Throughout October, Netflix has sprinkled plenty of treats in its content catalogue with the arrival of numerous titles perfect for the season, and one of those titles brought a helping of magic. Earlier this month, the beloved 1996 children’s movie Matilda made its way back to Netflix, where it is now available to stream throughout spooky season.
Directed by Danny DeVito from a screenplay by Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord, and based on Roald Dahl’s 988 novel of the same, Matilda centers around Mara Wilson’s Matilda Wormwood, a young girl gifted with the power of telekinesis. After realizing her powers, she uses them to deal with her crude, distant family – her father, played by DeVito, and mother, played by Rhea Perlman – and her school’s evil principal, Agatha Trunchbull, portrayed by Pam Ferris.
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Matilda released in theaters in 1996, and while it has since become a fan-favorite movie, it was not a box office hit. The film only grossed $33.5 million in the United States on a $36 million budget. However, Matilda was met with positive reviews from critics. It currently holds a 92% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics consensus reads, “Danny DeVito-directed version of Matilda is odd, charming, and while the movie diverges from Roald Dahl, it nonetheless captures the book’s spirit.” Matilda has also been favored by audiences, the film holding a 73% audience score, making it certified fresh. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade “B+” on a scale of A to F. In June, the film broke its way into the Top 10 films on Netflix Kids.
When Matilda made its way to Netflix in September, it joined Matilda: The Musical. Released on Christmas Day, the film is an adaptation of the 2013 Tony-winning Broadway show directed by Matthew Warchus. The movie holds a 92% critics score and 73% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, with a critics consensus reading, “Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical brings the classic story back to the screen with a delightful Emma Thompson, dazzling dancing, and a suitably irascible take on the source material.”
Now considered an essential ’90s kids movie and often included on kid-friendly Halloween movie lists, Matilda is one of several titles perfect to stream this Halloween season. Also available to stream is Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, the Fear Street trilogy, and The Fall of the House of Usher, which arrived on the platform Thursday and marked director Mike Flanagan’s’ final Netflix horror title.
