Every month, Netflix adds more high-quality movies that make it harder to find the time to do anything else.
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I often struggle to decide which great film or underrated flick I should put in my queue to watch when I have free time.
You shouldn’t have the same problem, which is why I made this list of my top three new Netflix movies you should stream in August 2026.
From a pitch-black satire about social media obsession starring Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen to a 2024 horror film featuring Sydney Sweeney, these films are all underseen, underrated and deserve a wider, more appreciative audience than they’ve received in the past.
Sister Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) is a novice nun who just joined an Italian convent that treats dying clergy members. Because she’s new to the ways of the catholic order, she brushes off some weird things she sees, like strange symbols on some of the nuns’ bodies and disturbing nightmares of hooded figures surrounding her. But Cecilia can’t ignore a shocking development that occurs during her stay – she becomes pregant, even though she’s a virgin. Something is amiss at this nunnery, and Cecilia is determined to find out before time runs out and she gives birth to something she’s not entirely sure is even human.
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Immaculate is a clever twist on the devil baby trope – just when you think you know where it’s going, its plot takes a turn in another direction. That’s a good thing, as one of the film’s best assets is its unpredictability; it could’ve been a cheap imitation of Rosemary’s Baby, but instead, its own weird thing. The movie’s other secret weapon is Sweeney, who showcases another side to her she’s never shown before. She’s completely believable as an innocent nun, and her transformation into a final girl battling to save herself is Immaculate‘s chief pleasure.
Immaculate starts streaming on August 13.
Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) isn’t the most stable person – her personal life is in the gutter, her mother just died, and her only means of escape is through social media. When she discovers Taylor (Elizabeth Olsen) online, she sees the popular influencer as her way out of her humdrum life and into Taylor’s picture-perfect, highly curated Venice Beach world. Ingrid quickly moves cross-country and tries to get close to Taylor by pretending to be everything she is: cultured, stylish and always cool. Ingrid’s lie works – Taylor likes her enough to invite her into her inner circle – but how long can Ingrid keep up the illusion without her growing desperation to be loved exposing her charade?
Ingrid Goes West has the bones of a stalker thriller – think Single White Female for the Instagram age – but it’s less interested in cheap thrills and more focused on how people like Ingrid use social media as a way to avoid their problems. Taylor isn’t exempt from this criticism either; she advertises a life that doesn’t exist, and which Ingrid craves. Plaza and Olsen deliver performances that toe the line between satire and melodrama. Both of their characters are seriously disturbed, but only one of them knows it.
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Ingrid Goes West is now streaming on Netflix.
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This story was originally published August 8, 2026 at 6:30 AM.