Horror comes in a variety of flavors, and “scary” is a fairly relative term. What terrifies one person might not work for the next. Luckily for fans of horror movies, Netflix has a wide variety when it comes to nightmare fuel and we’ve gathered the best picks for this streaming list.
Whether you’re in the mood for a slasher flick, a James Wan haunting, an indie thriller, or a zombie apocalypse, there’s something for every kind of horror fan here.
Last updated on February 1, 2023.
1. Hush
Year: 2016
Cast: Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr., Michael Trucco
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 82 minutes
Director: Mike Flanagan
Trailer: Watch here
Mike Flanagan has produced some spine-chilling work for Netflix in recent years with his Haunting of Hill House series and Midnight Mass but he excels at horror in its feature-length form as well, and this film proves it. The premise is fairly simple: a deaf woman (Kate Siegel), reeling from a break-up and seeking solitude in a cabin in the wilderness, is terrorized by a masked killer. What elevates this nightmare is how Flanagan puts the audience in Siegel’s shoes, having his villain prowl and stalk and rather creepily invade her home without her knowledge.
2. It Follows
Year: 2014
Cast: Maika Monroe,
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 100 minutes
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Trailer: Watch here
Maika Monroe carries this supernatural thriller that once had 2014-era hook-up culture shaking in its boots. The film follows a young woman named Jay (Monroe), who contracts an STD after a backseat hookup. The only problem? STD in this case stands for “sexually transmitted demon.” Her only hope to not end up dead is to pass the curse onto someone else — or figure out why this being is haunting people in the first place.
3. Shutter Island
Year: 2010
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 170 minutes
Director: Martin Scorsese
Trailer: Watch here
Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese team up (again) for this thriller that is certainly spookier than their normal dramatic fare but no less intense. DiCaprio plays a detective drawn to a mysterious island that houses a psychiatric facility for the criminally insane. He’s investigating the case of an escaped convict, but a conveniently-timed storm, a hostile staff, and some strange happenings lead him down a rather dark and dangerous rabbit hole. As far as twist-endings go, this one more than earns its build-up.
4. The Conjuring 2
Year: 2016
Cast: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga
Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Runtime: 124 minutes
Director: James Wan
Trailer: Watch here
Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return for round two of this haunting horror franchise, once again playing a married couple expelling spirits who’ve set up shop with unsuspecting innocents. This time, Ed and Lorraine travel to London to help a single mother of four children who lives in a house plagued by an evil greater than any they’ve faced before. The setting has changed, but the plot stays pretty much the same, with the couple confronting some dark truths about their own natures while trying to save the kids.
5. Raw
Year: 2016
Cast: Ella Rumpf, Garance Marillier
Genre: Horror, Drama
Rating: R
Runtime: 99 minutes
Director: Julia Ducournau
Trailer: Watch here
If you have the stomach for it, Raw is one of the better horror films available on Netflix right now. The French-Belgian drama centers on a young girl named Justine, who begins her first year of vet school and uncovers a dark secret about herself and her family. A vegetarian, Justine, is soon overcome with a craving for meat after a hazing ritual gone wrong. From there, things get strange and gross and nightmare-inducing.
6. The Gift
Year: 2015
Cast: Jason Bateman, Joel Edgerton, Rebecca Hall
Genre: Thriller, Mystery
Rating: R
Runtime: 108 minutes
Director: Joel Edgerton
Trailer: Watch here
This directorial debut from Joel Edgerton is all kinds of messed up and though it leans more into thriller territory, its message is scary enough to earn a top ranking on this list. Edgerton plays Gordo, a man who’s had a hard life thanks to a bullying incident in high school. Jason Bateman plays Simon who, along with his wife Robyn (Rebecca Hall) moves to a Los Angeles neighborhood for a new job and reconnects with Gordo, his one-time classmate. At first, their relationship is amicable, but Gordo’s strange behavior grows increasingly dangerous and soon it’s revealed he’s got a score to settle with Simon, one that will likely cost him everything.
