Horror movies from every streaming service you must watch this Halloween

There’s two kinds of people in this world: the ones who go to Halloween parties despite the fact we are experiencing a pandemic, and those who stay at home and watch scary movies with their favorite candies. Please, for all that is good, stay home this year. Take a look at these scary movies you can watch right now.

Amazon Prime Video

The Lighthouse (2019, United States, Canada)

I keep telling people that this is more of a dark comedy than a horror movie, but I’m glad that it is being treated as such, because that makes it more likely to be seen. You go into “The Lighthouse” expecting an oppressive, wearying experience, but what you’re actually getting is a “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” style story of the insane power dynamics between the world’s oddest couple. Watching Willem Dafoe (in a career best performance) badger Robert Pattinson into mental collapse through perfect B&W cinematography made this one of the most entertaining movies of last year. If you haven’t seen it already, it’s waiting for you, and it’s a doozy.

Midsommar (2019, United States, Sweden) 

Ari Aster’s shockingly quick follow up to his massively successful “Hereditary” is, in my opinion, a much stronger and more emotionally harrowing experience. Taking place primarily in the bright, shining daytime, there’s nothing lurking around the corner or shrouded in darkness like there’d be in a typical horror movie, but that doesn’t mean something sinister isn’t happening. It’s actually happening right in front of you the whole time. It’s artful, epic, hallucinatory, and subtly sports the most fascinating special effects in modern horror. See it how it was shown in theaters, then get your hands on the director’s cut. They’re both worth it. 

Bone Tomahawk (2015, United States)

A horror western. You don’t get many of these, and when you’re finished with it, you’ll wonder why more haven’t capitalized on it. The old west is a terrifying place and the last 30 minutes of this movie are unrelentingly horrific. I challenge you to not look away once. There is some teeth-gritting, nail-biting, cruelly violent stuff here, but it boasts a powerful ensemble (lead by Kurt Russell in his best late-career performance) that makes the journey worth it. You won’t want to recommend it to your friends, but trust me, you will anyway.

Netflix

Creep (2014, United States)

If you want a “WTF” horror movie to group watch, this is one of the most unique found-footage movies of this generation. Like “Midsommar,” the odd beauty to this story is seeing how the protagonist keeps getting roped deeper into the darkness in realistic ways. We the viewer know they’re in for a bad time, but we don’t tug our hair out hating the character for their naivete because they’re acting, arguably, like some of us would in their situation. This Mark Duplass starring nightmare is a slow burn packed with one cringe spectacle after another, but like the camera-carrying protagonist, we can’t look away. 

Anaconda (1997, United States)

If you dig horror movies, it goes without saying you also like the bad ones (sometimes even more than the good). For all other genres, if a movie is awful, it doesn’t transcend that. But there’s something about watching a movie that tries and fails to give you chills that ends up being hilarious. You can find bad-good horrors on every channel, but my favorite of the bad batch is this crazy snake movie with Ice Cube, Jennifer Lopez, and Jon Voight as the villain. It’s hard to tell if the makers behind “Anaconda” knew they had a spectacularly ugly film on their hands, or if they really thought they were making the next “Jaws.” You decide. It’s a cringey good time either way.

Hush (2016, United States)

For fans of “The Haunting of Hill House,” check out this intensely gripping film from the creator of that series, Mike Flanagan. It’s a fine example of how terrific performances, smart writing, and deft editing can elevate a small film from its thin budget. This is for folks who like their horror cat-and-mouse style, but unlike a lot of those movies, this one packs an ambitious, creative twist. 

Criterion Channel

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974, United States)

The scariest movie I’ve seen. The title tells you what you need to know. Enter if you dare.

Ganja & Hess (1973, United States)

The most unconventional vampire film on this list, it takes the fanged-concept and twists it into something sadder and more societally resonant. These characters aren’t bloodsuckers, they’re blood-addicts. Tremendously well-written and unforgettably performed, undersung master Bill Gunn clawed tooth and nail to make this thoughtful horror story about God, sex, addiction, class disparity and doomed love. Anybody who appreciates film needs to know the name Bill Gunn. 

(NOTE: If you’re looking for something more recent but with the same narrative thrust, check out Spike Lee’s remarkable 2014 remake “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” on Amazon Prime. It’s not great, but it’s still very good.)

The Wicker Man (1973, United Kingdom)

You can watch the Nicolas Cage film if you want an awful horror movie that’s a ton of fun to hate-watch, but do you want to be scared? “The Wicker Man” is totally chilling because it’s totally bonkers. Not in a Nicolas Cage way, more like a suffocating nightmare where you try to scream for help but all that comes out is the dusty cough of your effort. If you’re a fan of “Midsommar,” this film is meant for you.

Hulu

The Host (2006, South Korea)

It wouldn’t be Halloween without at least one true-blue monster/disaster movie, right? A phenomenally entertaining early film from Academy Award Winner Bong Joon-ho (“Parasite”), “The Host” is essential viewing, no matter the season. Joon-ho makes films that have a ton to say about society, class, despair, truth and the human spirit; his most major accomplishments working within genres and shattering their confines. “The Host” takes the monster movie and gives us a startlingly moving examination of a family looking out for each other, as well as merging the big beast attacks with a prescient look at a government’s destructive handling of a virus outbreak. 

Martyrs (2008, France)

I almost put Eli Roth’s “Hostel” on here, but I figured Halloween only comes once a year, so go big or go home, right? “Martyrs,” a film that’s part of the New French Extremity (i.e., movies that will give you grey hairs), is both the antithesis of “Hostel” as well as “Hostel” on steroids. By that I mean Roth’s film is meant to disturb and horrify, where Pascal Laugier’s now infamous film intends to disturb, horrify, and also make you think about the meaning of life and the role of suffering in the human experience. You wouldn’t expect a film like this to become more heartrending than disgusting, but it truly does leave a mark on the viewer’s soul as well as their memory.

Let the Right One In (2008, Sweden)

For my money, this is the best vampire movie ever. It takes common mythology about the bloodsuckers and brings those fantastical elements into a crushingly depressing, vitamin-d deprived setting. The way Tomas Alfredson frames violence is as brutal and frighteningly fierce as movies dare to go. The story is set around a blossoming friendship between two troubled, lonely kids, both living in abusive households. The overwhelming atmosphere makes the scenes of tender friendship between the kids (one of whom happens to be a vampire very much in need of constant nutrition) all the more potent. If you’ve watched it, well, it's time to watch it again.

HBO Max

Eyes Without a Face (1960, France)

This is one of the quietest movies on this list, yet it packs the most nightmare fuel of all. This is Georges Franju’s incredibly unsettling film about a doctor who uses his surgical expertise to murder pretty young women, peel their faces off, and connect them to the disfigured visage of his daughter. It is a masterpiece you want to run from.

Eraserhead (1977, United States)

I’m not saying you should engage in heavy drinking/drug use this Halloween, but if you happen to be doing that and want to really dive into a movie that’ll pull your mind apart, you should put on David Lynch’s debut feature film. It’s really just an extension of the man’s physical art (he considers himself a sculptor first, filmmaker second), and it is gorgeously creepy and abstract. Lynch has never tried to make his films explicitly scary, they just kind of end up being that way because he is so freaking weird. 

Vampyr (1932, Germany, France)

Do you prefer old school vampires? The film that put Carl Theodor Dreyer on the map, you can’t call “Vampyr” truly frightening in the 21st century, but it is a fascinating documentation of early arthouse horror cinema. And what it no longer packs in scares, it still makes up for in competent, sweepingly immersive filmmaking from one of the most influential directors of all time.