Best Horror Movies on Netflix Right Now (September 2023)

Cast: Milena Smit, Jaime Lorente, Carlos González Morollón

Tin & Tina is a psychological thriller from Spain about a recently married couple, Adolfo (Jaime Lorente) and Lola (Milena Smit), who suffer the loss of a child when Lola has a miscarriage. Determined to raise children together, they turn to a convent that has an abundance of orphans to care for, and they end up going home with a pair of odd twins – the titular Tin and Tina. The film has many horror aspects intertwined with religious imagery that perfectly reflect the crisis of faith that Lola is fighting her way through as she tries to temper her grief by being overly accommodating to these children who may have been sent from hell itself. – Tauri Miller

The Pope’s Exorcist takes the torch that was sparked by the revolutionary novel-turned-film The Exorcist and runs with it at full speed — while also throwing in some mystery and conspiracies for good measure. Russell Crowe (Gladiator) takes on the role of Father Gabriele Amorth, a real priest of the Vatican who was said to have performed over 10,000 exorcisms. In this fantastical reimagining of Father Amorth’s tales of battling demons, Crowe dives deep into Roman Catholic history and gives a fantastic performance as a priest who not only has to fight against the forces of hell but also his own institution in order to save a young child from his possession.

Run Rabbit Run is a terrifying psychological thriller directed by Daina Reid. Nestled in the breathtakingly gorgeous landscape of Australia – which only enhances the unsettling foundation of the film’s premise – Run Rabbit Run features an undeniably incredible performance from Succession star Sarah Snook as a successful fertility doctor whose daughter (Lily LaTorre) seems to be possessed by the spirit of her deceased sister, Alice. Run Rabbit Run is a gripping watch not only because it centers on a haunting mystery but also due to the breakout role for young LaTorre, who fearlessly enchants on screen against Snook. – Yael Tygiel

Based on the novel All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage, Things Heard and Seen is a chilling story about a young couple that moves into a country home with a disturbing past. Amanda Seyfried (Jennifer’s Body) brings the audience on her journey as she explores the darkness in her new house, town, and marriage. Contrasted with Seyfried’s naive yet restless Catherine is her suspicious husband George, played sinisterly by James Norton. Co-directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, Things Seen and Heard blends old-school psycho-sexual thriller tropes with updated horror technologies to produce a terrifying modern classic. – Yael Tygiel

Bird Box Barcelona, the spin-off sequel to the 2018 film based on the Josh Malerman novel, is a thrilling post-apocalyptic horror film that goes beyond a creature feature to explore the monstrous aspects of man. The story takes place in a ravaged Barcelona and follows Sebastián (Mario Casas) and his daughter (Naila Schuberth) as they team up with other survivors of the entities that must not be perceived to escape the pursuit of a dangerous cult that forces people to look upon the creatures, leading them to commit suicide. This expansion to the Birdbox lore is a fascinating dive into the ways that humans deal with great loss as well as the ways that religion can become destructive. – Tauri Miller

Lights Out, the directorial debut of David F. Sandberg (Shazam! Fury of the Gods), is about a woman (Teresa Palmer) coming face to face with the supernatural forces that haunt her family. Co-starring Maria Bello (Beef) as the woman’s mother, along with an unexpected performance from young actor Gabriel Bateman, Lights Out is a skillfully crafted horror flick that weaves a captivating story with rich performances and chilling scares. Co-written by Eric Heisserer (Bird Box) and Sandberg, Lights Out builds an unsettling experience with hair-raising thrills and a creepy maleficent force without relying on gore. – Yael Tygiel

When the Presley family moves into a low-priced fixer-upper, they soon realize they have a ghost named Ernest (David Harbour) living in the attic when the teenage son Kevin (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) catches him on video. Seeing it as an opportunity for money and fame, Kevin’s dad Frank (Anthony Mackie) uploads the video and creates an instant viral sensation that draws national attention to their house — but some of the eyes watching them could put their family in grave danger. We Have a Ghost is a new spin on the haunted house trope that uses internet virality and the ghost hunter craze to create a hilarious original film. – Tauri Miller

