Perfect Picks: 5 Five-Skull Films on Shudder

Looking to elevate movie night? The notoriously hard-to-please Shudder community considers these five horror treasures flawless flicks.

Recently, the rating and reviewing systems for film and media have been criticized for not accurately reflecting the quality of the film, including bought reviews, showcasing skewed metrics, and representing wildly varying percentages between the major outlets. Rotten Tomatoes still reigns supreme as most people’s go-to review site, but Fandango, Google Reviews, IMDb, and other rating systems can give a different perspective to our usual splats and popcorn buckets.

I’m here to discuss a Wild West rating system born out of the biggest haunt for most horror fans in today’s streaming age: Shudder.

Getting 100% is a feat on this popular platform. Hell, getting any fresh score is a fight. Shudder’s reviewers are boisterous, opinionated, and well-versed in the genre. The streamer’s rating system revolves around five skulls (their version of five stars), and earning the highest honor on the site is difficult, no matter how well-known or frightening a picture could be.

Shudder reviewers have been notoriously fierce, cracking down on lazy films and leaving major titles just short of five skull honors. Cult classic films like Hell House LLC, shadowy Shudder exclusives like The Dark and the Wicked, and more refreshing modern entries like Satanic Hispanics have all been exceedingly well received. Yet, they couldn’t clear the Shudder reviewers’ bar for a perfect five-skull film.

I’ve found five films that fit the bill, one for every skull.

If you’re looking to watch a genre piece hailed by real horror fans, not critics, maybe some of these “perfect pictures” will be a satisfying discovery or a masterpiece to revisit.

Exhuma (2024)

A knockout feature out of Korea, I shouldn’t be surprised that this was such a powerful and frightening film. Currently, the highest-grossing Korean film of 2024 and the sixth highest-grossing film in South Korean film history, Exhuma arrived on Shudder in perfect condition.

A mystical plot that dives right into the action, Hwa-rim is a celebrated shaman with a connection to the other side, working alongside her protégé, Bong-gil. The pair are hired to investigate a strange illness afflicting a wealthy family’s newborn, which Hwa-rim discovers to be what she declares a “Grave’s Call” or an angry ancestor haunting the child. Calling for the exhumation and relocation of the angered ancestors, Hwa-rim summons further experts for her team and prepares for the ritual to move the grave.

With this remote mountain grave giving off sinister energy and chills that send some backing out of the deal, the ritual still goes smoothly, but a bad omen taints the day, and a powerful, vengeful evil is released due to greed.

Layered with cultural nuance, religious and occult interpretations, supernatural elements, and Korean lore, the film will pull you into its details, fascinating differences in our beliefs, and what other societies have learned to fear.

Exhuma is a stout watch and deals in some deep storyline and elements of Korean culture, but it’s no boring stiff with a tired old exorcist. This shaman is enchanting, and the entities she hunts are equally enthralling and evil.

Dog Soldiers (2002)

Pure adrenaline-pumping entertainment, Dog Soldiers was too brilliant and too fun to be counted out as a perfect picture for Shudder.

After opening to slaughter at a campsite in the Scottish Highlands, we join a soldier, Cooper, rushing through the woods somewhere in North Wales. Attacking his pursuers, he is overwhelmed and taken down, revealing that he is attempting to join a branch of the special forces but is dismissed when he refuses to kill mercilessly execute a dog. Returned to his unit by a disappointed Captain Ryan, a month goes by, and Cooper and a group of five other British soldiers are being dropped into a secluded area in the Scottish Highlands to carry out a training exercise against a Special Air Service Unit.

The next morning, however, the group finds the SAS unit massacred, their remains butchered. Captain Ryan, wounded, is the sole survivor of the ordeal and is secretive in how he describes the attack and what it was that attacked them. I should leave it there for those who haven’t seen Dog Soldiers yet.

Action-packed fun and a twist on werewolves you can’t help but love, DOG SOLDIERS took horror and gave it both an exciting edge and comedic grit.

