In today’s sensitive political climate, a film like Dragged Across Concrete is sure to prod, offend, and enrage. The third feature from writer and director S. Craig Zahler, the film is a perfect cauldron of incendiary messaging - from its casting to its characters and narrative, Dragged Across Concrete teems with nasty provocations that will undoubtedly cut against the grain of all liberal sensibility. But, Zahler’s latest is also an effective and engrossing police thriller that paints realistic portraits of its characters, rough edges and all. As a left-leaning member of today’s society, my experience with the film is a curious paradox: a cautious and hesitant appreciation for a stylized and violent tour de force, even if it is steeped in a harrowing backwards morality. Mild spoilers below…

Halloween may be long over, but there’s no bad time to put on a good old-fashioned horror flick. Many have said that horror is a dying genre, and that modern horror can’t hold a candle to the terrors of the past. To those people, I say: you’re not looking hard enough. Not only is the genre thriving, but many of its underseen standouts are just a click away. Today, in no particular order, we’re bypassing the genre mainstays with some under-appreciated gems from the modern era you can stream right now. Although this post is not sponsored in any way, many of the films on this list can be found on the relatively new horror streaming service, Shudder. If you’re a horror fan, Shudder gives the most bang for your buck with a diverse library of frights and thrills at a fraction of the cost of Netflix or Hulu. Onto our list…

Don't let its grindhouse and exploitation trappings fool you, Brawl in Cell Block 99 is a fantastic film that puts Vince Vaughn to great use in a way you'd least expect: as a take-no-prisoners asskicker. A film that depicts a slow unraveling of a man's life that suddenly explodes into bone-crunching madness and gruesome violence in its third act, Brawl in Cell Block 99 will change the way you look at Vince Vaughn forever. Minor spoilers ahead...