New movies on Netflix: 10 horror, sci-fi, and fantasy films streaming on January 1, 2026

Now, before we push this premise any further, how about you check out these 10 movies that just arrived on Netflix?

10 Hellboy

With two failed Hellboy reboots having come out in recent years, it’s nice to go back to the beloved 2004 film to see why it worked so well. Minutes in the answer is obvious — it’s all about Guillermo del Toro and Ron Perlman. Del Toro’s direction and production design is so imaginative and grand, yet his characters, particularly Hellboy, still seem real. Perlman’s take on the character, with his effortless charm and gruff swagger, is one of the best casting choices in the history of comic book films. This movie, and its sequel, are so good some people are still hoping del Toro and Perlman will reunite for the long-desired third film before it's too late.

Hellboy is a fun action film in its own right but especially worth watching for del Toro fans since it was an early version of some of the themes and techniques he’s continued to master over the past 20 years. Most notable Doug Jones played the amphibious creature Abe Sapien in Hellboy before going on to play the amphibious creature in del Toro’s 2017 Oscar-winning film The Shape of Water.

9 Twins

The late 1980s was a great time for comedies with just a loose throughline to hold them together, and Twins is a great example. The central joke of this movie is that the strapping, muscle-bound Arnold Schwarzenegger and the stumpy Danny DeVito are twins — and that’s pretty much it. There is some convoluted plot about them being the results of a genetic experiment, but it's all just an excuse for a bunch of sight gags to pair two very different-looking performers together. While Twins is never “great” it was also never meant to be, it’s just a light comedy with heavy late-1980s vibes.

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)

Bridesmaids director Paul Feig’s reboot of the Ghostbusters franchise focuses on particle physicists and supernatural investigators Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) and Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) as they renew their friendship and start up a business ridding New York of ghosts. They’re joined by an absolutely unhinged Kate McKinnon, the far more grounded Leslie Jones, and Chris Hemsworth playing a himbo receptionist, with the surviving Ghostbusters stars members all making cameos.

The gender-swapped cast stirred up negative reactions to the film well before Ghostbusters: Answer the Call came out, and the continuation of the series teased at the end of the film never materialized. But it’s worth watching as a silly film filled with little surprises for fans and big goofy sequences like a dance number led by the villain.

8 Harry and the Hendersons

Harry and the Hendersons is a delightful, family-friendly, lighthearted comedy about a family who discovers Bigfoot while on a camping trip and, because they think they killed him with their car, strap him to the roof and bring home his corpse. If you can swallow those gaps in logic you’re sure to enjoy the movie as it makes full use of the idea of Bigfoot living in a typical suburban home, which he accidentally tears to pieces with his enormous size and strength. The Bigfoot costume was done by Academy Award-winning makeup artist Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, etc.), so it’s genuinely fantastic and you totally buy the reality of it. Also, the dad of the family is played by the always wonderful John Lithgow — you can’t get any better than that.

7 Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life is the third best of the three major Monty Python films. It’s not as fun as Monty Python and the Holy Grail or as poignant as Monty Python's Life of Brian, but The Meaning of Life, which is a series of sketches instead of a single narrative, has some truly classic moments with a wide range of humor. Take its two most well-known sketches: There’s the French restaurant sketch which does for the puke joke what Blazing Saddles did for the fart joke. Then there's “The Galaxy Song,” a gentle, sweet, humorous diddy sung by Eric Idle. Monty Python's The Meaning of Life may not be the best of Monty Python’s work but it’s still a reminder of the breadth of their collective genius.

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5 District 9

South African-born director Neill Blomkamp uses science fiction to explore the horrors of apartheid in District 9, which imagines extraterrestrials arriving in Johannesburg. Sick and leaderless, the aliens that humans dismissively dubbed Prawns are confined and horribly mistreated for decades. As the movie begins, they’re now facing a forced and violent relocation.

District 9 is packed with body horror and disturbing images as alien affairs bureaucrat Wikus van de Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is accidentally exposed to extraterrestrial technology and has to go on the run from his own people. Finding new common cause with the Prawns, he helps them seek a better future, even if it might bring vengeance against Earth.

4 Dawn of the Dead

Netflix canceled Zack Snyder’s animated spin on Norse mythology as fallout continues from the unimpressive response to his Rebel Moon films. But while fans hoping the streaming giant’s proposed purchase of Warner Bros. could lead to a resurrection of the Snyderverse are likely to be disappointed, Netflix is bringing back the director’s first film, which was written by none other than his DC successor, James Gunn.

A remake of George A. Romero’s 1978 zombie sequel of the same name, Dawn of the Dead was part of the undead revival kickstarted with the release of 28 Days Later in 2002. Even though it’s still set in a mall, this Dawn of the Dead is less concerned with capitalism and more with delivering grizzly kills, following a group of survivors fighting among themselves while seeking shelter from the endless horde of zombies outside.

Hot take: Dawn of the Dead remake is Zack Snyder's best movie. There’s no gloomy Superman or trying-too-hard-to-be-badass Batman or self-obsessed melodramatic slow-motion scenes. Dawn of the Dead is just a fun time with zombies from an era when Snyder didn’t take himself too seriously.

3 Despicable Me

There have been so many Despicable Me movies and spinoffs — each with ever-diminishing returns — that’s it’s easy now to forget how unique and funny the original was. The idea of having a supervillain as the central hero for a family-friendly animated film is simply inspired, all of Gru’s world-conquering, moon-shrinking business is very funny, and the story of him becoming a dad is genuinely heartwarming. The only problem with this film is that, by the end of it, Gru is a good guy, and because of that, all of the sequels just use him as a grouchy hero, which isn’t nearly as fun or special as having Gru be bad.

2 Brüno

As far as Sacha Baron Cohen characters go, gay fashion journalist Brüno isn’t as funny or as well-handled as Borat or Ali G, as he sometimes has been criticized for making fun of gay people instead of the intended mark of lampooning homophobia. Still, the movie has funny moments that make a casual watch worthwhile, like the scene where Brüno attends military camp and decides to accessorize his uniform with an ascot and a Dolce & Gabbana belt

1 Johnny Mnemonic

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Before The Matrix and John Wick made Keanu Reeves one of the biggest action stars of all time, he starred alongside Dolph Lundgren and Ice-T in Robert Longo’s Johnny Mnemonic. Neuromancer author William Gibson wrote the script for the film based on his own short story of the same name, which was set in the then future of 2021. Gibson’s dystopian predictions about a world dominated by conspiracies and megacorps proved distressingly prophetic.

Johnny (Reeves) has sacrificed his childhood memories to use his brain as data storage for sensitive information so he can work as a corporate courier, but he takes on more information than his gray matter can handle in hopes of a big payday. Turns out that info is the key to a massive conspiracy behind a technology-induced plague called "nerve attenuation syndrome." Johnny winds up in the middle of a conflict between rival corporations that involves laser whips, AI, and a resistance movement led by a dolphin.