Underrated Netflix films you need to see

A still from “The Babadook.”

By Gioia McGuire

So there you are, Friday night and nothing to do, except Netflix binge.

Founded in 1997, Netflix has skyrocketed in popularity and changed the way we all watch movies. An international online streaming service in 30 countries for movies and TV shows, Netflix has gained public interest by offering hundreds of viewing options for a low monthly price of just $7.99 and raking in a revenue of $5.5 billion a year.

While Netflix is famous and streams the newest and most popular movies and TV shows right to your room, there are still many films that fly under the radar. These films are untouched gold mines of emotion, plot and acting.

To begin, “The Babadook” is a psychological thriller that surprised all and made a notable impression on critics. Hitting a 98 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and an impressive 4.5/5 from Roger Ebert, this film is well worth the watch and the thrill.

The story focuses on a monster that has escaped from a children’s book. While the storyline may seem old news, the fear factor most definitely isn’t. Twenty-year-old biology major and Moorpark College student Brandon Tich says he was surprised and thoroughly scared.

“It has a really low budget, but it’s so good,” said Tich. “It’s really scary.”

If scary movies aren’t your thing, no problem. A foreign film called “Blue Is The Warmest Color,” which debuted in 2013, may have slid by unnoticed, but critics everywhere raved about it. Rotten Tomatoes reviews gave it a 90 percent, with a critics consensus stating it was, “raw, honest, powerfully acted and deliciously intense.”

At a lengthy 3 hours, the film follows a young girl and her love connection with another girl. To top it all off, this foreign film is entirely in French, so even if you don’t understand what exactly is going on, there is just something about the melodic smoothness of French that will keep you enticed the whole way through.

A turn on the romantic comedy side and the film “The Wedding Singer” comes to bat. The film, recently added to the growing list of Netflix choices, is rounding its 18th birthday. Cast with industry bigs like Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymoore, the film follows Sandler’s character as a wedding singer, who’s ironically just been dumped by his fiancé.

Although critics, like nypost.com have bashed Sandler’s more recent career choices, this film catches him in a prime moment and is well worth the laughs, tears and heart-warming “awwws”. Nineteen-year-old Moorpark College communications major Samantha Sinanyan says she was psyched to see it appear on Netflix.

“’The Wedding Singer,’ that movie is so funny, Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore are great together,” said Sinanyan. “It’s hilarious and I totally recommend it.”

So there you have it, three very different, but completely worth it movies to change up your 12 hour binge of “Supernatural” and “How I Met Your Mother.”