If you are searching for the best horror movies on Netflix for you to get goosebumps, then wait no more. From small-screen adaptations of Stephen King’s famed novels to other cult classics, you’ll find your fix with some of the scariest horrors out there. Whether you get your thrillers from found footage, zombies, camera work, jump scares, low-budget, horror-comedy, or Oscar winners, there’s everything on Netflix for every scary movie buffs out there. So if you pick horror movies over other genres, keep reading down below. Presenting you a full bucket list of terrifying best horror movies on Netflix.
1. The Silence of the Lambs
Director: Jonathan Demme
Writers: Thomas Harris, Ted Tally
Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Foster
It is a psychological horror film. It is one of the best horror movies to date. This horror movie has won many Oscars. The plot is like ‘A psychopath known as “Buffalo Bill” (a nickname given to the unstoppable psycho serial killer) kidnapping and murdering young women. Unknown to the killer’s intentions, the FBI sends their trainee Clarice Starling to interview the prisoner and dig out the killer’s way. The prisoner is a former psychiatrist, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, who will only give Starling information, provided she opens up her private life details. With every visit to Hannibal, Clarice goes just a bit deeper into the dark mind of the psychic maniac. This new relationship leads Starling to face a monstrous killer and her own psychological demons. Will she go far enough to find the killer?
2. The Invitation
Directors: Karyn Kusama
Writer: Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi
Cast: Logan Marshall-Green, Emayatzy Corinealdi
On the surface, The Invitation is another one of those “dinner party from hell” movies. Will (Logan Marshall-Green) attends a dinner party at his ex-wife’s swanky house with his new girlfriend—that could be a horror movie on its own, but there are much more sinister things afoot. The predictable set-up is tempered with a surprisingly expertly crafted dark, mysterious mood. You will feel something will go horribly wrong, and there’s just enough info dangled in front of you to keep you on edge, but not enough to predict. Moreover, the film dives deep into Will’s backstory—he is deeply struggling with losing his son—adding a paranoid element to an already mysterious movie, which is a great move.
3. Sweetheart
Director: J.D. Dillard
Writer: J.D. Dillard and Alex Hyner
Cast: Kiersey Clemons, Emory Cohen
A lean, mean, and spookily effective horror film, Sweetheart is an underrated Blumhouse release that deserves more love. It follows Jenn ( K Clemons ) as she washes ashore on a tropical island and soon discovers she’s alone. As she attempts to survive the elements, she soon discovers that there’s a malevolent force on the island that’s also after her. The tropical setting is used to significant effect, too, juxtaposing the creeping horror with its idyllic background. J.D. Dillard’s direction works well towards quickly ratcheting the film’s tension until it’s almost unbearable. Smart and effective, Sweetheart is one of the most underappreciated horror movies the past couple of years.
4. The Golem
Director: Doron & Yoaz Paz
Writer: Ariel Cohen
Cast: Ishai Golan, Hani Furtenberg
The Golem is not an ordinary ghost story; there is a unique touch on how it approaches the story’s fabulous element. An innocent boy skinned with mud all over is the principal critter summoned by Hanna. From an outcast to the protector of the common folk. Adding to its positive, It is a cinematographic brilliance which played a huge role in this project’s success. Their photography was up to the mark for the setting of the story and breathtaking scenes. The Golem falters on its hunt for a cold-blooded villain, who makes the drama more involving and enough fuel for the audiences to keep going.
5. Creep 2
Director: Patrick Brice
Writers: Mark Duplass, Patrick Brice
Cast: Karan Soni, Mark Duplass
Sequel to a 2014 film of the same name, Creep 2 is about Sara, a video artist who explores lonely men’s intimacy. Searching for work, she reaches a puny house in the middle of the forest. Unexpected for her, she meets a man. Ordinary, isn’t it? But this man says that he is a serial killer. For her story, she is ready to spend the day with this man. Little did she know this decision of hers risks her life. In the list of Netflix movies, it’s an average but still a very interesting one.
6. The Evil Dead ( 1981 )
Writer-Director: Sam Raimi
Writer: Sam Raimi
Cast: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor
No movie screams 80s horror story quite as loud as The Evil Dead. When five students, Ash, Cheryl, Scott, Linda, and Shelly, take a trip to a little cabin in the backwoods of Tennessee, odd things start to happen. Following a noise, they venture down to the cellar, discovering an ancient book of the dead and an archaeologist’s tape recorder containing some incantations. In true dumb-kid fashion, they press play. What happens next is an explosion of low-budget thrills, disturbing imagery, and ridiculous plot twists that spawned two sequels, a remake, and a cult phenomenon still capturing fans today. Weirder than it is frightening, The Evil Dead gave birth to over-the-top-horror and remains one of the sub-genre’s best and most entertaining pieces.
