Looking for a streaming platform to have the ultimate spooky movie binge this Halloween? When you take a look at the best horror movies on Amazon Prime, you will see that it is one of the best streaming services to subscribe to for indulging in some great horror movies during this special season or any time of the year.
That being said, it can be a real nightmare sifting through all the best movies on Amazon Prime in search of the scariest cinematic favorites it has to offer. Well, allow me to help make your horror movie marathon less horrifying by picking out the genre’s finest that come available with an Amazon Prime subscription.
Terrifier And Terrifier 2 (2017, 2022)
Director: Damien Leone
Starring: David Howard Thornton, Lauren LaVera
What it’s about: A sadistic clown stalks unsuspecting innocents with torturous and murderous intent.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: Immediately earning their place among the most iconic creepy clown movies for their shocking gore and the brilliantly acted villain, Art the Clown, are Terrifier and Terrifier 2, which would spawn the successful third installment, Terrifier 3.
The Thing (1982)
Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Kurt Russell, Keith David
What it’s about: A crew of researchers stationed in the Antarctic question who among them is still human when they discover a shape-shifting creature from another planet.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: With a faithful adaptation of John W. Campbell’s novella, Who Goes There?, John Carpenter introduces, arguably, the scariest movie alien ever with The Thing – a brilliantly crafted story of paranoia elevated by timeless practical effects.
Dracula (1931)
Director: Tod Browning, Karl Freund
Starring: Bela Lugosi, Dwight Frye
What it’s about: A real estate agent is lured into servitude by a Transylvanian count who then moves to London searching for fresh blood.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: Playing the vampiric title role of Universal’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula made Bela Lugosi one of the greatest horror movie icons of all time.
The Invitation (2016)
Director: Karyn Kusama
Starring: Logan Marshall Green, Emayatzy Corinealdi
What it’s about: While attending a dinner party hosted by his ex-wife and her new lover, a man begins to suspect there is a sinister agenda to the occasion.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: One of the best horror movies from a female director, The Invitation, is a masterpiece of slow-burn horror that accurately captures the feeling of being the odd one out at a friendly get-together.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Director: Tobe Hooper
Starring: Marilyn Burns, Gunnar Hansen
What it’s about: A group of traveling twenty-somethings falls prey to a power tool-wielding killer and his family of cannibals.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: By authentically capturing the feelings of a nightmare on film, Tobe Hooper made one of the best horror movies of the 1970s out of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, which is not actually inspired by a real incident as it claims.
An American Werewolf In London (1981)
Director: John Landis
Starring: David Naughton, Griffin Dunne, Jenny Agutter
What it’s about: After a tragic incident, a Stateside college student touring the U.K. receives warnings from his dead friend’s spirit that will transform into a vicious creature under a full moon.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: With Academy Award-winning makeup effects by Rick Baker and a slyly comical approach to lycanthropic lore, An American Werewolf in London is one of the finest werewolf movies ever made.
Possum (2018)
Director: Matthew Holness
Starring: Sean Harris, Alun Armstrong
What it’s about: A disgraced puppeteer is forced to confront his disturbing past when he returns to his hometown.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: If the nuanced commentary on childhood trauma of the slow-paced Possum – an overlooked recent horror movie – does not get under your skin, the grotesque titular puppet undoubtedly will.
The Return Of The Living Dead (1985)
Director: Dan O’Bannon
Starring: Thom Matthews, James Karen
What it’s about: A strange accident at a medical supply warehouse causes the dead to rise from their graves.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: One of the all-time funniest and most acclaimed zombie movies is The Return of the Living Dead, which introduced the concept of the undead craving brains.
Doctor Sleep (2019)
Director: Mike Flanagan
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran
What it’s about: Adult Dan Torrance is forced to confront his traumatic past in order to protect a younger telepath from a group of vicious immortal psychics.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: Mike Flanagan’s moving and terrifying adaptation of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep helped the author come to terms with his feelings over its predecessor, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
Nosferatu (1922)
Director: F.W. Murnau
Starring: Max Schreck, Alexander Granach
What it’s about: German real estate agent Knock meets a client named Count Orlok, who turns out to be a malevolent creature of the night.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: In 2024, Robert Eggers is releasing a remake of Nosferatu, which may not be the most famous (unofficial) adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula but is still widely considered to be one of the finest and scariest vampire movies of the silent era, if not all time.
Barbarian (2022)
Director: Zach Cregger
Starring: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long
What it’s about: A documentarian meets a strange man after accidentally reserving the same Detroit Airbnb, which turns out to be the least concerning thing about the house.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: The Whitest Kids U’Know star Zach Cregger surprised the world with Barbarian, which was touted as one of the best horror movies of 2022 for its subversive narrative and unsettling twists.
Tucker And Dale Vs. Evil (2010)
Director: Eli Craig
Starring: Alan Tudyk, Tyler Labine
What it’s about: Well-meaning hillbillies Tucker and Dale are mistaken for murderers by a group of young vacationers, which creates “a real doozy” of trouble for all of them.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: By cleverly turning one of the most overused slasher movie tropes (the creepy countryman) on its head, Eli Craig makes Tucker and Dale vs. Evil one of the best horror-comedy movies of its time.
