For some, spooky season begins sometime in late August—when Target puts out the animatronic skeletons and ghost projectors, and when every vacant retail space is possessed by a Spirit Halloween. For others, it’s after Labor Day. For yet another subset, spooky season runs year-round. A quick check of the calendar reveals that at least one of those criteria have been met, which means it’s time to queue up something with chilling vibes—even if the sun is shining.
Heart Eyes (2025)
Director Josh Ruben is on a roll, from clever two-hander Scare Me, to the surprisingly effective video game adaptation Werewolves Within, to Heart Eyes, a clever slasher that’s also a very solid rom-com. Olivia Holt plays Ally, a pitch designer for a jewelry company who doesn’t quite understand why her “doomed couples” commercial is seen as offensive. Love, she’s pretty sure, is dumb, so the Heart Eyes Killer running around murdering lovers doesn’t quite register—she’s not dumb enough for romance. At least until consultant Jay (Scream’s Mason Gooding) shows up, their will-they-won’t-they chemistry putting them firmly in the sights of the killer.
Until Dawn (2025)
David F. Sandberg came to the attention of horror fans with the no-budget short Lights Out, later expanded into a feature film, before directing the best Annabelle and two Shazams. This video game adaptation (well, sort of—it’s an original story based on the game of the same name) expands that range a bit further, as a bit of survival horror with some science fiction-y time loop stuff going on. Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion, Ji-young Yoo, and Belmont Cameli lead the ensemble as a group of friends who wind up in a secluded mining town, only to find themselves hunted, and then killed, only to restart the night with a new threat hunting them. They’ll be safe if they can survive until morning but, ya know: good luck with that. You can stream Until Dawn here.
Talk to Me (2022)
A group of teens comes across an embalmed hand and realize that they can use it to conjure spirits, which is all tremendous fun until it most assuredly isn’t. While there are elements of “elevated” horror here in the film’s suggestion that grief and trauma are pretty much the real gateways to hell, Talk to Me is also packed with old-school thrills and a general freakiness that we love to see. You can stream Talk to Me here.
Smile (2022)
Title notwithstanding, this isn’t one of those fun, goofy horror movies. Not even a little bit—it’s about as bleak as they come, as it happens, written and directed by Parker Finn, who also wrote the novel on which the movie is based. Sosie Bacon plays therapist Rose Cotter, who witnesses a patient’s violent death by suicide and then becomes convince that she’s being pursued by a supernatural…something that seems to feed on the trauma of those who’ve witnessed the unthinkable. As much as it deals in those “elevated horror” tropes, there are plenty of genuine scares here, alongside some wildly memorable visuals.
Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
Cousin to the Conjuring series from James Wan and that also, confusingly, stars Patrick Wilson, Insidious never became quite the box office juggernaut that those other movies did, but it still has an impressive run of five entries (and counting). Instead of ghosts and “real-life” demonologists The Warrens, this series has demons from parallel dimension “The Further,” and a family aided by Lin Shaye’s Elise Rainier. If this first sequel is a tiny bit of a let-down from the first in terms of scares, it makes better use of The Further’s spooky, timey-wimey weirdness. You can stream Insidious Chapter 2 here.
Train to Busan (2016)
Before Parasite, Yeon Sang-ho’s film was, perhaps, the biggest South Korean film to break into the American market, even if some of the subtext gets lost stateside (Busan was a haven for refugees during the Korean War). The 2016 film follows Seok-woo, a workaholic divorced dad who comes to feel that he’s running out of time to be the father he ought to be for his daughter Su-an. He has no idea how right he is. The train trip he plans for them as bonding time becomes something much more desperate when a zombie-infected woman hops aboard just before departure. What follows is one of the best action-horror movies of the past decade, but also a surprisingly moving story about a father and daughter reconnecting at the end of the world, as well as one that doesn’t shy away from some pretty pointed critiques of modern capitalism. You can stream Train to Busan here.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)
The zillionth movie in the TCM series may look like it shares a title with two others in the series, but can be distinguished by the removal of “The” and the fact that “Chainsaw” is here only one word. OK, now that’s cleared up: this most recent film serves as a direct sequel to the original, revisiting survivor Sally Hardesty (played here by Olwen Fouéré), as she heads back to Harlow to investigate the reappearance of Leatherface. A group of young entrepreneurs had been hoping to buy up the dilapidated properties in the area and gentrify the whole place—but there ain’t no way that our favorite flesh-wearing chainsaw killer is gonna hang out at a strip mall. There’s a lot going on here, and the movie has a lot of themes that it wants to tackle, from the aforementioned gentrification, to gun violence, social media influencers, etc. It gets points for ambition, certainly, and, at its best, is a fun time with a couple of old frenemies. You can stream Texas Chainsaw Massacre here.
