The 12 Best Horror Movies On Netflix Right Now

Though some may feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of movie streaming services available today, for others, it's kid-in-a-candy-store time. Vast numbers of features are available to cinephiles and casual viewers alike at any time of the day; a fan of a particular genre can indulge in their favorite titles as long as time and stamina persists. A golden age or a Las Vegas buffet? Depends on your perspective.

Horror is well represented on streaming services. Most, if not all, streaming channels have a solid collection of new and/or vintage horror films from every subgenre: '80s slashers, giant monsters, ghost stories, even the worst horror movies ever made. Some services, like Shudder, show nothing but horror in a round-the-clock cycle of screams. 

Netflix, which is the most popular streaming provider service in the world, is no exception, offering a sampling of horror from around the planet to its 282 million global subscribers. The company rotates many of its genre offerings on a monthly basis, which can make it difficult to determine which of its titles are worth seeing. We've taken the guesswork away for you with this list of the 15 best horror movies on Netflix right now.

When suspense master Alfred Hitchcock veered into horror territory, the results were often extraordinary. Two of the most celebrated films in his long career, "Psycho" and "The Birds," are also landmarks in the genre, influencing filmmakers like John Carpenter, Guillermo del Toro, and Eli Roth with their intricate visual construction and optical effects, as well as some truly frightening setpieces. "The Birds" joined some of the director's best films (including "Psycho") on Netflix in June 2025 as part of its "Alfred Hitchcock Collection."

Though the bird attacks are its calling card, "The Birds" — which is based on a short story by Daphne du Maurier — isn't just a nature-gone-amok thriller. Hitchcock's focus is also on his characters' personal politics: Everyone, from practical joke-loving Tippi Hedren to the complicated emotional triangle between Rod Taylor, mom Jessica Tandy, and rejected lover Suzanne Pleshette, is too distracted by their own issues to notice that birds are gathering like an invading army.

As a result, no one is ready for the attacks, and the survivors soon turn on each other to make sense of the horrors. We are dependable in our ability to become our own worst enemy, "The Birds" suggests, and there is little indication that things will change. "Mr. Hitchcock and his associates have constructed a horror film that should raise the hackles of the most courageous and put goose-pimples on the toughest hide," wrote the New York Times upon its release.

Starring: Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Year: 1963

Runtime: 119 minutes

Rating: NR

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

There is a labyrinth in writer-director Zach Cregger's 2022 film "Barbarian," an underground warren that, appropriately enough, houses not one but two terrifying monsters. The labyrinth is also an apt metaphor for the film's structure: Cregger allows the audience and his lead, researcher Tess (Georgina Campbell), to only understand the path and its possible dangers in the moment, all the better to upend expectations and rattle everyone involved.

Occasionally, he reveals a little, though what we are supposed to do with the information is rarely clear. We learn that the Airbnb that Campbell has rented in Detroit — and which already has a jittery occupant named Keith (Bill Skarsgård) — and which houses the labyrinth is the property of a Hollywood actor (Justin Long) on the brink of personal and professional disaster. We also see, via flashback, that its previous owner (Richard Brake), used the labyrinth for horrible purposes. But we don't know how these disparate elements are connected until it's far too late to do anything about it.

There are flashes of subtext in "Barbarian," most notably about predators and their ability to hide among us. But for the most part, "Barbarian" is a supremely unnerving experience, a haunted house ride which only reveals its monsters when they're right next to us. "It's terrifying. And funny. And you'll never guess where it's going," observed Time Out.

Starring: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long

Director: Zach Cregger

Year: 2022

Runtime: 102 minutes

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

There is a great deal under the surface of Jordan Peele's second horror film, 2019's "Us," from issues of government-sanctioned racism and classism to privilege, xenophobia, and "othering." Tackling subjects like these with care is among the many things that happen in all of Peele's films, and help to set his work apart in the horror scene. What makes "Us" doubly remarkable is that the film itself also functions as a world-class scare machine.

