Horror movie fans surely know that Max is one of the best streaming services to subscribe to when you are in the mood to watch something spooky. That being said, as we are now in the Halloween season, this is a great time to have a Max subscription. Just see for yourself as I present my picks for the best horror movies on Max right now.
A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)
Director: Wes Craven
Starring: Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp
What it’s about: A teenage girl and her friends fall prey to a badly burned boogeyman with the ability to kill his victims in their dreams.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: One of Robert Englund’s best performances (and the most iconic) is as Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street – a classic supernatural slasher.
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Director: Halina Reijn
Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Maria Bakalova
What it’s about: A simple party game among a group of friends turns far too real when people begin to turn up dead.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: One of the best horror movies from a female director in recent memory is A24’s Bodies Bodies Bodies – a clever send-up of modern youth culture disguised as a bloody whodunnit.
The Shining (1980)
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall
What it’s about: A novelist slowly begins to lose his mind while he, his wife, and his young son serve as the caretaker for a Colorado hotel harboring dark secrets.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: Despite a cold reception from the author, Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining is widely considered one of the most terrifying and captivatingly mysterious films of all time.
Doctor Sleep (2019)
Director: Mike Flanagan
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyleigh Curran
What it’s about: A telepath recovering from addiction and a terrible childhood tragedy must confront his past to protect a younger and more powerful psychic from a vicious gang of immortals.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: As both a faithful interpretation of the novel and an honorable sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Mike Flanagan’s stirring adaptation of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep actually helped the author come to terms with his issues with the 1980 classic.
Gremlins (1984)
Director: Joe Dante
Starring: Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates
What it’s about: After three important rules are accidentally broken, a young man’s unique, furry new pet spawns duplicates that transform into mischievous, reptilian creatures.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: In addition to being one of the best Christmas horror movies, producer Steven Spielberg’s Gremlins is so effectively creepy and cartoonishly uproarious, that a fan can enjoy it any time.
I Saw The TV Glow (2024)
Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Starring: Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine
What it’s about: Two teens bond over a strange late-night TV show that alters their lives forever.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: The unsettling, subversive recent A24 movie, I Saw the TV Glow is Jane Schoenbrun’s acclaimed follow-up to We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.
It And It Chapter Two (2017, 2019)
Director: Andy Muschietti
Starring: Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Martell
What they’re about: In the 1980s, a group of preteens battle a shape-shifting, fear-feeding demon and reunite decades later to destroy him once and for all.
Why they are some of the best horror movies on Max: The two-part, big-screen adaptation of Stephen King’s It had a profound effect on the creepy clown movie subgenre, thanks to Bill Skarsgård’s chilling performance as Pennywise.
Poltergeist (1982)
Director: Tobe Hooper
Starring: JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson
What it’s about: A suburban family struggles to rescue their youngest daughter from malevolent spirits that have invaded their home and kidnapped her into the netherworld.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: Even without acknowledging the alleged curse connected to Poltergeist, producer Steven Spielberg’s ghost story is a truly haunting masterpiece, bearing the soul of a family drama and the pulse of a thriller.
The Exorcist (1973)
Director: William Friedkin
Starring: Ellen Burstyn, Linda Blair
What it’s about: An actor believes she has no choice but to call on the help of a priest after her 12-year-old daughter exhibits upsetting behavior.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: Hollywood’s obsession with demonic possession movies can be traced back to the critical and commercial success of The Exorcist – a startling, Oscar-nominated adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel, which was inspired by allegedly true events.
Trick ‘R Treat (2007)
Director: Michael Dougherty
Starring: Quinn Lord, Dylan Baker, Anna Paquin
What it’s about: A school principal with a dark secret, a young woman trying to find a date for a costume party, a reclusive, elderly curmudgeon, and others experience an All Hallows’ Eve unlike any other.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: The mischievous trick-or-treater Sam serves as the main connective tissue for each tale told in Trick ‘r Treat – a funny horror anthology movie that gained a cult following for its passionate celebration of Halloween.
Beetlejuice (1988)
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton
What it’s about: After an eccentric new family takes over their home, the lingering spirits of a recently deceased couple regrettably enlist a malicious ghost to help drive them out.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: The quintessential Tim Burton movie might be Beetlejuice, which is one of the most unique horror-comedy films of all time for its surreal production design and Keaton’s high-energy performance.