Compliance (2012)
No need for zombies, demons, or ghosts here: just plain old humans being horrifying without any supernatural help. And this one’s based on a true story, replacing a real-life McDonald’s with the fictional “ChickWich.” Becky (Dreama Walker) is working her shift at the fast food restaurant when she’s called into the office—it seems that an “Officer Daniels” (Pat Healy) is on the phone, and that Becky matches the description of a woman the police are looking for regarding a series of thefts. Manager Sandra (Ann Dowd) first questions Becky and then, under instructions from the man on the phone, strip searches the young woman. Things get far worse from there. You can stream Compliance here.
The Cursed (2021)
I adore a period horror movie, and The Cursed has the kind of lush style that makes it impressive, even aside from its old-fashioned horror ties. In late 19th century France, land baron Seamus Laurent engages in a brutal reprisal against the members of a Romani clan who have settled on land that had, after all, been there before Laurent claimed it. By way of protection, the clan leader has fashioned a pair of silver fangs which will come to haunt Laurent and and the locals—the movie plays into, and then cleverly subverts, some well-worn vampire movie tropes. You can stream The Cursed here.
The Deliverance (2024)
Any cheapo movie can be weird, but with big name talent, a weird movie can really enter the cultural conversation—to wit, The Deliverance is helmed by Precious/The Butler director Lee Daniels, and stars Andra Day, Glenn Close, Mo’Nique, and Omar Epps. And the discourse here? It’s mostly centered around the age-old question: What the fuck did I just watch? Based on a true story (which, sure), it stars Day as a struggling single mom with a prison record who is raising three kids by herself while paying for cancer treatments for her mom (Glenn Close). It hits many typical exorcism movie beats, but by the time you get to EGOT nominee Close sprouting fangs and screaming about what body parts she can smell from across the room, it’s clear we’ve been in high-camp territory all along. You can stream The Deliverance here.
Under Paris (2024)
You might want to rethink those Paris travel plans after this one. This is an aggressively fun (and very French) update on Jaws that sees a killer mako shark loose, first in the Seine and later in the famous catacombs. An Olympic qualifying event is about to occur in the city, which, of course, the mayor won’t call off in spite of the growing body count. There’s some stuff here about environmental catastrophe being the cause, but mostly it’s just a bone-chomping good time. You can stream Under Paris here.
Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
Gremlins, in the traditional sense, haven’t been scary in a long time, but director Roseanne Liang’s period/creature/action/horror movie goes a long way toward rectifying that. Chloë Grace Moretz stars as WAAF Flight Officer Maude Garrett, assigned to transport a secret package (never a good thing) from Auckland to Samoa as part of the crew of a B-17 Bomber. No one believes Maude when she spots a creature on the wing of the aircraft (A lady pilot?!), and they figure she’s legitimately hysterical when she starts shooting at it. The movie’s initial co-writer, Max Landis, was removed from the movie over some alleged sexual harassment and some definitely skeevy public comments, which makes the movie’s theme about believing women a bit more complicated. All that notwithstanding, it’s a solidly entertaining bit of period creature action. You can stream Shadow in the Cloud here.
Blood Red Sky (2021)
German widow Nadja is taking a flight to New York with her kid, Elias. She seems sick—we and her fellow passengers are meant to think that she has cancer, which makes her an easy mark for the terrorist hijackers who board the plane and shoot her out of pique. Big mistake. The vampires-on-a-plane high concept at work could have been silly, but at no point does the movie forget that we’re seated for gory bloodsucking action. You can stream Blood Red Sky here.
Nightbooks (2021)
So, Nightbooks is technically for kids, and therefore might not provide quite the volume of scares that a grown-up horror audience might be hoping for. That being said: There are some legit frights here, frankly a little beyond what you’d expect from a kids’ movie. It’s the old story of kids kidnapped by a witch (Krysten Ritter), with the added twist that one of the kidnapped, Alex (Winslow Fegley) writes scary stories, and has to tell one each night that he’s trapped in the witch’s apartment in order to stay alive. There’s imagery here to creep out just about anybody. You can stream Nightbooks here.
Apostle (2018)
If you’re familiar with the wild tower action spectacle The Raid, you might have some sense of the energy that director Gareth Evans brings to Apostle’s second half, even if the styles are very different. This one’s pure folk horror, with nods to The Wicker Man: Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, The Guest) plays Thomas Richardson, a now-faithless missionary who returns home to discover that his sister has been kidnapped by a religious cult on a remote Welsh island. What starts out feeling a bit like a sleepy period drama evolves into a truly wild gorefest before it’s done. You can stream Apostle here.
