Netflix is Streaming the Scariest Movie I’ve Ever Seen
As a child growing up in a Maryland suburb, I had a bevvy of anxieities about what my parents thought were the strangest things. Despite watching horror movies from an inappropriately young age, I was still afraid of everything, especially the dark. But perhaps the scariest thing in the world to young me was tornadoes. Monsters and serial killers lived in the world of scary movies, but tornadoes? Those were real, and they were, to me, an inescapable threat of violence that could drop at any second.
As I mentioned, I grew up in Maryland, so tornadoes were a rare occurrence; I, of course, had never and still have never experienced living through one. Yet, one vivid story from my dad’s girlfriend about living with them in the Midwest sent my poor young mind into a spiral (pun intended). From then on, every thunderstorm warning (and in Maryland, they are an almost daily occurrence during the summertime) sent me straight to the basement, where I’d cower with my stuffed animals, hyperventilating while watching the Weather Channel and counting the seconds until the watch or warning was over.
While I’ve since (mostly) grown out of that fear, a recent documentary on Netflix brought me right back to those days of sheer anxiety that tore apart my small body. That documentary is The Twister: Caught In The Storm, a harrowing account of the 2011 tornado that ripped through Joplin, Missouri. Told through several survivor accounts and their actual cell phone footage captured throughout that day, the documentary tells a harrowing tale of survival in the face of Mother Nature’s rage.
May 22, 2011 started out like any other day in Joplin, Missouri. It was high school graduation day, and families piled into their cars to see the class of 2011 cross that stage and start a new chapter. But little did they know that a massive storm was heading directly for them. At 5:34 PM, an F-5 tornado touched down and decimated Joplin, killing over 160 people.
This documentary could be like any other cheesy, extreme weather documentary. But what makes The Twister stand out is interviewing those who were there that day and relying heavily on their first-person footage to paint a picture of life before, during, and after the hurricane. You are placed, quite literally, in the storm. You hear screams as people are pelted with flying debris. It’s difficult to watch, no doubt, but it’s a powerful one that truly conveys the power of nature and what extreme weather looks like in this era of climate change.
But I wasn’t the only one terrified by this harrowing example of extreme weather and its widespread effects. Check out a few choice audience reactions below to see how others fared with the Netflix documentary:
If you’re curious about The Twister: Caught In The Storm, it’s streaming now on Netflix. Once you check it out, let us know what you think on Twitter or Bluesky @DreadCentral.
Categorized: News