The Menu (2022)
Director: Mark Mylod
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy
What it’s about: a woman unwittingly becomes involved in a dangerous situation while attending an exclusive dining experience curated by the renowned Chef Slowik.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: Once again proving that Anya Taylor-Joy is the Scream Queen of her generation, The Menu is a dazzling and deliciously demented satire of elitist dining culture.
The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007)
Director: John Erick Dowdle
Starring: Stacy Chbosky, Ben Messmer
What it’s about: An elusive, sadistic serial kidnapper leaves behind visual evidence of his hellacious crimes on a large collection of VHS tapes recovered in a small town in New York.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: The Poughkeepsie Tapes is one of the most unsettling documentary-style horror films for the brutally realistic way it depicts the experiences of captivity and its damaging psychological effects.
Lisa Frankenstein (2024)
Director: Zelda Williams
Starring: Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse
What it’s about: Lonely teen Lisa Swallows finds an unexpected romance with the reanimated corpse of a young man in the late 1980s.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: Written by Academy Award winner Diablo Cody, Lisa Frankenstein, is a charmingly macabre and deliriously funny reimagining of Mary Shelley’s seminal novel warmly wrapped in ‘80s nostalgia.
Tales Of Halloween (2015)
Director: Various
Starring: Various
What it’s about: A babysitter learns why you should never eat too much candy, a stranger teaches a young trick-or-treater his own sinister tricks, a killer’s chase is interrupted by a strange encounter, and other ghoulish tales set on one fateful All Hallows’ Eve.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: With creepy, loosely connected shorts ranging from hilarious to truly horrifying, Tales from Halloween is one of the most underrated horror anthology movies of its time.
Totally Killer (2023)
Director: Nahnatchka Khan
Starring: Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt
What it’s about: A modern-day 17-year-old girl is accidentally transported to the late 1980s, where she is given the chance to stop an infamous murderer’s streak.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: Picture the time travel movie classic, Back to the Future, reimagined as an ‘80s-style slasher flick and you would essentially have Totally Killer.
House On Haunted Hill (1959)
Director: William Castle
Starring: Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart
What it’s about: A wealthy eccentric challenges a group of strangers to spend a single night in a spooky old house for a large monetary prize.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: Not to be confused with The Haunting of Hill House, director William Castle’s House on Haunted Hill is one of Vincent Price’s most essential and fun thrillers.
Bones And All (2022)
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Taylor Russell
What it’s about: A pair of young road trippers bond over their shared, unusual appetites in the early 1980s.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: Timothée Chalamet reunites with Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino for another gripping period drama about forbidden love, but of a more viscerally shocking and grotesque sort, with Bones and All.
The Collector (2009)
Director: Marcus Dunstan
Starring: Josh Stewart, Andrea Roth
What it’s about: Desperate for money, thief-turned-repairman Arkin plans a seemingly simple burglary job at his wealthy new employers’ house, only to fall prey to the increasingly elaborate traps of a sadistic killer who has confined the resident family inside.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: One of the best movies that fans of the Saw movies should check out is The Collector – a brutal, subversive take on the home invasion thriller.
Absentia (2011)
Director: Mike Flanagan
Starring: Katie Parker, Courtney Bell
What it’s about: Several years after her brother-in-law went missing, a recovering addict begins to discover the shocking truth behind the disappearance.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: Fans of Mike Flanagan’s movies and TV shows who have not seen the sadly underappreciated Absentia are missing out on one of the filmmaker’s most heartbreaking and horrifying titles.
Hell House LLC (2015)
Director: Stephen Cognetti
Starring: Gore Adams, Alice Bahlke
What it’s about: Interviews with surviving witnesses and raw footage captured by the victims expose the mysteries surrounding a small-town haunted house attraction and chronicle the events leading to its ill-fated opening night.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: There are many great found footage thrillers on Amazon Prime, but my personal favorite of the bunch (and of all time) is easily Hell House LLC for its dread-inducing pace, indelibly creepy imagery, and remarkably convincing writing and performances.
Hellraiser (1987)
Director: Clive Barker
Starring: Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Doug Bradley
What it’s about: A young woman discovers her stepmother and uncle are lovers, and part of a conspiracy involving murder, a strange puzzle box, and sadomasochistic mutants from another dimension.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: Horror maestro Clive Barker made his directorial debut with the disturbing cautionary romance, Hellraiser – an adaptation of his own novella that introduced one of the most iconic horror movie villains, who came to be known as Pinhead.
Saint Maud (2021)
Director: Rose Glass
Starring: Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle
What it’s about: Desperately seeking redemption, a young Welsh nurse believes she has found her chance when she is assigned to care for a terminally ill dancer and decides to pass her newfound religious beliefs onto her.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: Not everything is quite as it seems in the A24 horror movie, Saint Maud, which boasts masterful pacing, thought-provoking commentary on faith, Morfydd Clark’s stellar performance, and a startling ending.
Suspiria (2018)
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton
What it’s about: A young American woman is accepted into an elite dance company in Berlin operated by a coven of witches.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime: Most missed out on Luca Guadagnino's remake of Dario Argento’s classic, Suspiria, in theaters and that’s a shame because it is a twisty, mysterious, and chilling thriller that features an absolutely remarkable and jaw-dropping conclusion.
The titles above might be enough to convince you to make Amazon Prime Video your prime location for a good scare.
