The 11 Best Horror Movies on Hulu

Did you know that Hulu is an acronym for “Horror: Unnerving, Loathsome, and Unrelenting”?

Got you—that was the trick. Now here’s the treat: We’ve scoured the depths of Hulu’s horror vault and collected our 11 favorite scary movies on the service, just in time for Halloween. Some are genuinely chilling, others lean comical, and one is a viral ’90s classic.

Let’s jump into Huluween! (Our version, that is.)

Willy’s Wonderland (2021)

In Willy’s Wonderland, Nicolas Cage stars as a scruffy drifter trapped overnight in an abandoned family fun center, battling demon-possessed animatronic mascots—cue the “Take my money!” meme. Cage’s nameless character has no backstory or dialogue, just 88 solid minutes of furry ass-kicking and grim smirks. It’s best to not think too hard and just enjoy the Willy’s Wonderland ride.

Crawlers (2020)

Part of Hulu’s Into the Dark horror anthology series, Crawlers might be the only St. Patrick’s Day alien-invasion flick ever made (the Leprechaun franchise doesn’t quite count). When aliens begin taking over the bodies of drunken college bros in a pub crawl, it’s up to a trio of coeds (including a snarky vlogger capturing it all) to save them. The green beer is optional.

Can’t get enough spooky stuff?

Check out our trivia contest with Full Moon Features, running on our Twitter all of October. Answer horror movie trivia questions to win daily prizes… if you dare.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

The “found footage” concept seems played out by now, but The Blair Witch Project was an early-internet sensation in 1999, as well as one of the most successful indie movies of all time. In 1994, three college film students set out to make a documentary about the Blair Witch in the “haunted” woods of Maryland. The Blair Witch Project is—for horror’s sake—the footage of the disappeared trio’s doomed documentary, and it worked all too well on the public in ’99.

Lights Out (2016)

Afraid of the dark? The opening scenes of Lights Out 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.

Suburban Gothic (2014)

On the lighter horror side, Matthew Gray Gubler (Criminal Minds) and Kat Dennings (Dollface) star in this comic tale of evil spirits and familial discord. Recent MBA grad Ray (Gubler) is forced to move back in with his parents in suburbia, just in time for local construction to unearth a soul-harvesting demon. Suburban Gothic is funny stuff, and the hilarious Dennings steals the show as usual.

Censor (2021)

In the mid-’80s, Enid (Niamh Algar) works as a content censor for the British Board of Film Classification, cracking down on extreme and violent “video nasty” exploitation movies. When she sees a horror flick whose plot eerily resembles the disappearance of her sister, Enid spirals to the point where she can’t discern reality from fantasy, with grisly results. Censor is a taut psychological thriller that’s as unpredictable as it is viscerally frightening.

It Came from the Desert (2017)

A comic monster movie based on the ‘80s videogame of the same name (which itself borrowed heavily from 1954 classic Them!), It Came from the Desert pits party-hearty motocross bikers against giant mutant ants created by—wait for it—a mad scientist. In a perfectly ridiculous twist, the ants also feed on booze, which the gang has plenty of. It Came from the Desert is a fast-paced B-movie that knows just how dumb it is, which is why it works.

Oculus (2013)

Set in two timelines 11 years apart, Oculus revolves around an antique, demonic mirror and siblings Kaylie and Tim (Karen Gillan and Brenton Thwaites) who are still haunted by the violent death of their parents. Kaylie believes the mirror is responsible for the tragedy and wants to study it before ultimately destroying it—bad, bad idea. Oculus emphasizes atmospheric dread over explicit gore, with more than a little in common with The Ring and The Grudge.

Land of the Dead (2005)

Zombie-flick godfather George A. Romero dropped his third sequel to Night of the Living Dead in 2005, 20 years after his previous installment, Day of the Dead. Land of the Dead is set in a world where the zombies have taken over, and surviving humans have established safe city-states across the USA. Besides being a Romero-riffic blood-and-guts exhibition, Land of the Dead is also a slyly clever commentary on the rich/poor contrasts of American society.

47 Meters Down (2017)

Sisters Lisa (Mandy Moore) and Kate (Claire Holt) vacationing in Mexico decide to descend into the ocean in a diving cage to look at sharks because . . . fun? Really? Anyway: the cage’s cable breaks and the pair find themselves stranded on the ocean floor surrounded by great white sharks. 47 Meters Down is a tense survival-horror movie peppered with hallucinogenic fake-outs that will keep you guessing about what’s real and what’s terrifyingly real.

False Positive (2021)

Expect the unexpected when comedy people dabble in the horror genre—or a baby, in the case of False Positive. Director John Lee (Wonder Showzen, Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday) puts Lucy (Illana Glazer, Broad City) through maternity hell with a fertility doctor (Pierce Brosnan) who for sure has evil intentions. Lucy finally has a healthy baby girl with her husband Adrian (Justin Theroux), but she’s still determined to find out the sinister truth about Dr. Hindle. Hint: ick.