Sick Flicks on Netflix: 17 of the Best Horror Movies to Stream Now

Netflix just added the A Nightmare on Elm Street series to its April roster—well, almost the entire series. We get the 1984 original, Freddy’s Revenge (1985), Dream Warriors (1987), The Dream Master (1988), The Dream Child (1989), New Nightmare (1997), and the remake (2010)—but not Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991). I mean, the sixth Freddy film sucks, but when you binge-watch the Friday the 13th series, do you skip Jason Takes Manhattan? That’s right; you watch ‘em all and take the good with the atrocious. So here’s to the day the rights issue (or studio embarrassment) that keeps Freddy’s Dead off of streaming services and out of DVD/Blu-ray collections dies in its sleep.

Holiday horror is hit-or-miss; Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving is a hit with us—and it doesn’t have to be turkey season to enjoy watching a pilgrim called John Carver carve people up (or any Thanksgiving horror movie, for that matter). It’s also satisfying to see one of the few remaining “fake” trailers from Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse double feature (with Death Proof and Planet Terror) become a full-length feature. So order a turkey sandwich with extra cranberry sauce from DoorDash and celebrate out of season with this messy bloodfest.

Forget everything you know about fascist Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Actually, don’t, ‘cause it’ll help you understand this horror-black comedy that reimagines Pinochet as a 250-year-old vampire who’s ready to die. As Pinochet prepares to distribute his estate and peace out, his butler Fyodor (who’s also a vampire thanks to his boss/friend) and Pinochet’s kids plot to destroy him once and for all—but they forget who they’re up against. Pablo Larrain (Spencer, Neruda) directs.

Kristen Ritter (Jessica Jones) stars as a fashion-forward witch with a fantastical Brooklyn apartment in Nightbooks, a horror-lite movie based on the novel by J.A. White. Said apartment lures and traps children from the building, but only those of use to the witch get to remain alive. Fortunately, new capture Alex (Winslow Fegley) writes scary stories. The witch demands a new tale from the boy every evening, resulting in whimsical stories within the Nightbooks story.

Based on the book series by R.L Stine, the Fear Street three-parter is a supernatural murder mystery, jumping time periods within the “cursed” town of Shadyside (Part One is set in 1994; Part Two, 1978; Part Three, 1666). Parents take notice: Fear Street is more adult, bloody, and scary than most Stine works, with more in common with American Horror Story than Goosebumps. Part Three, set at a summer camp (classic slasher territory), is particularly intense.

Afraid of the dark? The opening scenes of Lights Out—David F. Sandberg’s feature-length version of his acclaimed short film—might send you into a frantic Amazon search for eternal night lights. A young woman learns that her mentally unstable mother’s imaginary friend is a real, murderous monster stalking her family—and its only weakness is light. It’s the perfect movie for late-night sleepovers.

Not to be confused with The Babysitters Club, The Babysitter is a dark teen horror-comedy about suburban kid Cole (Judah Lewis) learning that his babysitter Bee (Samara Weaving) is the leader of a Satanic cult. Director McG injects The Babysitter with his trademark flash and flair, and the cast (which also includes Bella Thorne, Ken Marino, and Leslie Bibb) is down for all the insanity he throws at them. The 2020 sequel, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, is almost as good.

You can’t put a condom on your soul, so what do you do when STI’s go supernatural? In David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows, you have to pass it on or die horribly by the hand of a stalker only you can see. Jay is a young woman (Maika Monroe, God Is A Bullet) who awakens after a casual hookup to learn it’s her turn—and how to play the game if she wants to live. Monroe gives an excellent performance as Jay, who tries to stay alive long enough to decide if she can live with going from victim to predator.

Stree is a scary-comic riff on the Indian folk legend about a ghost-witch (played here by Flora Saini) who abducts unsuspecting men in the night, never to be seen again. Stree claims to be “based on a ridiculously true phenomenon,” and features some genuinely unnerving special effects, solid laughs, and (of course) colorful song-and-dance numbers. As an Indian Express film review noted, “It’s about time Bollywood gave us a feminist ghost.”