In a strange trend, Netflix is home to a huge collection of high quality horror movies.
There really are a lot. So much so that not every worthwhile horror movie can make the top recommendations on this list. (You’ll find them in another list below.) Artful originals, Mike Flanagan greats, and international records are in the mix, all rated at least 70 on Metacritic. Enjoy rocking yourself to the core!
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Completed Creep? Creep 2 does the impossible — improves of the original. A self-proclaimed serial killer (Mark Duplass, also co-writer) lures videographers to his remote house in the woods, and you can guess the rest. With an absurd mix of laughs and horror, this low-budget found-footage psychological horror is a gem.
Netflix
This smart psychological horror is partially drawn from co-writer Issa Macei’s experiences as a cam girl (or webcam model). Yet Cam is not a documentary following Alice Ackerman, a young camgirl who one day discovers that an exact copy of herself has taken over her show. This unique red-blinking thriller with the threat of technology is an excellent feature to start playing
Netflix
Vampires vs. The Bronx (2020)
Vampires vs. the Bronx is a unique comedy-horror in more ways than one. Set in New York’s Bronx, it follows young Miguel Martinez, a kid with a big heart who helps raise money for his struggling local store. But it’s not just the new designer clothing stores that threaten to move in: Creepy Pale Necks are eating people and their properties. A commentary on gentrification with wacky charm, twists, and thrills, Vampires vs. the Bronx is a fresh, fun spin on the genre.
Netflix
Set in the remote Scottish Highlands, this suspenseful thriller is far from an idyllic getaway. Get ready for a complete unnerving nightmare that the main characters are desperate to wake up from. Vaughn and Marcus go hunting for a boys’ weekend, but after a night of drinking, they find themselves faced with events they never could have planned. Caliber lives up to its name, delivering a slick package of dark, gripping drama. Let the full power of this one overwhelm you.
RADiUS-TWC
The expertly crafted horror film that quietly doubles as an allegory for STDs. You read that right: It Follows trains its lens on a supernatural creature that lives on the fringes, constantly stalking its prey at a slow, zombie-like pace. Our heroine Jay (played by modern-day Scream Queen Maika Monroe) is trapped in the center of this pool of anxiety, facing a terrifying stalker. A modern classic with rocking original music inspired by John Carpenter.
Curzon/YouTube/CNET screenshot
Before Black Widow, Kate Shortland made her name directing excellent indie films including Berlin Syndrome. This psychological horror stars Teresa Palmer as Claire Havel, a young Australian woman who goes backpacking in Berlin only to encounter a man who holds her captive in his apartment. A game of cat and mouse ensues between captor and captive. Although sometimes slower in its confined setting, Berlin Syndrome certainly delivers a compelling thriller.
Netflix
Horror that strikes… close to home. Revealing its supernatural evils through a harrowing human story, His House follows Ball and Rial, a couple of Sudanese refugees who struggle to adapt to their new life in an English town. Don’t expect straight-up jump scares – His House plays on the psychological ghosts of the past, adding even more corridors of torture. A heartbreaking, powerful piece.
Focus World
After watching this film, you might just have a new favorite director in Julia Ducournau. Raw follows Justine, a vegetarian in her first year of vet school who succumbs to peer pressure, eats raw meat and ends up with a rash all over her body. The film deals with questions of identity in an intuitively powerful and symbolic way, and is a must-watch from Netflix’s indie bench.
Netflix
From Netflix’s impressive collection of international films comes the Spanish sci-fi horror The Platform. Its high-concept story centers on a tower that delivers food to people on each of its many levels via a platform. Those at the top mark the best and most abundant spread, which is absorbed as the platform descends the levels. Social commentary rings throughout this dystopian thriller, which takes shocking, sometimes horrifying turns all the way to the bottom.
Blumhouse Productions
If you’re looking for further proof that the Duplass brothers are actually evil, here’s an easy sell. Patrick Bryce (also director and co-writer) plays a videographer answering a Craigslist ad for Josef (Mark Duplass) who wants to make a film about his supposed unborn child. I usually enjoy horror films that rely on performances to creep you out because they are incredibly difficult to pull off. And I have to give it to Mark Duplass. He’s actually super creepy.
Netflix
Before the impeccable The Haunting of Hill House series, Mike Flanagan brought us this clever adaptation of Stephen King’s novel Gerald’s Game. Carla Gugino is amazing as Jessie, a woman who goes on vacation with her husband to an isolated lake house in Alabama. When Jessie finds herself handcuffed to the bed with no one to help her escape, it’s as much about survival as it is about escape. Another chapter in Flanagan’s melancholy-drenched horror that overflows into quiet triumph for its haunted characters.
Netflix
Two movies called The Call came out in 2020. Watch the South Korean, time travel thriller that revolves around, yes, a phone call. Twenty-eight-year-old So-yeon finds a phone buried in the closet of her childhood home. It rings – and the caller, it turns out, lives in the same house 20 years earlier. Last-minute twists, plus a wild cat-and-mouse chase that twists past and present, make this a must-watch.
Screenshot by Vertical Entertainment/YouTube/CNET
Like several other titles on this list, this superb psychological horror subtly doubles as an allegory for broader social themes such as oppression. Set in 1980s Tehran, during a series of airstrikes known as the War of the Cities, it follows a mother and daughter haunted in their home by a mysterious evil. With echoes of The Babadook as well as fresh ideas of its own, Under The Shadow is an excellent horror film.
One of Stephen King’s more successful adaptations, this horror drama based on the 1922 novel is a slow-burner with a mesmerizing performance at its core. Thomas Jane, who you’ll also know from Boogie Nights and 2004’s The Punisher, gives one of the best performances of his career as the ever-proud Wilfred James, a farmer who makes the perfectly wise decision to kill his wife with the help of their a teenage son. The consequences are horrifying on many levels (if you don’t like rats, you really won’t like them after this).
Netflix Horror Movie Honors
- The Pale Blue Eye (2023): Crime mystery thriller starring Christian Bale
- The Journey (2021): Norwegian black horror comedy
- Blood Red Sky (2021): British-German action horror
- Coming Home in the Dark (2021): New Zealand psychological thriller
- The Fright Street Trilogy (2021): A series of horror films
- The Block Island Sound (2020): Sci-fi horror thriller
- The Rental (2020): Directed by Dave Franco and starring Alison Brie
- #Alive (2020): South Korean zombie horror
- Forgotten (2017): South Korean psychological thriller
- The Ritual (2017): British horror
- Veronica (2017): Spanish supernatural horror
- Hush (2016): Slasher directed by Mike Flanagan
New movies coming in 2023 from Marvel, Netflix, DC and more
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