10 Best Halloween Horror Movies to Stream on Netflix, Prime Video and More

Halloween is here, and the best way to celebrate is by watching some good scary movies.

The downside to having thousands of movies available to watch at home is that it’s tough to know what you should watch or skip.

Watch With Us is here to help. We’ve curated a list that includes classics like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and contemporary hits like 2025’s Weapons.

These movies are available to stream on major streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video and more, so no matter what you’re subscribed to, you should find something to watch on All Hallows’ Eve.

Netflix

‘The Strangers’ (2008)

While relaxing at a friend’s isolated cabin, an estranged couple — James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler) — are menaced by three masked strangers. There’s not much else to The Strangers, but there doesn’t need to be since director Bryan Bertino generates enough tension and scares by depicting his protagonists’ growing realization that they’re trapped with little chance of escape. When Kristen asks one of the female strangers why they picked them to torture, she responds with an all-time chilling answer: “Because you were home.”

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‘Smile’ (2022)

Is there anything more unsettling than a stranger smiling at you? That’s the basic premise behind Smile, the 2022 horror hit that sees Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) cursed by an entity that possesses people who smile strangely before killing themselves in front of her. Rose must find a way to break the curse before she too falls prey to this supernatural force.

Smile is a relentless horror movie — the kills keep coming, and poor Rose doesn’t appear to be a final girl who will make it to the sequel. The film’s bleak ending somehow makes room for future follow-ups, but like every great horror franchise, the first remains the best.

‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ (1974)

There’s a reason why this is a classic and why all of the sequels, reboots and half-hearted remakes have failed to mimic its success. The simple story, about a group of hippie teens who stumble on a Texas farmhouse populated by a sadistic family of cannibals, is simple, with no convoluted origin plot or deep psychology. This family is just bad, and they like to eat people. Period.

By far the most disturbing scene is virtually bloodless, with poor Sally (Marilyn Burns) strapped to a dining room chair and forced to attend a dinner from hell. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of the few movies ever made that makes you feel you’ve just seen what true evil looks like.

Prime Video

‘The Descent’ (2005)

A cave expedition goes horribly wrong in The Descent, a monster movie with several tricks up its sleeve. When Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) joins her friends for an all-female weekend of spelunking, she’s initially excited — until they encounter a group of underground monsters who want to slaughter them. As they gradually fall prey to these creatures, Sarah and what’s left of her friends must figure out a way out of the caves they are stuck in — if they don’t kill each other first.

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The Descent has plenty of blood and viscera to appease genre fans, but what elevates it is the attention to character and detail that’s not common in pictures like this. Not everyone likes each other, and when the monsters attack, it brings out all sorts of secrets and resentments that make the situation worse. The film’s original ending (which isn’t included in this version, but you can watch it on YouTube) is one of the great fakeouts in horror movie history and will persuade anyone never to go spelunking.

HBO Max

‘Weapons’ (2025)

Seventeen children have disappeared and no one knows why. A lot of people blame Justine Gandy (Julia Garner) since the only connection the children have with each other is that they all belonged to her elementary class. But is she to blame? And why was one child, Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), spared?

Weapons starts as a mystery, but as more secrets are revealed, it winds up becoming one of the most unsettling horror movies in quite a while. Director Zach Cregger has a talent for conjuring up eerie imagery, and he’s aided by a superb cast that includes Josh Brolin as a grieving father and Amy Madigan as an aunt with terrible fashion sense.

‘The Exorcist’ (1973)

How many horror movies over 50 years old still have the power to terrify? An Oscar-nominated classic, The Exorcist details young Regan’s (Linda Blair) unexplained physical and mental deterioration. At first, her mother, Chris (Ellen Burstyn), thinks she’s mentally ill, but she gradually realizes she’s possessed by a demon. Can Father Karras (Jason Miller) and Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) save the young girl’s body and soul without being possessed themselves?

Devil possession pictures are usually corny, but The Exorcist somehow convinces you that a young girl really is being controlled by evil supernatural forces. You know a horror movie is effective when a random shot of an outside set of stairs is chilling.

‘Carnival of Souls (1962)

Before there was Night of the Living Dead, there was Carnival of Souls. Director Herk Harvey’s seminal classic stars Candace Hilligoss as small-town organ player Mary, a recent car accident survivor who is stalked by strange apparitions of the undead. Is Mary hallucinating as a result of her PTSD? Or are these undead monsters real and waiting for the right time to drag her to the underworld?

Infused with odd, poetic visuals, Carnival of Souls is an unsettling, black-and-white masterpiece and a key influence for all the zombie films to come. The last 20 minutes redefine the word “creepy,” with a denouement that still packs a wallop after 60 years.

Hulu

‘In a Violent Nature’ (2024)

This gory 2024 indie film does something few horror movies do — it follows the killer’s POV as he stalks his prey in the Canadian wilderness. As a result, there’s not much to the plot or characterizations: Jason Voorhees stand-in Johnny (Ry Barrett) quietly roams around, kills one or two people and moves on without any real motive.

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But there’s an unsettling sense of menace the film conjures that makes it stand out, and the kills, including a brutal evisceration of an innocent yoga practitioner, are truly disturbing. It’s a bit thin, but In a Violent Nature is one modern horror movie that will make you cover your eyes in fear and disgust.

Paramount+

‘Jacob’s Ladder’ (1990)

How can you tell if you’re really alive — or just a spirit who doesn’t realize it’s dead? Jacob’s Ladder toys with that idea by chronicling the strange journey of Jacob (Tim Robbins), a Vietnam War vet who begins hallucinating strange things in his Brooklyn neighborhood.

Is Jacob still suffering from trauma as a result of his wartime experiences? Or is he actually haunted by ghosts who are vengeful because he escaped certain death in the jungle? The ending makes it clear what’s happening to Jacob, but that doesn’t make the film any less haunting.

Peacock

‘The Thing’ (1982)

At an isolated outpost in Antarctica, a group of men in a military base make a shocking discovery: An alien is among them, and it can mimic any living thing it comes into contact with. Gruff helicopter pilot R.J. Macready (Kurt Russell) has to figure out who among his crew is really “the thing” in question before it consumes and takes over all of them — and maybe the world.

A remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic, The Thing amps up the horror with its groundbreaking practical effects, which show in graphic detail how “the thing” kills its prey and evolves into an almost unstoppable creature. Directed by John Carpenter, the film boasts one of the bleakest endings of the ’80s. There’s no happy conclusion here — only a distant hope that the world is safe from a creature that seemingly can’t be killed.

Led by Senior Editor and experienced critic Jason Struss, Watch With Us’ team of writers and editors sees almost every movie and TV show from the distant past to the present to determine what’s worth your time and money. Our countless hours of multimedia consumption — combined with years of experience in the entertainment industry — help us determine the best movies and TV shows you should be streaming right now. 
 
To be considered “the best,” these films and series can be visually engaging, intellectually stimulating or simply just fun to watch, but the one trait they must have is that they are all, in some way, entertaining. We then check which platform they are streaming on and how you can access them as a subscriber. No algorithm nonsense or paid endorsements here — our recommendations are based purely on our love and interest for the films and shows we love.