Horror Fan Favorites: The 29 Best Scary Movies on Netflix in 2021 Menu Lifewire Tech for Humans Newsletter! Search Close GO Streaming > Streaming TV, Movies, & More
Horror Fan Favorites: The 29 Best Scary Movies on Netflix in 2021
See why Netflix is such a scream!
By Sam Costello Sam Costello Writer Ithaca College Sam Costello has been writing about tech since 2000. His writing has appeared in publications such as CNN.com, PC World, InfoWord, and many others. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on January 4, 2021 Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email Streaming TV, Movies, & More Netflix Hulu Disney+ Prime Video Apple TV+ Favorite Events Whether you only like them close to Halloween or you're a year-round fiend, Netflix is packed with great scary movies. After a lot of time in front of the TV—and a few times scaring ourselves—we've compiled this list of the best scary movies on Netflix. Don't blame us if you can't sleep after watching them! 01 of 29 As Above So Below 2014 Best Supernatural Found Footage
Bruno Calvo / Legendary Pictures/Universal Pictures IMDb rating: 6.2 Starring: Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, Edwin Hodge, Francois Civil, Marion Lambert Director: John Erick Dowdle Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 93 minutes A group of friends (headed up by Ben Feldman, from Mad Men and Superstore, and Perdita Weeks) decide to explore the catacombs beneath Paris—a real-life thing, which are, among other things, gigantic ossuaries (creepy!). Needless to say, people get lost, things go very, very wrong, and the group discovers increasingly distressing terrors beneath the City of Lights. Found footage, so if you have an aversion to that sub-genre, you may want to give this a miss, but it's fun, scary film with a cool ending. Watch As Above, So Below Now 02 of 29 The Autopsy of Jane Doe 2016 Best Feminist Fakeout
IMDb IMDb rating: 6.8 Starring: Brian Cox, Emile Hirsch, Ophelia Lovibond Director: André Øvredal Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 86 minutes A Jane Doe is delivered to the offices of a father-son coroner's business late one night. The pair, played by Brian Cox (Succession) and Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild), discover quickly that this body is more than just unidentified. As they perform the autopsy, they inadvertently dig themselves deeper into a mystery and a centuries-long tale of oppression, persecution, and revenge. Not only is Autopsy a cracking mystery with cool ideas, it's also got a lot to say about patriarchy, feminism, and the history of both. Watch The Autopsy of Jane Doe Now 03 of 29 The Blackcoat' s Daughter 2015 Best Demonic Horror
IMDb IMDb rating: 5.9 Starring: Emma Roberts, Kiernan Shipka, Lucy Boynton Director: Oz Perkins Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 93 minutes Getting stuck at your boarding school over winter break is never good, but in The Blackcoat's Daughter, it's even worse when there's a demonic horror lurking on campus. Wrap in an escaped mental patient and rumors of satanist nuns, and stars Kiernan Shipka (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Mad Men) and Emma Roberts (American Horror Story) will be lucky to make it to the next semester in one piece. Directed by Osgood "Oz" Perkins, the son of Psycho star Anthony Perkins (and director of another movie later on this list). Watch The Blackcoat's Daughter Now 04 of 29 Candyman 1992 Best Socio-Political Horror
IMDb IMDb rating: 6.6 Starring:Virginia Madsen, Xander Berkeley, Tony Todd Director: Bernard Rose Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 99 minutes Increasingly relevant in the era of Black Lives Matter, Candyman adapts a Clive Barker short story into a meditation on the horrors of U.S. racism through the centuries. Virginia Madsen, a graduate student studying urban legends in the Chicago housing projects, runs across the hook-handed, all-too-real mythic figure of Candyman (Tony Todd) and discovers a tragic tale of love, hate, and vengeance. One of the few horror movies to focus on the American Black experience in the '80s and '90s. A remake of Candyman, directed by Nia DaCosta, and co-written by Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us), comes out late in 2020. Watch Candyman Now 05 of 29 Creep 2014 Best Ultra-Indie Psycho
The Duplass Brothers / Blumhouse Productions IMDb rating: 6.3 Starring: Patrick Brice, Mark Duplass Director: Patrick Brice Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 77 minutes A dying man posts a Craiglist ad seeking someone to come to his remote home for a day and record his final words. When the videographer (Patrick Brice) responds, he meets a pretty odd guy (Mark Duplass; Room 104) who—big surprise!—turns out to be much more, and much more dangerous, than he appears. This two-hander is as much mumblecore American indie crossed with found footage as it is classic horror movie, but its atypical aesthetics and Duplass' high-energy performance make this all the more effective. Watch Creep Now 06 of 29 Dark Skies 2013 Best Alien Creeper