His House (2020)
As fraught (and snooty) as the term “elevated horror” has become, it’s good to remember that a movie can have deep emotional resonance and a social conscience, all without sacrificing the haunted-house chills. Here, Bol and Rial (Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku), with their daughter Nyagak, flee war-torn Sudan to find refuge in a quiet English town, only to find that there’s evil waiting there for them. You can stream His House here.
Anaconda (1997)
A rather eclectic cast (Jennifer Lopez, Ice Cube, Jon Voight, Eric Stoltz, Jonathan Hyde, and Owen Wilson) sets off down the Amazon to shoot a documentary about an uncontacted tribe, only to discover that they’ve been duped! Evil snake hunter (sure, why not) Jon Voight is using the expedition as a cover to find and capture a record-breaking green anaconda, and he doesn’t care how many supporting characters have to die in the quest. As B-movie creature features go, this one’s particularly entertaining, with that bizarre ‘90s-era CGI only adding to the sweaty, slimy, Jon Voight-eating fun. You can stream Anaconda here.
Don’t Listen (2020)
If the neighbors refer to your house as the “house of voices,” I genuinely hope that you find that out before signing the papers—which obviously did not happen here. House flippers Daniel and Sara movie into a new place with their 9-year-old kid, Eric, who very quickly starts hearing voices coming from pretty much everywhere. The family hires an EVP (electronic voice phenomenon) expert to help, with very mixed results. This Spanish import works as a haunted house movie, but it’s far more brutal than the usual, with a strong visual flair to top things off. You can stream Don’t Listen here.
Gerald’s Game (2017)
Gerald’s Game, from the 1992 Stephen King novel, never seemed terribly filmable. The story is set entirely in an isolated cabin in the woods, and involves a single immobilized character for much of its page count. Enter director Mike Flanagan—who, in addition to his successful miniseries projects (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, The Midnight Club), did the impossible in crafting a killer adaptation of King’s lesser-loved Shining sequel, Doctor Sleep. Carla Gugino stars as a married woman trapped when her husband, played by Bruce Greenwood, dies after having handcuffed her to the bed. Increasingly delirious, she’s forced to face not only her past trauma, but the hungry dog that keeps sniffing around. You can stream Gerald’s Game here.
Creep (2014)
One of the better (maybe one of the best) found footage-style films of recent years, Creep takes place within the camera of Aaron (Patrick Brice, who also directed) and stars Mark Duplass (The Morning Show) as a dying man who hires the videographer to document his final days for his unborn son. The movie builds its tension around, initially, Aaron’s excessive friendliness—there are few better ways to create an atmosphere of unease than by offering up a character who’s a little too nice. Before long, the guy’s effusiveness curdles into an unpredictability that gets, well, creepier and creepier. You can stream Creep here.
The metaphor might seem a little heavy-handed—but modern life has begun to teach us that even the direst of dystopian sci-fi is just around the corner. The titular platform is a large tower, euphemistically referred to as the “Vertical Self-Management Center,” in which food is delivered via a shaft that stops on each floor from the top down: those near the top get to eat their fill; those at the bottom get scraps. The Spanish-language thriller is wildly violent, but inventive, and it’s not as if real-life capitalism is particularly subtle in its deprivations. You can stream The Platform here.
Under the Shadow (2016)
In Tehran during the Iran-Iraq War, a woman estranged from her husband is forced to protect her child from mysterious supernatural forces as the bombs continue to fall. Writer/director Babak Anvari’s Under the Shadow invokes the jinn (neither necessarily good nor evil, but potentially threatening) as a way to talk about the strife and turmoil of war and political conflict, as well as about the anxieties of women in oppressive societies. The atmospheric film plays simultaneously as the story of a haunting, and also as one about women and civilians in times of war; each element serves to heighten the other. You can stream Under the Shadow here.
The Call (2020)
I love a time-travel horror movie (a tiny but venerable genre that includes movies like Timecrimes, Triangle, and Happy Death Day). This one involves Seo-yeon (Park Shin-hye) visiting her childhood home in 2019, only to discover that an old cordless phone still works (never a good sign), and connects her to Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo), living in the house in 1999. The two bond over shared experiences, but things soon go very wrong when Seo-Yeon tells the other young woman about the future, and influences her to make changes. Some events, it seems, are best left alone. Clever and disturbing, with a solid high concept. You can stream The Call here.
