, putrid, rotting) leg up on others of the genre. (Tubi)

Following the 2022 debut of The Sandman, Neil Gaiman adaptations are particularly hot right now, but he’s racked up tons over the years. In 2007, his popular 1999 novel Stardust got the big-screen treatment, courtesy of Matthew Vaughn, now best-known for the Kingsman films. In a fantasy kingdom, a young man (Daredevil’s Charlie Cox) tracks down a fallen star to win over his beloved but ends up falling in love with the star (Claire Danes) instead. This story has everything that a dark fairy tale needs—including kings, unicorns, pirates, and a campy evil witch played by Michelle Pfeiffer—and manages to feel magical, even when things do get a tad overstuffed. (HBO Max, Direct TV, Cinemax)

David Fincher—a director generally more associated with grittier fare, like Zodiac, Se7en, and Gone Girl—delves into romance with this fable very loosely based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story. Brad Pitt plays the title character, a man who’s born in 1918 already resembling a very old man... and then proceeds to age in reverse, thanks to some remarkable special effects, until he dies as an 84-year-old baby in 2003. This complicates his relationship with Daisy (Cate Blanchett), to say the least, though it also makes their romance (when it’s age-appropriate, that is) all the more remarkable. (Paramount+, Roku Channel, DirectTV, Pluto TV, Plex)

Shakespeare makes this list by way of Joss Whedon, who filmed this 2012 passion project at his own house and populated its cast with a raft of his go-to actors (Nathan Fillion, Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Clark Gregg). The setting is moved to the present day, and the film is black and white, but the production is quite true to the original play—which is, of course, all about attraction, witty banter, mistaken identity, one selfish jackass who tries to screw it up for everyone, and happy endings for all who deserve them. (Redbox, Freevee)

One of io9's greatest movies of the last two decades, Let the Right One In would be a poignant tale of first love, except for all the throat-ripping that goes on—as is tradition when boy meets girl... who isn’t actually a girl but instead a centuries-old vampire. Strange circumstances aside, their emotional connection can’t be denied, and these young soul mates’ version of “happily ever after” makes for one of horror’s strangest yet most eerily adorable final scenes ever. (Prime Video, Fubo, Hulu, Roku Channel, Hoopla, Vudu, Kanopy, Redbox, DirectTV, Crackle, PlutoTV, Plex)

Frank Oz’s 1986 horror-comedy musical, an adaption of the off-Broadway hit—itself an adaptation of the 1960 Roger Corman cult film—sees geeky floral-shop worker Seymour (Rick Moranis) nice-guy his way into the heart of his dream woman, Audrey (Ellen Greene). But with love comes complications, including the interference of her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend (Steve Martin, having a blast playing a sadistic dentist; Bill Murray has a cameo as a pain-loving patient), and Seymour’s increasingly aggressive pet plant/alien, Audrey II (voiced by Motown legend Levi Stubbs). The film is pretty true to the stage play, with one notable exception: It has a much happier ending. (Rent on Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, YouTube, Vudu)

What if Phantom of the Opera took place in the 1980s... and instead of an opera house, the haunted setting was a mall? Wonder no longer with this 1989 slasher that gives us high school sweethearts ripped apart by tragedy, a totally tubular setting, lots of shadowy air-duct skulking, and retro-perfect turns by Pauly Shore and Morgan Fairchild. (Shudder)

Based on Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-nominated play, this 2050-set sci-fi fantasy is about an elderly woman named Marjorie (Lois Smith) who uses new technology to create a holographic version of her beloved late husband as a young man (Jon Hamm). He keeps her company and helps her as she struggles with dementia, though others in her orbit (especially her daughter, played by Geena Davis) don’t embrace his presence quite so quickly. That’s just the first layer of this intense, moving drama, as Marjorie’s family comes to accept and rely on the hologram program to help them come to term with their own memories and past regrets. (Hulu, Roku Channel, Vudu, Tubi, Kanopy, Pluto TV, Filmrise)

In a sterile, tightly regulated dystopia where feelings are forbidden, the only two people left who are capable of having emotions are obviously destined to fall in love. (No doubt, it helps that they’re both really, really good-looking.) Perfectly androgynous pair Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Hoult are just two elements of eye candy in Drake Doremus’ sleek tale, which blatantly prizes style over substance but is entertaining nonetheless. (HBO Max, Kanopy, DirectTV)

The 2000s 3D remake has its fun moments, but for old-school slasher delights this time of year there’s no topping 1981 Canadian classic My Bloody Valentine. It’s set in a small town where a mining disaster has reverberated dread through generations—a cinematic choice helped along excellently by the fact that mining masks are inherently sinister-looking, even when the wearer isn’t a slaughter-happy maniac. Multiple hearts are ripped out in some very on-theme death scenes, and the twist at the end is genuinely startling. Don’t miss the folky end-credits song, which casts all that came before in a very murder ballady-y light. (Hulu, HBO Max, DirectTV)

In this LGBTQ tale infused with Jewish folklore, it’s love at first sight for Copenhagen couple Maja and Leah—but their newfound bliss doesn’t last long when Maja accompanies her new love home to London and discovers some very dark secrets afoot. Read io9's review here of this recent Shudder addition. (Shudder)