There are multiple possibilities for who or what "Us" is in Peele's film. It might be the family headed by Marvel vets Lupita Nyong'o and Winston Duke, or it might be the red-suited figures who invade their vacation home as part of a nationwide kill spree by the Tethered, deranged lookalikes of American citizens designed as part of a vague but cruel population control experiment. Like all nightmares, the full why of "Us" is kept distressingly out of reach, but the horror continues unabated. "The results are messy, brilliant, sobering, even bleak ... but Jordan Peele isn't here just to play," concluded the New York Times.

Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss

Directed by: Jordan Peele

Year: 2019

Runtime: 116 minutes

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

Anything can be made to seem creepy if presented in the right (wrong?) context: Osgood Perkins turned a cheap toy into an engine of destruction in "The Monkey," while a fashion plate robot became a killing machine in "M3GAN." Parker Finn found the terror behind the most benevolent expression in 2022's "Smile," which he expanded from his own short film. Sosie Bacon gives a harrowing performance as a psychiatrist who discovers that a demonic entity, which manifests itself via a rictus grin, spurs people to commit horrific acts of violence.

"Smile" (and its 2024 sequel) cover a lot of ground already traversed by other horror films, from "The Ring" to "It Follows." It stands apart from those titles by finding trauma at the root of horror. The victims in "Smile" have experienced pain which, in the film's mythology, serves as a magnet for the entity. It's an apt, gripping metaphor for the lingering impact of emotional suffering, and stays long after the sight of those broad smiles fade away. As our own review explained, "While the narrative may not win points for originality, Finn's eye for subverting the expected scares results in the film becoming the most haunting studio release in quite some time."

Starring: Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gallner, Jessie T. Usher

Directed by: Parker Finn

Year: 2022

Runtime: 116 minutes

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%

Grief and pain are also at the heart of Danny and Michael Philippou's inventive feature film debut, "Talk to Me." The 2022 Australian film uses our desire to remain connected to those we have lost — especially those torn away by violence  — to fuel its shivery story of an embalmed hand which allows the living to become briefly possessed by the dead in order to communicate with them. But if centuries of fantastic and horrific storytelling has taught us anything, there are still some things that humanity is not meant to know, and tapping so deeply into the spirit world has devastating implications for Mia (Sophie Wilde), who has recently lost her mother.

For the Philippou brothers— who also explore the horror of loss in their second feature, "Bring Her Back" — the emotional core of "Talk to Me" supercharges the shock sequences, most notably when Riley (Joe Bird), the younger brother of Mia's friend Jade (Alexandra Jensen), appears to be violently possessed by Mia's mother's spirit. As The AV Club wrote, "A devastating script and charismatic cast (spearheaded by Sophie Wilde) make 'Talk To Me' a terrifying and pervasively heartbreaking tale of grief." 

Starring: Sophie Wilde, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird

Directed by Danny and Michael Philippou

Year: 2022

Runtime: 95 minutes

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

Slasher films now take one of two paths to find their audience. They either embrace the grindhouse side of the genre (see: "Terrifier" or "In a Violent World") or they have to find a fresh way to present their stalk-and-slash tropes. The latter path is the more challenging of the two, but has also yielded enjoyable results, often by merging with other genres like comedy ("Happy Death Day"). Add to that list 2025's "Heart Eyes," which successfully merges a holiday-themed slasher premise with a rom-com.

"Heart Eyes" stars Olivia Holt (also in "Totally Killer," another fun horror-comedy-sci-fi mashup) and Mason Gooding as co-workers who are mistakenly targeted by a psychopath who murders couples on Valentine's Day. The emotional anxiety and mixed signals that fuel many a rom-com lend breezy layers to the film — here, determining if the leads are really a couple may actually save their lives — which director Josh Ruben and writers Philip Murphy, Christopher Landon, and Michael Kennedy mine for a surprisingly equal balance of humor and gore. "As a Valentine's Day flick and a horror picture, it lands for fans of all kinds: those who seek warmth, wrath, or both," noted RogerEbert.com.