7. Veronica
Year: 2017
Cast: Sandra Escacena, Bruna Gonzalez, Claudia Placer
Genre: Horror
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 105 minutes
Director: Paco Plaza
Trailer: Watch here
After losing her father, young Veronica (Sandra Escacena) and two classmates attempt to contact the other side with a Ouija board during a solar eclipse. It’s a truly disastrous decision that might be frustratingly obvious in any other film. Naturally, something more sinister breaks through and it ends up causing turmoil in Veronica’s life, complete with hallucinations and hauntings and the kind of twisted nightmares that will scare you off of your own sleep.
8. Creep
Year: 2014
Cast: Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: R
Runtime: 77 minutes
Director: Patrick Brice
Trailer: Watch here
This cult favorite from Mark Duplass and director Patrick Brice is an unnerving watch, with a terrifying tension that builds to a truly disturbing epilogue. Duplass is strange and off-putting here as an eccentric loner named Josef who posts a bizarre ad on Craigslist requesting a videographer follow him for 24 hours, documenting his life. He tells Aaron (Brice), the unsuspecting cameraman, that the footage is for his unborn child as he has an inoperable brain tumor, but the reality (and horror) soon dawns on Aaron that he’s the real star of this weird, deadly social experiment.
9. The Ritual
Year: 2017
Cast: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 94 minutes
Director: David Bruckner
Trailer: Watch here
This Netflix nightmare follows a group of friends who venture into the Scandinavian wilderness in order to honor their recently-murdered brother. The guys — Luke (Rafe Spall), Phil (Arsher Ali), Hutch (Robert James-Collier), and Dom (Sam Troughton) — are forced to take a different path from the one planned, a mistake that leads them to cults and sacrificial offerings and an ancient being who prefers to stake its prey. The scenery is gorgeous, the chemistry of the cast is spot on, and the premise, how these men confront their fears and failures thanks to a supernatural being, is promising.
10. His House
Year: 2020
Cast: Wunmi Mosaku, Sope Dirisu, Matt Smith
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: NR
Runtime: 93 minutes
Director: Remi Weekes
Trailer: Watch here
Lovecraft Country’s Wunmi Mosaku and House of the Dragon’s Matt Smith star in this British horror flick that paints a terrifying picture of life as an immigrant. Mosaku plays Rial while Sope Dirisu plays her husband, Bol. The couple flees their war-torn home in South Sudan, applying for refugee status in England and hoping for a better life. Instead, evil lurks, not only in their neighborhood but in their own home which houses ghosts that haunt the pair and force them to reckon with past injustice. Smith plays their case worker who ignores their concerns, forcing the couple to endure some nightmarish conditions before they can find peace in this bizarre and foreign setting.
11. The Perfection
Year: 2018
Cast: Allison Williams, Logan Browning
Genre: Horror, Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 90 minutes
Director: Richard Shepard
Trailer: Watch here
Allison Williams has successfully parlayed her Girls notoriety into a series of horror films that have propelled her to Scream Queen status, and this mind-bending thriller continues that frighteningly good track record. Here, Williams plays Charlotte, a talented cellist who first befriends and then sabotages the talented student who replaced her. Initially, Charlotte seems to be the villain here, but there’s a twist upon twist ending that confirms even more sinister games are afoot.
12. Crimson Peak
Year: 2015
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, Charlie Hunnam
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Rating: R
Runtime: 119 minutes
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Trailer: Watch here
Guillermo del Toro recruits Jessica Chastain and Tom Hiddleston for this gorgeous Gothic horror story that’s more unnerving than truly terrifying. That’s not a knock. Horror takes all kinds of forms, and this story, about a brother-sister duo with a deadly secret and a young woman trying to escape her tragic past, is certainly spine-chilling. Chastain has the most fun, playing a deranged spinster with sinister plans for her brother’s new wife — including poisoned porridge and a bit of ghostly gaslighting — but the real star here is the setting: a Victorian-era mansion that breathes, bleeds, and holds the memories of its unlucky former inhabitants. It’s beautiful (as is everything del Toro does), and it deserves more hype than it’s been afforded.
