It’s hurricane season, and with Hurricane Hilary tearing up the Baja coast over the weekend before making land in Southern California as a tropical storm — the first in 84 years to hit SoCal — hurricanes are on the brain. Whether you’re on the East Coast, West or experiencing extreme late summer weather anywhere, here are a few suggestions of movies to watch while you’re hunkered down during a summer storm.
For a spooky psychological thriller, Martin Scorsese’s “Shutter Island” (2010) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is a horror-leaning mystery set on a New England island housing a mental hospital. DiCaprio plays a U.S. Marshall investigating the disappearance of a patient while a hurricane sweeps over the island, resulting in a tense standoff that reveals much more chilling depths to this twisty tale, based on a Dennis Lehane novel. Stream it on Showtime or rent it elsewhere.
Or slow it down with Bogey and Bacall in “Key Largo,” the last of the four on-screen collaborations of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. This 1948 John Huston picture also co-stars Edward G. Robinson, as a mobster who holds up a group of people at a hotel while a hurricane rages outside. Rent it on all digital platforms.
Alexandre Aja’s creature feature “Crawl” (2019) is a delightful slice of genre filmmaking. Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper co-star as a father and daughter who have to escape a crocodile unleashed during a hurricane. Rent it on all digital platforms.