The best fantasy movies on Netflix right now
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We’ve lost count of how many times we’ve had to add or remove Conan the Barbarian from the list of best fantasy movies on Netflix. There aren’t very many fantasy adventures on Netflix, which is disappointing for fans of the genre. As there are very few new films to choose from, we’ve put the spotlight on the only recent arrival, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones, as well as a Netflix original, Halloween-themed fantasy film, The Curse of Bridge Hollow.
As much as we might wish otherwise, Netflix hasn’t shown any indication that it plans to focus on fantasy any time soon. Regardless, there are other films on our list of the best fantasy movies on Netflix right now. There just aren’t very many of them.
We’ve also rounded up the best fantasy movies on Amazon Prime and the best fantasy movies on Hulu if Netflix doesn’t have what you’re looking for.
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013) [New]
Metacritic: 33%
IMDb: 5.8/10
Rated: PG-13
Duration: 130m
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Mystery
Stars: Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Robert Sheehan
Directed by: Harald Zwart
A young woman named Clary (Lily Collins) is thrust into a supernatural war in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Stranger Things‘ Jamie Campbell Bower co-stars as Jace, an enignatic young man who is one of the half-human, half-angel Shadowhunters.
Since Clary is also a hybrid, she becomes a target of demons after learning who and what she really is. And a former Shadowhunter, Valentine (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), won’t stop coming after Clary until he locates a mystical object that could give him enormous power.
The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022) [New]
Metacritic: 38%
IMDb: 5.6/10
Rated: PG-13
Duration: 89m
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Horror, Family
Stars: Marlon Wayans, Priah Ferguson, Kelly Rowland
Directed by: Jeff Wadlow
The 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.
Warcraft (2016)
Metacritic: 32%
IMDb: 6.7/10
Rated: PG-13
Duration: 123m
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Stars: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster
Directed by: Duncan Jones
How much do you know about World of Warcraft? The Warcraft movie could probably get you through a pop quiz about the history of Azeroth’s conflict with the orcs. One of the movie’s biggest flaws is it actually tries to convey an overwhelming amount of information for the audience to digest. Once you get past that, there is a lot to enjoy about it, especially the well-rounded portrayal of the orcs themselves.
Unlike some other fantasy franchises, the orcs of Warcraft have their own kind of humanity, especially Durotan (Toby Kebbell), who suspects that his people are being misled. Durotan and a human warrior, Anduin Lothar (Travis Fimmel), may be the only ones who can face a threat to humanity and orcs alike, if they can figure out that they have common ground before it’s too late.
Hellboy (2019)
Metacritic: 31%
IMDb: 5.3/10
Rated: R
Duration: 121m
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Action, Adventure
Stars: David Harbour, Milla Jovovich, Ian McShane
Directed by: Neil Marshall
Guillermo del Toro directed two really charming Hellboy movies, both of which are better than Neil Marshall’s 2019 Hellboy reboot. But this film is a little closer in spirit to the Hellboy comics by Mike Mignola. Stranger Things’ David Harbour steps into the role of Hellboy, a demon who was raised to be a force for good by his adoptive father, Professor Trevor Bruttenholm (Ian McShane).
While on a mission in England for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, Hellboy discovers a conspiracy to revive Vivienne Nimue (Milla Jovovich), the Blood Queen, an evil sorceress from the time of King Arthur. And once Vivienne returns, she realizes that Hellboy himself may hold the key to her ultimate revenge on humanity if she can make him unleash the apocalypse.
Damsel (2024)
Metacritic: 46%
IMDb: 7.8/10
Rated: PG-13
Duration: 110m
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Adventure
Stars: Millie Bobby Brown, Nick Robinson, Robin Wright
Directed by: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
What 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 na?ve, 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)
IMDb: 5.1/10
Duration: 104m
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Stars: Shawn Yue, Jessie Li, Kara Hui
Directed by: Henri Wong
Monsters 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)
Metacritic: 62%
IMDb: 5.8/10
Rated: PG-13
Duration: 104m
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Adventure, Thriller
Stars: Ine Marie Wilmann, Kim S. Falck-J?rgensen, Mads Sj?g?rd Pettersen
Directed by: Roar Uthaug
Troll 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)
Duration: 117m
Genre: Family, Comedy, Fantasy
Stars: Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch
Directed by: Matthew Warchus
Roald Dahl’s beloved tale comes back to the screen in this live-action adaptation that casts Alisha Weir as the titular, precocious young girl whose intelligence and strange abilities are put to good use while trying to forge her own path and survive in a world of self-absorbed, naive, and downright evil adults. Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, and Emma Thompson play supporting roles in the film, helmed by director Matthew Warchus.
