The 25 best Netflix horror movies to watch right now

If you're looking for a good scare then this list of the best Netflix horror movies will help you find a film that will have you hiding behind the sofa. From new releases like Guillermo del Toro's gloriously gothic adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to Netflix classics like Bird Box, this list is the place to be for fright fans.

As one of the very best streaming services out there, Netflix has a huge selection of horror films to choose from. Demonic possessions, ravenous zombies, evil nuns, and serial killers are just some of the monstrous things you'll find lurking in this list.

So, if you're feeling brave enough, turn out the lights and take a look through our list of the best Netflix horror movies. When you've finished reading here, don't forget to check out our lists of the best Netflix movies and the best Netflix shows.

The 25 best horror movies on Netflix

25. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House

Year: 2016
Director: Osgood Perkins
Available: US/UK

Before he was on the tips of everyone's tongues as the director of the 2024 smash-hit horror movie Longlegs, Osgood Perkins was creating more subtle fare with films like 2015’s The Blackcoat's Daughter, and this haunted house chiller from 2016. I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House is a gothic period piece that follows Lily, a nervous nurse who finds herself caring for an ailing horror novelist while living in a house with hidden secrets.

Also starring Paula Prentiss and Bob Balaban, this is a very creepy ghost story that works well as a companion piece to classic movies like Jack Clayton's The Innocents (1961) and Alejandro Amenábar's The Others (2001).

Ready for more haunts? Check out our list of the best ghost movies.

24. The Babysitter

Year: 2017
Director: McG
Available: US/UK

Babysitters in horror tend to get the short shrift. Whether they're being stalked, stabbed, or taunted over the phone, it's seldom what you'd dub a "fun gig" for them. McG's The Babysitter twists this expectation, in perhaps its sole subversion that we shan't spoil here, to elevate this Netflix Original from what could easily have been a so-so slasher. From the neon-drenched palette of its marketing, it’s clear that this isn’t your typical blood-soaked trip to suburbia.

Nope, this horror works at being hip. That's in part to the breezy cool exuded by Ready or Not's Samara Weaving. In the lead as the world's best babysitter, it's her turn that cements the pic as a playful riff on horrors past; whether she's debating the merits of horror icons with tween scamp Cole or figuring out how to achieve the life she truly desires. While its overly-stylized screen pop-ups might appear needy, they're not enough to detract from the popcorn frivolousness.

23. 1922

Year: 2017
Director: Zak Hilditch
Available: US/UK

Is there such a thing as the perfect murder? While 1922 doesn't strictly dabble with that query, it does dive into the next best thing: what guilt does to a man after committing one. Another King adaptation, this Netflix original hails from director Zak Hilditch, who opts for the long, steady-paced tale. Things open on farmer Wilf James (Thomas Jane) as he struggles to deal with his wife Arlette's (Molly Parker) aspirations. After inheriting a large plot of land, her plan is to sell it so they can move to the city with their son.

Wilf is revealed by her plans, so he opts for the only remaining choice: he plots to kill her. Unlike other King adaptations, that boast flashy villains and shocking twists, this is old-school horror. If you like your scares with a hint of the gothic to them and are more intrigued by the darkness that lingers inside of people rather than the boogeyman, this is for you.

Chills and thrills await in our list of the best thriller movies on Netflix.

22. Incantation

Year: 2022
Director: Kevin Ko
Available: US/UK

Found footage flick Incantation simply had to make it onto our list. It follows Li Ronan (Tsai Hsuan-yen) as she tries to protect her daughter Dodo (Huang Sin-ting) from the ancient curse she unleashed by breaking a religious taboo. Dripping with dread and chock-full of jumpscares, it's best enjoyed if you don't question the characters' head-scratching choices too much... Switch off your logic for a second and it's sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.

A lot of genre nuts have claimed that it's the first film in a way that genuinely frightened them, so it's safe to say this one isn't for the faint of heart. Taiwanese terror at its finest.

