The 25 Best Horror Movies on Netflix Right Now
For some, horror season begins around the end of August, when Home Depot displays animatronic skeletons and haunted projectors, and every empty storefront is filled with the Spirit Halloween store. For others, this isn’t possible until Labor Day. And still others, who enjoy gore, believe there’s no better time for heart-wrenching scares than Valentine’s Day.
No matter what time you prefer to watch horror movies, Netflix has a movie worth watching—or 25.
28 years later (2025)
As much as I loved the previous 28 films, I didn’t expect to be so excited about a sequel to what has become a classic of the genre. But Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, and company are still in top form, crafting this gripping, tense film set in a post-apocalyptic world, centered on the story of Spike, played by Alfie Williams, a boy coming of age in the apocalypse with an estranged father and a dying mother. And then along comes Ralph Fiennes, who steals the show (and that’s not a euphemism).
Deadstream (2022)
The found footage genre is still very much alive, as proven by this funny and inventive horror comedy, which cleverly evokes the original Evil Dead with its blend of wacky humor and stunningly gruesome practical special effects. Director and star Joseph Winter plays Sean, a once-popular YouTuber attempting to make a comeback (one of the film’s cleverest tricks is tricking you into loving a character who doesn’t deserve it). Known for his incredible stunts, he hosts a late-night livestream while locked in a supposedly haunted house. While you can probably guess where this is heading, Winter and company skillfully combine genuine scares, technical prowess, and a few laughs to create a film brimming with terrifying moments that also manages to poke fun at the toxic landscape of social media.
Heart Eyes (2025)
Director Josh Ruben is on a roll, from the witty two-person film “Scare Me ” to the surprisingly effective video game adaptation “The Werewolves Inside” to “Heart Eyes,” a clever slasher that also doubles as a solid romantic comedy. Olivia Holt plays Ellie, a jewelry campaign designer who’s unsure why her ads for “doomed couples” are considered offensive. Love, she believes, is stupid, so the “Heart Eyes” killer, who’s walking around murdering lovers, doesn’t bother her at all—she’s not stupid enough for romance. At least until guidance counselor Jay ( Scream ‘s Mason Gooding) shows up, and their shaky chemistry makes them a target for the killer.
“Blackening” (2022)
A grisly comedy that seamlessly blends elements of both genres, Tim Story’s modern slasher updates the tired horror trope of a Black character being the first to die. Everyone is Black, so who will the killer choose? A group of friends arrive at a cabin in the woods to celebrate Juneteenth, only to discover their owners are missing and that they are being hunted by a masked killer who wants them to play a Scream- style trivia game about African-American culture with deadly stakes. Satire aside, the threats are serious, and the potential survivors (played by Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, Sinqua Walls, Jay Pharoah, and Yvonne Orji) are better developed (and funnier) than many slasher films, so you actually care who lives and who dies.
Train to Busan (2016)
Before Parasite, Yeon Sang-ho’s film was arguably the most successful South Korean film to break into the American market, even if some of the subtext is lost in the States (Busan was a haven for refugees during the Korean War). The 2016 film follows Seok-woo, a workaholic divorced father who feels he has less and less time to be the father he needs to be to his daughter, Soo-an. Little does he know how right he is. The train trip he plans for them as a bonding experience turns into something far more desperate when a zombie-infested woman jumps aboard just before departure. The result is one of the best action-horror films of the last decade, as well as a surprisingly touching story of a father and daughter reuniting at the end of the world, and a film that doesn’t shy away from some rather harsh criticism of modern capitalism. You canwatch Train to Busan here .
Frankenstein (2025)
I think this film should be called a gothic drama—it has too much of a star-studded cast, and the script and direction are by perennial Oscar favorite Guillermo del Toro, so it must be more than just horror. And yet! This extraordinarily faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel finds humanity in the monster, but it also has a fair amount of existential dread, plus some of the most terrifying and nauseating special effects in recent memory. The film was nominated for nine Oscars , which doesn’t mean it’s not terrifying.
El Conde (2023)
The specter of Augusto Pinochet’s fascist rule continues to haunt Chile, despite his death a couple of decades ago. This is hardly unusual in the history of dictatorships—there will always be those who remember the horrors, and those fortunate enough to wonder if things weren’t better in the good old days. This dark comedy/horror from Pablo Larraín ( Spenser ) takes this psychological omnipresence to the extreme: Pinochet (Jaime Vadel) is a 250-year-old vampire who faked his own death and continues his bloodsucking activities on a less public stage, while a determined nun seeks to exorcise him for good. The film features gore scenes, as well as some savage but well-earned digs at other dictatorial world leaders you may have heard of. In a nod to the original Nosferatu , the film’s stunning black-and-white cinematography earned it an Oscar nomination.
