The perfect horror films on Netflix for scream time in 2025

Seeking to spike your cortisol ranges? Then we have got the Netflix streaming information for you.

From outdated frights to new fears, we have scoured Netflix’s horror catalog to seek out one of the best cinematic nightmares for darkening your machine. After all, not all terrifying titles are born of the identical fireplace and brimstone — so we have included quite a lot of ethereal ghost tales, stark residence invasion horrors, gentrifying vampires, psychological thrillers, traditional creeps, satirical scares, and extra. Sure, Netflix originals just like the Worry Road trilogy and I am Considering of Ending Issues are on right here. However we have additionally acquired style staples and hidden gems.

Listed here are one of the best scary films at the moment streaming on Netflix — all of them filled with eerie leisure worth, since you need not sleep ever once more. Joyful haunting!

25. The Lifeless Do not Die

If you need a zombie film that is off the overwhelmed path, take a look at this star-stuffed, foolish, and cerebral gem from Jim Jarmusch. Set in a small rural city, The Lifeless Do not Die imagines an undead apocalypse by which zombies (or ghouls) nonetheless cling to the obsessions that they had whereas dwelling, like espresso, wine, and cell telephones. However they may nonetheless eat your flesh, so be careful! 

If this quirky premise is not sufficient to entice you, then we dare you to withstand this totally bonkers ensemble that features Invoice Murray, Adam Driver, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Tilda Swinton, Tom Waits, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Rosie Perez, Iggy Pop, Carol Kane, RZA, Austin Butler, and Selena Gomez. — Ok.P. 

Learn how to watch: The Lifeless Do not Die is now streaming on Netflix.

24. El Conde

Chilean Basic Augusto Pinochet was one in every of historical past’s most infamous dictators and a voracious embezzler, in addition. What if he had been “bloodthirsty” in a extra literal sense? 

From Spencer director Pablo Larraín,  this pitch-black satire reimagines Pinochet (performed right here by Jaime Vadell) as a 250-year-old vampire, dwelling in exile with a household whose able to tear him (and one another?) aside over his huge fortune. Consider it as “Blood Succession,” however with a math-whiz nun on the middle of it (Paula Luchsinger, who practically steals the movie). 

Filmed in lush black and white, El Conde is a darkish, intelligent, and infrequently grotesque gothic different historical past. It pulls off the feat of providing supernatural chills whereas by no means shedding sight of the monstrous historic evils which it attracts upon. — Rufus Hickok, Contributing Author

Learn how to watch: El Conde is now streaming on Netflix.

23. Below the Shadow 

Occasions are tense in Nineteen Eighties Tehran for mom Shideh (Narges Rashidi) and her daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi). The previous medical scholar is apprehensive about operating afoul of Iran’s repressive post-revolutionary authorities, and the nation is mired in a seemingly infinite warfare with Iraq. Her husband Iraj (Bobby Naderi) known as to function a health care provider on the frontlines, and their condominium constructing is being shelled each day.

Issues solely worsen after a bomb hits their condominium constructing and lodges, unexploded, within the roof; as their neighbors flee to safer areas, the constructing turns into downright uncanny. Did the bomb let one thing — or someone — in? Valuable objects are disappearing from their condominium or being thrown out completely, which the feverish little woman blames on malevolent djinn. It is as much as Shideh to save lots of not solely her daughter’s life from all these exterior threats however her very soul from malevolent, seemingly mystical intruders. 

In his first feature-length movie, Iranian-born director Babak Anvari proves adept at slowly ratcheting up the paranoid environment and jittery particulars, earlier than lastly letting all of it explode within the final act. — R.H. 

Learn how to watch: Below the Shadow is now streaming on Netflix.