Starring: Olivia Holt, Mason Gooding, Jordana Brewster

Director: Josh Ruben

Year: 2025

Runtime: 97 minutes

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 80%

It's best to regard Zack Snyder's "Dawn of the Dead" as a different take on George A. Romero's enduring zombie classic rather than a remake. The two films share only limited DNA strands: relentless zombies, a mall setting, a few character details, and minor nods to the 1978 "Dawn" through cameos by the original actors. These small connections form the backbone of the negative press that dogs Snyder's version, mostly because it seems to lack Romero's sociopolitical themes, but the truth of the matter is that the 2004 "Dawn" is a very different but also deeply satisfying zombie horror film.

The excesses of Snyder's subsequent films are largely absent here; his direction is as breakneck-paced as his zombies and equally single-minded in delivering nail-biting action-horror. He's aided immeasurably by James Gunn's script which, like his work for Marvel and DC, finds the heart of its mismatched characters. The eclectic cast is uniformly excellent, with solid turns from Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Ty Burr. And though detractors may disagree, its sprinting cadavers provide a dose of Romero-esque commentary on the terror of faceless, relentless violence. As Fangoria opined, "'Dawn of the Dead' joins 'The Ring' and 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' as an update that both honors its source and emerges as an effective horror film in its own right."

Starring: Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber

Director: Zack Snyder

Year: 2004

Rating: R

Runtime: 100

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%

The 2023 Chilean horror-satire "El Conde" ("The Count") draws upon real-life horrors for its story of an elderly vampire turned South American ruler who can't give up his appetite for blood or power. Director Pablo Larrain's undead despot is Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell), who as Chile's leader from 1973 to 1990 was responsible for the execution or torture of thousands of his own people before his death in 2006. Larrain's film — released on the 50th anniversary of Pinochet's coup — finds the dictator still alive when an accountant arrives to assess the family's fortune. But like many of the characters in the film (including former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher), the bookkeeper is not as she seems.

Beautifully draped in Gothic shadows by Oscar-nominated American cinematographer Edward Lachman, "El Conde" revels in gallons of gore, though the effect is less to scare than to underscore the devastation wreaked by Pinochet's coup. Why is Pinochet a vampire? That's summed up in the film's finale, where Pinochet (and Thatcher) seem to elude their pursuers. Like vampires, fascism, destructive politics, and greed can never be truly wiped out. They just find new victims. "This is another powerful addition to Larraín's movies about the ongoing agony of Chile, and the Chilean people's struggle to confront the past, armed with the hammer and the sharpened stake," wrote The Guardian.

Starring: Jaime Vadell, Gloria Münchmeyer, Alfredo Castro

Director: Pablo Larrain

Year: 2023

Runtime: 110 minutes

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

The rare found footage horror film that's actually good, Patrick Brice's "Creep" has few gimmicks or twists. It's a two-hander — Brice stars opposite "Morning Show" actor Mark Duplass — that's written and produced during the filming process, much like the indie features that made Duplass a star. And yet "Creep" is one of the most nerve-jangling films on this list.

Much of that status is due to Duplass, an actor who projects likability even when playing unlikable characters. He makes excellent use of that quality in "Creep" as Josef, who hires videographer Aaron (Brice) to record his life as a video diary for his unborn son. Josef claims to be dying of a brain tumor, but as Aaron discovers, everything about him turns out to be untrue, and the real reason for the recording is far more, well, creepy.

Duplass doesn't need to do much to make viewers shiver. If he's guilty of anything (at first), he's too nice, which lowers Brice's defenses. It's not until later that the monster inside him bares his fangs — quite literally, when Josef shows Aaron his favorite snarling wolf mask. "Creep" is about our desire to trust others, and how the duplicitous (and deadly) can use it to hide their true intentions.

