5 Best Horror Movies Streaming On Hulu Right Now

Like most streaming services, Hulu has a diverse selection of titles available to subscribers each month. This includes its horror line-up, which currently features popular box office and critical favorites as "The Babadook," — widely considered to be one of the scariest movies of all time – as well as "Insidious: The Red Door," "Late Night with the Devil," and "The Monkey." However, none of these films appear on this list of the five best horror movies streaming on the platform right now.

That's because the metric used to measure the films in this list is Rotten Tomatoes' Popcornmeter. While the Tomatometer is based on reviews from media critics, the Popcornmeter draws its numbers from audience response. In 2019, these reviews were delineated into verified reviews – those from proven ticket holders — and unverified reviews to prevent issues of review-bombing that often torpedoed movie rankings.

Regardless of where you fall on the efficacy (and authenticity) of the Popcornmeter and its reviews, it does provide a snapshot of the moviegoing public's tastes, and often a very different interpretation of films from that of critics (which is more important than you might think, at least to studios). As such, the results of this list might surprise you.

• Cast: Lea Myren, Ane Dahl Torp, Thea Sofie Loch Næss
• Director: Emilie Blichfeldt
• Rating: Not Rated
• Runtime: 109 minutes
• Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter score: 84%

Hulu has its fair share of gruesome horror movies, such as splatter-filled fare like the weird old west shocker "Bone Tomahawk," "In a Violent Nature," and "The House That Jack Built," all of which feature heart-stopping moments of extreme violence. The Norwegian horror-satire "The Ugly Stepsister" also has scenes that may force you to cancel a post-movie meal, but it also has a Popcornmeter rating that tops all of those better-known titles.

As its title suggests, "Stepsister" is inspired by "Cinderella," but director Emilie Blichfeldt flips the script to make some pointed observations about beauty and body image. Here, the beautiful Cinderella-esque Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Næss) is the bully, while stepsister Elvira (Lea Myren) is the victim subjected to graphic torture by their stepmother to become "beautiful" enough to win the prince's heart. Blichfeldt depicts a ghastly scene from the original Brothers Grimm fairytale, in which the stepsisters mutilate their feet in order to fit into the glass slipper, but goes much further with primitive dental and plastic surgery — and one very hungry tapeworm.

That doesn't appear to have dampened the enthusiasm of critics, who helped give it a 96% Tomatometer rating. Although, for some, that praise appears to have been hard-fought. As Kevin Maher, chief film critic of The Times, wrote, "[I've spent] 30 years [in] film criticism, and this is the first time that I've had to turn away from the screen for fear of retching."

• Cast: Matt Devere, Luca Papp, Nikolett Barabas
• Director: Péter Deák
• Rating: R
• Runtime: 119 minutes
• Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter score: 83%

You'd be forgiven for not knowing 2025's "Silent Zone." The Hungarian production features unknown actors and a relatively familiar plotline — a young girl (Luca Papp) and a police officer (Matt Devere) battle an army of virus-infected zombies while leading other survivors to an island sanctuary. It earned very few reviews and, as a result, no Tomatometer score. Despite its lack of attention, "Silent Zone" eventually landed on streaming platforms like Hulu and enjoys a Popcornmeter rating of 83%. To put things into perspective, that's just four points below the 87% rating of the original and influential "Night of the Living Dead," which rewrote long-standing horror tropes.

Most of the audience appraisals for "Silent Zone" are not only positive, but well-considered. "The visuals are gritty but cinematic, and the whole world feels oddly believable for a post-apocalyptic horror," wrote one Rotten Tomatoes reviewer. That's in line with the film's few media reviews. "For its shoestring budget, 'Silent Zone' [...] does impress in makeup, sets[,] and action choreography," said Tom Meek of Cambridge Day. Surgeons of Horror also weighed in, noting, "['Silent Zone'] delivers enough suspense, emotion, and well-crafted action to make it worth a watch."

As any horror fan knows, there are a LOT of zombie movies out there — Hulu alone has "Handling the Undead," "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City," and "Little Monsters" (more on that later). That makes it easy to overlook a hidden gem — and if reviews are to be believed, "Silent Zone" might be one of them.

