It’s that time of year again: the “Huluween” season, which means that there are plenty of great horror movies on Hulu (one of the best streaming services to subscribe to today) to check out. To avoid spending all of All Hallows’ Eve scrolling through each and every thriller that your Hulu subscription provides, allow me to help you narrow down your search to ensure a fun and frightening movie night. There are the absolute best horror movies on Hulu right now.
Barbarian (2022)
Director: Zach Cregger
Starring: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long
What it’s about: A mistakenly double-booked AirBNB eventually turns out to be the least worrisome thing about a Detroit house a man and woman are forced to share.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: With an intriguing hook and an increasingly horrifying and subversive plotline, Barbarian was one of the horror genre’s greatest surprises from 2022, especially as a thriller from The Whitest Kids U’Know member Zach Cregger.
The Empty Man (2020)
Director: David Prior
Starring: James Badge Dale, Marin Ireland
What it’s about: A former cop’s search for a friend’s missing daughter leads him to uncover an unspeakable conspiracy.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Loosely inspired by a graphic novel from Cullen Bunn, The Empty Man is a recent horror movie that flew under the radar but is absolutely worth your time for its deliciously creepy aura and unique story.
The Fly (1986)
Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis
What it’s about: An eccentric scientist begins to undergo a revolting transformation after unwittingly sharing his instant transportation device with an insect.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Among the greatest body horror movies ever is David Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly, which is also one of the best horror movies for date night for its tragic love story at the center.
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Director: Karyn Kusama
Starring: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried
What it’s about: A teen discovers her popular best friend has been transformed into a vicious succubus.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: From Academy Award-winning writer Diablo Cody, Jennifer’s Body is one of the most misunderstood thrillers of its time that is now recognized as a fun, freaky coming-of-age social satire.
The Mist (2007)
Director: Frank Darabont
Starring: Thomas Jane, Laurie Holden, Marcia Gay Harden
What it’s about: A group of small-town citizens are forced to barricade themselves within a grocery store from the dangerous threat hiding in the mist outside.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Frank Darabont crafts his most upsetting Stephen King adaptation with The Mist – a terrifying creature feature that lives in infamy for its shocking conclusion.
Ready Or Not (2019)
Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Starring: Samara Weaving, Adam Brody
What it’s about: A bride agrees to play a game with her new family on the night of her wedding which turns into a fight for her survival.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Radio Silence crafted one of the best horror-comedy movies in recent memory with Ready or Not, which has a sequel in the works now.
The Sixth Sense (1999)
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette
What it’s about: A child psychologist tries to help his new client come to terms with his ability to see dead people.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Arguably the absolute best M. Night Shyamalan movie is The Sixth Sense, not just for its chilling ghostly elements and iconic twist ending but its wonderful performances and inspiring themes of learning to live comfortably in your skin.
Smile (2022)
Director: Parker Finn
Starring: Sosie Bacon, Kyle Gallner
What it’s about: After witnessing a distressing event, a psychiatrist becomes attached to a metaphysical entity that taunts her with its horrid grin.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: There are other movies like Smile but that is no reason to miss out on Parker Finn’s relentlessly unnerving, thought-provoking meditation on trauma, especially if CinemaBlend’s raving Smile 2 review gets you interested in the follow-up.
Us (2019)
Director: Jordan Peele
Starring: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke
What it’s about: A vacationing family falls prey to a sinister group of people who bear a shockingly identical resemblance to them.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Following the success of Get Out, Jordan Peele released another thought-provoking (and arguably scarier) thriller with his sophomore effort, Us.
The Host (2006)
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Starring: Song Kang-ho, Byun Hee-bong
What it’s about: Citizens of Seoul, South Korea, fight for their lives when a dangerous, unusual creature emerges.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Academy Award winner Bong Joon-ho crafted one of the most acclaimed monster movies of the 21st Century, so far, with The Host.
The Omen Movies (1976-2024)
Director: Various
Starring: Various
What it’s about: A series of increasingly terrifying and world-threatening circumstances arise after an American ambassador (played by Gregory Peck) passes off a boy offered to him by a priest as his own son.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Relive all of the scariest deaths from the Omen franchise by streaming the whole franchise on Hulu – including the well-received 2024 prequel, The First Omen.
Escape Room (2019)
Director: Adam Robitel
Starring: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller
What it’s about: Six strangers are invited to participate in an immersive, puzzling challenge for a prize, only to discover that the consequences are deadly.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Any frustrations you may have faced when participating in a real-life escape room will seem like nothing compared to the horrors our protagonists face in this surprisingly fun nail-biter.