Starring: Mark Duplass, Patrick Brice

Directed by: Patrick Brice

Year: 2014

Runtime: 77 minutes

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Writer-director S. Craig Zahler's 2014 feature "Bone Tomahawk" is a chimerical construction, a Western that's also an unflinchingly brutal horror film. Add to that piquant dialogue and coal-black humor, and you have a film that should collapse under the weight of its aspirations. And yet "Bone Tomahawk" succeeds because of Zahler's steady hand and a cast led by Kurt Russell in steely lawman mode.

The film has been described as a nightmare version of "The Searchers," with Russell, Patrick Wilson, and Richard Jenkins in pursuit of an indigenous tribe that has kidnapped Wilson's wife (Lili Simmons). Like the John Ford film, the journey to the tribe's valley is marked by debates about race, but the similarities end soon enough: Zahler's warriors are linebacker-sized cannibals with diabolical ingenuity when it comes to stealth and slaughter.

"Tomahawk" eventually throws its characters into a desperate fight for their lives — with one of the most breathtaking acts of violence ever committed to film — that somehow also becomes a coda for the Old West. It's just one of the many impressive feats in the movie, which ultimately delivers for Western fans and horror devotees alike. Sight and Sound took note of "Bone Tomahawk" as "a funny (strange and haha) western landscape where it is all too easy to get pillaged, consumed or lost."

Starring: Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Richard Jenkins

Director: S. Craig Zahler

Year: 2014

Runtime: 132 minutes

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

It can be downright difficult to find room for emotional beats and social commentary in a zombie film, but it can be done. George A. Romero and Danny Boyle pulled it off in their respective franchises, and South Korean director Sang-ho Yeon joined their number with 2016's "Train to Busan." The action-horror film, which spawned a follow-up and animated prequel, concerns commuters who discover that the reanimated victims of a zombie outbreak are also aboard their express train.

The zombies in "Busan" are the same fast variety as seen in Boyle's "28 Days Later," but somehow supercharged to even greater heights of ferocity. Yeon invests equal intensity to their battles with the passengers, with a mano-a-mano fight between a car full of zombies and burly Ma Dong-seok among the highlights. But this would be empty calories if Yeon didn't give his characters reasons to fight. Ma has a pregnant wife to protect, while Gong Yoo wants to save his daughter; everyone has a reason to live, and some a reason to die. 

If a zombie film can make you cry, "Train to Busan" is the most likely candidate. "Writer-director Sang-ho Yeon's film borrows heavily from 'World War Z' in its depiction of the fast-moving undead masses while also boasting an emotional core the Brad Pitt-starring extravaganza often lacked," noted Entertainment Weekly.

Starring: Gong Yoo, Ma Dong-seok, Jung Yu-mi

Directed by: Sang-ho Yeon

Year: 2016

Runtime: 118 minutes

Rating: NR

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 95%

In most zombie films, the moment in which a protagonist is infected is often the key turning point. In the 2017 Australian thriller "Cargo," Andy (Martin Freeman) is bitten by his wife within its first few minutes. That provides this mournful film with a desperate urgency, because plague carriers in "Cargo" have 48 hours before they turn, and Andy has an infant daughter in need of care.

Directors Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke — expanding their 2013 short of the same name — provide a foundation of horror in the plague victims' murderous rage and efforts to fight them, especially by a group of Aboriginal hunters who put down the infected with brutal finality. These moments are intense, but viewers are more likely to be haunted by the survivors, especially Freeman, who is already staggering under monumental loss and grief. 

Zombie/plague films tend to depict their worlds as an endless loop of slaughter and survival, but "Cargo" is steeped in the overwhelming emotional losses incurred by such a cataclysmic event. "The real treat is Freeman, who makes the most of his lead role with a performance in turns stoic and heartbreakingly desperate as Andy tries to save a precious life in this land of the dead," declared Entertainment Weekly.

Starring: Martin Freeman, Simone Landers, Anthony Hayes

Directors: Ben Howling, Yolanda Ramke

Year: 2017

Runtime: 105 minutes

Rating: R

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%