Looking for the best scary movies on Netflix? The OG streaming service keeps adding new, terrifying titles to its horror movie lineup, making for a must-watch list that’ll last you long after spooky season has passed. And if you’re anything like us, you know that new horror movies on Netflix — as with new scary movies in general — are often the same thing as the best films being made today, period.
A lot has been said about the so-called recent “rebirth” of the horror movie genre. And while many horror fans will tell you the genre never went anywhere in the first place, it’s true that scary movies are enjoying more commercial and critical pull now than they have in decades. In fact, horror is the fastest-growing film genre today, with a share of industry-wide earnings that more than doubled between 2013 and 2023.
So, since we can keep expecting new, creative entries to the list of today’s scariest movies streaming now, it’s time to get caught up on what’s already out there. To help, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite scary movies — from brand new horror films to classic psychological thrillers, Halloween movies, and even horror-comedies — all on Netflix right now. Watch them before it’s too late. (As in, before they’re gone from Netflix. But interpret that more ominously if you wish!)
1. Woman of the Hour (2023)
Finally making it to Netflix this October after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival over a year ago, Woman of the Hour has already joined the ranks of the best creepy movies on Netflix. When you learn about the movie’s source material, you’ll understand why. The story it’s based on — namely, the time a serial killer appeared on a popular dating game show in the ‘70s, conceivably to find his next victim — is one with built-in scary movie potential. Through first-time director and star Anna Kendrick, though, we get a more meditative lens. Kendrick focuses more on the lives of the girls and women harmed by serial killer Rodney Alcala and less on Alcala himself, making for a refreshing take on the genre without sacrificing any spine-tingling creepiness or unease.
2. Halloween (1978)
There’s good horror movies on Netflix to watch on Halloween, and then there’s the horror movie to watch on Halloween. If you’re looking for some genre-defining jumpscares paired with maddeningly mounting tension, Michael Myers just might be your man. Not only will Halloween always be one of the best horror movies to stream, among Halloween songs, the theme from this movie is iconic. But we’re pretty sure you’ll hear "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult differently after watching this, too.
3. Outside (2024)
Seeking brand new horror movies on Netflix? The first-ever Filipino zombie movie just came to the platform this October, and it’s as much a tale of generational family trauma and abuse as it is a story of surviving the undead. Centering on a young family who, while fleeing a zombie outbreak, return to the father’s childhood home, horrors of more than one kind are uncovered. If you prefer action-packed zombie movies where the undead take complete center stage, the slow-burning Outside may be less your speed. But if you’re open to a creative new addition to the zombie genre that uses the apocalypse as a device to explore complex family drama, stream this one stat.
4. Run Rabbit Run (2023)
The challenge of simultaneously coping with past traumas and present-day parenthood serves as the recipe for more than one of our picks for popular horror movies on Netflix. That’s true of Run Rabbit Run, an Australian psychological horror film that’s also a fresh entry among ghost movies on Netflix. The premise here is essentially this: A single mom still coming to terms with an earlier loss begins to notice strange behaviors in her 7-year-old daughter. If creepy children are common in your go-to horror picks, you’ll want to add Run Rabbit Run to your streaming queue.
5. Scream (1996)
In the late 1990s, mainstream horror movies were suffering, to put it mildly. Wes Craven’s Scream changed all that, giving us a sharp, self-aware slasher that makes use of horror movie tropes while simultaneously reinventing the genre. Complete with memorable kills, irreverent wit, and social commentary, Scream is credited today with changing all horror movies that came after it, and it deserves a viewing every October at minimum. This is one of those movies that will forever live on among the best horror movies to stream.
6. The Birds (1963)
Three years after Psycho — which is also on Netflix, by the way — Alfred Hitchcock gave us what’s considered his first fantasy-horror film, The Birds. It utilizes an idea now common in horror movies but then unprecedented: what if the villain doesn’t have a clear motive? What if the movie’s deadly force — as embodied here by, you guessed it, birds — takes the form of an ordinary, everyday creature, with seemingly no rhyme or reason to its carnage? With plenty of eerie silences and a deep sense of dread throughout, The Birds is a slow, psychological unraveling that pits nature against people to terrifying and iconic effect.
7. The Wailing (2016)
If you’re in the mood for a movie unsettling enough to lose sleep over, this South Korean thriller could be up for the job. With a near-perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, The Wailing won over critics and horror buffs alike with its daring, original spin on what’s essentially a story of demonic possession. We promise it’s not like any American possession movie you’ve already seen, though. A tale of suspicion, hysteria, and the supernatural, it follows a cop who’s investigating a string of bizarre, gory events linked to the arrival of a mysterious stranger in a remote village. With haunting visuals and mind-bending twists in spades, this is a movie that’ll stick with you long after it’s over.