21. The Ritual

Year: 2017
Director: David Bruckner
Available: US

Now, it wouldn't be a best horror list without a ‘if you go down to the woods tonight’ cautionary tale. And no, it's not The Blair Witch Project. Sorry to ruin your next hiking trip, but The Ritual takes everything scary about woodland horror movies and multiplies it by 10. Mixing the harsh reality of grief and losing a loved one mixed with strange folklore, The Ritual follows a group of four friends who decide to take a trip to commemorate their late friend who was killed during an armed robbery. But the picturesque trip to the Swedish wilderness soon turns murky when the four stained friends realize they are not alone.

For more folklore horror, read our list of the best witch movies of all time.

20. Gerald's Game

Year: 2017
Director: Mike Flanagan
Available: US/UK

Stephen King's hot streak brings with it an adaptation many said was unfilmable. This recent stab from Mike Flanagan proves those naysayers wrong. This is perhaps the most loyal King adaptation, bringing a tome shuddering to life that consists mostly of a woman chained to a bed, alone, in the middle of nowhere. That woman is Jesse (Carla Gugino), whose husband, Gerald (Bruce Greenwood), drives her to a peaceful retreat for a weekend of nookie and $200 steak.

His ticker gives up and she's left handcuffed to the bedposts with a strange dog for company... oh, and a creeping demon with red eyes that lurks in the shadows when night falls. Carla Gugino's stunning performance piles on the layers of horror from throughout Jesse's past until the sting in the tail you won't see coming.

Want more heart-racing recommendations? Check out our list of the best action movies on Netflix.

19. Don't Move

Year: 2024
Director: Adam Schindler, Brian Netto
Available: US/UK

Forget being buried alive, imagine being paralyzed and completely unable to run from your killer, or even move, for that matter. Starring Yellowstone’s Kelsey Asbille and American Horror Story’s Finn Wittrock, Don't Move follows a grieving woman trying to find solitude deep in an isolated forest when a strange man approaches her. At first, the two hit it off, but before she knows it, the man injects her with a paralytic agent, telling her she has exactly 20 minutes to escape him until she becomes completely paralyzed.

This one crosses the line between horror and thriller but will have you on the edge of your seat the whole time. Plus, fans of Evil Dead may want to go ahead and add Don't Move to your watchlist right now, as it is produced by none other than Sam Raimi.

For more, watch the full Trailer for Don't Move.

18. Train to Busan

Year: 2016
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Available: US

This South Korean action thriller is easily one of the best modern zombie films, and spawned a successful franchise. Divorced Dad Seok-woo is a workaholic hedge fund manager who realizes that he's missing out on his young daughter's life. He gets on a train headed for Busan to visit her, but just as the vehicle is leaving Seoul, an infected woman starts biting people. It's not long before hordes of zombies are chowing down on the passengers.

Train to Busan is a relentlessly entertaining riff on the genre, with lashings of gore, some well-earned laughs, and an engaging cast of characters who range from heartbreaking and relatable to enjoyably awful. At a time when the genre was starting to feel a little played out, Train to Busan reminded us that there's life in the undead yet.

17. The Platform

Year: 2019
Director: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
Available: US/UK

The notion that horror isn't political is a poor argument, with each era in the genre's history ripe with titles seeking to dismantle particular rhetorics. The Platform is one of Netflix's first original horrors and wields its opinion boldly. The premise interrogates the concept of communism through a brutal futuristic prison system, which is where we first meet our protagonist Goreng, who awakens one day on Floor 48 of a Virtual Self-Management Center. Essentially, an installation where a mouthwatering feast is placed on a platform and lowered down through the tower, stopping for a moment at each floor so the inmates may eat.

The point made rather explicitly involves the equal distribution of wealth. But when you've suffered as a result of others' greed, what do you do when gluttony presents itself? The movie chronicles Goreng's experiences as he's switched every 30 days to a new floor, with the lowest levels demonstrating the savagery humans resort to when their fellow man won't even throw 'em a bone.