13. Apostle
Year: 2018
Cast: Dan Stevens, Michael Sheen
Genre: Horror, Fantasy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 130 minutes
Director: Gareth Evans
Trailer: Watch here
Dan Stevens and Michael Sheen square off in this beautifully-shot thriller that’s tense to the teeth-clenching degree. Stevens plays a man who travels to a remote island to infiltrate a cult in order to save his kidnapped sister. While he tries to avoid detection he discovers dark secrets about the island and its inhabitants which test his faith when they come to light, throwing the cult into a chaos that quickly turns bloody.
14. Gerald’s Game
Year: 2017
Cast: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood
Genre: Thriller, Horror
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 103 minutes
Director: Mike Flanagan
Trailer: Watch here
Stephen King’s 1992 novel transpires mostly in one isolated lake house’s bedroom where its protagonist, Jessie, lies bound to a bed after her husband dies in the midst of a sex game. Mike Flanagan delivers a resourceful, disturbing adaptation anchored by a great Carla Gugino performance with his take on the material. Forced to find a way out of her situation, while confronting her own past, Gugino’s Jessie is made to go to extremes, which leads to, among other things, one of the squirmiest scenes in recent memory.
15. The Mist
Year: 2007
Cast: Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Rating: R
Runtime: 126 minutes
Director: Frank Darabont
Trailer: Watch here
Thomas Jane and Marcia Gay Harden star in this early aughts adaptation of a Stephen King novel playing residents of a small town terrorized by a strange weather phenomenon. When a thick blanket of mist unleashes some blood-thirsty creatures, the town seeks shelter in their local grocery store where friends and enemies are forced to work together to survive until help can arrive. If it arrives.
16. Under The Shadow
Year: 2016
Cast: Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi
Genre: Fantasy, Horror
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 84 minutes
Director: Babak Anvari
Trailer: Watch here
This Iranian horror flick manages to tie in relevant world events with a darker story of demonic possession. The film follows Shideh, a former medical student and mother trapped in her home during the bombings of Tehran with her daughter, Dorsa. The pair are soon haunted by a djinn, a malevolent spirit who can possess a human by taking what’s most important to them. For Dorsa, it’s her doll, for Shideh, it’s a medical textbook her dead mother gave her. The two fight to survive the bombs and this evil spirit, and you’ll be fighting to get to sleep after the nightmares from this one begin.
17. #Alive
Year: 2020
Cast: Yoo Ah-in, Park Shin-Hye
Genre: Horror, Action
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 98 minutes
Director: Il Cho
Trailer: Watch here
This South Korean zombie flick imagines a very specific Millennial nightmare — a zombie apocalypse interrupting your video game live stream. The film follows Joon-woo, a kid who’s forced to barricade himself in his parent’s apartment when a zombie outbreak happens after his family goes on a grocery run. He survives hordes of the undead and a self-imposed quarantine by bonding with a neighbor in the building across the street. But both the living and the dead have some pretty gruesome plans for them, so we wouldn’t count on a happy ending here.
18. The Rental
Year: 2020
Cast: Dan Stevens, Alison Brie, Jeremy Allen White, Sheila Vand
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Rating: R
Runtime: 88 minutes
Director: Dave Franco
Trailer: Watch here
Dave Franco writes and directs this psychological thriller about two couples whose weekend getaway takes a sinister turn. Dan Stevens plays Charlie who, along with his wife Michelle (Alison Brie), brother Josh (Jeremy Allen White), and his co-worker/Josh’s girlfriend Mina (Sheila Vand), heads to a seaside cabin for the weekend. Charlie and Mina hook up after taking MDMA and try to conceal their affair from their partners. A suspicious groundskeeper ends up revealing their secret, and things take an even darker turn when a masked killer begins terrorizing everyone in the house.