8. American Psycho (2000)
Maybe you’re also of the camp that the great remake machine didn’t really need to get its hands on the classic circa-2000 adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel. Regardless, knowing now that another American Psycho movie is indeed coming — this time from Bones And All and Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino — it’s especially worth returning to the original darkly funny takedown of tall men in finance.
9. Red Dragon (2002)
Want more Hannibal Lecter? Then press play on Red Dragon. The sequel to The Silence of the Lambs is just as chilling as the first, and stars Edward Norton and Ralph Fiennes alongside Anthony Hopkins.
10. #Alive (2020)
Released in the summer of 2020 and based on a 2019 script titled “Alone,” there’s something eerily prophetic about this South Korean zombie movie, created on the cusp of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contagion is a theme in all zombie movies, of course. But here, a video game live streamer witnesses the apocalypse from inside his apartment and must effectively quarantine alone as the zombie apocalypse ravages Seoul.
11. Jaws (1975)
Can you get more iconic than that score? Steven Spielberg’s Jaws is one of the most abidingly successful horror movies of all time for a reason. With the threat of a monster lurking just beneath the surface — viewers don’t actually see the movie’s titular set of jaws until well over halfway through the film — suspense isn’t in short supply here. If you’ve yet to see Jaws, what may surprise you, though, is the film’s exact flavor of suspense; this doesn’t feel like a nature-versus-humans tale. Here, the shark is as much a single-minded killer as any slasher movie’s Freddy or Jason, giving this top horror film on Netflix an unexpectedly supernatural edge.
12. Under the Shadow (2016)
This psychological horror movie from Iranian writer-director Babak Anvari has to be one of the best scary movies to watch on Netflix of the past decade. Set during the Iran-Iraq war, it tells the story of a mother and daughter’s encounter with a malicious entity that’s taken up residence inside their mostly evacuated apartment building. Blending supernatural scares with the real-life horrors of war, we promise this Persian-language film is well worth the subtitles.
13. Pearl (2022)
If you can, watch X first. It isn’t on Netflix, but Pearl is its prequel, and knowing what comes later will help you appreciate Pearl’s stage setting all the more. That’s especially true when it comes to understanding Pearl herself, played memorably by Mia Goth. Here, her origin story takes us to an isolated Texas farm in 1918, where Pearl’s obsession with escaping to become a movie star gives way to violent desires and an increasingly slippery grip on reality. When streaming this, come for the psychological horror and stay for the old Hollywood aesthetics. After, you can track down MaXXXine, the 2024 sequel to X.
14. The Deliverance (2024)
If you wish you could go back and see The Exorcism again for the first time, this brand new Netflix horror movie, starring Andra Day and Glenn Close, belongs on your to-watch list. Inspired by the real-life story of Latoya Ammons, a mother of three who claims that she and her family were plagued by demons after moving into a (literally) hellish home in Gary, Indiana, The Deliverance is at its core a haunted house movie. But it’s also a story of faith, trauma, and society’s refusal to believe Black women.
15. Gerald's Game (2017)
This Netflix production is based on Stephen King's disturbing novel of the same name. The movie, directed and edited by Mike Flanagan, follows Gerald and his wife as they escape to a lake house for the weekend. Gerald handcuffs Jessie, played by Carla Gugino, to the bed for a little light S&M, but things quickly go awry when he has a cardiac arrest. With Gerald unconscious on the floor and Jessie unable to get out of her restraints, she starts to wonder how long a person can survive without water, let alone food. No one's coming to her rescue, and she has to figure out how to break free. Things don't look good for Jessie — especially when an intruder appears.
16. The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2017)
A coroner and his son begin an autopsy on a beautiful young woman whose injuries don't make any sense. They set to work, only to find themselves in the middle of a mystery and right in harm's way. To sum it up simply: It's a horror/thriller that's one of the scariest movies streaming now and, arguably, one of the scariest we’ve streamed ever. It stars Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch, and it’d be perfect to watch on Halloween.
17. Freaks (2018)
Dive into an apocalyptic world divided where a young girl is living in isolation with her father. She has powers and is therefore classified as an abnormal, and that puts her in constant danger — of what exactly though, she's not sure. She just knows that if anyone finds her, she will be in big trouble.
18. The Silence (2019)
Oh look, another pick for best horror flicks on Netflix that stars Kiernan Shipka! A family moves through a strange new world where creatures hunt you down if you dare to make a sound — and yes, that plot is definitely reminiscent of one of the best scary movies of all time, A Quiet Place. The similarity, however, is a coincidence, and The Silence is worth watching in its own right. Stanley Tucci and John Corbett also star in this film.
