Halloween is the holiday season for people who love horror movies, and the greatest gift to receive is a scary flick. With Netflix being one of the most popular streaming services available, 1428 Elm has handpicked 10 great horror movies to put you in the mood for Halloween.
Why do we seek out horror movies during the Halloween season? For some of us, it’s not enough to put out Halloween decorations and jack o’ lanterns – we need to fully immerse ourselves in dark, bloody scariness year round. But, others seem to only enjoy the spooky stuff when Netflix & Chills rolls out, the leaves start to fall off the trees and Pumpkin Spice is the flavor of the month.
Because I love a variety of horror types, I am including a mixture of well-known movies, lesser-known flicks, and Netflix originals for our breakdown of the 10 best horror movies streaming on Netflix this Halloween. And in that same spirit, there are ghostly tales, slashers and gory greats, along with a couple of franchise films.
I hope to appeal to seasoned horror fans, as well as those who are just starting to dip their toes in the bloody waters. Please let me know if I have inspired you to check out something new! Without further ado, let’s talk about our first recommended horror choice.
10. Green Room
Punk band The Ain’t Rights are touring through the Pacific Northwest, and after a planned gig is cancelled, they accept the last-minute opportunity to perform at a dive bar in the woods. Bad idea! As it turns out, this isn’t just any old bar, it’s a neo-Nazi hangout.
After their set, they discover the body of a murdered woman in the green room, and the band members are held captive, along with the murdered girl’s friend (played by Imogen Poots). What follows is a tense hour of cat and mouse between The Ain’t Rights and the owner of the bar.
The late Anton Yelchin and Alia Shawkat play Pat and Sam, two of the band members, and Patrick Stewart is Darcy, the sinister bar owner who is out to kill them. Full of box-cutter slashing, fatal shootings, machete hacking and brutal dog attacks, Green Room is extremely violent and bloody. It’s also extremely compelling and suspenseful.
Writer/Director Jeremy Saulnier has said he was obsessed with the idea of horror movie set in a green room, and decided to make the graphic violence in his film really count. He wanted viewers to feel the pain suffered by the characters, and in that, he definitely succeeded.
The script is so disturbing, Patrick Stewart once admitted he was so disturbed while reading the script that he had to lock all his doors and windows and down some Scotch. Ultimately, he accepted the role, and I don’t know if he has ever played a more sinister character.
9. 1922
Netflix Exclusive 1922 is based on the novella of the same name, included in Stephen King’s book Full Dark, No Stars. It’s the perfect title for that particular book, because every story in it is super dark, with no happy ending. 1922 is no exception.
Thomas Jane leads the cast as a farmer named Wilfred “Wilf” James, who happens to be carrying a terrible secret. The film opens with him hand writing a confession, and we find out very quickly what he is confessing to.
Wilf lives on his family’s farm in Nebraska with his wife Arlette (Molly Parker) and their 14-year-old son, Henry (Dylan Schmid). It seems Arlette has inherited some land, and she wants to move. Wilf would rather sell the land and invest in his farm, and when divorce comes up, she basically says, “Fine, but Henry is leaving with me.”
After this, the story gets brutal, as Wilf begins to skillfully manipulate his son, eventually convincing him to aid him in the murder of Arlette. I won’t give away any more of the plot, other than to suggest you prepare yourself for a grim tale of murder, revenge from beyond the grave, guilt and rats. Lots of rats; the kind with twitchy noses and long tails.
Jane gives a fantastic performance as the farmer, and he even looks beaten down by life. Dylan Schmid is vulnerable and heartbreaking in the role of young Henry, who suffers the most after his father’s actions.
I’ll end by reminding you again that rats play a part in 1922, so proceed with caution if you suffer from musophobia.
8. Malevolent
Angela (Florence Pugh) and Jackson (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) are American siblings living in Scotland, where they run a paranormal investigative group that takes advantage of grieving families by offering to rid their homes of the ghost of a loved one (for a fee, of course). Their mother claimed to be a medium, and ended up committing suicide due to the voices and visions she experienced.
Jackson, who owes money to some shady people, is the driving force behind the con, and he claims that his sister has inherited their mother’s talents. It’s an untrue claim, and Angela is starting to feel guilty for basically using a family’s grief to make money.
During one of their investigations, Angela sees something paranormal for the first time, and insists they stop, but her brother talks her into one last con: investigating the orphanage/home of Mrs. Green (Celia Imrie). Her son Herman killed some of the orphan girls, and now she hears them screaming and wants it to stop.
When the team begins their “fake” investigation, things get really intense, as Angela almost immediately sees one of the girls with her mouth horribly sewn shut. About three-quarters of the way into the film, it turns from ghost story to hardcore horror, and you will feel like you were hit by a truck by the time the goose-bump inducing ending arrives.
Though there is nothing in this film involving Halloween, the image of the little girls and their sewn mouths gave me that shivery, creepy feeling that I associate with seasonal horror movies. Be aware that there is some disturbing content in Malevolent, but enjoy watching it!
7. Scream
Every horror fan worth his or her salt is surely familiar with this 1996 gem of a “scary movie.” We all know the story of Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who is stalked by an unknown killer wearing the now-iconic Ghostface mask.
Smart, darkly funny, bloody and suspenseful, Scream had the audacity to kill off its best-known actor (Drew Barrymore) in the first few moments of the film. What followed was unlike any other horror movie at that time, and it definitely re-popularized the genre.
Kevin Williamson has said his script was inspired by the real-life story of Danny Rolling, otherwise known as The Gainesville Ripper. He and legendary director Wes Craven worked together on the film, and it was a match made in heaven.
When Williamson first presented the finished script to his agent, he was told that it was too gory and graphic, and when Miramax purchased the rights, they asked him to cut some of the more graphic scenes. After Wes Craven agreed to direct, he was able to get much of the gore back onscreen, due to his clout.
In all, there were three sequels made to the original masterpiece, and I would say they are all worth watching. Scream 4 was released in 2011, 15 years after Scream became a horror sensation, and a Scream reboot series debuted on MTV in 2015.
6. Hush
Released as a Netflix Original, Hush was directed by Mike Flanagan, who also brought us Oculus, Absentia, Gerald’s Game and the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House. Flanagan’s wife Kate Siegel (who played Theo in The Haunting of Hill House) co-wrote the script, and plays the lead role of Maddie.
Maddie is a deaf and mute writer living alone in her house in the woods. That sounds like a bad idea already, doesn’t it? One night, a masked man murders Maddie’s friend right outside her door, and eventually catches on that she is deaf. Intrigued, he starts a deadly cat and mouse game. By the film’s end, Maddie is literally fighting for her life.
Hush is a suspenseful, bloody film, and I spent a good deal of time on the edge of my seat, biting my nails. Siegel makes Maddie a character you grow to love and root for, and Flanagan’s use of ambient noise to represent her hearing loss is powerful and effective.
Legendary horror writer Stephen King said that Hush was the film equal of Halloween and Wait Until Dark, and Director William Friedkin (The Exorcist) proclaimed it a “great horror film.” So, while you may have no reason to trust my judgement, surely you will take those two at their word and make it a point to watch Hush this Halloween.
5. The Witch
Not all horror movies are frightening because of the amount of knives, blood, or masked killers. Some creep slowly under your skin, making you feel uneasy and twitchy.
Such is the case with 2015’s The Witch, the story of a puritan family in New England who begin experiencing some supernatural events after being banished from their colony over religious disagreements. William (Ralph Ineson) and Catherine (Kate Dickie) live on a farm near the forest with their children Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy), Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), twins Mercy (Ellie Grainger) and Jonas (Lucas Dawson), and infant Samuel.
In a scene you can watch in the trailer, Samuel disappears abruptly while Thomasin is playing a game of peekaboo with him, and the family is suddenly thrown into a living nightmare. Catherine blames Thomasin for her baby’s disappearance, the twins accuse their older sister of witchcraft and the family goat, Black Philip, appears to speak to the twins.
It only gets worse from there. The Witch is not for everyone, many viewers were disappointed in the slow pace and found the film to be “boring”…but I found it to be very effective and creepy. It gives you a feeling of growing dread, and while I wanted to know how it would end, I was afraid to know how it would end.
Again, Stephen King agrees with me, stating that The Witch scared the hell out of him. And what’s more appropriate for a Halloween movie than a witch?
4. Insidious
The first film in the Insidious franchise, this 2010 supernatural horror movie was directed by James Wan, partly in response to criticism aimed at him due to the level of blood and violence in Saw, which he also directed.
Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) move into a new home with their two sons and infant daughter. Young Dalton takes a fall, and lapses into an unexplained coma the next day. After three fruitless months in the hospital, they bring their son home, and some paranormal events start to crop up.
Renai hears strange sounds on the baby monitor, the figure of a man is seen in the baby’s room, and most frightening of all, a bloody hand print appears on Dalton’s bed. When the scary stuff starts to amp up, the family moves into a new home, where the activity follows them.
A paranormal investigative team is called in and the most intense “cleansing” scene since Poltergeist follows. Insidious is filled with frightening imagery, and a scary chase scene between Renai and what appears to be a deformed child is very well-played.
Insidious premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of 2010, and was quickly picked up by Sony Pictures. It finished out 2011 as one of the most profitable films of the year, and spun off three sequels (Insidious Chapter 2, Insidious Chapter 3 and The Last Key).
3. The Babysitter
Man, do I love this bloody, brutal, teen horror comedy! A Netflix original, it released on the streaming platform in October of 2017, and Netflix recently announced an upcoming sequel.
One can only hope that Samara Weaving (Ready or Not, Mayhem) will return, because the relationship between her character Bee and that of 12-year-old Cole (Judah Lewis) is the heart of The Babysitter. Bee is the title character, and while Cole is a little old for a babysitter, at least Bee is cool (and hot as well).
When Cole’s parents leave for an overnight trip, Cole and Bee bond over fun activities. Cole’s friend Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind) has teased him in saying Bee probably invites her friends over and parties after he turns in for the night, so he sneaks out to check to see if there is any truth to what Melanie has said.
He sees Bee with a few of her friends playing a game of Spin the Bottle, but things get crazy when a newcomer suddenly becomes a blood sacrifice. You see, Bee and her pals are part of a demonic cult, and they intend to use Cole’s virgin blood to manifest their chosen demon.
The dialogue is snappy and funny, and the cast is great. If you get squeamish at the sight of blood, be aware that it sprays copiously in one particular scene, but if you can handle the red stuff, you will enjoy the fun romp that is The Babysitter.
2. The Conjuring
Nothing says “Halloween” like a good ol’ ghost story, right? Well, not only is The Conjuring a ghost story, it’s based on a TRUE ghost story involving legendary paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.
The Warrens (as played by Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson) are asked to help the Perron family, who recently moved into an old farm-house in Rhode Island. With five daughters and a dog, the Perrons have a house full, and it soon turns out that there are additional housemates they didn’t bargain for.
The Conjuring is pretty much a perfect ghost movie. It is intensely scary (the Hide and Clap scene and the exorcism scene are both hair-raising), and you genuinely feel for the family. Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston, as Carolyn and Roger Perron, are definitely sympathetic characters, and how could you not love Ed and Lorraine?
The Conjuring also introduced us to an evil doll named Annabelle, who later appeared in additional horror movies with the launch of her own franchise. It’s worth noting that the real Annabelle has no physical resemblance at all to the terrifying movie version; instead, she is a placid-looking Raggedy Ann doll.
The Conjuring 2 is also very good, and while I didn’t care for Annabelle, I did enjoy Annabelle: Creation. There are, of course, other horror movies within the Conjuring Universe, but I have not seen them yet, so you are on your own there.
1. The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Look, I watch a lot of horror movies year-round, so it takes a lot to genuinely frighten me. The Autopsy of Jane Doe scared the hell out of me. I started watching it one night when I was home alone, and I had to turn it off after the first 20 minutes. I finished it later when my husband was home.
At the scene of a violent homicide, the unidentified body of a young woman is discovered, and taken to the coroner’s office. Tommy (Brian Cox) and Austin (Emile Hirsch) are father and son coroners who take charge of the body and begin the woman’s autopsy.
Though her body appears fresh, her eyes are cloudy, which would mean she had been dead for several days. There are many other strange things about this body, including horribly broken wrist and ankle bones, burnt lungs, a missing tongue, and massively injured internal organs.
As the night goes on, the two men begin to experience some pretty creepy supernatural events, and the film gets darker and darker. A word of caution for squeamish viewers: this film contains some pretty graphic autopsy footage. But, if you can handle it, The Autopsy of Jane Doe is truly the scariest horror movie I have seen in years.
What horror movies are you looking forward to watching on Netflix this Halloween? Share your picks and personal recommendations in the comments section below!