One of many odd byproducts of the streaming age is the way in which through which forgotten flops can re-emerge and revel in a small reprieve earlier than disappearing into the ether once more. Simply take a look at the way in which Ryan Reynolds’ worst-reviewed film grew to become a Prime Video hit 12 years after its disappointing debut. Or how about an neglected Martin Freeman horror movie that by no means made it to theaters however which has now clawed its technique to Prime Video prominence? 2023’s “Queen of Bones” has been sitting within the streamer’s charts for greater than per week now, and is clearly benefitting from the spooky season bump. However is it any good?
The movie sees Freeman play Malcom, a widowed father of two in Nineteen Thirties Oregon. Twin brother and sister Sam (Jacob Tremblay) and Lily (Julia Butters) are nonetheless attempting to come back to phrases with their mom’s (Taylor Schilling) mysterious loss of life, however seemingly start to seek out solutions after they uncover a spell guide within the attic of their secluded farmhouse. In fact, this being a horror movie, some form of malevolent drive is not distant, and shortly it turns into clear that the forests surrounding the household’s house host a very evil drive that may simply have had one thing to do with Malcom’s spouse’s loss of life.
Directed by Canadian filmmaker Robert Budreau (who additionally beforehand oversaw the quasi-Chet Baker biopic “Born to Be Blue”), “Queen of Bones” by no means actually acquired a lot of a launch. After debuting on the 2023 Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant, the film had its public premiere on the 2023 Whistler Movie Pageant forward of its U.S. premiere on the 2024 Santa Barbara Worldwide Movie Pageant. “Queen of Bones” lastly made it to video-on-demand on August 1, 2025, however in any other case did not trigger a lot of a stir. Now, Prime Video subscribers have resurrected the film in time for Halloween.
Prime Video customers exhume Queen of Bones for Halloween
In response to streaming viewership tracker FlixPatrol, “Queen of Bones” has been charting for greater than per week, hitting its peak place of quantity 5 on October 8, 2025. Since then it is slipped considerably, falling to quantity six the next day earlier than tumbling to the eighth spot on the time of writing. However it’s nonetheless clinging on, and with Halloween nonetheless forward, we could nicely see “Queen of Bones” making a late run.
To take action, it must compete with “John Sweet: I Like Me,” a documentary from Colin Hanks and Ryan Reynolds that honors probably the greatest actors we misplaced too quickly. That pleasant celebration of a comedy nice at the moment sits on the prime of the Prime Video charts, and would not appear to be it is going anyplace for now. “Queen of Bones” can even have to beat the nice Bond onslaught, with 007 just lately returning to Prime Video and storming the charts. That looks like a tall order for this explicit horror image, but it surely may occur.
Whether or not the movie is worthy of ascending any increased, nonetheless, stays debatable. “Queen of Bones” would not have sufficient evaluations on Rotten Tomatoes to have made it onto the Tomatometer. However the one assessment from a “prime critic” on the location is not very flattering. Selection’s Dennis Harvey was unimpressed with the movie’s lack of “daring concepts and execution,” in the end surmising that “Queen of Bones” was “an underwhelming if watchable exploration of acquainted themes and character varieties.” Put merely, then, there are some nice horror films streaming at no cost this Halloween, and they’ll in all probability present a greater time than Martin Freeman and Taylor Schilling’s underseen effort.