Matt Kennedy / Momentum Pictures IMDb rating: 6.3 Starring: Keri Russell, Jake Brennan, Josh Hamilton Director: Scott Stewart Motion Picture Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 97 minutes Think movies about aliens visiting Earth are strictly science fiction fare and don't belong on a list of horror movies (the original Alien notwithstanding)? Dark Skies will make you think again. In it, an American family led my mom Keri Russell (The Americans), is plagued by strange occurrences focused on their on young son. While that sounds like the set up for a ghost or possession movie, the explanation here is otherworldly in a totally different, very entertaining way. Watch Dark Skies Now 07 of 29 The Endless 2017 Best Mindbender
IMDb IMDb rating: 6.5 Starring: Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, Callie Hernandez Director: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead Motion Picture Rating: Not Rated Running Time: 111 minutes Better if you've seen Resolution, the Moorehead and Benson movie that this is a sequel to, The Endless is nevertheless a thrilling movie about cults, time loops, mysterious video clips, ancient unseen creatures, and rural California. Probably more eerie or unsettling than truly scary, if you like your horror nuanced and packed with ideas, you'll love all of Moorehead and Benson's work Watch The Endless Now 08 of 29 The Evil Dead 1981 Best Gut-Churning Indie
IMDb IMDb rating: 7.5 Starring: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Richard DeManincor Director: Sam Raimi Motion Picture Rating: NC-17 Running Time: 85 minutes The first major film from Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell was one of the original shoestring-budget horror indies. Built around classic tropes like a cabin in the woods, a cursed book bound in human skin, and a bunch of horny young people, Raimi puts the pedal to the metal and never lets up, delivering a gory, no-holds-barred splatterfest. Forget the comedic sequels and the 2013 remake, the original is still the best (and the only one to be at the center of the UK's '80s-era "video nasties" controversy). Watch The Evil Dead Now 09 of 29 The Girl With All the Gifts 2016 Best New-Wave Zombie Story
IMDb IMDb rating: 6.6 Starring: Sennia Nanua, Paddy Considine, Gemma Arterton, Glenn Close Director: Colm McCarthy Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 111 minutes A dystopian, post-apocalyptic zombie film, Girl puts a different spin on zombies. In this case, the flesh-eaters, called "hungries," are created by a parasitic fungal infection. After the outbreak has destabilized the world, a group of kids—half-human, half-hungry hybrids—are being raised in England as the world's best hope for a vaccine. This requires killing them. When one of the doctors chooses to protect one special girl, they set out on a mission of survival and, hopefully, rebirth. Watch The Girl With All the Gifts Now 10 of 29 Green Room 2015 Best Survival Horror
Scott Green / A24 IMDb rating: 7.0 Starring: Patrick Stewart, Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Macon Blair Director: Jeremy Saulnier Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 95 minutes So many horror movies come about because of the economic-desperation-driven choices of their protagonists. In Green Room, those protagonists are a punk band, touring the country in their van, sleeping on floors, and looking for gigs. When they take one in rural Oregon based on a sketchy tip, they find themselves on a white supremacist compound run by Patrick Stewart (!!!) and witnesses to a crime. Trapped in a club's titular green room, they must fight their way out if they want to survive. Truly one of the most harrowing films of recent decades, it's not necessarily fun, but it's unquestionably excellent. Watch Green Room Now 11 of 29 Hold the Dark 2018 Best Quasi-Werewolf Thriller
IMDb IMDb rating: 5.6 Starring: Jeffrey Wright, Alexander Skarsgård, James Badge Dale Director: Jeremy Saulnier Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 125 minutes Directed By Jeremy Saulnier, who also helmed Green Room, Hold the Dark is questionably not a horror movie at all. Read one way, it's a story about PTSD, soldiers, racist oppression of Native Americans, and a naturalist (Jeffrey Wright) who's lost his way. Read another, it's about werewolves and skin walkers. Either way, it's a strong film with a spectacular gunfight in the middle. If you like Saulnier, it's a must-watch. Watch Hold the Dark Now 12 of 29 Hush 2016 Best Home Invasion Horror