7. Gerald’s Game
Director:Mike Flanagan
Writer: Stephen King
Cast: Carla Gugino,
Mike Flanagan’s third collaboration with Netflix, Gerald’s Game, is part of Stephen King adaptations’ recent lucrative wave. Based on what was once considered an unfilmable novel, Gerald’s Game concerns a husband and wife, Jessie (Carla Gugino) and Gerald ( Bruce Greenwood ), as they go on a couple’s vacation. While playing a sex game, Gerald dies of a heart attack leaving Jessie tied to the bed, with no way out of the apartment complex. Her visions and various hallucinations that come from her entrapment may seem better suited for the page. Still, Flanagan found a way to not only make the manifestation of one character’s thoughts filmable but also terrifying. Gugino gives an incredible performance as Jessie, making you feel just how hopeless and dire her situation really is. One can admit there is no great Stephen King adaptation like Gerald’s Game, and it also stands as the most inventive and surprising horror movie in recent years.
8. Hush
Director: Mike Flanagan
Writer: Mike Flanagan
Cast: John Gallagher Jr., Kate Siegel
With series like Haunting of Hill House on Netflix right there, Flanagan’s flex for this generation’s throne of terror only seems to be growing. Stepping away from his usual supernatural edge for more of a stranger-danger test of nerves, Hush tells the story of deaf and mute writer Maddie Young on one moonless night at her cabin. When a masked man with a crossbow shows up at her house and sets off a torturous game of cat and mouse, Maddie is forced to find ways to work around her disability and survive. The noticeable lack of noise warning creates a terrifying symbiosis between the viewer and Maddie. Simultaneously, the inability to scream for help imparts an overwhelming sense of vulnerability other horror films often strive to create but seldom achieve. Hush is proof that all you really need to make a horror is to understand the world and a sense of twist to put forth.
9. Found Footage
Director: Steven De Gennaro
Writer: Samuel Bartlett
Cast: Alena von Stroheim, Carter Roy
Found Footage 3D is exactly what it says it is. A horror film shot natively in 3D, not like those ordinary b-movies. The story is pretty straightforward. A herd of filmmakers on their way to make a film go to a remote location. Unfortunately for them, their lead starts to turn up in their prerecorded footage. The conflict between what’s imagination and reality is the plot that allows this movie’s flow to concentrate on what it’s actually good at, the unprecedented storytelling, regular jump scares, and the scary scenes, which helps it make it to the films on this list.
10. Paranormal Activity
Writer-Director: Oren Peli
Writer: Oren Peli
Cast: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
Paranormal activity is a low budget movie using the faux-documentary premise. For fans overall, it is a good movie. The fear of darkness, which is a common phobia among humans, is the heart of this movie. A daily house turning into a terror place after dusk. Though being edgy supernatural, and haunting, the sheer simplicity is what was loved by the audiences. The key to creepiness is ordinary. Katie and Micah moved to a new house and are suffering symptoms of haunting. Things get worse each night. On the list of movies on Netflix, it would rank below because of its simple cinematography.
11. CAM
Director: Daniel Goldhaber
Writer: Isa Mazzei
Cast: Madeline Brewer
One of the most critically acclaimed Netflix original horror titles on the list, Cam, is an impressive debut from Daniel Goldhaber. Alice ( Cam Girl ) comes to know that a replica of her seems to have replaced her site. As a director, Isa extracted bits out of her own Cam girl experiences, which generated a movie that puts equal emphasis on the life of sex workers and draws respect for them. The result of Isa’s writing and Goldhaber’s careful direction is a tight and uncanny thriller with a brilliant lead performance by Madeline Brewer. Cam is one of those films that services a new horror genre that gives its scares via computer screens or website.
12. The Blackcoat’s Daughter
Director: Oz Perkins
Writer: Osgood Perkins
Cast: Emma Roberts, Lucy Boynton
A daughter ? the Blackcoat? doesn’t quite say about the plot but is undoubtedly a strikingly original horror tale told with an eerie and elegant. The chilly winter gives you goosebumps. It’s augmented with one of the best sound design in this list, against all reason, both subtle and assertive. It’s a steady and curious narration where one needs to assemble all the fallen pieces in order. It’s not the type of movie that counts on unanticipated BGMs or audio glitches for delivering scares. It features a boarding school for girls and a demonic possession, but don’t let that distract you even a bit. It’s way more than the title. The Blackcoat s daughter is considered one of the finest & best horror movies on Netflix.