Wendell & Wild (2022)
Metacritic: 72%
IMDb: 7.3/10
Duration: 105m
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, Adventure
Stars: Lyric Ross, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele
Directed by: Henry Selick
Visionary stop-motion filmmaker Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline) teams up with Jordan Peele (Get Out, Nope) for this story of two demons who attempt to trick a teenage girl into bringing them into the mortal world. Peele and frequent collaborator Keegan-Michael Key voice the two, titular demons, while This Is Us actress Lyric Ross voices the young girl, Kat Elliot. The film is Selick’s first feature since 2009’s Coraline, and critics tend to agree that the film is worth the wait.
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)
Duration: 117m
Genre: Animation, Fantasy, Drama
Stars: Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, David Bradley
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson
Guillermo del Toro reimagined the story of Pinocchio, the wooden marionette who longs to become a real boy, in this gorgeous, stop-motion animated feature. Dark, beautiful, and poignant in equal measures, del Toro’s Pinocchio sets the tale during the rise of fascism in Italy, and explores Pinocchio’s journey from one end of the country to the other as he attempts to make his woodcutter father proud. The film earned multiple Academy Award nominations across various categories, and delivers a story both fascinating and deeply moving.
The School for Good and Evil (2022)
Metacritic: 30%
IMDb: 5.8/10
Rated: PG-13
Duration: 146m
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Drama
Stars: Sofia Wylie, Sophia Anne Caruso, Kerry Washington
Directed by: Paul Feig
In one of Netflix’s biggest original fantasy films to date, The School for Good and Evil is the story of two girls: Sophie (Sophia Anne Caruso) and Agatha (Sofia Wylie). They also happen to be close friends before they were spirited away to the titular School for Good and Evil. Once they arrive, Sophie is shocked when she is placed in the evil school, while Agatha finds herself out of place in the good school. Regardless, Agatha soon discovers that she may be the most natural princess in ages, while Sophie is manipulated into embracing evil until it literally transforms her into something unrecognizable. Despite their differences, Sophie and Agatha’s destinies are still intertwined.
Slumberland (2022)
Metacritic: 40%
IMDb: 6.7/10
Rated: PG
Duration: 117m
Genre: Family, Fantasy, Adventure, Drama
Stars: Jason Momoa, Marlow Barkley, Chris O'Dowd
Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Winsor McCay’s comic strip, Little Nemo in Slumberland, has largely been forgotten since its conclusion nearly 100 years ago. But it serves as the basis for Netflix’s Slumberland, which takes some liberties with the original comic. For example, Nemo (Marlow Barkley) is a girl in this incarnation, and her waking life is very difficult without her late father, Peter (Kyle Chandler). In her dreams, Nemo meets an enigmatic con artist, Flip (Jason Momoa), who offers her a chance to reunite with her father if she helps him on his quest. From there, a magical journey begins.
Nightbooks (2021)
Metacritic: 65%
IMDb: 5.8/10
Rated: TV-PG
Genre: Fantasy, Family, Horror
Cast: Winslow Fegley, Lidya Jewett, Krysten Ritter
Don’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)
IMDb:
6.4/10Rated:
TV-MAGenre:
Drama, Fantasy, HorrorCast:
Kandido Uranga, Uma Bracaglia, Eneko Sagardoy
Some of the best fantasy stories are the oldest. Case in point — Errementari: The Black Smith and the Devil, based on a Basque reimagining of the fairy tale The Smith and the Devil. In 19th-century Spain, the supposed government investigator Alfredo Ortiz (Ramón Agirre) arrives in a small village looking for lost treasure. His search leads him to a forge in the nearby woods where the blacksmith Paxti (Kandido Uranga) lives in solitude. When Ortiz hires men to help him raid the forge, a young girl named Usue (Uma Bracaglia) sneaks in to recover a lost doll — and makes a terrifying discovery. Errementari is a wonderful fusion of fantasy and bone-chilling horror that still captures the sense of fascination children have for fairy tales and folklore.
Super Me (2019)
IMDb: 5.9/10
Rated: TV-14
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Cast: Darren Wang, Song Jia, Cao Bingkun
Sang Yu (Darren Wang) isn’t doing very well. Struggling to make it as a screenwriter, he becomes plagued by nightmares in which he’s pursued by a demon. He becomes disturbed enough by his dreams that he does everything he can to avoid sleep, but decades of Freddy Krueger movies have taught us how well that’s going to work out. After one of his frightful dreams, he discovers something that changes his life — he has the ability to bring objects out of his dreams and into the real world. Sang uses his newfound power to go from rags to riches practically overnight, but when a ruthless gangster discovers the secret of his success, things get even more complicated.