IMDb IMDb rating: 6.6 Starring: John Gallagher Jr., Kate Siegel, Michael Trucco Director: Mike Flanagan Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 82 minutes Rising horror auteur Mike Flanagan masters the home-invasion film with Hush, a thriller about a deaf woman being menaced by a mask intruder. Think home-invasions are scary as is? Imagine what they're like when the main character can't hear creaking boards, breaking glass, or the other things that will keep her safe. A white-knuckle thrill-fest. Also available on Netflix is Flanagan's 10-part adaptation of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. Watch Hush Now 13 of 29 I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House 2016 Best Mood Piece
IMDb IMDb rating: 4.5 Starring: Ruth Wilson, Paula Prentiss, Bob Balaban Director: Oz Perkins Motion Picture Rating: Not Rated Running Time: 89 minutes What might be the most divisive film on this list. To some, it will be slow, boring, lacking real scares, and without a satisfying resolution. To others, it's a terrific mood piece, a meditation on loneliness and haunting, and a welcome stylistic departure from most mainstream horror movies. Ruth Wilson (The Affair, His Dark Materials) stars as a woman starting a new job as a live-in hospice caretaker for an elderly writer, who discovers something amiss in the house. Directed by Oz Perkins, who also did The Blackcoat's Daughter earlier on this list. Watch I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House Now 14 of 29 Insidious 2010 Best Franchise-Starter
IMDb IMDb rating: 6.8 Starring: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Lin Shaye Director: James Wan Motion Picture Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 103 minutes The first of many, massively successful collaborations between director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell has spawned three sequels (Wan is also one of the originators of the Conjuring series, which is approaching double-digit entries). Here, parents Patrick Wilson (The Conjuring) and Rose Byrne (Bridesmaids, Spy) begin to explore the supernatural—and Wilson's mysterious past—as a means to help their comatose son. Fun, gripping, scary, and featuring a really cool concept for the spirit world. Watch Insidious Now 15 of 29 The Invitation 2015 Best Cult Chiller
IMDb IMDb rating: 6.6 Starring: Logan Marshall-Green, Michiel Huisman, Toby Huss, Tammy Blanchard Director: Karyn Kusama Motion Picture Rating: Not Rated Running Time: 100 minutes This totally gripping thriller starts off like a realist take on an awkward dinner party/multilevel marketing pitch. Will (Logan Marshall-Green; Quarry) brings a date to a dinner party hosted by his ex-wife, who he hasn't seen since their marriage fell apart after the death of their son. Instead, it's not just dinner: it's a come-on from his wife, her new boyfriend, and others to join the cult, The Invitation, that has helped them through the grief. As the dinner goes on, the situation becomes more strange and tense, until The Invitation's true philosophy becomes chillingly clear. The last shot is a jaw-dropper. Watch The Invitation Now 16 of 29 Paranormal Activity 2007 Best Found Footage Haunter
IMDb IMDb rating: 6.3 Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Mark Fredrichs Director: Oren Peli Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 86 minutes Far from the first found-footage movie, and not even the first major success in the sub-genre (hello, Blair Witch Project), Paranormal Activity is the watershed movie that revitalized the subgenre and made it the horror powerhouse its been for the past nearly 15 years. A somewhat straightforward story of a haunting accentuated by the found footage aspect, Activity's marketing campaign—showing theater audiences jumping and screaming at every turn—is perhaps as good as, if not better than, the movie itself. Still, it's good fun and spawned 5 sequels, at least two of which are better than the original. Watch Paranormal Activity Now 17 of 29 It Comes at Night 2017 Best Post-Apocalyptic Headscratcher
IMDb IMDb rating: 6.2 Starring: Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo Director: Trey Edward Shults Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 91 minutes Studio A24—which brought us The VVitch (later on this list) and Midsommar, among others—gets a bit of a bad rap in the genre for releasing "elevated" (i.e, allegedly more artistic and sophisticated than standard horror) films. We don't buy that criticism, but those who do might point to It Comes at Night as an example. This post-apocalyptic tale of a family trying to survive the unexplained breakdown of society and—maybe?—a supernatural threat is a little hard to parse, but it's also extremely effective and really scary. If you like post-apocalyptic stories, survival horror, and don't need the story neatly wrapped up, this is absolutely worth a watch. Watch It Comes at Night Now 18 of 29 The Perfection 2018 Best Revenge Thriller