16. Apostle

Year: 2018
Director: Gareth Evans
Available: US/UK

Gareth Evans might seem an unusual choice to lens a slow-burn period horror, but somehow? Apostle works. Fans of The Witch will get a kick out of this Netflix Original horror that stars Dan Stevens as Thomas Richardson, a man who returns home to learn his sister has fallen afoul of a cult. Desperate to rescue her, he ventures to the secluded isle, willingly embracing cult leader and his flock under the guise of a recent convert in order to locate his missing sibling.

Evans puts a pause to kinetic flourishes brought to life in his signature efforts, The Raid and The Raid 2. Here, he opts for a slower pace to the hidden horrors of the hazy, misty Welsh town. A slew of subplots steer Stevens' wanderer all over the map in his dogged pursuit, showcasing Evans' eye for making the bleak beautiful and the horrific truly mesmerizing.

Do you need more streaming recommendations? Check out our list of the best Amazon Prime horror movies to watch right now.

15. The Perfection

Year: 2018
Director: Richard Shepard
Available: US/UK

Good at guessing twists? The Perfection acknowledges your arrogance and ceremoniously barfs all over it. This body horror supreme rages and twists, a schlock-filled delight that barely lets up until you've regurgitated your lunch, that is. There's a reason everyone couldn't stop talking about this campy Netflix Original at time of release: it's a dizzying trip into the terrifying world of… classical musicianship.

Get Out's Allison Williams channels that same energy to play cellist Charlotte whose rivalry with Logan Browning's similarly-talented string plucker Lizzie spirals out of control. While that might sound like a '90s thriller, this is pure modern horror. It admittedly ventures into some rather over-the-top scenarios, but that's where most of its deliciously deranged entertainment lies. This is a bizarre yarn of revenge that unspools through a number of interesting themes.

14. Bird Box

Year: 2018
Director: Susanne Bier
Available: US/UK

Also known as the Sandra Bullock Netflix movie everyone watched that one Christmas. Six years on and Bird Box remains a solid horror that packs a novel premise; unless you cover your eyes a supernatural entity will show you something that drives you insane. The kicker is that everyone is apparently shown a specific, bespoke image that causes them to take their own life immediately.

Strange that this was a "holiday must-see," but it nevertheless scored big for Netflix. Bullock's dedicated performance as Malorie serves as the backbone of the movie, which leaps back and forth between the present-day, where she leads two children downriver on a boat, and five years earlier, when the apocalypse begins. It's those earlier scenes that stuff in the real gasp-inducing moments as the regular world is beset by otherworldly nasties.

13. Frankenstein

Year: 2025
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Available: US/UK

A new adaptation of Mary Shelley's iconic 1818 novel, Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein is a visual wonder, and a treat for fans of Gothic horror. The Netflix film boasts a stacked cast and some truly impressive set designs to bring the story to life one more time, paying tribute to one of cinema's most iconic monsters. Although, well, who is really the monster in this tale?

Departing from the original source while staying faithful to its central themes, the film starts with Dr. Pretorious (Christoph Waltz) as he tracks down Frankenstein’s Monster (Jacob Elordi), believed to have died in a fire 40 years before, in order to carry out and continue the controversial experiments of Dr. Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac).

Dive into more stories with our list of the best fantasy movies on Netflix.

12. Calibre

Year: 2018
Director: Matt Palmer
Available: US/UK

Slow Horses star Jack Lowden is brilliant in this psychological horror set in the Scottish highlands. If you missed it when it was first released on streaming back in 2018, you need to give it a watch now. With a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Calibre might be one of the best Netflix movies out there, as it spins the classic horror narrative of city people angering dangerous locals in a remote location.

Also starring Martin McCann, the story follows two friends who decide to go on a hunting trip in the Highlands before one of them becomes a father. However, something goes wrong and the pair is involved in a tragic incident, so they decide to quietly escape the area without arousing suspicion. As you might imagine, it won't be that easy.

Dive into more stories with our list of the best fantasy movies on Netflix.