22. Run Rabbit Run

Credit score: Netflix

Succession star Sarah Snook has extra to fret about than the Roy household on this Aussie chiller. She performs Sarah, a divorced mom and fertility physician immediately in command of her late father’s property — which incorporates her estranged mom, Joan (Greta Scacchi), who’s at first levels of dementia and is in an grownup care residence. If that weren’t sufficient, Sarah’s younger daughter, Mia (Lily LaTorre), has begun appearing unusual. First, it’s the stray rabbit she’s introduced residence and began dressing like. Then, it’s some creepy crayon drawings and insistent calls for to go to Joan, whom Mia has by no means met. Lastly, it’s the woman’s conviction that she’s not Mia in any respect however Alice, Sarah’s sister who went lacking once they had been kids on the similar age Mia is now. Is Alice again for some sisterly spooks? Director Daina Reid makes deft use of unnerving sound design, creepy visuals, and a pervasive sense of dread and hazard to strongly counsel the reply is sure. — R.H. 

Learn how to watch: Run Rabbit Run is now streaming on Netflix.

21. The Babysitter

Y’know, I am undecided The Babysitter actually works as a film; it is extra the concept of a film loosely strung collectively by one-liners and elegance. Nonetheless, it is a enjoyable option to kill just a few hours. Samara Weaving stars because the titular childcare skilled, a preferred teen with a ardour for human sacrifice and one-liners. Judah Lewis stars as the child being babysat, with supporting performances by Hana Mae Lee, Robbie Amell, Bella Thorne, and Andrew Bachelor. The sequel, launched in 2020, is extra of the identical — so in case you like the primary, do a double characteristic. — Alison Foreman, Leisure Reporter

Learn how to watch: The Babysitter is now streaming on Netflix.

20. 28 Years Later 

The third movie within the 28 Days Later movie sequence returns director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland to the franchise. And so they hit the bottom operating with a daring new world of zombie horror. With the preliminary breakout of the Rage virus many years outdated, the UK has been deserted by the remainder of the world, which has been largely untouched by the contagion. Nevertheless, some survivors have carved out cozy communities, wealthy in tradition, faith, and stringent guidelines to maintain issues from going undead. 

12-year-old Spike (Alfie Williams) has been raised in such a group by his loving however sick mom (Jodie Comer) and his courageous archer father (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). However when his dad takes him for a scavenging journey within the untamed forests, the place the contaminated have advanced in new and horrible methods, Spike begins a combat not just for survival however for a brand new day. Deeply harrowing, emotionally walloping, and scary as hell, 28 Years Later will depart you shivering. — Ok.P. 

Learn how to watch: 28 Years Later is now streaming on Netflix.

19. Velvet Buzzsaw

Credit score: Claudette Barius / Netflix

From the dude behind the good 2014 psychological thriller Nightcrawler comes a hilarious — and horrifying — send-up of the Los Angeles artwork scene. In writer-director Dan Gilroy’s epic Velvet Buzzsaw, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Collette, and half a dozen different performers you in all probability love act their hearts out as nice artwork appreciators hunted down and killed by their priceless items. (Severely, Billy Magnussen will get strangled by a portray of monkeys. It is superior.) — A.F.

Learn how to watch: Velvet Buzzsaw is now streaming on Netflix.

18. Blood Crimson Sky

Netflix’s Blood Crimson Sky is a type of horror films made so significantly better by figuring out as little as attainable going into it that I’ll attempt to say as little as attainable to get you to look at it. Directed by Peter Thorwarth, who co-wrote the script with Stefan Holtz, this motion horror journey combines one of the best components of Flight Plan with tinges of A Woman Walks Residence Alone At Night time. Star Peri Baumeister is totally breathtaking as a lady trying to guard her son from hijackers aboard a transatlantic voyage. — A.F.

Learn how to watch: Blood Crimson Sky is now streaming on Netflix.

17. The Ritual

In director David Bruckner’s scenic tour of a hellscape, 4 friends hike by way of northern Sweden to honor a departed good friend. After all, their journey quickly morphs right into a torturous and unending nightmare — with a killer lead efficiency by Rafe Spall. Slippery and divisive, this film begs to be picked aside. Extra probably than not, you may love the world it creates however hate the best way it ends. Or, like me, you may love the world it creates and the way it ends. Have enjoyable with it! And pack bug spray! — A.F.

Learn how to watch: The Ritual is now streaming on Netflix.

