Jacob's Ladder

A traumatized Vietnam war veteran finds out that his post-war life isn't what he believes it to be when he's attacked by horned creatures in the subway and his dead son comes to visit him...

Netflix: There's psychological horror. And then, there's Jacob's Ladder. Surreal, beautiful, and deeply disturbing, it stars a very young Tim Robbins in his first leading role as Jacob Singer, a disturbed Vietnam veteran who finds himself trapped in a labyrinth of nested memories, fantasies, and dreams, all leading him to a single, inevitable destination. Jacob's Ladder's official classification is "psychological thriller," but it moves between the viscerally horrific and the exquisitely sensual with a jagged elegance that defies genre, and Robbins plays Singer with an almost childlike vulnerability male protagonists almost never get to explore, particularly in horror.

Despite lackluster box-office performance, Jacob's Ladder managed to break ground in other media as well: it's been acknowledged as one of the primary inspirations for the Silent Hill series, which helped define the survival horror genre of video games.—Rachel Edidin