IMDb IMDb rating: 6.1 Starring: Allison Williams, Logan Browning, Steven Weber Director: Richard Shepard Motion Picture Rating: Not Rated Running Time: 90 minutes What price do we pay for achievement? And when we realize that the price we've paid is too high, where do we get a refund? Those are some of the questions animating The Perfection, a deceptive film with much more bite and perversity than the standard, mediocre made-for-Netflix movie. Allison Williams (Get Out, Girls) stars as a one-time musical prodigy who's fallen away from her art and is drawn back in by her former teacher and his new star pupil. Packed with twists, switchbacks, and did that really just happens?, it's a surprising and satisfying watch. Watch The Perfection Now 19 of 29 Poltergeist 1982 Best Classic 80s Blockbuster
Warner Bros. Entertainment IMDb rating: 7.3 Starring: JoBeth Williams, Heather O'Rourke, Craig T. Nelson Director: Tobe Hooper Motion Picture Rating: PG Running Time: 114 minutes A true '80s horror classic about a family troubled by a haunting in their new home. One of the touchstones of '80s horror themes—ex-hippie parents who are now Reagan voters, rapacious businesses unleashing horror, vengeance from the past visited on innocents in the present—despite its PG rating, Poltergeist is good, scary fun. Steven Spielberg had a large hand in the creation of this movie, though exactly how much has never been clear. Watch Poltergeist Now 20 of 29 The Ritual 2017 Best Creature Feature
Vlad Cioplea IMDb rating: 6.3 Starring: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier Director: David Bruckner Motion Picture Rating: Not Rated Running Time: 94 minutes A folk horror creature feature that starts out looking like a friends-lost-in-the-woods flick, The Ritual is a lot of fun. A group of British friends on holiday in Sweden get lost, then hurt, while hiking and find themselves trapped in a spooky house during a rainstorm. From there, things get much worse for the group and much better for the audience. Based on the novel of the same name by Adam Nevill. Watch The Ritual Now 21 of 29 Session 9 2001 Best Indie Ambiguity
IMdb IMDb rating: 6.4 Starring: Peter Mullan, David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon Director: Brad Anderson Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 97 minutes No one would have expected this film from writer/director Brad Anderson, after his first movie—Next Step Wonderland—was a realist indie romantic comedy. Here, a group of down-on-their-luck asbestos removal technicians have to complete a rush job to remove the toxic substance from a former mental hospital that's going to be converted into luxury apartments (the hospital, in Danvers, MA, is a real place and the apartment conversion are real, but the buildings burned down in 2007). Needless to say, the abandoned mental hospital is haunted by more than just asbestos and the team starts to come apart quickly. The film's original release was overshadowed by Sept. 11, robbing this great indie horror film of the audience it deserved. Watch Session 9 Now 22 of 29 The Silence of the Lambs 1991 Best Serial Killer Thriller Part 1
IMDb IMDb rating: 8.6 Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Scott Glenn Director: Jonathan Demme Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 118 minutes The only horror movie to ever win the Best Picture Oscar, The Silence of the Lambs is easily one the greatest serial-killer thrillers of all time. Featuring a career-defining, pop-culture shaping turn by Anthony Hopkins as the cannibal doctor Hannibal Lecter, fledgling FBI agency Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) must pair with Lecter to help catch one of his former patients, the serial killer dubbed Buffalo Bill. Creepy, psychological, gripping, and packed with endlessly quotable dialogue, Lambs is as good as it gets. Netflix also has all three seasons of the TV series-prequel, Hannibal. It's got a totally different cast, and is tied more to the earlier Lecter story Red Dragon than Lambs, Hannibal is nonetheless one of the goriest, and best, horror TV series of all time. Watch The Silence of the Lambs Now 23 of 29 Sinister 2012 Best Supernatural Fiend
Summit Entertainment, LLC. IMDb rating: 6.8 Starring: Ethan Hawke, Juliet Rylance, James Ransone Director: Scott Derrickson Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 110 minutes So much horror takes place in your new house after your family moves. Makes you want to just refinance that mortgage and stay put. Well, Ellison Oswalt (Hawke) doesn't take that advice and moves his family into a new home where murders once happened. As he investigates the crimes, he comes across some disturbing film of murders and unleashes an ancient, supernatural terror. Watch Sinister Now 24 of 29 Train to Busan 2016 Best Zombie Rampage