16. Apostle

Credit score: Netflix

Earlier than Michael Sheen turned the angel Aziraphale in Amazon’s Good Omens, he celebrated faith in a, uh… “completely different” method. Apostle is a totally bonkers interval horror movie that options Sheen at his most terrifying, taking part in a cult chief with an affinity for bloodletting and different “inventive” non secular sacraments. Lead Dan Stevens retains the slow-paced narrative shifting, with beautiful supporting performances by The Politician‘s Lucy Boynton and Welsh stage actor Mark Lewis Jones. — A.F.

Learn how to watch: Apostle is now streaming on Netflix.

15. The Blackening

In 2022, Barbershop director Tim Story introduced a hilarious horror providing to the slasher subgenre with The Blackening. The movie, written by Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins, prods the trope that Black characters normally die first in slasher flicks. So what occurs when all the associates who collect in a distant cabin the place they’re stalked by a masked killer are additionally Black? Properly, a wild sport begins that is meta, outrageous, and a razor-sharp critique of this slasher cliche. 

The crackling ensemble solid boasts Dewayne Perkins, Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler, Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Antoinette Robertson, Sinqua Partitions, Jay Pharoah, and Yvonne Orji. And collectively, they make a film that is an absolute must-see. In his assessment for Mashable, contributing author Robert Daniels cheered, “The Blackening is a refined, thought-provoking, but endlessly rapturous tackle the horror style certain to ask extra spins on its distinctive imaginative and prescient.” — Ok.P. 

Learn how to watch: The Blackening  is now streaming on Netflix. 

14. Jaws

In 1975, Steven Spielberg gave rise to the blockbuster with this iconic creature characteristic. Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss star as an unlikely trio of an area sheriff, a sea captain, and a shark knowledgeable. Collectively, they courageous the waters off Amity Island to do battle with a man-eating nice white shark. Although not as action-packed as as we speak’s blockbusters, this nerve-rattling adaptation of Peter Benchley’s seaside learn was scary sufficient to drive audiences wild and switch the tide of shark sentiment towards the ocean beast for many years. 

But nothing within the fear-mongering Shark Week can compete with the motion of man versus sea beast that goes down right here. And even after 50 years, you may need to cheer when Brody snarls, “Smile, you sonovabitch!”* — Ok.P. 

Learn how to watch: Jaws is now streaming on Netflix.

13. Cam

Credit score: Netflix

Some of the underrated titles in Netflix’s authentic horror catalog, Isa Mazzei and Daniel Goldhaber’s Cam combines the tumultuous world {of professional} webcam modeling with the insidious terrors of a body-snatching whodunnit. The Handmaid’s Story‘s Madeline Brewer stars as Alice Ackerman, an formidable performer desirous to climb up the digital ranks who finds herself confronted with a doppelgänger gunning to take her spot, her followers, and perhaps…her life. — A.F.

Learn how to watch: Cam is now streaming on Netflix.

12. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Thirty-six years after Beetlejuice first thrilled audiences, director Tim Burton and his main man Michael Keaton reunited for a sequel that was definitely worth the wait. Winona Ryder returns as Lydia Deetz, who’s drawn again to her former creepy residence due to a loss of life within the household. Whereas there, she bickers together with her stepmom Delia (a divine Catherine O’Hara) and her headstrong teen daughter (Jenna Ortega), who’s gotten a bit too near the useless. 

If you happen to’re looking for one thing spooky however not flat-out scary, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a terrific decide. As I wrote in my assessment for Mashable, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is pure Burton, passionate, untethered, and indulgent. Followers of the unique film can have loads of purpose to cheer, and much more to cackle.” — Ok.P. 

Learn how to watch: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is now streaming on Netflix.

11. Bram Stoker’s Dracula 

In 1992, Francis Ford Coppola unleashed a daring and horny reimagining of the 1897 novel Dracula upon the world. Gary Oldman stars because the eponymous vampire, who’s drawn inescapably to a younger Englishwoman named Mina Harper (Winona Ryder). It is a drawback for her husband, a bewildered Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves), who’s subjected to torment and romantic rivalry from the Depend. However in fact that is not all. 