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)
Metacritic: 51%
IMDb: 6.5/10
Rated: PG-13
Duration: 105m
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Stars: Rohan Chand, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Naomie Harris
Directed by: Andy Serkis
Oddly enough, two major takes on The Jungle Book were released within two years of one another. The first, Disney’s The Jungle Book, got better reviews, but Netflix’s Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle has more stunning special effects and a far more faithful retelling of Rudyard Kipling’s classic tales. Director Andy Serkis — a master of VFX — goes above and beyond in this jungle fantasy that is genuinely terrifying at times. Mowgli tells the classic tale of a human child raised by a wolf pack in the jungles of India under the tutelage of the panther Bagheera and bear Baloo. But what Disney’s version overlooks is the sheer sadism and megalomania of the tiger Shere Khan. This version doesn’t.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Metacritic: 91%
IMDb: 8.2/10
Rated: PG
Duration: 91m
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
Directed by: Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones
What is the airspeed of an unladen swallow? How do you tell if someone is a witch? And if you come across a rabbit at the entrance of a cave, how fast do you run and why aren’t you running already? All of these questions and more can be at least partially answered only with the 1975 comedy classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The second feature film made by the legendary cast of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Holy Grail is absolutely mandatory for any fan of swords and sorcery fantasy, comedy, or any kind of movie that keeps you laughing so hard from start to finish that you’ll never stop to consider whether or not it makes any sense (SPOILER: it does not).
I Lost My Body (2019)
Metacritic: 81%
IMDb: 7.6/10
Rated: PG
Duration: 81m
Genre: Animation, Drama, Fantasy
Stars: Victoire Du Bois, Hakim Faris, Victoire Du Bois, Patrick d'Assum?ao
Directed by: Jérémy Clapin
Winner of the 2020 César Award for Best Animated Film, I Lost My Body is a genre-bending fever dream, propelled by gorgeous art and an appropriately bizarre premise. The star of the film? A severed hand. When the hand gains consciousness in a dissection lab, it has one primary purpose: To return to its body. The hand must scramble through Paris to find its way back to the pizza delivery man who is missing him, all the while remembering the glory days when it was still attached. That is, until they met Gabrielle.
Bright (2017)
IMDb: 6.3/10
Rated: TV-MA
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Thriller
Cast: Will Smith, Joel Edgerton, Lucy Fry
Bright wasn’t well-received when it arrived on Netflix, but since its premiere in 2017, it has become one of the most-streamed films on the platform. That’s because, while the movie is flawed, it does have a unique world, impressive practical effects, and a timely story about crime and discrimination. In Bright, humans coexist with a variety of fantasy races. The film follows Ward (Will Smith) and his partner Jakoby (Joel Edgerton), the first orc police officer. The two have a strained relationship because Ward was previously injured by an orc robber, and it is believed that Jakoby let the robber go on purpose. The film tries to juggle complex issues of race, identity, and loyalty while also telling a larger-than-life fantasy story. It doesn’t always juggle those topics particularly well, but it remains one of the most ambitious fantasy films of the last several years.
Fullmetal Alchemist (2017)
IMDb: 5.2/10
Rated: PG-13
Duration: 135m
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Stars: Ryosuke Yamada, Tsubasa Honda, Dean Fujioka
Directed by: Fumihiko Sori
Fullmetal Alchemist is a live-action film based on the popular manga and anime of the same name. The film, like the subsequent versions, follows brothers Edric and Alphonse. The brothers live with their ill mother in the countryside, where they study alchemy. After their mother dies, however, they try to bring her back to life with a forbidden Human Transmutation. The alchemy fails and has severe consequences: Edric loses his arm and leg, while Alphonse loses his entire body and his spirit possesses an empty suit of armor. The two brothers grow up to become state alchemists while continuing to hide their taboo act and pursue a stone that has the power to restore their bodies. The film received mixed reviews, but it does feature some pretty advanced film techniques and high production value, rendering it worth the watch, especially for fans of the show and manga.
Okja (2017)
Metacritic: 75%
IMDb: 7.3/10
Rated: TV-MA
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Science Fiction, Action
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Paul Dano, Seo-hyun Ahn, Jake Gyllenhaal, Devon Bostick, Lily Collins, Steven Yuen
From 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)
IMDb: 6.7/10
Rated: PG
Duration: 104m
Genre: Animation, Drama, Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Stars: Mirai Shida, Natsuki Hanae, Koichi Yamadera
Directed by: Junichi Sato, Tomotaka Shibayama
Have you ever wanted to be a cat? A Whisker Away explores this wish come true and the consequences the transformation presents. Our story is led by Miyo Sasaki, a teenager living in Tokoname, dealing with her adolescence and pining for her school crush, Kento Hinode. Much to Miyo’s dismay, Kento is always turning down her advances. But love conquers all, especially when Miyo receives a magic Noh mask that turns her into a cat named Tarō. As a feline, Miyo begins making visits to Kento’s residence, where he immediately takes to his new whiskered visitor. Over the course of the film, we learn more about Miyo and Kento’s families, livelihoods, fears, and secrets. As Miyo wears the mask more and more, she risks never being able to return to human form again and must decide if life as a cat is worth losing her humanity for. Directed by Junichi Sato and Tomotaka Shibayama, from a script by Mari Okada, A Whisker Away is an electrifying panorama of emotion like no other.
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