Netflix isn’t our go-to streaming service for horror movies (we think Tubi and Hulu offer way more scary choices), but we’ve found eight we recommend checking out this Halloween season. From slashers to witches to aliens to piranha to pizza, it has a little something for everyone.
Fire up Netflix and let’s get to streaming and screaming!
The Fear Street Trilogy (2021)
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.
Nightbooks (2021)
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.
It (2017)
Stephen King’s It novel is a classic, but the 1990 miniseries was camp cheese—2017’s It upstages them both in sheer psychological terror. Pennywise the Clown creeps on a group of small-town kids known as the Losers Club, exploiting their fears and feeding on their souls before he re-enters hibernation for another 27 years. Maybe skip the sequel, the disappointing It Chapter Two, which follows the kids into dull adulthood.
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Insidious (2011)
You can’t go wrong with a James Wan horror flick, and his wildly successful Insidious franchise began with the creepy-as-hell original. Unlike his gory Saw movies, Wan opts for obscured tension with Insidious, which frequently explodes with heart-stopping jump-scares (you’ve been warned). The Lamberts (Rose Byrne and Patrick Wilson) believe their young son’s coma was induced by evil spirits in their new house . . . but that’s not the case at all. Don’t watch alone.
Piranha 3D (2010)
The Piranha franchise began in 1978 as a loose parody of Jaws, and Piranha 3D brings it full circle with a cameo by Jaws star Richard Dreyfus—and about 80,000 gallons of fake blood dumped into Lake Havasu during filming. This goofy 3D horror flick about ancient, ravenous piranha gnawing on sunburned spring breakers is far cleverer than you’d expect and is easily the best of the Piranha series (low bar, but still). Avoid the follow-up, Piranha 3DD.
The Babysitter (2017)
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, Killer Queen, is almost as good.
Pizza (2014)
No, it’s not about a killer pepperoni pie—but how cool would that be? Indian Hindi-language horror movie Pizza follows pizza delivery guy Kunal (Akshay Oberoi) on a route gone terrifyingly wrong. First, he’s trapped in a house with a dead body and a malevolent ghost girl, then he learns that his boss’s wife is possessed, and his pregnant girlfriend has gone missing. There are a lot of toppings on Pizza, but it all adds up to an atmospheric, tense 107-minute thriller.
Stree (2018)
Another Hindi movie, 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.”