This lusty story additionally follows the sexual exploration and vampiric damnation of Mina’s bawdy bestie Lucy (Sadie Frost), who’s been toying with the hearts of three dashing males (Cary Elwes, Richard E. Grant, and Billy Campbell). However as soon as she turns, it will be as much as the peculiar vampire knowledgeable Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins, doing probably the most) to interrupt them from her spell of seduction for good! Amid all this, there’s blood, shapeshifting, intercourse, and Tom Waits because the wretched acquainted Renfield. What extra may you ask for? — Ok.P. 

Learn how to watch: Bram Stoker’s Dracula  is now streaming on Netflix.

10. 1922

Credit score: Netflix

Directed by Zak Hilditch and based mostly on Stephen King’s novella of the identical identify, 1922 tackles traditional themes of guilt, envy, and evil by way of the grim lens of the American Mud Bowl. Thomas Jane and Molly Parker sq. off to placing impact, portray a portrait of a wedding that’s as without delay remarkably absurd and nauseatingly believable. The couple’s son, performed by Dylan Schmid, is simply as compelling, with a heartbreaking storyline you will not quickly neglect. (FYI, followers of the guide, there are huge adjustments to the variation’s ending that did not hassle me however may hassle you.) — A.F.

Learn how to watch: 1922 is now streaming on Netflix.

9. Practice to Busan

South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho gave the zombie subgenre recent life with this riveting and terrifying 2016 providing. Set in Seoul, Practice to Busan begins like a household drama: a divorced, workaholic dad (Gong Yoo) should take his younger daughter (Kim Su-an) to her mom in Busan. It is a practice journey by which the child simply desires her dad to point out he loves her. And he’ll — however not the best way both of them ever may have predicted. 

A zombie outbreak hits Seoul, and simply because the practice is leaving the station one of many contaminated boards. Now, the riders are trapped on a high-speed practice with a rising horde of zombies. And at last this dad will drop all ideas about work and concentrate on his little one. A motley crew of passengers will band collectively (and sometimes betray one another) to make for a film that’s dizzyingly intense. However the flashiest scares come from the zombies, whose performers are so dedicated to contorting, thrashing round, and customarily inflicting mayhem that you’re going to neglect that is fiction. — Ok.P. 

Learn how to watch: Practice to Busan is now streaming on Netflix.

8. Vampires vs. the Bronx

Need a film that is acquired pleasure, comedy, a scorching message concerning the evils of gentrification, and is a kid-friendly romp? Then take a chunk out of Vampires vs. the Bronx. OzRodriguez’s PG-13 horror-comedy facilities on Afro-Latino teenagers, who acknowledge {that a} flurry of lacking individual posters and inflow of wealthy white people with tote luggage means dangerous information for the neighborhood. Collectively, they workforce up Monster Squad-model to take down the bloodsuckers and save their group. With a pointy wit, a heat coronary heart, a wealthy sense of environment, and an equal appreciation for the Blade films and ’80s Amblin, Vampires vs. the Bronx is a straightforward watch filled with rewards.* — Kristy Puchko, Leisure Editor

Learn how to watch: Vampires vs. the Bronx is now streaming on Netflix.

7. The Worry Road trilogy

Credit score: Netflix

Director Leigh Janiak pulls off a small film miracle in her Worry Road trilogy, delivering constantly enjoyable and fright-filled sequels that simply maintain getting higher. Begin your journey off with Worry Road Half One: 1994, by which we meet the cursed teenagers of a city named Shadyside. For years, the suburban haven has been terrorized by mass murderers — all of them regular townspeople who seemingly “snapped” over nothing.

Throughout Worry Road Half Two: 1978 and Worry Road Half Three: 1666, unravel the thriller behind these killings and their connection to the legendary Shadyside Witch. Primarily based on the Worry Road books by R.L. Stine, it is a punchy slasher with sufficient gore and goofs to gas a straight-through binge. — A.F.

Learn how to watch: The Worry Road trilogy is now streaming on Netflix.

