This post is updated frequently as movies leave and enter Hulu. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.
Isn’t the world scary enough nowadays? Of course not! Everyone needs a good break from reality now and then, and horror can be the best way to do that. And Hulu has a remarkably deep catalog of horror films, including massive hits, indie darlings, and even a few originals. These are the best chillers on Hulu right now, updated monthly.
28 Weeks Later
Year: 2007
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle handed off directorial duties on this sequel to his 28 Days Later to Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, and the result is an underrated action flick, a zombie movie that moves at lightning speed as it details the effort to establish a safe zone from the undead apocalypse in London. It has a phenomenal cast that includes Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Imogen Poots, and Idris Elba. There are reports that the long-delayed 28 Months Later may finally go into production soon — so catch up now.
Alien
Year: 1979
Runtime: 1h 57m
Director: Ridley Scott
The one that changed everything. Alien didn’t just launch a mega-franchise or create an iconic character in Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. It shifted the entire sci-fi/horror landscape forever. And what’s even more stunning about Alien over four decades later is how much it still rips. From beginning to end, this is one of the rare movies that could be called perfect.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
Year: 2016
Runtime: 1h 26m
Director: Andre Ovredal
There are very few horror movies with as perfect a set-up as this one. Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch star as a coroner and his son in a small town. They get a late-night delivery of a body that doesn’t make sense. Her exterior looks pristine but everything on the inside is a mess. As they’re trying to solve the mystery, things get very, very creepy.
The Babadook
Year: 2014
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Jennifer Kent
One of the best horror films of the 2010s has not been widely available for streaming subscribers so take the chance to watch it again while it’s on Hulu. Jennifer Kent’s directorial debut centers on a mother (Essie Davis) who struggles to raise her problem child alone after the death of her husband. Oh, and there’s also a real monster in the boy’s room.
birth/rebirth
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 38m
Director: Laura Moss
This mesmerizing riff on Frankenstein is one of the best horror films of 2023. Judy Reyes stars as a nurse whose daughter dies at the age of five, only to be brought back to life by a morgue technician (an unforgettable Marin Ireland) who has been experimenting with a daring new process. How far would you go to bring a child back from the dead? What lines would you cross? birth/rebirth is a brilliant, unforgettable piece of work.
Bone Tomahawk
Year: 2015
Runtime: 2h 12m
Director: S. Craig Zahler
S. Craig Zahler has become one of the most divisive filmmakers working today after three vicious, brutal movies — Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99, and Dragged Across Concrete. Bone Tomahawk is arguably the best, a slow-burn Western that stars Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, and Richard Jenkins as a posse of men who hunt a group of indigenous cannibals. The final act is terrifying and intense. (If you like it, check out Brawl too, also on Hulu.)
*Get Out
Year: 2017
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Jordan Peele
This is the one that really changed the current state of horror, reminding studios how acclaimed and popular it could be if treated with the right respect. It also won its creator an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, launching one of the most interesting careers of the current era. It’s held up remarkably well, and it’s hardly ever available on streaming services, so take this chance while you can to rewatch a movie whose influence is still shaking the industry.
High-Rise
Year: 2015
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: Ben Wheatley
The director of Kill List helmed an adaptation of the infamous novel of the same name by J.G. Ballard, a study of opulence and inequity that devolves into a gruesome nightmare. Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, and Elisabeth Moss star in a film that unfolds in a luxury high-rise in the ‘70s that gradually becomes cut off from the rest of the world, becoming its own crumbling society. It’s stylish and unforgettable.
The Host
Year: 2006
Runtime: 2h
Director: Bong Joon-ho
The success of Parasite brought an entirely new, larger audience to the work of Bong Joon-ho, and they probably loved this riveting genre piece about a giant monster living in the Han River. Parasite star Song Kang-ho plays the patriarch of a family that’s forced into action when the creature kidnaps his daughter. When it was released, it became the highest-grossing South Korean film of all time. It rules.
I Saw the Devil
Year: 2011
Runtime: 2h 22m
Director: Kim Jee-woon
The great Korean director Kim Jee-woon (The Age of Shadows) directed an intense thriller that gets so dark that it qualifies as horror. Lee Byung-hun plays an NIS agent whose fiancée is murdered by a serial killer, played by Choi Min-sik, and so he dedicates his life to tracking him down and bringing him to justice.
Infinity Pool
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 58m
Director: Brandon Cronenberg
The director of Possessor returned this year with a more twisted affair starring Alexander Skarsgard and Mia Goth. The True Blood vamp plays a wealthy novelist who accidentally kills a local man at a seaside resort and discovers there’s a way for rich people to avoid the law in this part of the world. Insanely constructed and unforgettable in its imagery, Infinity Pool is one of the best films of the first half of 2023.