Directed by Stig Svendsen, who co-wrote the screenplay with Espen Aukan, Viking Wolf is a Norwegian horror film that applies an unexpected and fun variation to traditional werewolf narratives. Surrounded by a scary mystery and placed in an unsettling atmosphere, Viking Wolf stars Elli Rhiannon Müller Osborne as Thale, a teenage outcast who moves to a small town when her mother begins working for the local police department. Featuring impressive CGI for the beasts and impactful use of blood, gore, and shadows, the thrilling story of Viking Wolf succeeds with spine-tingling excitement. – Yael Tygiel

John R. Leonetti’s The Silence is based on Tim Lebbon’s novel, blossoming from a similar premise to A Quiet Place. Set in a world attacked by creatures who use sound to hunt their prey, The Silence follows a Deaf teenager, played by Kiernan Shipka, and her family as they attempt to find shelter. Unbeknownst to them, they fall in with a cult. Shipka is undoubtedly a talented actress, but The Silence was greatly criticized for the casting of a hearing actress in a deaf role, as well as Shipka’s non-native American Sign Language skills. Even with its faults, The Silence is a heart-pumping adventure that also stars Stanley Tucci, John Corbett, and Shipka’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina co-star Miranda Otto. – Yael Tygiel

Director Ciarán Foy spellbinds with his haunting horror movie Eli, starring Charlie Shotwell (Morbius) as the titular young boy with a rare autoimmune disease. Co-starring Lili Taylor (Outer Range) as the mysterious doctor curing the boy’s illness, Eli juxtaposes Taylor’s calm demeanor with eerie imagery to produce spine-tingling excitement for scary movie audiences. Also starring Max Martini (Bosch: Legacy), Kelly Reilly, and Sadie Sink (Stranger Things), Eli is a suspenseful mystery that plays in the shadows, alluding to ghostly intervention while building tension and unraveling into a paranormal fright-fest. – Yael Tygiel

Little Evil is a goofy horror comedy written and directed by Eli Craig (Zombieland). Starring Adam Scott (Severance) as a man embarking on his idealized life with the woman of his dreams, played by Evangeline Lilly (Ant-man and the Wasp), only to discover that her son (Owen Atlas) may be the antichrist. With a playfully clever script and featuring a slew of comedic heavyweights in supporting roles, Little Evil tackles scary movie tropes with an entertaining homage. Focused more on comedy than horror, Little Evil is a cute film to watch with friends who like a less intense spooky season. – Yael Tygiel

The ninth installment in the franchise, Netflix’s 2022 version of Texas Chainsaw Massacre takes place 50 years after Leatherface’s (Mark Burnham) 1973 killing spree after a group of young entrepreneurs travel to Texas to auction off old properties and create a trendy area. When inspecting what they believed to be an abandoned orphanage, however, they find it’s occupied by an elderly woman named Ginny (Alice Krige) – and the notorious serial killer, leading to a bloody and terrifying game of cat-and-mouse. Though it doesn’t reinvent the genre, Texas Chainsaw Massacre is exactly what you’d expect from the slasher, offering gore and frights galore. – Taylor Gates

If you enjoyed Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, check out the movie that started the franchise. Resident Evil stars Milla Jovovich as Alice, the badass who is determined to clean up after the Umbrella Corporation’s biotech chemicals have created zombies… and worse. If you are looking for high-intensity action and lots of cool monsters, this is one you can’t miss. — Alyse Wax

As Grey’s Anatomy, The Chair, and Killing Eve has shown us, there’s truly nothing that Sandra Oh can’t do. She proves that yet again in Umma, where she plays Amanda – a Korean immigrant homeschooling her daughter Chrissy (Fivel Stewart) on a rural farm away from technology. Amanda is not only dealing with the stress of her Chrissy wanting to move away for college, but she’s also having flashbacks of her abusive childhood after receiving the ashes of her recently deceased mother – as well as a vicious spirit intent on inhabiting her body. The film offers up some supernatural scares, but the themes of generational trauma and identity are where the true terror lies. – Taylor Gates

