Waves and 9 other great movies you missed in 2019

6. Pure

Director: Hannah Macpherson

Main Cast: Jahkara Smith, McKaley Miller, Ciara Bravo, Annalisa Cochrane

Release Date: September 6

Box Office: N/A

Streaming?: Hulu Original

Genre: Horror

Pure is the first movie on our list that was straight to streaming. It actually was not a standalone movie but part of a series on Hulu called Into the Dark. The series comes from Blumhouse Television and features a film every month with a theme that is somehow tied to that month. Typically it’s centered around a holiday but the episode Pure flipped the idea of not wearing white after Labor Day into an episode about the idea of sexual purity.

In the film, a father is taking his two teenage daughters to a religious retreat where daughters pledge their virginity to their fathers. If it sounds creepy it is, but “purity balls” are a very real occurrence. One of the daughters, Shay (Jahkara Smith,) is going through this ceremony for the first time. She was the product of an affair and is coming to live with her father after her mother has passed away. She wants to win him over so she’s willing to play along for a while.

See the trailer below:

The movie has religion, isolation, jump scares, strong feminist themes, and a talented young cast. By the end I was clapping and cheering and I watched it alone. If you aren’t familiar with the Into the Dark series, Pure might be a good place to start.