Are you a fan of all things spooky, gory, and even morbidly funny and searching for the scariest horror movies on Netflix? Well, you have certainly come to the right place.
There are plenty of great horror movies available to stream with a Netflix subscription, but I have put together a list of the strongest that the genre has to offer on one of the best streaming services to subscribe to. First, let’s talk about the absolute scariest horror movie on Netflix… in my opinion, at least.
What Is The #1 Scariest Horror Movie On Netflix?
There really is no right or wrong answer when it comes to determining the scariest horror movie on Netflix, considering all art and fear itself are subjective. However, for my money, the current title holder is, arguably, the best horror movie of 2023, Talk to Me.
Danny and Michael Philippou’s feature debut is a refreshingly unique take on the demonic possession movie genre in which a group of Australian teens use a mysterious embalmed hand to conjure spirits as part of a strange game that quickly spirals out of control. The film’s brutal sequences and indelibly startling imagery cement it as one of the best A24 horror movies, but its brilliant metaphor for addiction as a coping mechanism for grief makes it one of the best A24 movies regardless of genre.
How We Curated This List
Selecting the following collection of the scariest movies on Netflix was determined by multiple factors, including the critical reception of each film, their popularity among audiences, and my own personal preferences, which are a lifelong fascination with the genre. Of course, as I said before, all art, especially the kind of art that scares us, is subjective, but I hope these horror films will quench your thirst for a good thrill.
Barbarian (2022)
Director: Zach Cregger
Starring: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long
What it’s about: A man and woman whose AirBNB is mistakenly double-booked soon discover that the awkward circumstances of their meeting are the least of their worries.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: Former The Whitest Kids U’Know member Cregger shocked audiences with Barbarian, his intriguingly subversive and deeply disturbing breakthrough into the horror genre.
Us (2019)
Director: Jordan Peele
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke
What it’s about: A family’s beachside vacation is interrupted by the appearance of another group who look exactly like them, but carry sinister intentions.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: Us, Academy Award winner Peele’s follow-up to his instant classic Black horror movie, Get Out, earns the same distinction with its thought-provoking commentary on economic imbalance by way of a chilling depiction of doppelgangers.
The Birds (1963)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor
What it’s about: A Northern California town inexplicably falls under the attack of various winged animals.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: After cementing himself as a master of grounded suspense with films like Psycho, Hitchcock tried his hand at a creature feature with The Birds, which would have audiences never looking pigeons or other fowl creatures the same way ever again.
Heart Eyes (2025)
Director: Josh Ruben
Starring: Oliva Holt, Mason Gooding
What it’s about: Two co-workers spend Valentine's Day night struggling to outrun a masked killer who mistakes them for a couple.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Netflix: For its fun blood-soaked twist on classic romantic-comedy movie tropes, Heart Eyes is a blast from beginning to end and one of the horror genre's best 2025 movies so far.
Scream VI (2023)
Director: Tyler Gillett, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin
Starring: Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega
What it’s about: After moving to New York City for college, a group of young Woodsboro natives find themselves coming face-to-face with a new masked killer.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: Building on the lore of the slasher franchise in intriguing ways and chock-full of awesome horror movie Easter Eggs, Scream VI is an absolute blast from the guys of Radio Silence.
Train To Busan (2016)
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Starring: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi
What it’s about: South Korea becomes overrun with vicious walking corpses, leaving a group of railcar commuters trapped and struggling to fend for their lives.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: The clever, claustrophobic, and heartbreaking zombie movie favorite, Train to Busan, would spawn a thrilling spin-off called Peninsula, which is also available to stream on Netflix.
Smile (2022)
Director: Parker Finn
Starring: Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gallner
What it’s about: After witnessing a traumatic event, a psychiatrist becomes the latest heir of a terrifying curse that begins to take over her life.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: Finn’s feature-length debut, Smile, boasts a seemingly gimmicky plot, but proved to be one of the most pleasant surprises in an already great year for horror with raw, unfiltered frights and a clever, profound take on the infectious nature of trauma.
Vampires Vs. The Bronx (2020)
Director: Oz Rodriguez
Starring: Jaden Michael, Gerald W. Jones III
What it’s about: As their neighborhood is threatened with gentrification, a group of young friends begin to suspect that there is something even more bizarre plaguing their home.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: Imagine if Bram Stoker wrote The Goonies, and you would, essentially, have Vampires vs. the Bronx, which is one of the most fun and charming horror-comedy movies on Netflix.
Psycho (1960)
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh
What it’s about: A real estate office worker steals a sum of money, goes on the run, and makes a stop at a roadside motel that proves to be a nightmarish site.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: Arguably the best Alfred Hitchcock movie, the filmmaker’s seminal adaptation of Robert Bloch’s novel, Psycho, is also a quintessential example of a film that evolves from one type of story to another roughly halfway through.
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Director: S. Craig Zahler
Starring: Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson
What it’s about: When an injured man’s wife, a doctor, is kidnapped by a tribe of indigenous cannibals, he joins the local sheriff, his deputy, and an arrogant gunfighter on a quest to find her in 1890s Texas.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: Another great example of a movie that drastically shifts in tone (and genre) is Bone Tomahawk, which is considered one of the best Western movies in recent memory for its ominous, slow-burn structure that curdles into a hauntingly shocking finale.
Cam (2018)
Director: Daniel Goldhaber
Starring: Madeline Brewer
What it’s about: A self-employed woman who works in online adult entertainment discovers that a woman bearing a startling resemblance to her has begun to take over her show.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: In addition to being one of the best sexually explicit movies on Netflix, Cam is also considered one of the platform’s most engrossing and visually striking original horror flicks.