6. The Perfection

From cellos and foreplay to hallucinations and mountain climbing, The Perfection does completely no matter it desires. That includes Allison Williams in her finest position since Get Out and Pricey White Folks‘s Logan Browning in her better part ever, this vibrant style mix will get a response out of you. Not essentially a superb response, however a response nonetheless. It is physique horror meets psychological thriller meets occult drama meets classical music. With bugs. And vomit. I, for one, liked it! — A.F.

Learn how to watch: The Perfection is now streaming on Netflix.

5. His Home

Credit score: Aidan Monaghan / Netflix

Author-director Remi Weekes’ His Home is well my favourite scary Netflix launch from 2020. Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu star as refugees from South Sudan looking for asylum in Britain who’re assigned to dwell in an eerie neighborhood the place they don’t seem to be welcome. Spectacularly horrifying and ruthlessly crucial of its subject material, His Home delivers the whole lot it should — after which some. — A.F.

Learn how to watch: His Home is now streaming on Netflix.

4. Gerald’s Recreation

One other romp from Mike Flanagan, based mostly on one in every of Stephen King’s lesser-known terrors, Gerald’s Recreation follows a pair on a romantic journey to a distant cabin the place issues are completely nice and nothing dangerous occurs. Simply kidding! It is so, so, so dangerous! This survival thriller rooted in psychosexual trauma gives an beautiful efficiency by Carla Gugino, who’s devastating practically each second she is on display screen. Actually. It is Haunting of Hill Home occasions 10. Watch it for her. — A.F.

Learn how to watch: Gerald’s Recreation is now streaming on Netflix.

3. Creep

Oh, you thought you favored Mark Duplass? As a result of he was the love curiosity in all these indie rom-coms, performed that physician in The Mindy Undertaking, and is well one of the best character in The Morning Present? Properly, assume once more! In Creep, a found-footage movie that foregoes pageantry for a stark sense of panic, Duplass performs an odd loner named Josef that freelance documentarian Aaron, performed by writer-director Patrick Brice, cannot fairly pin down. Duplass’ efficiency is intoxicating, and Brice imagines a universe so compelling it completely deserves its equally nice sequel (additionally on Netflix). — A.F.

Learn how to watch: Creep is now streaming on Netflix.

2. Incantation

Credit score: Netflix

Kevin Ko’s Taiwanese horror freaked folks out a lot that it even began a TikTok problem and managed to turn into the all-time highest-grossing horror movie in Taiwan. “When one imagines horror films, it’s nearly inconceivable to not affiliate them with leap scares, monsters, or slashers,” wrote Rizwana Zafer for Mashable. “Incantation doesn’t depend on any of these typical horror film components, so it’s not likely ‘scary’ within the conventional sense. As an alternative, Ko manages to terrify us utilizing suspense and dread, constructed on the intimacy and psychological terror of the heroine. He performs on our deepest fears to scare us, incorporating components of gore, trypophobia, and the eeriness of the unknown, that one thing evil is at all times lurking within the background.”* — Shannon Connellan, UK Editor

Learn how to watch: Incantation is now streaming on Netflix.

1. I am Considering of Ending Issues

Emotional demolitions knowledgeable/filmmaker Charlie Kaufman destroys audiences as soon as extra within the mind-boggling I’m Considering of Ending Issues. Tailored from Iain Reid’s novel of the identical identify, this cryptically titled psychological thriller follows a lady, performed by Jessie Buckley, and her boyfriend, performed by Jesse Plemons, on a disturbing go to to his mother and father’ distant farmhouse. What follows? Properly, that is determined by who you ask.

A transfixing meditation on artwork, existence, worth, authorship, isolation, and extra, I’m Considering of Ending Issues is a really one-of-a-kind expertise as profound as it’s disquieting. You might not have a good time on this home of summary horrors (particularly when Toni Collette is on-screen doing these classically terrifying Toni Collette issues), however it is going to be a long-lasting one.* — A.F.

Learn how to watch: I am Considering of Ending Issues is streaming on Netflix.

* denotes that this blurb appeared in a earlier Mashable checklist. 

UPDATE: Oct. 2, 2025, 3:30 p.m. EDT This story was initially revealed on Oct. 23, 2019. It has been up to date to replicate Netflix’s present streaming library.