Cam (2018)
Director Daniel Goldhaber (the upcoming How to Blow Up a Pipeline) teamed up with writer Isa Mazzei, who based this Black Mirror-esque story partly on her own memoir. Madeline Brewer (Orange is the New Black) plays online sex worker Alice Ackerman, aka Lola_Lola, who one night discovers there’s another Lola out there—a cam girl who’s identical to Alice in appearance and general vibe, but whose willingness to go further puts her out in front in terms of viewership. It’s a horror movie with a lot to say about the dehumanization of sex workers, with a great central performance from Brewer. You can stream Cam here.
I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)
Girl, yeah you are! A brisk, chilling, and effective gothic horror film starring Ruth Wilson as a live-in nurse who comes to believe that the creaky old house where she works is haunted. This one’s less concerned with immediate shocks and scares than with getting under your skin, but there’s definitely a creepiness here that lingers. Director Osgood Perkins had similar success with The Blackcoat’s Daughter and Gretel & Hansel. You can stream I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House here.
The Block Island Sound (2020)
Strange doings are afoot on the title’s Block Island, the most obvious being the vast numbers of dead fish that keep washing ashore. Almost as alarming, though, is the behavior of one of the local fishermen, Tom, who keeps waking up in strange places and generally losing time. His daughter Audry (Michaela McManus) works for the Environmental Protection Agency and is sent to investigate the mass fish deaths; she brings along her daughter and reunites with brother Tom (Chris Sheffield) along the way. Together, they discover that no ordinary environmental catastrophe is to blame (I guess it wouldn’t be much of a horror movie if it were), as the film blends family drama and the eerie local events as it builds to a pretty chilling climax. You can stream Block Island Sound here.
Cargo (2017)
With the always-welcome Martin Freeman in the lead, this is, OK, yet another zombie film, but one that still manages to do things a bit differently. An Australian import, this one tweaks the rules so that the infected have just about 48 hours of humanity before they turn, meaning that everyone has a bit of time to contemplate their fates, and maybe even to think about how to make the best use of their time. It’s a more melancholic take on the zombie apocalypse, full of chilling outback atmosphere and some genuine scares. Don’t get confused with the 2020 sci-fi movie of the same name, also on Netflix. You can stream Cargo here.
There’s Something in the Barn (2023)
A Christmastime horror comedy from Norway that, I’d say, can be enjoyed any time of the year that you’re in the mood for holiday fear. An American family is dragged back to their ancestral family farm in rural Gudbrandsdalen, Norway by an overzealous dad. No one else is terribly happy about it until they discover an elf living on the property. At first it seems like a cool thing, having a mythical creature out back—until the family begin ignoring the three simple rules one must always observe in the presence of a barn elf. What starts as a quirky holiday comedy turns into a full-bore gorefest by the final act. You can stream There’s Something in the Barn here.
Verónica (2017)
Loosely based on purportedly true events, this import from Spain is all spooky atmosphere and old-school chills. It’s the story of a young woman who conjures up evil demons following some ill-conceived Ouija-play. (Seriously: Stop messing with those things). When some friends try to conjure up lost loved ones during a solar eclipse, they wind up making contact with a spirit they weren’t expecting. Because of course they do. It’s not the most original chiller, but the creepy fundamentals are sound, and there are plenty of solid scares. You can stream Verónica here.
Sister Death (2023)
If Verónica was your cup of sangria, you can click right over to this sequel (actually a prequel set in 1939), following Sister Narcisa (Aria Bedmar) after she arrives at a Spanish convent. As a child she’d supposedly seen a vision of the Virgin Mary, making her both famous and a bit notorious around the place, which quite naturally is rife with spooky doings in the style of several other nun-related horror-movies of recent years. Sister Death breaks from the habit by being just a bit scarier, and quite a bit smarter in its consideration of all the ways religion can turn people into monsters. You can stream Sister Death here.
Hunger (2023)
This one isn’t billed as a horror film, but good luck finding a more harrowing psychological thriller on the streamer. Whether it’s The Bear, The Menu, or Triangle of Sadness, some of the most intense dramas on TV and in film are centered around preparing or eating food. Restaurant-related anxiety is deep in the zeitgeist right now, perhaps reflecting our deep understanding that the food is running low, whether we care to acknowledge it or not. Here, Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying plays Ayo, a young woman working in a family noodle shop who finds a mentor in the dictatorial Chef Paul (Nopachai Chaiyanam). It’s worth it, she figures, even as her climb exposes her to a world for which she’s not prepared. You can stream Hunger here.