IMDb IMDb rating: 7.6 Starring: Yoo Gong, Yu-mi Jung, Dong-seok Ma Director: Sang-ho Yeon Motion Picture Rating: Not Rated Running Time: 116 minutes If you love a good high-concept premise, Train to Busan is for you. Forget Snakes on a Plane. This is zombies on a high-speed train hurtling its way through Korea. Packed full of action, brain-munching, and social commentary, Busan breathes fresh life into the slightly tired zombie subgenre. Watch Train to Busan Now 25 of 29 Tucker and Dale vs Evil 2010 Best Horror Comedy
Magnolia Pictures IMDb rating: 7.5 Starring: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden Director: Eli Craig Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 89 minutes The only horror-comedy on this list—we don't like those two genres mixed together—Tucker and Dale is so smart, so funny, and so good-hearted that it has to be recommended. Flipping the evil-hillbilly cliche on its head, Tucker and Dale trips from one hilarious misunderstanding to another gory accident to an actual sinister plot, along the way generating a lot of laughs thanks largely to stars Labine and Tudyk. If you want a few laughs mixed in with your gore, and are sick of horror's anti-rural bias, don't miss this one. Watch Tucker and Dale vs. Evil Now 26 of 29 Under the Shadow 2016 Best International Haunter
IMDb IMDb rating: 6.9 Starring: Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi Director: Babak Anvari Motion Picture Rating: PG-13 Running Time: 84 minutes Bringing a welcome international perspective, this Persian-language film set in Iran during the '80s Iran/Iraq War certainly offers a setting never-before-seen in the horror genre. In Shadow, a woman is left behind with her daughter when her doctor husband is sent to the war. As they wait, the daughter becomes increasingly concerned about Djinns, Islamic mythical creatures. When a missile hits their apartment building, things take a turn for the worse. Watch Under the Shadow Now 27 of 29 The Wicker Man 1973 Best Folk Horror
Rialto Pictures / Studiocanal IMDb rating: 7.5 Starring: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland Director: Robin Hardy Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 88 minutes Not to confused with the so-bad-it-spawned-1,000-memes Nicholas Cage remake from 2006, this is one of the founding documents of the folk horror subgenre, which is focused on isolated communities and strange beliefs. In it, Woodward plays a devout Catholic cop sent to a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. As he investigates, he finds a slightly pagan community that has a disturbing, ritualistic plan for him. Watch The Wicker Man Now 28 of 29 The VVitch 2015 Best Modern Folk Horror
IMDb IMDb rating: 6.9 Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie Director: Robert Eggers Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 92 minutes Forget the marketing hype that this is the scariest movie you'll ever seen. It's not—but it's probably also not truly trying to scare you. Rather, this is a creepy film, packed with atmosphere, that's really the study of a family that's so inflexibly religious that they kicked get out of Pilgrim-era Massachusetts (which is saying something!). As they try to subsist on a failing farm, they must ask whether their troubles are just hard luck, a witch's curse, or created by their goat (yes, really). Watch The VVitch Now 29 of 29 Zodiac 2007 Best Serial Killer Thriller part 2
IMDb IMDb rating: 7.7 Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo Director: David Fincher Motion Picture Rating: R Running Time: 157 minutes In a career full of high points, Zodiac is perhaps director Fincher's greatest work. Based on the non-fiction book by former newspaper cartoonist and reporter Robert Graysmith, the film recounts the real-life hunt for the Zodiac killer, a serial murderer who terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Featuring top-notch performances by Robert Downey Jr., Jake Gyllenhaal, and Mark Ruffalo, there's not a slack moment or out-of-place shot in the film's 2.5 hours a must-watch. Watch Zodiac Now Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit More from Lifewire The Best Netflix Thrillers to Watch Tonight The Best Action Movies to Watch Right Now Best Free Movies on YouTube (September 2022) The Best LGBT Movies on Netflix Right Now (October 2022) The 10 Best 90s Movies to Watch Right Now The 10 Best 80s Movies to Watch Right Now The 22 Best Christmas Movies on Netflix (2022) The Best Movies on Hulu Right Now (September 2022) The 10 Best Movies of the 2010s to Watch Right Now The Best Disney Plus Movies Right Now (October 2022) The 10 Best Sports Movies to Watch Right Now The 15 Best Inspirational Movies of 2022 The Best Movies on HBO Right Now (October 2022) The Best Kids Movies on Netflix (September 2022) The Best Romantic Movies on Netflix Right Now (September 2022) The Best Teen Movies on Netflix (September 2022) Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies