One of the best things about Halloween month (the way all mature adults refer to October) is the fact that it coincides with the official start of Cozy Season. When the leaves start to fall and Rite Aid rolls out the ghost and skeleton costumes, there’s nothing better than curling up in a blanket or 12, sipping a seasonal beverage—Pumking ale, anyone?—and freaking the living hell out of yourself with a horror movie.
To celebrate all things Halloween-adjacent, we’ve put together a master list of the very best scary (or scary-ish) movies to watch this month.
Don’t Worry Darling (2022)
This isn’t a horror movie, per se, but the highly scrutinized film’s much-talked-about twist most definitely classifies it as “spooky,” to say the least. Florence Pugh shines as a seemingly happy housewife whose reality is a little more, um, complicated than it initially appears in this Olivia Wilde-directed thriller that also stars Harry Styles.
How to watch: In theaters
The Invitation (2022)
Family trauma is the name of the game in this horror film about a young woman who meets members of her long-lost family for the first time in the wake of her mother’s death, only to discover that they carry some pretty dark and terrifying secrets with them.
How to watch: In theaters
Nope (2022)
In Jordan Peele’s recent neo-Western sci-fi horror film Nope, Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer star as siblings trying to prove the existence of a UFO—and if a supernatural, bloodthirsty extraterrestrial creature named “Jean Jacket” doesn’t scare you, well, hats off.
How to watch: In theaters, or stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube
The Night House (2021)
In a haunted house on a lake in upstate New York, a grieving widow (played by the inimitable Rebecca Hall) encounters her dead husband—and enters into a looking-glass version of her marriage that utterly unravels her. Directed by the new horror-auteur David Bruckner, this one has jump scares like you wouldn’t believe.
How to watch: Stream on HBO Max, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Saint Maud (2021)
The story of an isolated, introverted hospice nurse played by Morfydd Clark (insanely good) who is hired to care for a once-famous dancer named Amanda (Jennifer Ehle, sexy, imperious) dying of cancer. An episode of religious ecstasy in a depleted, soggy, English seaside town spirals toward violence—and culminates in one of the best endings in recent horror.
How to watch: Stream on Paramount+, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
The Swarm (2021)
A locust breeder in southern France who happens to be a single mother is trying to raise two children and make ends meet—so why not experiment with bloodletting and insect husbandry? This supremely modern and sophisticated thriller ratchets up into vampire-locust horror, in the best way possible.
How to watch: Stream on Netflix.
The Invisible Man (2020)
Elisabeth Moss stars in this terrifying film about a woman who’s convinced she’s being stalked by the invisible ghost of her abusive boyfriend.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
La Llorona (2019)
Directed by Jayro Bustamante, this Guatemalan horror movie focuses on the trial of a fictional dictator on trial for a brutal genocide who starts being haunted by dark magic and ghostly apparitions of his victims until he can no longer ignore the severity of his crimes.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
The Lodge (2019)
A snowbound chamber piece about two kids spending a winter holiday in a cabin with their father’s mysterious new girlfriend, Grace (Riley Keough). Directed by the Austrian pair Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, The Lodge is a slow-burn genre exercise that exerts the pressure of a steel vise.
How to watch: Stream on Hulu, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Midsommar (2019)
A bizarre Swedish death cult attempts to reel in a group of horrified American students in this psychological thriller.
How to watch: Stream on Paramount+, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Ready or Not (2019)
Ninety minutes of hilariously grotesque mayhem. Samara Weaving plays a bride named Grace marrying into an eccentric, board game-fortune family. The wedding held at the family estate concludes with a ritualized family initiation—a deadly round of hide and seek with the family hunting Grace with guns, crossbows, axes, and the like.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon or Apple TV.
Us (2019)
Nobody does horror like Peele, and Us—which features a family terrorized by a set of doppelgängers—is no exception.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Apostle (2018)
A British horror film, set in 1905 and starring Dan Stevens and Michael Sheen, about a drifter who sets out to save his sister from a religious cult.
How to watch: Stream on Netflix.
Hereditary (2018)
If you’re still craving the work of Ari Aster after Midsommar, check out this 2018 horror-tragedy film in which Toni Collette truly shines.
How to watch: Stream on Paramount+, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Malevolent (2018)
Florence Pugh stars in this horror movie about a paranormal detection racket that gets a very real assignment.
How to watch: Stream on Netflix.
A Quiet Place (2018)
This post-apocalyptic sci-fi horror flick follows John Krasinski and Emily Blunt as they try to get their family through the end times.
How to watch: Stream on Paramount+, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Get Out (2017)
Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams give memorable performances in this Jordan Peele film, which will make you think twice about meeting the parents.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
A Ghost Story (2017)
David Lowery’s supernatural drama is less a scary movie than a moving meditation on grief and the ever-shifting sands of time…but, as its title suggests, it wouldn’t be out of place in a Halloween movie marathon.
