From beloved classics to Netflix originals, from haunted houses to evil creatures, Netflix has something for every kind of horror fan. Here’s a look at the ten best horror movies streaming on Netflix.
The Blackcoat’s Daughter
Two teenage girls left behind over winter break at a boarding school experience strange behavior in filmmaker Oz Perkins’ moody, atmospheric The Blackcoat’s Daughter. The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina star Kiernan Shipka shows her early flair for creepy characters as a possibly unhinged young woman, while Perkins builds a pervasive sense of dread in the snowy setting.
The Evil Dead
Sam Raimi’s low-budget horror debut The Evil Dead is still a marvel of independent filmmaking. Five college students accidentally summon demons while vacationing at a remote cabin. In this film, Bruce Campbell’s charismatic performance as Ash Williams helped make him a genre star, and Raimi’s ingenuity with camerawork and visual effects put him on the path to a lengthy Hollywood career.
His House
A pair of refugees from South Sudan are haunted by traumatic memories as well as an evil spirit from their homeland when they settle into government housing in London. His House blends traditional haunted house spookiness with a meditation on trauma and displacement, putting an engaging (and disturbing) new spin on a familiar kind of story.
Hush
Before creating the popular Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, Mike Flanagan directed the tense home-invasion thriller Hush, about a deaf woman (Kate Siegel) fighting off an implacable intruder. Flanagan ingeniously incorporates the main character’s deafness into the suspense, placing the audience in her shoes as she fights for her life.
The Invitation
A dinner party goes very wrong in Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation, which starts as a talky drama about former friends and lovers reconnecting before taking a darker turn. Has the host invited everyone over just to eat and converse, or is there a more sinister motive related to a strange cult’s doomsday prophecy? The eerie movie teases those possibilities before erupting into intense confrontations and violence.
It Comes at Night
What, exactly, comes at night? Trey Edward Shults’ post-apocalyptic movie It Comes at Night never quite answers that question, but it could be any number of dangers faced by a family hiding from a deadly disease that has ravaged the world. When a mysterious stranger arrives seeking help for his own family, the two clans must determine what dangers come from outside, and what dangers come from within.
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
The title alone should be enough to get you to watch Killer Klowns From Outer Space, which is, of course, about killer clowns from outer space. Aliens resembling clowns come to earth and use circus-themed implements of death (cotton candy cocoons, popcorn guns, etc.) to kill and consume the people of a small town. This bizarre horror-comedy has become a cult classic (or kult klassic) since its 1988 release.
Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo del Toro’s haunting, beautiful fable Pan’s Labyrinth is set in World War II-era Spain, where a young girl discovers a mysterious labyrinth populated by fantastical creatures. Del Toro intertwines the fairy-tale world with the real world of rising fascism in Spain as the mystical beings help the main character fight back against her sadistic military commander stepfather.
Sweetheart
Kiersey Clemons is the only person onscreen for most of Sweetheart‘s running time as the apparent lone survivor of a shipwreck who is stranded on a deserted island. Or is the island actually deserted? Director J.D. Dillard uses the looming threat of a monster from the deep to tell a story about a woman finding her reserves of inner strength and taking her power back.
Unfriended
Depicting an entire story solely via the images on a computer screen may sound like a ridiculous gimmick, but the clever, intricately designed horror movie Unfriended pulls it off with its basic but effective story about a group of teenagers targeted for revenge from beyond the grave. The movie perfectly captures the online lives of its characters while also delivering a satisfying and scary ghost story.
