Every month, a number of movies and TV series leave Netflix streaming, sometimes only temporarily, usually because licensing deals have expired. Several new titles arrive in their place. So what’s coming this month, and which of these new arrivals should you watch? Below, we’ve chosen the best new movies and TV shows coming to Netflix Instant streaming in April 2015. Plan your weekend marathons accordingly.
Buffalo Soldiers
Arriving: April 1
Buffalo Soldiers had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 8, 2001. Talk about bad timing. Set on a U.S. military base in Germany in 1989, the movie follows an army specialist (Joaquin Phoenix) who steals, cooks heroin, and sleeps with his superior’s wife. Miramax promptly shelved the film, spooked by such a nasty vision of the American military post-9/11. Now largely forgotten, Soldiers is punishingly brutal, but it’s also quite funny, with an impeccable cast (Ed Harris, Anna Paquin, Elizabeth McGovern, Scott Glenn) carrying it from one mordant gag to the next. —Jeffrey Bloomer, assistant editor
Underworld
Arriving: April 1
This is one of the Hollywood vampire movies you actually want to watch. (Meaning, it predates Twilight.) Kate Beckinsale plays Selene, a badass vampire warrior who is hell-bent on destroying all Lycans (werewolves) who cross her path until she meets Michael, a human whose bloodline complicates the picture. Come for the slick fight scenes, and stay for a long-haired Michael Sheen, who completely steals the show as Lucian, the Lycans’ fearless leader. —Laura Bradley, editorial assistant
Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood
Arriving: April 1
This is Leprechaun 6, to be clear, and it’s the finest of the demented series about a murderous, pun-slinging Irish monster who will do anything to get his gold back. The movie is a sloppy kiss to the franchise’s stoner fans, featuring a munchie-addled Leprechaun (Warwick Davis) ransacking a kitchen and eventually impaling a man with a bong. —Jeffrey Bloomer, assistant editor
Halt and Catch Fire Season 1
Arriving: April 8
Yes, the setup is familiar: A smooth-talking, well-dressed anti-hero rages against convention, driving plot and [insert fictional business or organized crime syndicate here] forward. But this time, Lee Pace’s natural wounded charisma and the show’s unusual setting—Texas’ Silicon Prairie during the ’80s—work together to keep things fresh. Pace plays a former IBM executive who, somewhat mysteriously, arrives on the doorstep of a small Dallas software company hawking dreams of revolutionizing the PC game. Some chaos, lots of tech jargon speechifying, and many not-so-subtle allusions to the origin stories of both Dell and Compaq ensue. Sure, this AMC series takes some time to really get going (the main complaint when it first started airing was that it was just a bit too slow), but those that stuck with it in real-time were rewarded with a pretty great second half. Plus, that’s not much of an issue now anyway—Halt is definitely the type of show best-suited for binging. —Andrew McCarthy, video blogger
The Babadook
Arriving: April 14
I have lost more than a few hours of sleep since I first saw this instant horror classic back in November, but I don’t regret it for a minute. And the even better news is that now, if you’re as much of a scaredy as me, you’re free to watch the movie in the middle of the day, pausing whenever you need a breather. It’s worth it: Even if you’re not usually a horror fan, The Babadook is a masterful piece of filmmaking (that sound design alone!), centered around an unforgettable performance, with a haunting theme about trauma at its center. And if you are usually a horror fan, well, William Friedkin called it the most terrifying film he’s ever seen, and he’s the man who made The Exorcist. What more do you need to know? —Forrest Wickman, senior editor
Goodbye to Language
Arriving: April 14
In his review of Goodbye to Language for Slate, Daniel Engber explains that the film’s 3-D effects contribute to its thematic concerns in radical and new ways. Much of that will be lost when streaming the film at home, but its examinations of coupling and uncoupling, of unity and disunity, remain compelling, even in their obscurity. Like the world seen through a single eye, its stories are sometimes without depth, but they are no less fascinating for their preoccupation with surfaces. —Jacob Brogan, research associate
Hot Fuzz
Arriving: April 16
The second of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg’s exquisite genre mash-ups (following Shaun of the Dead), Hot Fuzz lovingly replicates the beats, dialogue, and glossy sunglasses of a Jerry Bruckheimer buddy-cop movie while laying waste to a picturesque English West Country village. Is it the purest parody when officer Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) fires his gun up in the air while shouting “Arrgh”? Or an affectionate tribute? In fact, the wonder of Hot Fuzz is that it’s both—Wright and Pegg love these awful movies, even as they know how foolish that love makes them (and me, and you, and most moviegoers). —Dan Kois, culture editor
They Came Together
Arriving: April 17
What’s great about this parody is its wide appeal: Whether you loathe the rom-com genre or adore it, David Wain’s quick-paced, gag-filled romp will win you over. All of the tropes are effectively—and lovingly—lampooned: the city as “almost another character in the movie”; guys talking about their love lives while playing sports; the makeover montage. And it helps that stars Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd have charm for days, supported by an amazing supporting cast that includes Bill Hader, Michael Ian Black, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star Ellie Kemper. Watch when you need a little pick-me-up. —Aisha Harris, staff writer
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Arriving: April 21
There aren’t too many Iranian feminist vampire films, but this one, the stunning debut of director Ana Lily Amirpour, is not to be missed. With Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, it’s one of two recent vampire flicks that inject fresh blood into the genre. But it doesn’t do so through gore or gimmicks. Amirpour has a penchant for holding a shot, prolonging a scene, and letting a song play just a little longer than you’d expect, and the effect is an audience suspended in silent reverie, as prone to the eponymous Girl’s bite as anyone lurking on screen. The result is an utterly transfixing fusion of Iranian New Wave, black-and-white noir, and classic Western tropes. —Sharan Shetty, staff writer
National Treasure
Arriving: April 27
National Treasure is a national treasure. Nicolas Cage brings all his intensity to the part of a treasure hunter who must steal the Declaration of Independence in order to foil an evil plot and clear his family’s good name. Mix Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Rock, and Goonies, and add a heavy does of Nic Cage getting really excited about Ben Franklin’s lost 3-D glasses, and you get National Treasure. —Chris Wade, Slate video producer
Also arriving:
April 1
And Now … Ladies and Gentlemen…
Bandolero
Barnyard
The Beautician and the Beast
Bound
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course
Down to Earth
Leprechaun 3
Leprechaun 4: In Space
Suicide Kings
Sunset Strip
Whiteboyz
Wrong Turn at Tahoe
April 2
Life Partners
Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage
April 3
Starry Eyes
The Quiet Ones
Derek
All Hail King Julien Season 1
April 7
Preservation
April 9
Pioneer
April 10
The Awakening
Broken
Burning Bridges
Confusion Na Wa
Finding Mercy
Finding Mercy 2
Flower Girl
Forgetting June
Knocking on Heaven’s Door
Lagos Cougars
Lies Men Tell
Mad Couple
Mad Couple 2
Matters Arising
October 1
Onye Ozi
Ties That Bind
Marvel’s Daredevil Season 1
April 12
The Identical
April 13
Video Game High School Season 3
April 14
Kink
April 17
Chris D’Elia: Incorrigible
Baby Daddy Season 4
April 18
Noah
April 26
The Nutty Professor 2: Facing the Fear
Update, April 1, 2015: This post originally included an outdated introduction that suggested this was the roundup for February. It is for April.
