40 Best Horror Movies On Hulu

With plentiful streaming services to choose from, horror hounds have a bounty of choices these days. And sure, while on-demand entertainment may carry some troubling implications for our beloved local theaters, one of the significant boons of streaming is the increased odds of stumbling across new, and new-to-you, discoveries. For a horror fan (or the horror-curious), that may mean venturing into more international waters or taking a dip into under-seen cult favorites or buzz-worthy indie offerings. 

Indeed, the horror films available on Hulu cover a surprisingly diverse range. There's a little something for everyone, no matter your genre taste. But the eternal movie night question remains: what to watch?

Well good news! To make the selection process easier, we've combed through Hulu's library and selected 40 of the best horror films currently streaming on the service. Our picks may not always gel with the critical consensus, but considering horror's enduring stigma amongst its more respectable peers, stumping for appreciated gems is pretty par for the course as far as the genre's concerned. 

Updated on December 27, 2021: Hulu is constantly updating its selection with new, scary titles that'll have you gasping in fright. So please note that this article is updated monthly to reflect changes to Hulu's streaming availability.

A young, ambitious ballerina named Nina falls to pieces after earning the starring role as the dual lead in her company's production of "Swan Lake." Determined to portray both sides of the role to absolute perfection, the innocent Nina indulges her darker side, with violent results. A taught psychodrama — and one of the rare horror films to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture — "Black Swan" is a modern classic and hard proof that dance and horror are a match made in heaven (or is that hell?).

• Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel
• Director: Darren Aronofsky
• Year: 2010
• Runtime: 108 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

The "Midsommar" of the Midwest may lack the polish of more prestigious adaptations of Stephen King's work. But when it comes to "creepy kids" in folk horror, "Children of the Corn" deserves its due, and has proven more influential as the years have progressed. The film tells of the arrival of a grim child preacher named Isaac, who arrives in small-town Nebraska with a morbid purpose: to convince the local children to murder every adult in town.  

• Starring: Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, R.G. Armstrong
• Director: Fritz Kiersch
• Year: 1984
• Runtime: 92 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 35%

Most of the time when you watch a movie, you really don't want the dog to die. "Cujo" is the exception. Adapting Stephen King's novel of the same name, the film sees a formerly friendly St. Bernard succumb to the thrall of rabies and visit violence on a quiet suburban American town. Featuring an all-time performance from Dee Wallace, "Cujo" is arguably one of the best cinematic adaptations of King's work: a genuinely terrifying perversion of "man's best friend."

• Starring: Dee Wallace, Danny Pintauro, Daniel Hugh Kelly
• Director: Lewis Teague
• Year: 1983
• Runtime: 91 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 62%

Alien abductions rarely feel truly terrifying on film. So it's no small feat that "Fire in the Sky" succeeds where so many others have failed. Based on the infamous Travis Walton incident, the film focuses on the human impact of an extraterrestrial abduction that took place in the fall of 1975, radically affecting the lives of the loggers who watched their friend get beamed right before their eyes. While the film does straddle a tonal line between absolute nightmare fuel and TV movie levels of sincerity, a stellar cast and exquisite work from both cinematographer Bill Pope and the effects geniuses over at Industrial Light and Magic make this a much-watch for anyone who wished abduction films were riddled with PTSD and body horror.

• Starring: D.B. Sweeney, Robert Patrick, Craig Sheffer
• Director: Robert Lieberman
• Year: 1993
• Runtime: 107 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 42%

Do not be fooled by its embarrassing (and, frankly, inaccurate) Rotten Tomatoes score. We'll just assume that the pitiful seven critics who reviewed it were all conceding that "Graveyard Shift" is just too powerful for the normal reviewing process. A feature-length adaptation of a Stephen King short story, the film follows a drifter who takes a job at a small-town cotton mill with a big, goopy secret. Featuring a wild-eyed performance by character actor Brad Dourif, insanely gorgeous art direction, and genuinely impressive creature design, "Graveyard Shift" will make you sick in the best way possible.

• Starring: David Andrews, Kelly Wolf, Stephen Macht
• Director: Ralph S. Singleton
• Year: 1990
• Runtime: 87 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 0%

On an otherwise ordinary day, a giant mutated amphibian emerges out of the Han River and begins gobbling up anyone and everything in sight. Gang-du, a family man who works at a snack bar, watches as his only daughter, Hyun-seo, is carried away by the slimy creature. Later, quarantined by the military, Gang-du and his family decide to fight back against the oppressive government coverup when they receive a phone call from Hyun-seo — who is still very much alive and trapped in the city's sewer system.