Titane (2021)
Director: Julia Ducournau
Starring: Agathe Rousselle, Vincent Lindon
What it’s about: The story of a go-go dancer whose life has been strangely affected by the cranial implant she received after suffering a car accident years earlier and a fire chief whose unexpected reunion with his long-lost son is met with even more surprising circumstances.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: The French-language thriller, Titane, is a strikingly unique and deeply unsettling thriller that won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021.
Prey (2022)
Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Starring: Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, Dane DiLiegro
What it’s about: A Comanche takes on her biggest hunting challenge yet when she discovers a cunning, hulking creature from another planet on her tribe’s land in the 18th Century.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: By setting the story centuries in the past and casting a talent like Midthunder in the lead, Dan Trachtenberg, arguably, delivered the best Predator movie since the 1987 original with Prey.
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Director: S. Craig Zahler
Starring: Kurt Russell, Richard Jenkins, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Lili Simmons
What it’s about: A sheriff, his deputy, an injured rancher, and a cocky gunman set out to find the local doctor – also the rancher’s wife – who has been kidnapped by a tribe of cannibals in the Old West.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: S. Craig Zahler pulls off one of the best Western movies of its time (and one of the all-time most terrifying) with Bone Tomahawk, which also boasts one of the scariest horror movie scenes in recent memory.
Enys Men (2022)
Director: S. Mark Jenkin
Starring: Mary Woodvine
What it’s about: A wildlife volunteer who begins to lose her grip on reality while researching a plant on a Cornish island in 1973.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Pronounced “ennis mane,” Enys Men is a dizzying surrealist nightmare.
Mandy (2018)
Director: Panos Cosmatos
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Andrea Riseborough
What it’s about: After losing the love of his life, Mandy, to a deadly cult, a lumberjack named Red is driven to go on a bloody rampage in the early 1980s.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Featuring one of the most beautifully unhinged Nicolas Cage performances, Mandy is an instant revenge movie classic that converts the unearthly world of a heavy metal album cover to celluloid.
Willy’s Wonderland (2022)
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Emily Tosta
What it’s about: To pay off repairs to his car, a nameless, wordless drifter takes an overnight job cleaning up a closed-down family entertainment center inhabited by goofy animatronic characters that turn out to be alive and hungry.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: While the plot sounds eerily similar to that of the Five Nights at Freddy’s video games and its film adaptation, writer G.O. Parsons claims he conceived the idea for the gloriously campy B-movie, Willy’s Wonderland, before the game became popular, and the result is an absolute blast featuring a badass Nic Cage.
Alien (1979)
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver
What it’s about: A commercial space freighter crew intercepts a distress signal that leads them to make a bizarre discovery that could endanger them all.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Before the slasher genre really began to take off, director Ridley Scott incorporated some of its traditional elements into Alien – a classic space movie dripping with intense, creature feature suspense.
No One Will Save You (2023)
Director: Brian Duffield
Starring: Kaitlyn Dever
What it’s about: Brynn finds her quiet, isolated existence uprooted by the intrusion of dangerous visitors from another planet.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Kaitlyn Dever gives one of her best performances yet in writer and director Brian Duffield’s ingenious, tautly crafted, nearly dialogue-free take on the alien invasion movie that may have you perplexed by the No One Will Save You ending, but still ultimately satisfied.
Skinamarink (2022)
Director: Kyle Edward Ball
Starring: Lucas Paul, Dali Rose Tetreault
What it’s about: A young boy and his sister wake up to find themselves trapped inside their own house with their parents nowhere to be found, but they soon discover they are not alone.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: Kyle Edward Ball demonstrates a distinct talent for recreating the authentic aura of a nightmare in his feature debut, Skinamarink – a highly experimental indie horror flick that may not be for everybody, but is undeniably unique.
Fresh (2022)
Director: Mimi Cave
Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Sebastian Stan
What it’s about: Noa thinks she has found the man of her dreams in Steve until his true intentions for her are revealed.
Why it is one of the best horror movies on Hulu: A movie that takes the already anxiety-inducing concept of modern dating into an intriguingly subversive and disturbingly cautionary direction is the Hulu exclusive, Fresh, which is already among the finest horror movies created by women — namely first-time director Mimi Cave and writer Lauryn Kahn.
There are also many great horror TV shows on Hulu, which means fans of the genre who subscribe to the platform should have no problem getting a good scare as much as they want, anytime that they want.
