The landscape of fantasy movies on Netflix is so bleak that it doesn’t have have its own tab under the movie section. You’ll have to do a manual search if you want fantasy films, and there just aren’t that many to be found. The good news is that Netflix has added a genuinely great fantasy movie this month called Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Unfortunately, it didn’t do big numbers at the box office and a sequel for this terrific movie is unlikely to come together.
Netflix has also recently released the animated movie, The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep, which is a spinoff from The Witcher series. Those are the only two films since January that truly belong among the best fantasy movies on Netflix, and we’re hoping they won’t be an anomaly in the streamer’s future plans. Netflix badly needs more fantasy flicks, and simply swapping out The Scorpion King for Conan the Barbarian just isn’t going to cut it anymore.
Need more recommendations? Then check out the best new movies to stream this week, the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
72%
7.2/10Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves may be one of the best fantasy movies of the last decade, even if fans didn’t turn it into a blockbuster hit. The way the film explains the necessary lore of the realms is just beautifully done, and Chris Pine holds the story together as both the main character, Edgin Darvis, and as the narrator. In the first few minutes alone, we learn how Edgin once had a noble calling before falling from grace as a thief. And it cost him two years that he could have spent with his young daughter, Kira (Chloe Coleman). By the time Edgin and his hilariously platonic friend and partner, Holga Kilgor (Michelle Rodriguez), make their way out of prison, Kira is weary about their return because her adoptive guardian, Forge Fitzwilliam (Hugh Grant), has lied about their intentions. Forge has also gained real political power and aligned himself with dark forces that threaten the people of the realm. In order to stop Forge’s allies and reclaim Kira, Edgin and Holga are going to need a party of unlikely allies including a struggling wizard named Simon Aumar (Justice Smith), and his shape-changer ex, Doric (Sophia Lillis). Bridgerton‘s Regé-Jean Page also has a fun extended cameo as Xenk Yendar, an ally of Edgin’s group. The film would have been even better if he had a larger role.
The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep (2025)
6.1/10At some point this year, The Witcher fans will find out if Liam Hemsworth can truly follow Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia. Thankfully, Cavill’s predecessor, Doug Cockle, gets to reprise his role as Geralt from The Witcher video games in the animated spinoff film, The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep.
Consider this a standalone adventure set in the world of the show, as Geralt and his friend, Jaskier (Joey Batey), wind up in Bremervoord just as its kingdom is preparing to go to war with an underwater kingdom of mermaids. The mermaid princess Sh’eenaz (Emily Carey) has a romantic bond with Bremervood’s prince, Agloval (Camrus Johnson), but that may not be enough to pull both sides back from the brink before too much blood is shed.
The Dark Tower (2017)
34%
5.6/10Telling the saga of The Dark Tower novels has been one of Stephen King’s greatest achievements. The first film adaptation of the story doesn’t quite live up to everything King put into it over the years, but it’s entertaining on its own. Idris Elba plays Roland Deschain, the last gunslinger and a man unaware that this isn’t his first rodeo, so to speak. Roland’s nemesis, Walter Padick (Matthew McConaughey), is using the psychic powers of gifted children to attack the Dark Tower, a mystical place that safeguards reality from the evil things that want to overtake creation. Walter’s latest target is a kid named Jake Chambers (Tom Taylor), who has been having visions of Roland that will lead him to another world.
Waterworld (1995)
56%
6.3/10Waterworld was an infamous flop in its day, although the studio has long since claimed that the film became profitable. Kevin Costner stars as the Mariner, an Aquaman-like mutant — and kind of a jerk — who was born with gills and webbed feet. In the future, the Earth’s surface has been reclaimed by the oceans, and dry land is a myth.
The Mariner inadvertently finds himself protecting a woman named Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and a child, Enola (Tina Majorino), from pirates led by the Deacon (Dennis Hopper), who believes that a tattoo on Enola’s back leads to the last patch of dry land on Earth. Is he chasing a myth? Or will the Mariner discover that there’s still land in the oceans?
King Kong (2005)
81%
7.2/10King Kong may be the only movie that director Peter Jackson wanted to make more than his Lord of the Rings trilogy. That’s why Jackson jumped at the chance to helm this reboot two years after Return of the King hit theaters. Jackson’s LOTR Gollum performer, Andy Serkis, provided motion capture for the title character and played Lumpy, one of the members of the expedition to find Kong.
The story stays pretty close to the 1933 King Kong film and keeps that setting, but Jackson gives his human characters more personality. That’s especially true of Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts), an out-of-work actress who takes a job on the expedition led by director Carl Denham (Jack Black). Ann makes an intimate connection with Carl’s screenwriter, Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody). But her survival on Skull Island will depend upon Ann’s ability to charm Kong himself.