Blood Red Sky (2021)
German widow Nadja flies to New York with her child, Elias. She looks ill—we and the other passengers are meant to assume she has cancer, making her an easy target for terrorist hijackers who board the plane and shoot her in a fit of rage. Big mistake. The concept of vampires on a plane could have been silly, but the film never forgets for a second that we’re watching gory, blood-sucking scenes.
Night Books (2021)
So, Night Books is technically aimed at children, and therefore may not offer the amount of scares that an adult horror-loving audience might expect. However, there are some genuinely scary moments, frankly, a bit more than you’d expect from a children’s film. It’s the same old story of children kidnapped by a witch (Krysten Ritter), with the added twist that one of the kidnapped, Alex (Winslow Fegley), writes scary stories and must tell one every night about being trapped in the witch’s apartment to survive. There are images here that would terrify almost anyone.
The Conjuring (2022)
The highest-grossing Taiwanese horror film of all time inspired a TikTok challenge a few years ago, asking viewers if they could watch it in its entirety without taking their eyes off it. It might be a bit overdramatic, but The Conjuring is certainly a tense found-footage horror film that draws us in, challenging viewers to sing along with the characters to help save a cursed child. Six years before the film begins, a pregnant Ronan and her boyfriend interrupt a rural ritual while attempting to document it for their YouTube channel, and their lives have changed dramatically since.
Apostle (2018)
If you’re familiar with the gripping action film The Raid , you might be familiar with the energy director Gareth Evans brings to the second half of Apostle , even if the styles are very different. It’s pure folk horror with nods to The Wicker Man : Dan Stevens ( Downton Abbey , The Guest ) plays Thomas Richardson, a now-atheist missionary who returns home to find his sister kidnapped by a religious cult on a remote Welsh island. What begins as a sleepy historical drama devolves into a bloody nightmare before it’s over. You can watch Apostlehere .
His House (2020)
As ambiguous (and condescending) as the term “sublime horror” may be, it’s important to remember that a film can have deep emotional resonance and social significance without sacrificing the haunted house’s sense of dread. Here, Bol and Rial (Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku) and their daughter Nyagak flee war-torn Sudan for a quiet English town, only to discover evil awaiting them.
Don’t Listen (2020)
If your neighbors call your house “the house of voices,” I sincerely hope you find out before signing the papers—which apparently didn’t happen here. Daniel and Sarah, who flip houses, move into a new place with their 9-year-old son, Eric, who quickly begins hearing voices from almost everywhere. The family hires an EVP (electronic voice phenomena) expert, but the results are mixed. This Spanish film works as a haunted house movie, but it’s far more violent than usual, and has a strong visual style to boot. You canwatch “Don’t Listen” here .
Gerald’s Game (2017)
Gerald’s Game , the 1992 adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, never seemed particularly suited to filmmaking. Set in a secluded cabin in the woods, the character remains immobilized for much of the film’s runtime. Enter director Mike Flanagan, who, in addition to successful miniseries ( The Haunting of Hill House , Midnight Mass , The Midnight Club ), has achieved the impossible with a stunning adaptation of King’s less beloved The Shining sequel, Doctor Sleep . Carla Gugino plays a married woman trapped after the death of her husband, played by Bruce Greenwood, who left her handcuffed to the bed. Increasingly delirious, she is forced to confront not only her past trauma but also a hungry dog who constantly sniffs everything around her.
The Crawler (2014)
One of the best (possibly one of the best) found-footage films of recent years, Creep unfolds through the lens of Aaron (Patrick Brice, who also directed), starring Mark Duplass ( The Morning Show ) as a dying man who hires a videographer to film his final days for the sake of his unborn son. Early on, tension is built by Aaron’s overly friendly nature—few things create a more unsettling atmosphere than a character who’s just too kind. Soon, the guy’s overly kind nature escalates into unpredictability, which becomes, well, increasingly creepy. You can watch Creephere .
Platform (2019)
The metaphor may seem a bit blunt, but modern life teaches us that even the darkest dystopian sci-fi plots are just around the corner. The platform that gives the film its title is a large tower, euphemistically called the “Center for Vertical Self-Governance,” in which food is delivered via a shaft that stops at each floor, from top to bottom: those near the top can eat their fill; those at the bottom receive scraps. This Spanish-language thriller is incredibly brutal yet inventive, and it’s not as if real capitalism is particularly subtle in its deprivations. You canwatch “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 bombs continue to fall. In “Under the Shadow,” writer-director Babak Anvari, jinn (not necessarily good or evil, but potentially dangerous) are used as a vehicle to explore the strife and upheaval of war and political conflict, as well as the anxieties of women in oppressive societies. This atmospheric film is simultaneously a ghost story and a story about women and civilians during war; each element reinforces the other.