13. Bird Box
Director: Susanne Bier
Writer: Eric Heisserer
Cast: Sandra Bullock
People seem to be preoccupied with inspecting around the end of humanity. Due to this, Post-apocalyptic thriller films have flooded Netflix. Everyone has not enjoyed a movie since the Vincenzo Natali directed Adrien Brody starrer Splice( 2009 ). This Netflix thriller presents a fascinating yet absorbing emotional cognizance. Bird Box also touches on themes like survival, childcare, morality. The film opens with Malorie passing orders to her kids. They need to get to the nearby river and immediately get on a riverboat heading them to safety. All this while being always blindfolded. With brisk and successive flashbacks, the film narrates how they are trying to outrun “the creature,” which shows one’s own deepest fears and manipulates to kill oneself. It pokes our most common human fears. After you unmask the blindfold and watch what follows, it surely is serene and comforting. Also, reading the original novel may give you the crux of this horror flick.
14. Green Room
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Writer: Jeremy Saulnier
Cast: Anton Yelchin
Green Room may not sound like your average horror film. Saulnier still has a reputation for making an aggressive, practical & confusing film. With Green Room, one can surely claim as his best. The film follows a punk band (led by Anton Yelchin) as they fight to escape a venue after witnessing a murder at the hands of a local group of neo-Nazis. Their leader (a terrifying Patrick Stewart) has decided there will not be any witnesses to the murder and plans to take out the band members one by one. Green Room is not for the faint of heart, thanks to plentiful gore and constant sudden violence. Like the best punk songs, Green Room is quick, shocking, and thrilling in the best way possible.
15. Velvet Buzzsaw
Director: Dan Gilroy
Writer: Dan Gilroy
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal
Velvet Buzzsaw is feasibly the first of it’s kind. Apart from its satirical nature, it produces tension even in ordinary dinner scenes making it mysterious. It is a bright and straight approach that accumulates the thrust for diving deep into fame, sex, and money. Here, Director Gilroy painted his common pit of a bitter and humanely constituted LA in his 2014s Nightcrawler. Still as shimmering and radiant was Nightcrawler in its darkness, Buzzsaw takes it to a whole different level of exploitation and even more elevated, making it blatantly terrific and supernatural in its horror elements.
16. The Cabin in the Woods
Director: Joss Whedon, Drew Goddard
Writer: Joss Whedon
Cast: Kristen Conolly, Chris Hemsworth
Good looking young people are killed one by one in a deadly forest. But don’t worry, it’s anything but conventional in where it goes from there. It is an amazingly unpredictable movie that continues. The cabin is quite guilty of the sins that it carries. But will be happy to swallow a small amount of hypocrisy in exchange for the pleasures this slasher will give you on Netflix.
17. Killer Klowns from Outer Space
Director: Stephen Chiodo
Writer: Charles Chiodo and Stephen Chiodo
Cast: Grant Cramer, Suzanne Snyder, John Allen Nelson and John Vernon
The clown phobias, which took the entire nation in one glance, “Killer Klowns From Outer Space” has never been more terrifying. This movie does feature not only an alien race of clowns but also other breathtaking visuals. It features an alien race of clowns that is out to kill.
Clown fears are something which gives you goosebumps and nightmare in the late ’80s. This movie is worth a watch because of its clown parade and zany fantasy.
18. The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Director: André Øvredal
Writer: Ian Golgberg and Richard Naing
Cast: Emile Hirsch and Brian Cox
The Autopsy of Jane Doe, a favorite among horror fans on Netflix. Father and son coroners (Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch) begin to experience unexplained phenomena when performing an autopsy on an unidentified woman (the titular Jane Doe). The result is an atmospheric chiller that is a haunted house movie. Surprising twists and turns keep the action exciting, but the scariest part of the film has to be Olwen Kelly as the titular Jane Doe; she doesn’t move a muscle (she is a corpse, after all) but is increasingly unsettling as the horror ramps up—an impressive performance, for sure. The Autopsy of Jane Doe is an unappreciated horror delight.
19. 1922
Director: Zak Hilditch
Writer: Stephen King
Cast: Thomas Jane
1922 is a Midwestern riff on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, alongside turns: Wilf doesn’t cover her significant other under the wood planks and isn’t gotten even though he loses his psyche before the cops. It’s an account of transgression and good judgment. Zak doesn’t draw out the subject, he tells the crowd how Wilf’s violations poison his life and his arranged future. Perusing the genuine King’s piece will give you the feeling of alarm flick ride you are planning to.
20. It Comes at Night
Director: Trey Edward Shults
Writer: Trey Edward Shults
Cast: Joel Edgerton
The only reason for having this movie on the list of Netflix movies is that it is a horror movie and a psychological thriller. The film is about a man who lived in an isolated cabin in self-quarantine woods and his wife and teenage son. But things turned around when a family came. Mistrust, paranoia, volatile environment, and unknown of the enemy can they survive the night?
Here are some really exciting, interesting, and thrilling best horror movies you are going to love watching each one of them. And you can watch all these movies on Netflix. So grab your popcorn tub and start watching.