*The Invitation
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 46m
Director: Jessica M. Thompson
Sony bungled the release of this one, being coy about its plot in ads that didn’t make it seem that appealing. It’s a fun horror movie, a retelling of Dracula from the perspective of a victim bride. It follows a young woman who goes to find her estranged family overseas only to, well, you can imagine. Nathalie Emmanuel goes all in on a film that should have found a bigger audience, and likely will on streaming services like Hulu.
It Follows
Year: 2014
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Maika Monroe stars in this indie horror breakthrough hit as a young woman who discovers that her recent sexual activity has cursed her with a supernatural force that will chase her until she passes it along to someone else. Stylish and striking, this felt like nothing else on the American horror market in 2014, really ushering in the era of what is now called “elevated horror.” Whatever you call it, It Follows is still an unforgettable genre flick.
Little Monsters
Year: 2019
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Abe Forsythe
Lupita Nyong’o can do absolutely anything. Just look at this horror-comedy about a group of schoolchildren who get attacked by waves of the undead. Lupita rules as the teacher and the only one who knows how to act heroic in the moment. And she’s joined by a fun supporting performance from Josh Gad, who is very from Olaf here.
Mandy
Year: 2018
Runtime: 2h 1m
Director: Panos Cosmatos
Panos Cosmatos gave Nicolas Cage one of the best roles of his career in this 2018 film that already feels like a cult classic. For about an hour, Mandy is a slow burn about a man who goes through a living hell when a cult kidnaps and murders his wife (Andrea Riseborough). And then for the second hour, it’s a crazy movie that’s just washed in blood and features a chainsaw fight. You can’t adequately describe it in words, so you just need to see it.
The Omen
Year: 1976
Runtime: 1h 51m
Director: Richard Donner
The wave of films about children with evil intent reached one of its peaks in this 1976 horror flick that cast the beloved Gregory Peck in a role in which most audiences weren’t accustomed to seeing him. He’s the father of Damien Thorn, a child who may actually be the spawn of the devil. Directed by Richard Donner, The Omen is a taut, smartly made supernatural thriller. (Note: The 2006 remake is also on Hulu, but best avoided.)
Only Lovers Left Alive
Year: 2013
Runtime: 2h 3m
Director: Jim Jarmusch
How does one possibly begin to describe one of the most wonderfully odd films of the 2010s? Jim Jarmusch wrote and directed this story of apathetic vampires, creatures who have lived so long and seen so much that the world mostly leaves them apathetic. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston are fantastic in the lead roles, and they’re matched by great supporting turns from Mia Wasikowska, Anton Yelchin, Jeffrey Wright, and John Hurt.
Sea Fever
Year: 2019
Runtime: 1h 35m
Director: Neasa Hardiman
After premiering at TIFF in 2019, this film got kind of buried on release on VOD at the beginning of the pandemic. Search it out. You won’t regret it. Hermione Corfield plays a woman on a fishing boat when it’s overcome by…something. Echoes of classic horror like The Thing and Alien filter into this fun sci-fi/horror flick.
Skinamarink
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: Kyle Edward Ball
The little movie that could jumped from being a Shudder exclusive to Hulu after a brief stint in theaters that netted this five-figure movie over $1 million at the box office. Filming for almost nothing in his own childhood home, Ball taps into something primal — that feeling in the middle of the night when you wake up and can sense something is just wrong. Divisive in ways that always produce fascinating conversations, this is one of the essential horror movies of the 2020s.
Watcher
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: Chloe Okuno
One of the best films of 2022, this was a Shudder exclusive until recently. Inspired by ‘70s paranoia horror, Watcher stars Maika Monroe (It Follows) as a woman who has moved to Romania with her husband Francis (Karl Glusman). Without much to do and unable to speak the language, she starts to get paranoid that someone is watching her from across the courtyard. Stylish and riveting, it’s a must-see.
When Evil Lurks
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: Demian Rugna
When Evil Lurks is one of the most messed-up horror flicks you could watch on any streaming service. An Argentinian horror film that originally dropped on Shudder shortly after its Toronto Film Festival premiere and theatrical release, it’s the story of two brothers who discover that there’s a demonic entity living on the edge of their village. When it gets accidentally released, things get really bad. Gorey and strange in equal measure, this film takes no prisoners.
Wounds
Year: 2019
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: Babak Anvari
The director of the excellent Under the Shadow followed that up with his first American film, a Sundance premiere that stars Dakota Johnson and Armie Hammer in a tale of surreal madness. Hulu picked up it up, where it lives exclusively, ready to break your brain. Undeniably Cronenberg-inspired, Wounds is the tale of a bartender who basically loses his mind.
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