How to watch: Stream on Paramount+, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
It (2017)
You’ll never look at clowns the same way again after watching this film.
How to watch: Stream on HBO Max, Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Raw (2016)
Not for the faint of heart is Julia Ducournau’s coming-of-age horror film about a young vegetarian veterinary student who begins to crave the taste of flesh after trying meat for the first time, but if you have a strong stomach (or are willing to close your eyes at certain key points), it’s definitely worth seeing.
How to watch: Stream on Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
The Witch (2015)
Before she was Emma Woodhouse or Beth Harmon, Anya Taylor-Joy was Thomasin, a girl in 17th-century New England whose family suspects her of being a witch.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
The Babadook (2014)
A brilliantly crafted, deeply unsettling exploration of motherhood, grief, and guilt is the real terror that lingers well past the final scene.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Citizenfour (2014)
This 2014 documentary about the NSA spying scandal is more terrifying than many fictional efforts.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
Billed as “the first Iranian vampire Western,” this film—which was written and directed by Ana Lily Amirpour—features a protagonist known simply as The Girl, an antihero vigilante who uses her vampire status to roam the streets at night, alone and unbothered. “A vampire is so many things: serial killer, a romantic, a historian, a drug addict—they’re sort of all these things in one,” Amirpour has said.
How to watch: Stream on Tubi, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
It Follows (2014)
There’s a distinctly feminist lean to this horror flick chronicling a fatal curse passed through a group of teenagers via sexual intercourse.
How to watch: Stream on Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
What We Do in the Shadows is Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s tale about a group of vampire roommates who are hundreds of years old and trying to adapt to life in the 21st century.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Oculus (2013)
This psychological thriller—which follows a young woman who becomes convinced that an antique mirror is haunting her family—cranks the fear-o-meter up a few notches.
How to watch: Stream on Hulu, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Drive (2011)
While most people would classify Drive as a thriller, at moments it can be positively chilling.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Sound of My Voice (2011)
If you fear cults above all else, give this Brit Marling–led film a wide berth—or watch it for exposure therapy.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
All Good Things (2010)
How scary could a Ryan Gosling movie be, anyway? Turns out, very. Kirsten Dunst’s performance is not to be missed.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon or YouTube.
Black Swan (2010)
Terrifying in a deep, dark, psychological way, despite being set in the beautiful world of ballet.
How to watch: Stream on Hulu, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Is it campy? Sure, but this Megan Fox/Amanda Seyfried black comedy is a cult classic for very good reason.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
The Mist (2007)
This Stephen King adaptation stars Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden and Andre Braugher and tells the story of a small group of people in Bridgton, Maine who meet in a supermarket to find supplies after a thunderstorm and start to notice an eerie mist cloaking the presence of monsters among them. Warning: the movie is actually darker than the book.
How to watch: Stream on Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
Guillermo del Toro’s grim fantasy is terrifying, beautiful, and—against the backdrop of Franco-era Spain—a little bit true.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Hard Candy (2005)
A young girl flips the script and goes full vigilante, taking prisoner an adult man who has been flirting with her online (and whom she suspects of being a sexual predator) in this chilling and highly suspenseful psychological thriller.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
House of Wax (2005)
Is this movie technically good? No. Does it star Paris Hilton and Chad Michael Murray? Yes, and for that reason alone, this slasher flick about a group of teens who gets stuck in a fright-filled wax museum should be required viewing—if nothing else, at least for Bad Movie Night.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Saw (2004)
Gore to the max, if you like that sort of thing. Definitely avoid it if you don’t.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Signs (2002)
After watching this one, you might keep seeing aliens on top of buildings and hallucinating visions of Joaquin Phoenix.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Unfaithful (2002)
Richard Gere and Diane Lane star in a story involving an affair, and the lengths that people will go when seeking revenge.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Ginger Snaps (2000)
This Canadian supernatural horror film is a bizarre one, focusing as it does on two teenage sisters whose relationship gains a whole new dimension when one of them transforms into a werewolf shortly after she begins menstruating. Hey, at least a woman wrote the script?
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
This complex portrait of the hell of addiction will stay with you long after you’ve finished the film.
How to watch: Stream on Tubi, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
What Lies Beneath (2000)
Amber Valletta looks eerily like Michelle Pfeiffer in this campy movie, which will give you pause every time you wipe down a steamed-up mirror in the bathroom.
How to watch: Stream on HBO Max, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
The Blair Witch Project (1999)
The flashlight-lit fake documentary that pioneered the “found footage” horror flick still manages to be scary, even in 2022.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Hulu, HBO Max, or Paramount+.
Halloweentown (1998)
A Disney Channel original movie from the era before they were all about tweens becoming pop stars.
How to watch: Stream on Disney+, Amazon, or YouTube.
Practical Magic (1998)
You’ll want to become a witch after watching this ’90s cinematic staple. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman star as witchy sisters navigating love, death, and magic.