• Cast: Stephen Lang, Madelyn Grace, Brendan Sexton III
• Director: Rodo Sayagues
• Rating: R
• Runtime: 98 minutes
• Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter score: 85%

Director Fede Álvarez's 2016 thriller "Don't Breathe" was a box office and critical hit, netting an 88% rating on the Tomatometer thanks to its harrowing suspense (it's even on our list of movies you should never watch alone). It also introduced Norman Nordstrom (Stephen Lang), a sightless — but not helpless — war veteran who dispatched home invaders through clever booby traps and superhuman physicality. He's also deranged by grief and harboring a hideous plan to bring back his deceased daughter. Nordstrom is the antagonist in "Don't Breathe," but becomes a sort-of hero in "Don't Breathe 2." He has a young girl to protect, bad guys to slaughter, and even a brief atonement for past transgressions. However, the premise never quite gels, despite Lang's intense performance.

Critical response was mixed, earning "Don't Breathe 2" a 43% Tomatometer reading. But audiences seemed swayed, judging by its 85% Popcornmeter percentage — a full six points higher than its predecessor's ranking. While some RT viewers noted its failure to wipe clean Nordstrom's past, most seemed happy to simply watch him in action. The response is similar to how audiences felt about  Freddy Krueger, a monstrous child murderer in the first "Nightmare on Elm Street" that became a fan favorite, the centerpiece of the sequels, and an unlikely pop culture icon.

• Cast: Alan Tudyk, Tyler Labine, Katrina Bowden
• Director: Eli Craig
• Rating: R
• Runtime: 89 minutes
• Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter score: 85%

Critical response to the 2010 horror comedy "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil" seems firmly split. It's either well-loved ("First-time director Eli Craig gets that troublesome mix of horror and comedy dead right," wrote The Guardian) or shrugged off ("'Tucker & Dale vs. Evil' is rarely laugh-out-loud funny," observed Slant), which ultimately resulted in an 86% Tomatometer rating. Audiences, however, appear to hold it close to their hearts. The film, which shows harmless backwoods types Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine) get mistaken as hillbilly psychopaths by outsiders, holds an impressive 85% Popcornmeter rating. Not only is this just eight points lower than "Shaun of the Dead" (93%), which is one of the most beloved horror comedies of all time, but it's almost double the positive response to one of the subgenre's most popular titles, "Scary Movie" (43%). The response also seems to support other rave reviews of the film, such as its status as the absolute best horror-comedy of all time, according to Reddit.

Is it worth mentioning that none of the over 25,000 audience reviews for "Tucker & Dale" are verified? Not really, since Rotten Tomatoes implemented its verified reviews policy nine years after this film's release. While it's still considered an imperfect system, the Popcornmeter does essentially underscore one thing: a lot of people really seem to love this offbeat comedy chiller.

• Cast: Lupita Nyong'o, Josh Gad, Alexander England
• Director: Abe Forsythe
• Rating: R
• Runtime: 93 minutes
• Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter score: 100%

Which fright film on Hulu has the highest Popcornmeter rating? The critically-praised, dog-centered horror movie "Good Boy?" "V/H/S?" "The Host?" Nope — it's "Little Monsters," starring Lupita Nyong'o and Josh Gad. The underseen horror-comedy — which pits a has-been rocker (Alexander England), a kindergarten teacher (Nyong'o), and her students against a zombie horde — currently boasts a 100% viewer rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Again, none of these audience reviews — of which there were less than 50 — were verified in the year when Rotten Tomatoes implemented that policy. As such, "Little Monsters" did not qualify for RT's Verified Hot status, which is awarded to films with the highest verifiable audience reviews.

But before you start hollering about review bombing, you should note that, like "Tucker & Dale vs. Evil," "Little Monsters" also enjoys a healthy Tomatometer rating (79%) and rave write-ups from critics. As Radio Times' Jeremy Aspinall wrote, "Firmly in the tradition of 'Shaun of the Dead' but with a dash of 'School of Rock,' this joyously irreverent horror comedy bursts with barbs, gags[,] and gore galore." And less than 50 reviews would suggest, at best, a very half-hearted attempt to influence the film's score. So it's possible that "Little Monsters" is a legitimate cult sleeper, waiting to develop its following. There seems to be only one way to prove that, which is to just press play.