Watcher (2022)
A straightforward premise is impossibly tense under the direction of Chloe Okuno. An American couple moves to Bucharest, and Julia (Maika Monroe) quickly finds herself isolated: She’s alone for hours of the day while her husband works and she doesn’t speak the language, so has a hard time making friends or even communicating. So it’s even more terrifying than it might otherwise be when she starts seeing a man who appears to be following and watching her wherever she goes. You can stream Watcher here.
Bird Box (2018)
This high-concept thriller might be horror-lite in some regards, but the clever premise generates a ton of tension throughout. The premise here is that, if you see the creatures that have descended upon the world, you die. So Bullock and co. are forced to navigate by sound alone, and the invisible threats are almost certainly more scary than anything Netflix might have visualized. The sequel, Bird Box: Barcelona (also a Netflix original), is somewhat less effective but still entertaining. You can stream Bird Box here.
The Ritual (2017)
What do you do when one of your best friends is murdered in a botched liquor store robbery? Go to Sweden and tromp around in the woods, obviously! The four friends here do just that in this effective film that blends don’t-get-lost-in-the-woods horror with some genuinely mythological frights that play to the best traditions of folk horror. You can stream The Ritual here.
The Babysitter (2017)
It’s not terribly original, but that’s kind of the point. In the film, 12-year-ole Cole finds out that his hot babysitter (Samara Weaving) is part of a murderous satanic cult. It’s a bloody, gory, high-energy comedy from director McG (Charlie’s Angels), and one with a really game supporting cast having fun playing with, and against, the usual tropes. The 2020 sequel, Killer Queen, feels like more of the same—but worth a look if you enjoy this one. You can stream The Babysitter here.
May the Devil Take You (2018)
Indonesia has been a particularly fertile ground for the development of horror movies for a long time, and Netflix has hosted a few recent bangers. This one’s a pretty straight-up story of demonic possession and being very careful what you wish for, involving a man who sells his soul for wealth and success, only to release a demonic presence that brings goopy, gory harm to his loved ones. It might not be the most visually explicit in terms of its body horror, but it’s up there. The 2020 sequel, May the Devil Take You Too, is almost as good. You can stream May the Devil Take You here.
Malevolent (2018)
It goes off the rails a bit (quite a bit, actually) in the final act, but Florence Pugh (as Angela) gives a great performance of one half of a scammy brother-sister team of ghostbusters in the 1980s. In Scotland. In the course of the movie, Angela discovers that her mom’s supposed ability to communicate with the dead wasn’t a lie, and that she also has the ability—complicating their lives, especially when the siblings learn more than they should about a house where a group of children were killed. You can stream Malevolent here.
Fear Street Trilogy (2021)
I’m covering three movies at once here, as each film in the trilogy, adapted from the R. L. Stine books, shares a tone, quality, and director (Leigh Janiak, best known for Honeymoon prior to Fear Street). Fear Street Part One: 1994 kicks off the films by introducing the town of Shadyside, which the local kids call “Shittyside,” and has a dark history of multiple murders, most of them covered up. A group of teens upsets the grave of a witch, kicking off the revival of a murderous cult. The vibe here is a little bit Stranger Things, with some legit gore and scares (it’s YA, but definitely not kids’ stuff) as Janiak pays homage to a wide range of horror movies past. The series continues with a camp slasher homage in Fear Street Part Two: 1978, and then an origin that brings things to a conclusion in Fear Street Part Three: 1666. There’s a standalone fourth film in the series, Prom Queen, which is fine…but this initial trilogy is something special. You can stream Fear Street Part One: 1994 here.
The Perfection (2018)
A short synopsis, involving Charlotte Willmore (Allison Williams) returning to her prestigious music academy after an absence and finding that another woman (Logan Browning) has taken her place at the head of the class, might make it seem as though we’re entering Black Swan territory, at worst—but the intentionally disjointed narrative here quickly careens into wildly claustrophobic body horror. It might not be the first film to mine dark thrills and gore out of arts education (Suspiria, anyone?) but it goes as far as any of them, and even beyond. You can stream The Perfection here.
Jaws (1975)
This year marks Jaws‘ 50th anniversary—did even hungry young director Stephen Spielberg know that we’d still be hesitant to go back in the water? The summer blockbuster era that the movie gave birth to has produced many a forgettable diversion, but this one has survived a half of a century with its bite (sorry) intact. Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, Robert Shaw, and Lorraine Gary all star in the story of a police chief trying to protect beachgoers from a vicious killer shark in the face of politicians who can’t be arsed. You can stream Jaws here.