Creepshow sent what looked like a love letter to the film in its first season with one of my personal favorite installments, “Bad Wolf Down,” which seems to be an homage to this groundbreaking wartime creature feature. Exciting and humorous in its delivery, Dog Soldiers from writer-director Neil Marshall may look like a B-movie on the outside, but this five-skull gem packs a lupine punch.

Perfect Blue (1997)

The only animated film on the list, Perfect Blue is an entirely unique project that blends hypnotic visuals, a paranoid storyline, and an entry point for anime into the horror and psychological thriller genres.

Busting open the nature of Japanese idol culture, the film follows Mima Kirigoe, a member of the J-pop idol group CHAM! Much to the disappointment of her fans, Mima leaves the group to pursue a career as a full-time actress, causing her fans to further churn as they perceive her once pristine image to be sullied. While the voices of the masses are loud enough for Mima to question herself, one fan in particular, Me-Mania, begins to stalk Mima in obsessive frustration.

After receiving a fan letter with directions to a website, Mima finds a website titled “Mima’s Room.” Horrifyingly, her personal and greatly detailed diary entries are posted on the site, all written from her perspective, uncensored. And with all good problems, Mima is advised to do the inadvisable: ignore the potential danger.

Enlightening us on the depth of idol culture and the raving lengths of fandom, PERFECT BLUE was a slow-burning fever dream with an ending you’ll have to see to believe.

While some couldn’t see the potential for this cerebral film, the Shudder audience sure did — and rewarded it with a well-deserved perfect score.

Vicious Fun (2020)

Hello, my name is Gabby, and I’m a serial killer. Usually, you’d expect to hear the words “alcoholic” or “addict” when referring to a recovery program, but this picture went for the jugular in terms of powerful addiction and compulsion. When I first watched Vicious Fun, it didn’t look like much was going to happen. However, the pacing is sublime, and the concept is astounding.

It’s 1983, Minnesota, and film critic Joel for the horror magazine Vicious Fanatics is conducting an interview and suggesting silly new horror movie ideas. After seeing his roommate (whom he has a crush on) get dropped off by another man, Joel follows her suitor to a bar and gets into the conversation, hoping to hear more about his roommate and any chance he might have with her. After chatting, Joel is left humiliated, stiffed with the tab, and stumbling drunk, fumbling himself into a supply closet and passing out, leaving the restaurant to lock up for the night, unknowingly sealing him in.

Awaking and wandering back into the restaurant, he finds a 12-step group being led. Mistaking Joel for another group member, Joel plays along, fearful of the consequences if he reveals he’s not supposed to be there. And he’s fearful for good reason. This is a 12-step, self-help meeting for serial killers. What a brilliant concept!

The balance of tension that Joel might get discovered compared to the hilarity of the entire situation creates an edge-of-your-seat watch with plenty of belly laughs.

An original storyline that would make me love group therapy more when Renfield came to town, Vicious Fun is a distinctive take on both horror comedy and refreshing the overdone group therapy trope that could have backfired were it not for brilliant writing and performances.

Black Christmas (1974)

No remakes here, this is the original Black Christmas that would lay ground work for less inspiring sequels to come, but would arrive to bleed the holidays dry. 1974’s original Black Christmas was less of a teen slasher affair than the modern interpretations sharing the same name. It was more of a horrifying holiday nightmare that doesn’t end with all your favorite CW stars surviving.

We open to a man sneaking into the attic of a sorority house where a Christmas party is being held. When the house phone rings, a sister answers only for an obscene prank caller they’ve nicknamed “The Moaner” to rant, scream, and, right before the call ends, threaten to kill all of them. One of the girls, Clare, can’t take even this amount of heat and decides to pack up, but the killer is hiding in her room, and Clare is quickly killed. The other girls of the house try to report her missing, but they aren’t taken seriously, and with no location on Clare or who could have taken her, nowhere feels safe.

This original film deserves its five skulls, gutting out a celebratory slasher while never losing itself to the frat house shenanigans.

I prefer this less gruesome and less fast-paced version (no one gets impaled on a Christmas tree in a hospital in this one) compared to how the sequels tried to up the gore factor while sacrificing scares, story, and sisterhood. Black Christmas was done perfectly the first time and never required a sequel. If you want to see for yourself, it’s certified fresh festive fear.