Like and Sub-scream: 7 YouTuber-Made Horror Movies You Need To Watch

Normally horror movies inspire feelings of fear, disgust, and shock — but what about relief? Hollywood has been in a major slump lately, trying to stay relevant with big-budget reboots and recycled IP. But now a new crop of indie-horror filmmakers are shoving a much-needed ice pick through the heart of the studio system, breaking box-office records with terrifying original movies like “Obsession” and “Backrooms.”

These young filmmakers — including Curry Barker, Kane Parsons, and the brother duo of Danny and Michael Philippou — arrive on the silver screen from the depths of YouTube, where they drew on a spunky mentality and weird sense of humor to create horror-themed shorts, violent pop-culture parodies, and even some surprisingly artful video game walkthroughs. Here are the top YouTuber horror movies to watch right now, plus details on the YouTubers who made them.

Curry Barker — “Obsession” (2025)

This sunglasses-wearing 26-year-old auteur grew up in Mobile, Alabama and first gained a passion for horror after seeing “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974) at the tender age of 11. He isn’t related to Clive Barker (the legendary British horror auteur) but the box-office smash “Obsession” makes clear that he shares with the elder Barker a talent for mood-setting and tension, drawing on horror-movie mythology and eerie ambiguity to create scenes of sweat-soaked terror.

“Obsession” has inspired countless discussions on social media pertaining to who the real villain is in this love story from hell: Is it the terrifyingly obsessed Nikki or the lovestruck Bear, who put the curse on her in the first place? As you and your friends mull it over, make sure to scope out Barker’s full-length feature debut, 2024’s “Milk & Serial,” an unsettling, blood-soaked exploration of internet engagement made on an $800 budget. It’s also imperative to watch his YouTube shorts, including a 24-minute short in which a couple’s life comes apart because of a salvaged antique chair.

Scariest YouTube short: “The Chair“

Kane Parsons — “Backrooms” (2026)

Inspired by a creepypasta that originated on 4chan, “Backrooms” stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as a furniture salesman who stumbles into a yellow-walled labyrinth of rooms and corridors. Parsons was just 20 years old when he made “Backrooms,” but the unsettling tone and mental terror he conjures feels timeless, touching on themes of emptiness and desperation previously captured in literary works as diverse as Mark Z. Danielewski’s “House of Leaves” and Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the Scrivener.”

The original “Backrooms” shorts, originally posted to Parsons’ Kane Pixels YouTube page, are well worth a watch — works of found-footage weirdness that showcase this young filmmaker’s talent for achieving maximum impact using the simplest and most lo-fi elements.

Scariest YouTube short: Original “Backrooms” shorts

David F. Sandberg — “Lights Out” (2016)

This Swedish filmmaker broke ground a decade before the now-flourishing YouTuber horror movies trend when he won the attention of Hollywood for his “no-budget” horror shorts. He’s best known for “Lights Out,” an absolutely terrifying 2013 YouTube short about a woman who sees a darkened silhouette in her apartment hallway whenever she turns out the lights.

“Lights Out” was later made into a feature film of the same name, and whether it’s the short or the full movie you watch, you’re sure to end up hiding under the covers thanks to this brilliant exploitation of humanity’s primeval fear of monsters hiding in the dark.

Scariest YouTube short: Original “Lights Out” short

Mark Fischbach (Markiplier) — “Iron Lung” (2026)

Posting videos under the name Markiplier, Fischbach has maintained a career as one of the most popular and prolific creators on YouTube, and horror is one of multiple genres and formats that he has explored in his online oeuvre. “Iron Lung” is based on a video game of the same name, and it portrays a post-apocalyptic lunar wasteland in which Markiplier is forced to navigate an ocean of blood in a submarine.

The movie can be a bit drab, and it’s easy to feel that this maker of YouTuber horror movies is more a YouTuber at heart than a genuine filmmaker. Still, he’s a man of great imagination, and he always has some fun tricks up his sleeve: His video-game walkthroughs are works of art unto themselves, mustering spooky editing tricks and unexpected surprises to ramp up the horror.

Scariest YouTube short: “At Dead of Night” video playthrough

Danny and Michael Philippou — “Talk to Me” (2022)

Under the name RackaRacka, these Australian brothers gained viral fame and even racked up awards for wackadoo videos featuring elaborate stunts, pop-culture parodies, and gruesome horror-comedy premises. Particularly memorable is their take on Ronald McDonald as an Art the Clown-style bloodthirsty lunatic, made all the weirder thanks to his thick, high-pitched Aussie accent.

The duo has taken a more sophisticated approach when they stepped into the studio to make feature films, which includes Their 2022 directorial debut “Talk to Me” and the 2025 follow-up “Bring Her Back.” Both serve as deeply chilling meditations on death, mourning, and family dynamics — but “Talk to Me” is the more focused of the two. It’s filled with visually stunning effects, and there’s some wicked genius to the way it shows teens using an embalmed hand as a creepy prop for a party game that of course goes terribly wrong.

Scariest YouTube short: “Ronald McDonald Chicken Store Massacre“

Chris Stuckmann — “Shelby Oaks” (2024)

Unlike the rest of the YouTubers on this list, Chris Stuckmann is primarily a film critic rather than a filmmaker: He’s been serving up takes on popular movies of the day since 2009, and he has a special place in his heart (and a dedicated section on his YouTube channel) for horror features ranging from “Freddy vs. Jason” to “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.”

As fate would have it, his fascination with horror helped him land a movie deal, and he wrote and directed “Shelby Oaks” with the help of $1.3 million in funding raised in a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign. Is this American horror’s answer to Jean-Luc Godard, who also started out as a film critic before breaking new ground with movies of his own? Um, not quite. But this thriller about a haunted Ohio ghost town still makes for spooky viewing, jam-packed with frights and scares drawn from the horror canon.

Scariest YouTube short: “The Exorcist III Movie Review“

Michael Shanks — “Together” (2025)

Google “Michael Shanks” and the top result will be a photo of a handsome Canadian actor dressed in medical scrubs — and yeah, that’s not the Shanks we’re looking for. Known also by his YouTube moniker timtimfed, our Shanks is a celebrated indie filmmaker, composer, and visual-effects mastermind who built a career off a Reddit-bred fanbase. His imaginative YouTube shorts showcase a meticulous attention to detail and disarming sense of humor, and his love for fantasy epics also shows through in the subversive series “The Wizards of Aus.”

Needless to say, he found the perfect partners in Dave Franco and Alison Brie for his feature-length film debut. Brie has often been drawn to freaky roles (remember “Horse Girl”?), and she and hubby Franco really let it rip in “Together,” a New Age body-horror oddity that doubles as a relationship drama. Aside from a scene in which their genitals fuse together, this is a YouTuber horror movie fit for the whole family.

Scariest YouTube short: “Rebooted“

FAQ about YouTuber horror movies