19. The Paramedic (2020)
This Spanish film delivers enough suspense and drama to justify reading the subtitles. After a tragic accident, the main character (a paramedic, of course) goes off the rails and blames everyone around him for his misery. He's out for revenge, and his girlfriend and close colleague are first on his list.
20. Circle (2015)
Circle is another movie about a forced game with no winners. Fifty strangers are held captive, made to stand in a circle, and decide who among them should live or die.
21. CAM (2018)
Alice Ackerman, played by Madeline Brewer, performs provocative shows online. She'll do anything to get more viewers, including pretending to slit her throat. She gains more and more popularity, until an imposter that looks exactly like her takes over the account. Alice tries to figure out what's going on, and discovers there are more imposters impersonating other popular accounts. The No. 1 cam girl is, in fact, dead. Madeline doesn't want to suffer the same fate and must get to the bottom of the mystery.
22. 1922 (2017)
Stephen King adaptations are always chilling affairs, and this Netflix production is no exception. The title year holds significance: It marks the year a father enlisted his son's help to slit his mother's throat and bury her in a well. They get away with the crime, but neither are ever truly able to move on.
23. Death Note (2017)
Teenager Light Yagami finds a notebook that has evil powers. He can use it to kill anyone — all he has to do is jot down their name. This power, of course, doesn't come without strings.
24. Velvet Buzzsaw (2012)
This creepy art world satire stars Jake Gyllenhaal as an art critic who discovers some disturbing paintings. It seems anyone who interacts with them meets with an untimely death. Are the paintings possessed? In addition to Gyllenhaal, this film also stars John Malkovich and Rene Russo.
25. The Babysitter (2017)
Horror meets comedy in this silly scare fest where the babysitter's out for blood. The babysit-ee, Cole, decides to stay up and spy on his hot babysitter Bee, only to find out she's part of a satanic cult — and now that he's seen what she's up to, she's out to get him.
26. Malevolent (2018)
Brother and sister duo Angela and Jackson pose as paranormal investigators to fleece clients and make fast cash. When they end up being hired by a woman with actual paranormal activity going in her home, they're in for way more than they bargained for.
27. I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the House (2016)
Lily Saylor is a hospice nurse who goes to live with an elderly patient in an old New England mansion. The house, naturally, is haunted, and Lily's life is in serious danger.
28. In the Tall Grass (2019)
Yet another Stephen King adaptation to grace our list of the best scary movies on Netflix! Cal DeMuth and his pregnant sister enter a field of tall grass when they hear a young boy calling for help. Once inside the grass, they lose each other and find themselves in very real danger — and little chance of escaping.
29. The Ritual (2017)
If you’re hoping to find the scariest movie to watch on Netflix, a lot of people would say The Ritual holds that title. The gist is this: A group backpacking trip goes terribly wrong when four friends get lost in the Scandinavian forest. They face unknown dangers lurking in the woods, including a cult who is looking for a human sacrifice.
30. Apostle (2018)
Set in 20th century London, this haunting film follows the journey of a young man must journey to an isolated island run by a cult in an effort to save his sister.
31. The Perfection (2019)
Jump-scares abound in this twisted tale of musical prodigies traversing the world. Things start to get weird, then dangerous. As the story unfolds, it becomes increasingly evident that nothing is what it seems.
32. As Above So Below (2014)
Some scary movies find the cheat code for quality terror based on their setting alone. As Above So Below did that with the catacombs of Paris, a real-life series of underground tunnels containing the bones of more than 6 million Parisians. It’s a perfect backdrop for a found-footage thriller that makes use of historical intrigue to tell a claustrophobic, edge-of-your-seat tale of psychological horror. It’s fun, it’s creepy, and it’s pretty much a guarantee for some quality jump-scares.
33. Goosebumps (1998)
Allow us to round out our list of the best scary movies on Netflix with a pick that’s, in actuality, a scary TV show on Netflix (and a not-so-scary one at that). Any scary movie marathon is going to be better with a healthy dose of camp and nostalgia, and nothing supplies that more than this classic children’s horror anthology series, based on the R.L. Stine books of the same name. With 12 episodes at just over 20 minutes apiece, you could watch them all at once in lieu of a scary movie. What we like to do, though, is use them as a pre-bed palette cleanser after seeing one of the scarier picks on this list. They’re a good reminder that we choose to get creeped out with scary movies and TV shows because it’s fun to be scared sometimes.