When Kayla (Iola Evans) discovers an old ‘80s computer game that comes with a yet-to-be-claimed $100,000 cash prize for anyone who beats it, her curiosity and family’s need for money drive her to give the game a try. However, the game is more than just a simple choose-your-own-adventure meets horror campaign. It has the ability to warp reality and force Kayla to make deadly decisions that affect people in real life. Forced to continue playing, Kayla and her friend Isaac (Asa Butterfield) try to find a way to stop the game for good — it is just code after all. But as they learn of the malevolent forces that went into the game’s conception, they realize that winning and staying alive may not be as easy as they think. Choose or Die feels both nostalgic and fresh, paying homage to classic video games while delivering a narrative that hasn’t been done to death. Its short 84-minute runtime is an asset, not a hindrance, allowing the movie to dive straight into the horror without unnecessary fluff dragging it down. Choose or Die is honestly a lot of fun and a great casual watch for horror buffs and novices alike! – Brynna Arens

Mike Flanagan had already built a reputation as a rock-steady horror filmmaker by 2016, but the sense of “holy crap, this guy can do anything” became set in stone once he took on a prequel to a critically-derided movie about an evil ouija board and made one of the scariest movies of the last decade. Ouija: Origin of Evil takes us to the 1970s, where fake psychic Alice Zander (Elizabeth Reaser) and her two daughters, Lina (Annalise Basso) and Doris (Lulu Wilson), perform seances for paying customers in the wake of Alice’s husband dying. Doris, the youngest, spices up the act with the introduction of a ouija board, but the cursed item makes things all too real when it not only sends a dark spirit into the girl’s body but exposes the deep-seated evil ingrained in the Zander’s house. There is, to be very clear, absolutely no reason for Ouija: Origin of Evil to be good at all, so it’s a downright shock that it’s this horrifying and effective. And, because it’s Flanagan we’re talking about here, there’s also a potent dramatic heart beating underneath all those bumps in the night. –Vinnie Mancuso

It’s a common trope: a little kid has a crush on their sexy teenage babysitter. But Netflix’s original flick The Babysitter turns that on its head, by making the hot babysitter also happen to be part of a Satanic cult. The cult – who has brought their ceremony into young Cole’s house – will stop at nothing to prevent Cole from spreading their secret. It’s not really a “scary” horror film; it’s more goofy, super gory, and a kind of throwback to the campy horror of the 1980s. – Alyse Wax

This modern classic takes the old trope of girls getting slaughtered after a sexual encounter is turned on its head. Jay becomes haunted by a shadowy, supernatural figure after she has sex. Her partner finally explains that he passed it to her through their intercourse, making it the worst STD of all time. Jay must either pass off the ghost via sex with another man, or the demon will kill her and return to haunting the man who gave her the ghost. – Alyse Wax

The first installment of Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy of films is an absolute blast from start to finish. Very much drawing influence from Scream, this R-rated slasher takes place in the town of Shadyville, where people going back decades have a habit of going on violent killing sprees. Rumors swirl that it’s all to do with a witch’s curse from the 1600s (which is covered in the third movie), and in this 1994-set film a group of teenagers find themselves the target of a bevy of masked killers as the try to figure out what’s going on and how to survive it. At the center of the story is a queer romance that sets this apart from many other slashers of its ilk, and there’s enough comedic relief to keep this from being bogged down as a horror film of the self-serious type. Again the Scream comparisons are apt, so if you’re in for a spooky good time that also sets up a mythology that is concluded in the next two Fear Street movies, give Fear Street Part One: 1994 a whirl. – Adam Chitwood

It’s tempting to loop all of the Fear Street films into one entry because they’re such a satisfying (you might even say limited series-like) whole, but they’re also so stylistically distinct and uniquely effective, they’re worth singling out on their own. As for the second installment, 1978 takes audiences back to another Shadyside massacre, this time inspired by the summer camp horror trend of the 70s and 80s. Anchored around the story of two estranged sisters finding their way back to each other despite their differences, 1978 unleashes the Nightwing killer scene in the first film while investigating the story behind how he became a cursed mass murderer and deepening the established mythology and character work in the process.

