It feels like the year only just started, and January is nearly behind us. We’ve already seen some impressive movies so far, with surprise hits like Mayhem! and David Ayer’s The Beekeeper, and there are even more exciting new releases slated to come out in February. Before we get there, though, we’ve rounded up our selections of the best movies to watch before they leave streaming platforms at the end of the month. We’ve got Janicza Bravo’s hilarious and bizarre black-comedy crime movie Zola, Edgar Wright’s 2010 cult classic Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, an explosive early-aughts kaiju classic, and much more.

Here are the best movies you should watch before they leave streaming this January.

Editor’s pick

The Exorcist III

Director: William Peter Blatty
Cast: George C. Scott, Ed Flanders, Jason Miller
Leaving Criterion Channel: Jan. 31

This past October, I included The Exorcist novelist William Peter Blatty’s 1990 threequel to William Friedkin’s masterful adaptation of that book as the final entry in our annual Halloween Countdown list of horror recommendations. The reason why is simple: For a franchise made up almost entirely of regrettable entries that repeatedly attempt (and fail) to emulate the iconic terror of the original film, The Exorcist III is the sole sequel that came the closest to achieving that feat, through its willingness to go out on a limb and tell its own equally terrifying story.

Based on Blatty’s 1983 novel Legion, the film follows William Kinderman (George C. Scott), a Georgetown police lieutenant assigned to investigate a series of murders possibly linked to an infamous killer believed to have passed years prior. His investigation leads him to the psych ward of a local hospital, where a mysterious amnesiac resembling Kinderman’s deceased friend Father Karras is being treated. Though infamously plagued by several pre- and post-production problems, The Exorcist III is a genuinely fascinating and thoroughly terrifying movie that probes the same territory as the original but from its own unique perspective. If for nothing else, it’s got easily one of the scariest jump scares ever committed to film, but I’m not telling you when it happens. I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise. —Toussaint Egan

Movies to watch on Netflix

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Director: Edgar Wright
Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin
Leaving Netflix: Feb. 1

Edgar Wright’s romantic action comedy is the textbook definition of a “zeitgeist” film, embodying both the meteoric popularity of the comic that inspired it and the generational verve and aesthetic of the 2010s. Based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s graphic novel series, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World was a box-office bomb when it was initially released, but the film has steadily grown a cult following in the decade-plus since, culminating in last year’s Netflix anime adaptation, which saw the return of the entire original cast to reprise their roles. With the new context of that series, it’s a great time to return to the original adaptation. —TE

Movies to watch on Hulu

Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack

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