Best Horror Movies On Netflix

This is huge since horror remains one of the most popular genres for streaming offerings. Netflix's commitment to providing a fresh and regularly updated selection of scary movies for subscribers is hardly surprising. Among the picks of the platform's offering are demonic possession movies, slashers, remakes, reboots, and both classics and new modern-day horrors.

Between the visceral thrills of being scared and the mystifying visual effects, Netflix's best horror movies deliver. Whether it's a jump-scare-filled popcorn flick or an elevated horror where the scares are in a morbid narrative about existential dread, Netflix subscribers can find so many different approaches to the nightmare-inducing genre.

25 Army Of The Dead (2021)

While most people obsessively began to follow Zack Snyder thanks to his DCEU movies, he really got his start with a remake of the zombie classic Dawn of the Dead. With that, he proved that he could take a beloved classic film and create something just different enough to entertain both fans of the original and fans who love watching zombie movies in the modern day. Once he left the DCEU, one of the first movies he worked on was returning to the zombie genre with Army of the Dead.

Army of the Dead sees a zombie outbreak start thanks to something the U.S. military loses containment of outside Las Vegas. The outbreak is confined to Vegas, and the U.S. government walls it off to keep them there. A man then hires a crew of mercenaries to break into Vegas and retrieve his money from a vault. There are backstabbing and ulterior motives, but the best part of this horror movie is seeing an intelligent alpha zombie waging war on the humans who come into his kingdom.

24 1922 (2017)

Netflix has made a few solid Stephen King adaptations, and in 2017, it made a movie based on one of King's more obscure novellas. Based on a novella from the book Full Dark, No Stars, the movie 1922 is a historical piece with Thomas Jane starring as Wilf, a farmer who lives in Nebraska with his wife and teenage son, Henry. When his wife decides to sell their farm and move to Omaha, Wilf convinces his son to help murder her so they won't have to move and can keep the farm.

Wilf throws her into a dry well, where rats feed on her. While the local sheriff believes Wilf might have had something to do with her disappearance, he sticks to the story that she ran out on him and their son. The movie is similar to Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat, as Wilf soon ends up haunted by visions and sounds from his wife, including rats descending on him and his home. The story is terrifying, with some striking imagery, and is one of King's scarier movie adaptations.

23 Oxygen (2021)

Oxygen is a rare horror movie that doesn't have any monsters or deranged killers and instead generates fear with a simple yet universally relatable threat. The French sci-fi movie is set entirely inside a cryogenic chamber, with Mélanie Laurent playing a woman who is trapped inside as her oxygen levels decrease.

Laurent's performance is key to keeping the audience engaged, as she makes for a strong yet human hero in a life-or-death situation. It is an edge-of-the-seat experience with every moment and decision feeling exciting and vital.

22 Ouija (2014)

Ouija capitalizes on the eerie and foreboding nature of the well-known board game. The 2014 horror movie on Netflix follows a group of friends who awaken dark forces by playing with a Ouija board, leading to a series of haunting and fatal events. While the movie employs familiar horror movie elements, it's the atmospheric tension and the sense of inevitable dread that distinguishes it.

Ouija explores themes of loss and the unknown, making the supernatural feel uncomfortably close to reality. The young cast's genuine reactions contribute to a feeling of vulnerability too. The movie resonates with anyone who has ever been both terrified and intrigued by the idea of communicating with the other side.

21 Bird Box (2018)

Bird Box became a phenomenal success when it was first released, as it was a viral sensation thanks to the meme of Sandra Bullock blindfolded. That led to Bird Box becoming the most-streamed Netflix original movie for years until it was dethroned by Red Notice. However, it wasn't just the memes that made Bird Box so exciting.

The movie is set in a world that becomes ridden with unseen entities that drive people to suicide when they're looked at, making for one of the most suspenseful Netflix originals. A sequel, Bird Box Barcelona, was released in 2023 and sees the same entities terrorize civilians, only on a much bigger scale.

20 The Platform (2019)

The Platform is a surreal horror movie about a vertical high-rise prison. A platform of food at the center of the prison starts on the top floor and then lowers to each level, stopping at each one on the way down. As the food runs out quickly, desperation takes over the prisoners, who resort to murder and cannibalism.

The Spanish horror movie is an expertly told social commentary that explores the darkest aspects of human nature, such as greed and survival. It plays out in a claustrophobic and disturbing setting, and The Platform features one of the most harrowing plot twists of any horror movie on Netflix.

19 Apostle (2018)

Apostle is a gothic horror movie starring Legion's Dan Stevens as Thomas Richardson. Directed by Gareth Evans, the film has a lot in common with the classic horror movie The Wicker Man, and it struggled somewhat to get over with some critics due to those comparisons.

Typically gory for an Evans project, Apostle sees Stevens' hero Thomas travel to a Welsh island to rescue his sister, who is kidnapped by a cult and is being held for ransom. However, what he finds there is a pagan ritual and a hungry goddess that needs sustenance.

18 The Babysitter (2017)

Scaring is one thing, but horrors that also manage to pack in laughs are a rare breed. The Babysitter is an under-seen horror comedy that is a lot of fun, relatively short, and easy to watch. The movie centers on a young boy who discovers that his babysitter is part of a satanic cult, putting him in the middle of their deadly plans.

With broad characters, bloody kills, and a terrific villainous role from Samara Weaving, The Babysitter is hugely entertaining. It was so popular on the streaming platform that it spawned a sequel starring modern horror final girl Jenna Ortega.

17 The Ritual (2018)

Given the massive library of movies, great horror movies like The Ritual can sometimes be overlooked, but this horror release is among the best Netflix horror movies. Part of the "don't go into the woods" subgenre, The Ritual follows a group of friends on a hiking trip who find themselves in a forest being stalked by an evil force.

Dark and ominous in tone, The Ritual plays with horror genres with confident abandon, layering psychologically disturbing imagery with good old-fashioned creature feature scares. And when the creepiness starts to take over the story, things escalate in shocking ways, delivering some truly creative and terrifying movie monsters.

16 Gerald's Game (2017)

No Netflix horror list would be complete without horror maestro Mike Flanagan, who has made a name as a purveyor of successful scares and moody atmospheres. There are several iconic horror movies based on Stephen King's stories, but Gerald's Game is one of the most overlooked. The movie follows a married couple experiencing trouble in their relationship.

As they seek to reignite their spark, something unexpected happens, putting the wife in a fight for her life. Gerald's Game has a simple yet chilling setup, and the movie has one of the most disturbing scenes in recent horror movie memory.