The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022)
38%
5.6/10The Curse of Bridge Hollow is a family-friendly horror comedy that features Marlon Wayans as Howard Gordon, a scientist who looks down at Halloween. That’s not a sentiment shared by Howard’s wife, Emily (Kelly Rowland), or daughter, Sydney (Priah Ferguson), especially after they move to a Halloween-obsessed town.
When the big night occurs, Sydney is stunned when the Halloween decorations on her house take on a life of their own. As the title of the movie implies, there is a curse on the town and Sydney’s home. If she can’t find some help from the locals, a vengeful spirit will claim a soul before the end of the night.
Damsel (2024)
46%
7.8/10What if Stranger Things’ Eleven had to fight a dragon without her powers. Princess Elodie (Millie Bobby Brown) doesn’t have to imagine that scenario in Damsel, as it’s actually happening to her because she believed in love out of a fairy tale. As soon as she was offered the chance to marry Prince Henry (Nick Robinson), Elodie thought she was getting a happily ever after.
Perhaps Elodie would have been happy with some other prince. As for Henry, he and his mother, Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright), set up the marriage just to use Elodie as a sacrifice to a dragon. Elodie may be a bit naïve, but she’s not taking this lightly. She may not be a warrior, but Elodie is willing to pick up a sword and do whatever it takes to survive.
Monster Run (2020)
5.1/10Monsters are all too real in Monster Run, and that’s something that a young woman named Ji Mo (Jessie Li) has tried to deny for most of her life. After learning that she can see monsters, Ji Mo is only able to escape being imprisoned in an asylum by pretending that she can not. Instead, she simply tries to live an ordinary life until she runs into a monster hunter, Meng (Shawn Yue).
Once Ji Mo and Meng come together, she can no longer deny that monsters are real. Ji Mo also learns that she has a destiny to fulfill, if she can live long enough to make it happen.
Troll (2022)
62%
5.8/10Troll is a Norwegian fantasy that depicts an unusual emergence of a mythical creature in the modern world. As a young girl, Professor Nora Tidemann (Ine Marie Wilmann) was told by her father, Tobias Tidemann (Gard B. Eidsvold), that trolls may be real. Unfortunately, Tobias’ academic career was ended over these beliefs. But in the present, Tobias is vindicated when a gigantic troll is discovered in Norway before it goes on a rampage.
Since nothing the Norwegian army can throw at the troll manages to slow it down, it falls to Nora, Tobias, and their colleague, Andreas Isaksen (Kim Falck) to either find a way to communicate with the troll or to permanently end the threat that it represents.
Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical (2022)
Wendell & Wild (2022)
72%
7.3/10Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
The School for Good and Evil (2022)
30%
5.8/10Slumberland (2022)
40%
6.7/10Nightbooks (2021)
65%
5.8/10Don’t fancy yourself a storyteller? Well, as the saying goes, necessity can very well be the mother of invention as the young Alex (Winslow Fegley) learns in Netflix’s new dark fantasy film Nightbooks. Based on the 2018 novel by J.A. White, Nightbooks stars Krysten Ritter as a terrifying witch who imprisons Alex. In order to escape certain death at her hands, Alex must tell her a scary story every night to entertain her. Knowing his death is inevitable otherwise, Alex befriends the witch’s servant, Yazmin (Lidya Jewett), and together they try to outwit the evil sorceress to escape her mystical home. Scheduled to start streaming in the middle of September, Nightbooks promises to be both scary and family-friendly while giving Ritter a wonderful chance to play against type./dt_media]
Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil (2018)
6.4/10Super Me (2019)
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)
51%
6.5/10I Lost My Body (2019)
81%
7.6/10Bright (2017)
Okja (2017)
75%
7.3/10From Oscar-winning writer-director Bong Joon Ho, Okja is a brilliant mesh of animal rights versus big business, both operating in the body of a beautifully crazy film. The story follows Mija (Seo-hyun Ahn), a South Korean farm girl and owner of a genetically modified super-pig named Okja. Developed by the multinational Mirando Corporation, several prototypes of these genetically modified pigs were sent out into the world. After 10 years of growing to maturity, the company announces that Okja has been awarded the honor of “best super-pig.”
It’s all a ruse, though, and the company wants to move Okja from Mija’s farm to New York for (unbeknownst to the world) experimentation and eventual slaughter. Mirando’s CEO Lucy Mirando (Tilda Swinton) arranges for Mija to travel to New York to be with Okja. However, the plot thickens when the ALF (Animal Liberation Front) kidnaps Okja to expose Mirando, sending the film down a path of much greater moral weight.
A Whisker Away (2020)
6.7/10Related topics: Netflix | Hulu | Amazon Prime | More streaming services