11. Under the Shadow

Year: 2016
Director: Babak Anvari
Available: US/UK

A film with a PG rating can't be really scary... can it? Under the Shadow, dubbed Iran's version of The Babadook, aims to dismantle that theory in the most terrifying way possible. Taking place during the Iran-Iraq war, tensions are already high for the residents of Tehran, and especially for one unlucky family. Married couple Iraj and Shideh, find themselves split up over the course of an evening, when Iraj is called away, leaving his wife and their daughter Dorsa to wait out the night in their apartment. Thing is, there might be something worse than a missile attack awaiting them...

A genuinely scary horror, with a ripe, tense atmosphere that's largely absent of violence and gore, Under the Shadow channels some deep-rooted fears about Iran's cultural climate, twisting them into a living, breathing terror. Shideh is also a much welcome addition to the horror canon, refusing to idly sit by while evil is at work, and instead taking action to protect her child.

10. 28 Years Later

Year: 2025
Director: Danny Boyle
Available: US

As we wait for its sequel The Bone Temple, the newly released 28 Years Later is definitely one of the best horror movies you can watch on Netflix (in the US) right now. You can also watch Danny Boyle's original movie 28 Days Later on the streamer, in case you're in the mood for a double feature. Yes, you can ignore 28 Weeks Later, as we all try to do.

Starring newcomer Alfie Williams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Jodie Comer, 28 Years Later is set almost three decades after the outbreak of the Rage virus, and seed 12-year-old Spike leaving his quiet life in a remote island community for the first time. Ralph Fiennes is also part of the cast as the mysterious Dr. Kelson, who we'll see again in the sequel alongside Jack O'Connell's cult leader Jimmy.

Read our 28 Years Later review.

9. Fear Street Trilogy

Year: 2021
Director: Leigh Janiak
Available: US/UK

We're cheating a bit here. The Fear Street trilogy is, well, a trilogy of horror movies, so we're cramming three into this one entry, but they work as a singular whole piece incredibly well. There's almost no chance of you finishing the first entry and stopping there, such is this gripping neon-colored slasher.

Taking more than a pinch of inspiration from Scream, Fear Street: Part One introduces us to Kiana Madeira's Deena, a teenager from Shadyside whose lover, Olivia Scott Welch's Samantha Fraser, has moved to the neighboring Sunnyside. However, the pair get mixed up in a curse that's haunted Shadyside for hundreds of years, and now they must work with friends and family to rid the town of the horror once and for all. The first movie takes place in the '90s, while the sequels go back to the '70s and 1660s, revealing more and more about the curse of Shadyside. This is one trilogy not to be missed, and is absolutely one of the best horrors on Netflix.

For more infromation on this trilogy, read our Fear Street Part 1: 1994 review for more details.

8. Sister Death

Year: 2023
Director: Paco Plaza
Available: US/UK

After the chilling Véronica in 2017, featured later in our list, Paco Plaza delves deeper into the story of Narcisa, otherwise known as the eponymous Sister Death. In the 1940s, she was just a trainee teacher at a girls school run by a convent. Horrific visions involving her students morph into premonitions, which become deeper on the advent of an eclipse.

Plaza takes a suitably hard-nosed approach to the violence and cruelty of the time and location, exposing generations of inherited trauma. It’s enough to leave you with nightmares, but then, perhaps those are phantoms trying to tell you something.

7. El Conde

Year: 2023
Director: Pablo Larraín
Available: US/UK

From the Chilean filmmaker behind Jackie and Spencer, El Conde is a black-and-white horror comedy about fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet, only it reimagines him as a two-hundred-and-fifty-year-old vampire who's grown tired of his life.

Unhappy with how he's remembered in the world and the attitude of his leeching family, he decides it's time to finally die once and for all – that is, until he "finds new inspiration to continue living a life of vital and counterrevolutionary passion through an unexpected relationship," per the official synopsis.