The Call (2020)
I love time-travel horror films (a small but venerable genre that includes films like Time Crimes , Triangle , and Happy Death Day ). In this film, So-yeon (Park Shin-hye) visits her childhood home in 2019 and discovers that the old cordless phone still works (never a good sign), which connects her with Young-sook (Jeon Jung-seo), who lives in the same house in 1999. They bond over their shared experiences, but things soon go awry when So-yeon tells another young woman about the future and pushes her to make a change. Some events feel better left alone. A smart and unsettling film with a good, original concept.
Block Island Sound (2020)
Strange things are happening on Block Island, the most obvious of which is the massive amounts of dead fish that keep washing up on the shore. However, almost as disturbing is the behavior of one of the local fishermen, Tom, who keeps waking up in strange places and losing all sense of time. His daughter, Audrey (Michaela McManus), works for the Environmental Protection Agency and sets off to investigate the mass fish die-offs; she takes her daughter with her and reunites with her brother, Tom (Chris Sheffield), along the way. Together, they discover that no ordinary environmental disaster is to blame (it probably wouldn’t be a very good horror movie if that were the case), as the film combines family drama and eerie local events, building to a rather frightening climax. You canwatch “Block Island Sound” here .
Cargo (2017)
Starring the always-desirable Martin Freeman, this is, well, another zombie movie, but still a little different. This Australian film flips the rules so that infected people only have about 48 hours of human lifespan before they turn into zombies, meaning everyone has a little time to contemplate their fate and maybe even think about how best to use that time. It’s a more melancholic take on the zombie apocalypse, full of the chilling atmosphere of the Australian outback and some genuinely frightening moments. Not to be confused with the 2020 sci-fi film of the same name, also available on Netflix. You canwatch “Cargo” here .
Veronica (2017)
This Spanish film, based on a supposed true story, is full of eerie atmosphere and classic horror. It’s the story of a young woman who summons evil demons after a botched game of Ouija board (seriously: stop messing with those things). When friends try to bring lost loved ones back to life during a solar eclipse, they encounter a spirit they didn’t expect. Because, of course, that’s how it’s supposed to be. It’s not the most original thriller, but the creepy premise is solid, and the film has plenty of genuinely chilling moments. A sequel, Sister Death, is also available on Netflix. You canwatch Veronica here .
The Ritual (2017)
What do you do if one of your best friends is killed during a botched liquor store robbery? Go to Sweden and wander the woods, of course! Four friends do just that in this gripping film, which combines forest-themed horror with genuinely mythological scares in keeping with the best traditions of folk horror.
Let the Devil Take You (2018)
Indonesia has long been a particularly fertile ground for horror films, and Netflix has recently released several such hits. This film is a fairly straightforward story about demonic possession and the importance of being careful what you wish for. It follows a man who sells his soul for wealth and success in order to unleash a demonic entity that wreaks bloody and brutal harm on his loved ones. It may not be the most visually explicit body horror film, but it’s still top-notch. The 2020 sequel, May the Devil Take You Too , is almost as good.
Fear Street Trilogy (2021)
I’m reviewing three films at once because each of the trilogy, based on R.L. Stine’s books, shares a distinct tone, quality, and director (Leigh Janiak, best known for Honeymoon before Fear Street ). “Fear Street Part 1: 1994” begins the series by introducing the town of Shadeside, known to local teenagers as “Shittown,” which has a dark history of numerous murders, most of which were covered up. A group of teenagers desecrate a witch’s grave, sparking the resurgence of a bloodthirsty cult. The atmosphere here is a bit reminiscent of Stranger Things , with genuine gore and scary moments (it’s young adult fiction, but definitely not children’s), as Janiak pays homage to a wide range of horror films of the past. The series continues with a slasher parody in Fear Street Part 2: 1978, and then a prequel that wraps things up in Fear Street Part 3: 1666. There’s also a fourth film in the series, Prom Queen , which is pretty good… but this first trilogy is something special.
Perfection (2018)
The summary, in which Charlotte Willmore (Allison Williams) returns to her prestigious music academy after an absence to find another woman (Logan Browning) has taken her place in the class, might give the impression that we’re, at worst, entering the world of Black Swan —but the intentionally disjointed narrative quickly descends into a wild, claustrophobic body horror. It may not be the first film to extract dark thrills and gore from art education (remember Suspiria ?), but it goes as far as any of them, and then some. You canwatch The Perfection here .