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 some of the scariest movies of all time on Netflix for this streaming list.
Whether you’re in the mood for a simple scary movie, a slasher flick, a James Wan haunting, an indie thriller, something from Netflix’s original films, or a zombie apocalypse, there’s something for every kind of horror fan on this streaming service.
Here are the 25 best horror movies on Netflix.
Last updated on September 29, 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. Jaws
Year: 1975
Cast: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss
Genre: Thriller
Rating: PG
Runtime: 124 minutes
Director: Steven Spielberg
Trailer: Watch here
With just a few bars on the piano and an oversized mechanical shark, Steven Spielberg terrorized generations of moviegoers with Jaws. The film follows a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer who team up to hunt a great white shark who has a worrisome bloodlust and seems to be targeting a small beach town during the busiest time of the year. Spielberg’s camera work – the lingering, underwater shots, the quick cuts of flesh being torn from bone, and rows of teeth flashing to the surface – make this exercise in inciting aquaphobia even more chilling. You’ll never look at a carefree day at the beach the same way again.
3. The Strays
Year: 2023
Cast: Ashley Madekwe, Bukky Bakray
Genre: Thriller
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 100 minutes
Director: Nathaniel Martello-White
Trailer: Watch here
This British thriller from first-time director Nathaniel Martello-White pulls inspiration from Jordan Peele films like Get Out and Us to deliver a haunting examination of race, class, and generational trauma. With shifting POVs and a multi-chapter plot, the story follows Neve (Ashley Madekwe), a white-passing. bi-racial woman living the perfect life in upper-crust suburbia with her husband and two children. But, when two strangers from her past pop up to wreak havoc on her personal life, Neve is forced to choose between the truth and the fantasy she’s spent so long building.
4. Vivarium
Year: 2019
Cast: Imogen Poots, Jesse Eisenberg
Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Runtime: 97 minutes
Director: Lorcan Finnegan
Trailer: Watch here
Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg star in this horror thriller that breaks up its bleak plot with bright moments of dark comedy. Poots plays Gemma, Eisenberg her boyfriend, Tom, as the couple prep to take the next step in their relationship: house hunting. But their search for the perfect starter home ends with them trapped in some sort of hell where they must raise a strange child before they can earn their freedom. It’s a total millennial nightmare.
5. Paranormal Activity
Year: 2007
Cast: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Rating: R
Runtime: 86 minutes
Director: Oren Peli
Trailer: Watch here
The found footage genre certainly seems done to death, but the first Paranormal Activity is still a lot of fun and fright. Although it certainly spawned some not-as-great sequels and inspired plenty of copycats, the original should be on anyone’s horror binge list. The film focuses on a married couple’s attempt to figure out and put an end to the supernatural occurrences happening in their home by way of a tripod. It’s just realistic enough to give you nightmares, or, at the very least, make you uneasy about turning off the lights.
6. 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.
7. 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 footage horror film 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. 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 slow-burning beautifully-shot thriller that’s tense to the teeth-clenching degree in the style of The Wicker Man. 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.
13. 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 of the Stephen King novel 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.
14. Fear Street Trilogy
Year: 2021
Cast: Sadie Sink, Kiana Madeira, Emily Rudd
Genre: Horror, Sci-Fi
Rating: R
Runtime: 330 minutes
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.
15. 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.
16. #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.
17. 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 horror 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 serial killer begins terrorizing everyone in the house.
18. Blood Red Sky
Year: 2021
Cast: Peri Baumeister, Dominic Purcell
Genre: Horror, Action
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 121 minutes
Director: Peter Thorwarth
Trailer: Watch here
This foreign language thriller gives horror fans not one, but two nightmare scenarios. A group of terrorists hijacking a place is scary enough, but when one of the passengers just so happens to be infected with some kind of illness that causes her to crave human blood, things get really terrifying.
19. The Pope’s Exorcist
Year: 2023
Cast: Russell Crowe
Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Runtime: 103 minutes
Director: Julius Avery
Trailer: Watch here
This horror flick about a holy man who uncovers a larger conspiracy within his church has one thing no other movie on this list does, Russell Crowe riding a Vespa. Crowe plays Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican’s leading exorcist, who investigates the possession of a child and ends up falling deeper into a mystery surrounding his order. Almost as terrifying as the demonic rituals and old men in robes? Crowe’s accent in this thing.
20. 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.
21. 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.
22. Dawn of the Dead
Year: 2004
Cast: Sarah Polley, Mekhi Phifer, Ving Rhames
Genre: Horror, Action
Rating: R
Runtime: 101 minutes
Director: Zack Snyder
Trailer: Watch here
Zach Snyder, George A. Romero, and James Gunn team up for this zombie cult hit that sees a group of strangers trying to survive an undead apocalypse. When a plague sweeps the globe, turning people into flesh-eating monsters, survivors seek sanctuary in a Midwestern mall where each must confront their own past traumas while fighting off the walking dead. This thing has it all — classic, oversaturated Snyder action sequences, an overabundance of gore courtesy of Romero, and plenty of quick-witted comebacks via Gunn.
23. Lights Out
Year: 2016
Cast: Teresa Palmer, Maria Bello
Genre: Horror, Mystery
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 81 minutes
Director: David F. Sandberg
Trailer: Watch here
Teresa Palmer and Maria Bello star in this truly bizarre horror mystery, a directorial debut for David F. Sandberg, about a family haunted by a shadowy figure that’s been torturing them for decades. Palmer plays Rebecca, a young woman concerned for her mother and younger brother when her stepfather dies unexpectedly. Rebecca’s mom, Sophie (Bello) has been talking to a shrouded entity at night, one that calls herself Diana. After first assuming the being was just a by-product of her mother’s mental illness, Rebecca discovers that the truth behind Diana and her attempts to control the family is even more sinister.
24. We Have A Ghost
Year: 2023
Cast: Jennifer Coolidge, David Harbour, Anthony Mackie
Genre: Comedy, Horror
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 126 minutes
Director: Christopher Landon
Trailer: Watch here
Most horror movies treated haunted houses as something to be feared and exorcised but not this comedy. No, this movie understands that when you’ve got a benevolent ghost named Ernest (David Harbour) living in your attic, you turn him into a social media influencer, rack up the likes, and rake in the cash. Harbour’s Ernest bonds with the Presley family when they move into his old haunt, but as his popularity grows online and the kids start looking into the mysterious circumstances of his death, the CIA comes knocking.
25. Cargo
Year: 2017
Cast: Martin Freeman
Genre: Horror
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: 105 minutes
Director: Ben Howling, Yolanda Ramke
Trailer: Watch here
Martin Freeman stars in this Aussie zombie drama about a father searching for a safe place for his family amidst a zombie outbreak. Freeman plays Andy, a fairly easy-going guy, who’s forced to make some tough calls when he gets stranded in the Outback with his newborn daughter during the apocalypse. He fights off a few of the walking dead, but the real danger comes from the living (what’s left of humanity after the contagion has spread). Freeman rarely plays the rugged hero type, but he does so convincingly here, and while there aren’t hordes of biters wandering the desert, the isolationist aspect of things makes this horror story feels eerily plausible.