How to watch: Stream on HBO Max, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Ringu (1998)
The Ring is horrifying, but the Japanese original is even creepier on a deep psychological level.
How to watch: Buy on Tubi, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996–2003)
If you were into the sexy Sabrina reboot, revisit the quirky original. You won’t be disappointed.
How to watch: Stream it on Paramount+, Amazon, Apple TV, YouTube,
The Craft (1996)
A new girl with a troubled past moves to Los Angeles and becomes friends with three students who aren’t exactly popular, but are far more interesting than they seem.
How to watch: Stream on Paramount+, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Casper (1995)
No, not the millennial mattress brand; it’s the Christina Ricci joint, the one that launched a thousand debates about whether Casper the human being cute makes Casper the ghost automatically cute, too. Prepare to rehash.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Double, Double, Toil and Trouble (1993)
Before there was The Row, there were the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movies, and Double, Double is one of the Olsens’ most compelling dramatic turns.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Hocus Pocus (1993)
Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker (as the Samantha of the Sanderson sisters) make this the definitive Halloween throwback.
How to watch: Stream on Disney+, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
The best of both holiday worlds—you can watch this one now and in December! It’s a little spooky, sure, but mostly adorable.
How to watch: Stream on Disney+, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)
Your next movie night will be complete with this ’90s psychological thriller starring a vengeful nanny attempting to destroy a former boss’s life.
How to watch: Stream Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Misery (1990)
An oldie but a goodie, this Stephen King classic stars Kathy Bates as the scariest obsessive fan in history.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Fatal Attraction (1987)
An ’80s classic: Michael Douglas and Glenn Close battle it out as an errant (married) businessman and the fling who won’t go away quietly.
How to watch: Stream on HBO Max, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Ms .45 (1981)
This Abel Ferrara cult classic follows a mute seamstress who goes on a revenge rampage after being attacked twice in one day on the streets of New York.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
The Shining (1980)
A family of influencers moves into a remote hotel only to find out that #SponCon isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (just kidding). An aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic (Jack Nicholson!) accepts a position as the off-season caretaker of a historic hotel and moves his wife (Shelley Duvall!) and son in with him. Things go badly very quickly.
How to watch: Stream on HBO Max, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
The Watcher in the Woods (1980)
Don’t be fooled by the fact that it’s from Disney—this Bette Davis movie is guaranteed to freak you out.
How to watch: Buy it on Amazon.
The Amityville Horror (1979)
More houses, more murder, this time with 1979 James Brolin. Even more alarming: The story is based on a real house.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Watership Down (1978)
Watership Down’s psychedelic animated film about bunnies in distress has led to many sleepless nights of rabbit-related terror.
How to watch: Stream on HBO Max, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Suspiria (1977)
The 2018 Guadagnino remake got all the attention, but the 1977 original about a haunted dance academy is well worth your time.
How to watch: Stream on Tubi.
Carrie (1976)
The original Mean Girls, but with pig’s blood. This film is truly the stuff of teen-outcast nightmares.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Young Frankenstein (1974)
With its brilliant cast—Gene Wilder, Peter Boyle, Marty Feldman, Cloris Leachman, Teri Garr, Madeline Kahn—and incredibly funny script, Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein turns Mary Shelley’s classic story totally on its head.
How to watch: Stream on HBO Max.
The Exorcist (1973)
A scary movie with a scarier real-life history.
How to watch: Stream on HBO Max, Amazon, or YouTube.
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Rosemary’s Baby is still matchless for sheer psychological terror, but don’t let Mia Farrow and John Cassavetes’s Satanic neighbors ruin New York City for you.
How to watch: Stream it on Paramount+, Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Wait Until Dark (1967)
Audrey Hepburn plays a blind woman who manages to thwart intruders by shutting off all the lights in her apartment. The audience is put into her shoes, only able to decipher what is going on by listening to the men banging around the house trying to kill her.
How to watch: Stream on HBO Max, Amazon, or Apple TV.
The Birds (1963)
There are the violent scares, yes: birds gouging people’s eyes out and children being chased, even if they might pale in comparison to more recent nightmares like Freddy Krueger. But the existential fear in The Birds is way worse.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Psycho (1960)
Is there a more famous—or more terrifying—shower scene in all of cinema? Alfred Hitchcock crafted the perfect horror movie with Psycho, employing clever camera tricks and a wonderfully disquieting performance from Anthony Perkins to iconic effect.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Freaks (1932)
This 1932 pre-Code horror film remains truly terrifying, even after all this time.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
Nosferatu (1922)
A standard-bearer in the horror genre (particularly where vampires are concerned), F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror was a hit when it premiered 1922, praised for its moody visuals and poetic screenplay. “Here is the story of Dracula before it was buried alive in clichés, jokes, TV skits, cartoons and more than 30 other films,” remarked Roger Ebert decades later.
How to watch: Stream on Amazon, Apple TV, or YouTube.