• Starring: Song Kang-ho, Byun Hee-bong, Park Hae-il
• Director: Bong Joon-ho
• Year: 2006
• Runtime: 120 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 93%

In 15th century Paris, Jehen, the nefarious brother of the archdeacon of Notre Dame, is overwhelmed by lust for a Romani woman named Esmeralda. Jehen commands Quasimodo, the deformed bellringer of the church, to kidnap her. When his attempts to woo Esmeralda are foiled by the charming Captain Pheobus, Jehen abandons Quasimodo and frames Esmeralda for the attempted murder of the captain.

• Starring: Lon Chaney, Patsy Ruth Miller, Ernest Torrence
• Director: Wallace Worsley
• Year: 1923
• Runtime: 101 minutes
• Rating: NR (Passed)
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 92%

In a morose Swedish suburb in the 1980s, a 12-year-old loner named Oskar befriends his new neighbor, Eli, a moody blood-sucking child who has been 12 for over 200 years. Relentlessly bullied at school by his sadistic classmates, Oscar finds security in his new friendship, and the pair form a deep bond as the local body count continues to climb. 

• Starring: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar
• Director: Tomas Alfredson
• Year: 2008
• Runtime: 115 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 98%

Grace is about to become a stepmom under less-than-ideal circumstances. Her fiancés ex-wife has committed suicide after learning of the engagement. And now, six months after their birth mom's passing, Grace finds herself snowed in with her soon-to-be stepkids in a remote holiday village. Over the next few days, bizarre events begin to eat away at Grace's already fragile psyche, and her past as the sole survival of her father's death cult begins to creep out of the woodwork. A cruel, sinister and polarizing film, "The Lodge" was the talk of the genre town in 2019, and it's certainly worth a peek for those with a taste for psychological hellscapes.

• Starring: Riley Keough, Jaeden Martell, Lia McHugh
• Director: Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 108 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 74%

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

In the early 19th century, a young Irish convict nicknamed "Nightingale" pursues a British soldier through the Tasmanian bush. She's hellbent on exacting vengeance for the unspeakable acts of violence visited upon her and her family ... no matter the cost. An uncompromising modern take on an exploitation staple, "The Nightingale" is intense, hauntingly brutal, and not for the weak-stomached.

• Starring: Aisling Franciosi, Sam Claflin, Baykali Ganambarr
• Director: Jennifer Kent
• Year: 2018
• Runtime: 136 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%

Tasya Vos is an elite assassin; a deadly corporate mercenary who takes over the minds and bodies of unsuspecting victims to fulfil her deadly contracts. But she's beginning to lose herself in her work. Literally. And then her latest assignment gets the better of her, resisting her control and trapping her consciousness within a fleshy prison. Featuring tremendous performances and some of the most gripping gore in recent memory (a promise seldom met these days), "Possessor" is a genuine head trip well worth the crunching bones and shattered skulls.

• Starring: Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Tuppence Middleton
• Director: Brandon Cronenberg
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 104 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94%

It's Christmastime in rural Finland and a sinister archeological dig has found what they're looking for: the real Santa Claus. But this isn't the chubby, jolly Kris Kringle you're liable to spot at a shopping mall — this Santa's damn near feral, doesn't speak, eats raw flesh, and abducts children. Sure enough, local kiddies begin to disappear and the herds of reindeer begin to dwindle. When a local trapper and his precocious son capture the escaped mythological being, they attempt to sell the wretched creature back to the multinational company who sponsored the dig in the first place.

• Starring: Onni Tommila, Jorma Tommila, Ilmari Järvenpää
• Director: Jalmari Helander
• Year: 2010
• Runtime: 83 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 90%

An isolated teen named Chloe is confined to a wheelchair due to complications during her birth. She is homeschooled by her mother Diane, a controlling woman with a dark secret. When Chloe starts to suspect that there's something strange about her disability, she begins to ask difficult questions, kicking off an increasingly violent game of cat and mouse.