Saw (2004)
Director: James Wan
Starring: Cary Elwes, Leigh Whannell
What it’s about: Victims of a sadistic kidnapper recall what led to their captivity while trying to figure out a safe way to escape.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: Some audiences assume the Saw movies are just a series of torturous scenes, but the original is lighter on carnage than it is on suspense.
The Dead Don’t Die (2019)
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Bill Murray, Adam Driver
What it’s about: Citizens of an already strange small town encounter an even stranger situation when reanimated corpses rise from their graves.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: A ridiculously large cast of actors – also including Tilda Swinton, Selena Gomez, Steve Buscemi, and more – star in the ridiculously absurd, but also vastly underrated, zombie movie, The Dead Don’t Die.
Scream (1996)
Director: Wes Craven
Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox
What it’s about: A group of California teens are stalked by a masked assailant with a knack for scary movie trivia.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: The slasher movie genre was revived in the 1990s with the frightening and clever first installment of the Scream movies, which have a seventh installment in the works with Neve Campbell returning as Sidney Prescott.
Evil Dead (2013)
Director: Fede Álvarez
Starring: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez
What it’s about: A recovering drug addict who falls prey to sinister, possessive forces after her friends bring her to a remote cabin.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: Alongside producers Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert, Fede Alvarez crafts a reboot worthy of being called one of the all-time best Evil Dead movies with his more earnest, clever, and relentlessly brutal reimagining of the 1981 classic.
Fright Night (1985)
Director: Tom Holland
Starring: William Ragsdale, Chris Sarandon, Roddy McDowell
What it’s about: A teenage boy enlists the help of his friends and a TV horror host when he suspects his new neighbor is a creature of the night.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: While its 2011 remake was well-received, most fans believe the original Fright Night is the better vampire movie and one of the most fun horror films of its time.
Sinister (2012)
Director: Scott Derrickson
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance
What it’s about: True crime author Ellison Oswalt moves his family into the site of a grisly murder as research for his next book, only to uncover a much stranger and more unsettling mystery than he could have imagined.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: The film that cemented Ethan Hawke as a modern Scream King is the chilling modern haunted house movie masterpiece, Sinister.
Midsommar (2019)
Director: Ari Aster
Starring: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor
What it’s about: A cultural festival in Sweden proves to be too much to handle for the grieving Dani, her emotionally distant boyfriend, Christian, and their friends.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: Hereditary creator Ari Aster proves he has the talent to unsettle audiences to their core even in a bright, idyllic setting with his sophomore feature-length effort, and one of the best A24 horror movies yet, Midsommar.
It Comes At Night (2017)
Director: Trey Edward Schults
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Carmen Ejogo, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Christopher Abbott, Riley Keough
What it’s about: A family of three breaks one of their rules for surviving a cataclysmic virus by taking in another couple and their young son.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: It Comes at Night is not quite the horror film that its marketing led some to believe but its devastating commentary on human nature in the wake of catastrophe makes it one of the best A24 movies yet.
The Amityville Horror (1979)
Director: Stuart Rosenberg
Starring: James Brolin, Margot Kidder
What it’s about: George and Kathy Lutz move into a seemingly perfect home with their children that turns out to be the site of a brutal murder and soon proves to be a living nightmare.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: Just about all the most essential haunted house movie tropes can be traced back to the classic, original adaptation of Jay Anson’s book, The Amityville Horror, which is allegedly inspired by terrifying true events.
Evil Dead Rise (2023)
Director: Lee Cronin
Starring: Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland
What it’s about: A woman must protect her nephew and nieces from their own mother after possessive forces invade their L.A. apartment building.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: Some say the Evil Dead movies make up the greatest horror franchise ever and the latest gruesome installment, Evil Dead Rise – which brings the action out of the woods – only continues to further that claim.
Paranormal Activity (2009)
Director: Oren Peli
Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
What it’s about: Micah tries to capture evidence to back up claims from his girlfriend, Katie, that they are being haunted.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: One of the first films to bring the found-footage thriller genre to the mainstream is the first installment of the Paranormal Activity movies – a low-budget, partially improvised, and overall terrifying instant classic.
Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
Director: George A. Romero
Starring: Duane Jones, Judith O’Dea
What it’s about: Seven people who find themselves trapped in a rural farmhouse, in a deadly battle against zombies.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Max: No horror movie list is complete without a George A. Romero selection, such as Night of the Living Dead – the terrifying apocalyptic thriller that ushered in a new wave of horror movie filmmaking and made the zombie movie genre what it is today.
No matter what time of the year, this leading streaming service always has movies that are scary to the Max.