19. The Call
Year: 2020
Cast: Park Shin-Hye, Jeon Jong-seo
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 112 minutes
Director: Chung-Hyun Lee
Trailer: Watch here
This mind-bending Korean thriller imagines the horrifying consequences of altering history and communicating with the past. In 2019, 28-year-old Kim Seo-yeon travels to her rural home to care for her ill mother. She answers a call made to an old, cordless phone, one that comes from the past and is made by Oh Young-sook, a young woman living in her house in the year 1999. The two women initially try to help each other change their fates but when things go wrong, they engage in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse, one that reaches across decades and has ripple effects through time.
20. I Know What You Did Last Summer
Year: 1997
Cast: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr.
Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Runtime: 101 minutes
Director: Jim Gillespie
Trailer: Watch here
This horror flick is full of camp, jump thrills, and slasher action and it sports a who’s-who when it comes to 90s teen heartthrobs. Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., and Ryan Phillippe play a group of friends whose lives are forever entwined thanks to a traumatic accident. They’re reunited when a hook-wielding serial killer wreaks havoc on their small town, looking to deal out his own brand of justice for their past wrongs.
21. Bird Box
Year: 2018
Cast: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovitch
Genre: Sci-Fi, Horror
Rating: R
Runtime: 124 minutes
Director: Susanne Bier
Trailer: Watch here
Sandra Bullock’s apocalyptic sci-fi saga spawned a ridiculous internet challenge and renewed our love for monster-driven thrillers. Sure, we never actually see the otherworldly beings that cause people to commit suicide if they open their eyes, but the danger they pose and the fear they instill is still viscerally real. Bullock plays a mother trying to protect her two young children and survive amidst a group of strangers with their own agendas and issues.
22. The Invitation
Year: 2022
Cast: Nathalie Emmanuel, Thomas Doherty, Hugh Skinner
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 105 minutes
Director: Jessica M. Thompson
Trailer: Watch here
This very YA-esque horror flick didn’t get enough love in theaters for its gothic romance vibes and its terrifically timed jump-scares. Sure, the plot is basic: a young woman (Nathalie Emmanuel) connects with her estranged family via a DNA-testing ancestry service only to find they have some dark ties to an immortal baddie and even more sinister plans for her. But the setting — an English mansion filled with secrets, ghosts, and darkened wine cellars — and the truly bizarre final act turn it into a horror watch that’s both scary and entertaining.
23. Fear Street Trilogy
Year: 2021
Cast: Kiana Madeira, Sadie Sink, Gillian Jacobs,
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Rating: R
Director: Leigh Janiak
Trailer: Watch here
Based on the book series from R.L. Stine, this Netflix trilogy ties three generations of townsfolk connected by a bloody curse. Each film makes use of a different horror genre: slasher, supernatural, and period-hauntings, beginning with a series of slayings carried out by an evil entity in 1994 and tracing their roots all the way back to the town’s founding colony. Your favorite installment will depend on which genre speaks to you but the comforting setting of summer camp in Part Two, along with a strong performance from Stranger Things star Sadie Fink feels like the standout.
24. Velvet Buzzsaw
Year: 2019
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Rating: R
Runtime: 113 minutes
Director: Dan Gilroy
Trailer: Watch here
This satirical horror comedy from Dan Gilroy gives Jake Gyllenhaal every opportunity to play it weird as an art critic named … wait for it, Morf Vandewalt. When Morf becomes enthralled by the paintings of a dead man, strange occurrences begin to terrorize not only his life, but the life of his friends in the art world. Hallucinations, hackings, and murder eventually ensue but the visuals are so trippy and the characters so eccentric, you’ll have fun while waiting for the slashing to start.
25. Army of the Dead
Year: 2021
Cast: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell
Genre: Action, Horror
Rating: R
Runtime: 148 minutes
Director: Zack Snyder
Trailer: Watch here
Zack Snyder’s zombie heist flick set in a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas plagued by the undead is pure fun but also the nightmare-inducing kind. Dave Bautista plays a mercenary named Scott Ward who assembles a team to infiltrate a zombie-infested casino and retrieve millions of dollars in cash for the businessman who owns it before the government nukes the city. Things go awry, and ulterior motives soon endanger everyone as the zombies prove to be more than mindless flesh eaters, and the money isn’t the only score.