Thanksgiving (2023)
Director: Eli Roth
Starring: Patrick Dempsey, Nell Verlaque
What it’s about: Turkey is not the only thing getting carved in a Massachusetts town terrorized by a killer who at least came dressed appropriately for the holiday.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: Roth serves up one of his best movies yet and just about the best horror movie set on Turkey Day with Thanksgiving – his feature adaptation of a fake trailer he helmed for 2007’s Grindhouse.
Ouija: Origin Of Evil (2016)
Director: Mike Flanagan
Starring: Elizabeth Reaser, Annalise Basso
What it’s about: In 1960s California, a professional charlatan finds herself and her daughters plagued by real supernatural occurrences after she incorporates a seemingly harmless board game into her con.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: While Flanagan claims he killed a Blumhouse horror franchise with this box office flop, most would agree that Ouija: Origin of Evil is a prequel that surpasses the original and is one of the master horror storyteller’s best movies.
The Fear Street Trilogy (2021)
Director: Leigh Janiak
Starring: Kiana Madeira, Sadie Sink
What it’s about: A gruesome, three-part tale of the deadly, otherworldly curse that has plagued a small town from the 1660s to the 1990s.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: Packed with fun horror movie Easter Eggs and a love for the best horror movies of the ‘70s and ‘90s, Netflix’s Fear Street is a bloody great time, even if you are not familiar with R.L. Stine’s YA novel series that inspired it.
His House (2020)
Director: Remi Weekes
Starring: Sope Disiru, Wunmi Mosaku
What it’s about: A South Sudanese couple believes they have achieved a new beginning when they move into a new home in England, only to find that their nightmare has just begun.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: The BAFTA-winning His House is one of a few horror movies to achieve 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, as a haunted house flick with refreshingly realistic, but devastating, real-world inspirations.
Run Rabbit Run (2023)
Director: Daina Reid
Starring: Sarah Snook, Lily LaTorre
What it’s about: A woman finds that one of her deepest, darkest secrets is beginning to catch up with her when her daughter insists on being called by a different, but uncomfortably familiar, name.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: Netflix has several great horror films about grief, and Run Rabbit Run is one of the most powerful and deeply unsettling.
The Ritual (2018)
Director: David Bruckner
Starring: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali
What it’s about: While taking a hiking trip through the Swedish wilderness in honor of a recently deceased friend, a group of old college buddies slowly realize that they are not alone.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: Another great thriller that addresses grief, and also one of the more underrated Netflix original movies, is The Ritual, which bears a familiar horror film set-up, only to catch you off guard with its brutal twists and turns.
Gerald’s Game (2017)
Director: Mike Flanagan
Starring: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood
What it’s about: When a weekend getaway with her husband does not go according to plan, a woman finds herself trapped in a nightmarish situation.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: Flanagan proves he understands the work of one of the most prolific horror authors of all time with his adaptation of Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game, which will have you screaming with anxiety throughout, and by the end, shedding a tear.
#Alive (2020)
Director: Il Cho, Jo Il Hyung
Starring: Ah-In Yoo, Park Shin-hye
What it’s about: A young man barricades himself in his home when he becomes one of the few people left in Seoul, Korea, not infected by a deadly, transformative virus.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: #Alive is a Korean horror movie favorite released at a time when infectious illnesses and isolationism were very common, but its well-crafted take on zombie fiction should still manage to keep you entertained.
Creep And Creep 2 (2014, 2017)
Director: Patrick Brice
Starring: Mark Duplass
What it’s about: The tales of two different professional videographers and their unsettling encounters with an unusual stranger.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: In addition to Duplass’ unnerving performance, what makes Creep and its sequel among the most interesting found footage horror movies ever is that, according to EW, they were each improvised almost entirely from scratch.
In The Tall Grass (2019)
Director: Vincenzo Natali
Starring: Laysla De Oliveira, Avery Whitted
What it’s about: While making a stop on a trip through Oklahoma, two siblings are lured into a field of high-growing grass and soon discover that there is no way out.
Why it is one of the scariest horror movies on Netflix: Stephen King and his son, Joe Hill, wrote the novella In the Tall Grass, which inspired this fun, mystifying, claustrophobic flick, featuring a killer supporting performance by Patrick Wilson.
Upcoming Scary Movies Coming To Netflix
There is a chance that we have not even seen the true scariest horror movie on Netflix yet, as there are plenty of upcoming horror movies coming to the platform to look forward to. Here is a sneak peek at the upcoming Netflix movies that horror fans should keep an eye out for.
Frankenstein (2025)
Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi star in a new reinterpretation of Mary Shelley’s seminal novel, written and directed by the one and only Guillermo del Toro. Frankenstein appears on our upcoming 2025 movie schedule and is set to release in November, but the precise date has not yet been announced.
Troll 2 (2025)
Also currently lacking a specific 2025 release date is Troll 2, which I hope receives a new title by the time it comes out to avoid being confused for a classic B-movie from the 1990s. Roar Uthaug returns to helm this sequel to his Norwegian creature from 2022, which was a surprisingly fun, if not cliche-ridden, disaster flick.
What Is The Worst Horror Movie On Netflix?
When it comes to the least scary horror movie on Netflix, own biggest disappointment in that regard would have to be Fear Street: Prom Queen, which I would have forgiven for being a shameless rip-off of Prom Night if it offered anything new or interesting in its story. However, there are many horror fans who cite 2018’s The Open House as the platform’s weakest offering in the genre.
Dylan Minette stars in this haunted house thriller in which a teenager and his mother (played by Piercey Dalton) come at odds with a supernatural force when they move into a new home following his father’s death. The Open House has a 7% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling out its unimaginative plot, dull pacing, and thorough lack of tension.
What do you think are the scariest horror movies on Netflix?
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