I wouldn’t recommend watching them out of order on your first watch but if you’re looking to head back into fear Street and don’t have time to watch the whole trilogy, 1978 is easily the most self-contained of all three, but good luck not immediately hitting play on the next one. – Haleigh Foutch

The final film in the trilogy, Fear Street Part Three: 1666 brings it all together by traveling to the origins of the curse, so if you’re looking for a bit of period horror with a big action payoff, this is your best bet. It’s stunning how writer-director Leigh Janiak created a distinct language for each installment, not just cinematically, but in the horror traditions she employs. In keeping, 1666 is the darkest of the three, delving into the rotted core of society behind the Shadyside curse. But Janiak keeps a tight tonal command, never fully abandoning the fun spirit that makes her trilogy such a treat.

Understandably, considering how much story 1666 has to carry as the installment that answers it all, Part Three might be the least cohesive as a standalone film, but it also might be the most rewarding of them all as you watch Janiak’s magic pull it all off. – Haleigh Foutch

Speaking of that billion-dollar franchise, Netflix also has Wan’s follow-up The Conjuring 2 available to stream right now. The 2016 sequel picks up with the Warrens during the investigation of one of their most infamous cases, known as the Einfeld poltergeist, which finds them helping yet another spirit-plagued family, this time in the U.K. While The Conjuring 2 isn’t quite as downright scary as the first film, there are still plenty of wonderful Wan creatures to keep you on the edge of your seat, and of course, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are reliably endearing as the Warrens. Bonus, the film’s opening scene also pays tribute to another iconic horror franchise with a nod to the Amityville Haunting. – Haleigh Foutch

The delightfully-titled Vampires vs. The Bronx is one of those modern horror movies with such a simple, clever twist on a well-worn genre you wonder how it didn’t happen sooner. The gist: A crew of kids living in a Bronx neighborhood discovers that the real estate company buying up local businesses is run by a cabal of blood-sucking vampires. Seeing as gentrification is largely the act of sucking a community dry, the concept is a home run. But director Osmany Rodriguez—who is responsible for many an SNL segment, most importantly “A Kanye Place”—also manages to have a ton of fun in the process. The Stranger Things comparisons are obvious, but with the grit and attitude of 2011’s must-watch alien invasion flick, Attack the Block. It’s just such a charming, genuine movie that loves vampire horror enough to show characters literally taking notes from Blade and loves New York City enough to wage war with the undead over the sanctity of a corner bodega. If you know, you know. –Vinnie Mancuso

Found footage gets a bad rap, but when it works, it works. And in the Creep movies? Oh yeah, it works. The 2014 original stars director and co-writer Patrick Bice as a videographer who travels to a remote cabin hired by a strange fella named Josef (played by co-writer and producer Mark Duplass in one of the best performances of his ever-unpredictable career), who says he as a brain tumor and wants to film a video diary for his unborn child before he dies. Duplass does incredible work threading the needle between a creepy and likable guy, keeping you guessing about his endgame the whole time. Of course, by the end of the movie, you know the answer… which is what makes it so phenomenal that the 2017 sequel Creep 2 works just as well. Bice also directs the follow-up, with Desiree Akhavan taking on the role of the new videographer in potential peril, and her dynamic with Duplass’ Josef is even more intriguing and unpredictable. Both are fantastic, edge-of-your-seat thrillers that use the found footage format for all its worth. – Haleigh Foutch

A natural evolution of the found-footage format in our digital era, the filmmaking approach dubbed “Screenlife” presents a movie entirely from the perspective of computer, tablet, and smartphone screens, and the haunted-Skype horror movie Unfriended was one of the first Screenlife movies to break through with mainstream audiences. It’s easy to see why – most of us spend our lives on screens anyway, and that mode of storytelling offers filmmakers access to all the little secrets we try to tuck away in our deleted texts and secret files. Following the suicide of a classmate after online bullying, a group of teens finds themselves picked off one-by-one during their digital hangout by an inescapable, malicious spirit. It sounds kinda goofy, and sometimes it kinda is, but Unfriended works better than you might expect, and now that we’re all forced to hang out virtually any way, now’s a perfect time for a revisit. –Haleigh Foutch