• Starring: Sarah Paulson, Kiera Allen, Onalee Ames
• Director: Aneesh Chaganty
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 89 minutes
• Rating: PG-13
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

You know what they say: the sea holds many secrets. A marine biology student named Siobhán finds herself stationed on a well-worn fishing trawler off the coast of Ireland. Siobhán's social misgivings with crew are quickly eclipsed by the sudden realization that the trawler is in the clutches of an enormous, unimaginable creature. Stranded in the deep Atlantic, the crew begin to fall ill with a mysterious infection. It's up to Siobhán to break through the close-knit crew before it's too late.

• Starring: Connie Nielsen, Hermione Corfield, Dougray Scott
• Director: Neasa Hardiman
• Year: 2019
• Runtime: 95 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 87%

A young woman named Amy is certain she is going to die tomorrow. She shares this revelation with her skeptical friend Jane, who shrugs off her emotional spiral as another alcoholic flare-up. Then, to her horror, Jane realizes that Amy's unshakable sense of imminent death is contagious. Together, Amy and Jane set off on what may very well be the last day of their lives, unwittingly spreading their infectious morbid conviction among their friend group. 

• Starring: Kate Lyn Sheil, Jane Adams, Kentucker Audley
• Director: Amy Seimetz
• Year: 2020
• Runtime: 85 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 83%

While researching mysterious found footage as research for a new novel, true-crime author Ellison Oswalt makes an unnerving discovery — a young family was brutally massacred in his new home. And if the footage is to believed, the deaths weren't conducted by natural means. As he digs deeper and deeper into the disturbing films, Ellison unwittingly puts his family in the sight lines of an ancient, bloodthirsty pagan deity named Bughuul, whose specialty is wiping out entire families. A bizarre and thoroughly entertaining film that matches each of its genuinely unsettling beats with abject silliness, "Sinister" lives up to its name and packs far more of a punch than most of the mainstream paranormal flicks in its weight class.

• Starring: Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, James Ransone
• Director: Scott Derrickson
• Year: 2012
• Runtime: 109 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 63%

A young American named Evan is looking to re-center himself after losing his mother to cancer and travels to Italy. There, he meets a beautiful, flirty genetics student named Louise. The pair hit it off and begin a spontaneous romance. Louise has a secret, and a monstrous one at that, but Evan is determined to make their relationship work, warts (and fangs, and tentacles ...) and all.

• Starring: Lou Taylor Pucci, Nadia Hilker, Vinny Curran
• Directors: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
• Year: 2014
• Runtime: 110 minutes
• Rating: NR
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 85%

An inconspicuous mild-mannered man rents a French apartment only to learn that its previous occupant committed suicide. Steadily, the man begins to suspect that his landlord and neighbors are attempting to transform him into his predecessor so that he too will kill himself. While "The Tenant" has the unfortunate distinction of being co-written, directed, and headlined by Roman Polanski, there are many (many) other reasons to give the film a watch. From Pierre Guffroy's rich production design to Sven Nykvist's exquisitely calm cinematography to the enchanting talent of Isabelle Adjani, if you are able to stomach its more unsavory qualities, "The Tenant" is an essential slice of 1970s psychological horror — a deeply unnerving, conspiracy-riddled thriller with style and craft to spare.

• Starring: Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, Melvyn Douglas
• Director: Roman Polanski
• Year: 1976
• Runtime: 125 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 88%

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

A quiet man minding his own business finds himself stranded in a remote down after his car is damaged. To make some quick cash to pay for the repairs, he accepts a night shift as a janitor at Willy's Wonderland, an abandoned family entertainment center in desperate need of a good cleaning. But it turns out Willy's Wonderland was abandoned with good reason, and the man finds himself duking it out with the demonic, and very much alive, animatronics. 

• Starring: Nicolas Cage, Emily Tosta, Beth Grant
• Director: Kevin Lewis
• Year: 2021
• Runtime: 89 minutes
• Rating: TV-MA
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 61%

The wealthy but woefully dysfunctional Davison family are attacked by three crossbow-wielding masked men during a weekend getaway. While the assailants pick the Davisons off one by one, Erin, one of the children's significant others, turns out to be a born and bred survivalist. As she wields her talent for improvised home security, the hunters swiftly become the hunted.

• Starring: Sharni Vinson, Nicholas Tucci, Wendy Glenn
• Director: Adam Wingard
• Year: 2011
• Runtime: 95 minutes
• Rating: R
• Rotten Tomatoes Score: 79%