6. Oxygen

Year released: 2021
Director: Alexandre Aja
Available: US/UK

A woman wakes up from cryo-sleep alone, trapped and with limited oxygen supply. The concept alone is terrifying, and Oxygen ekes out every drop of tension and exacerbation from the ensuing struggle. The victim, Elizabeth, exhausts every possible avenue for assistance through an AI interface, encountering dead end after dead end.

It’s a story built on pacing, and director Alexandre Aja finds just the right points to speed up and slow down. A longtime horror filmmaker, with 2006’s The Hills Have Eyes and 2013’s Horns among his numerous credits, Oxygen might be his greatest work in the director’s chair. It leaves a chill in the air, pun intended.

5. It's What's Inside

Year: 2024
Director: Greg Jardin
Available: US/UK

An incredibly original and unexpected spin on Gen Z horror and body swaps, It's What's Inside is definitely one of the best horror movies on Netflix, and one of the most underrated. If you loved Halina Reijn's hilarious Bodies Bodies Bodies, this is exactly what you should be watching tonight.

Starring an exciting young cast including Sabrina star Gavin Leatherwood and Fear the Walking Dead's Alycia Debnam-Carey, the story follows a group of college friends who reunite for a party eight years after they were last together. From the start, tensions run pretty high, but it all spins out of control when one of them offers to play a game involving body swaps.

4. His House

Year: 2020
Director: Remi Weekes
Available: US/UK

Last but not least, this one is probably the most unique movie on this list and deals with some very human and real-world issues, but with a paranormal twist. His House follows a refugee couple who harrowingly escape their home in war-torn South Sudan, and make their way to safety in the UK.

But upon arrival, the pair struggle to adjust to their new life in a quaint English town, which is only made worse when they find that there is an evil presence lurking in their new home. This British scary movie stars Wunmi Mosaku, Sope Dirisu, and Matt Smith, and offers a different perspective to the horrors of culture shock.

Bump in the night. Read our picks for the best monster movies of all time.

3. Veronica

Year: 2017
Director: Paco Plaza
Available: US/UK

In 2007, Spanish director Paco Plaza burst onto the horror scene with his game-changing found footage zombie movie REC, going on to helm its two sequels. A decade later, Plaza turned his hand from the undead to the occult, bringing his uncanny knack for creating white-knuckle scares to the story of the titular Veronica, a teenage girl who finds herself besieged by an evil supernatural force after she and her classmates play with an Ouija board (never a good idea, kids).

This is slightly more chilling than Sister Death, Plaza’s 2023 prequel to Veronica that follows a novice nun who, after a childhood marked by a miracle, becomes a teacher at a school for girls. They make an excellent double-feature if you're looking for an evening of terror.

2. Wendell and Wild

Year: 2022
Director: Henry Selick
Available: US/UK

Henry Selick, the director behind Coraline and The Nightmare Before Christmas, delivers another slithery piece of gothic stop-motion entertainment in Wendell and Wild. Named for a pair of demon brothers voiced by Keegan Michael Key and Jordan Peele, the film concerns the deal they strike with 13-year-old orphan Kat to get summoned into the real world.

Ghoulish mythology and misfit adolescents combine for a delightfully macabre modern fairy-tale. The environments and sequences are stunningly detailed, reminding us why new movies from Selick are a rarity worth waiting for. You won’t find better family friendly scares on the platform.

1. #Alive

Year released: 2020
Director: Il Cho
Available: US/UK

Directed by Il Cho, #Alive is a Netflix movie from South Korea that follows a live-streamer as he attempts to survive a zombie apocalypse. Oddly enough, a guy who spends most of his time playing video games is actually fairly suited to live in a zombie apocalypse... Yoo Ah-in plays the gamer, Oh Joon-woo, and is joined by Park Shin-hye, who plays the mysterious Kim. The pair make a great central duo in this intense, bloody undead flick.

The undead are coming! Read our list of the best zombie movies ever made.

If scares aren't your bag, check out our list of the best anime on Netflix or best Netflix comedies for some viewing inspiration.