This list is regularly updated as movies rotate on and off of Prime Video. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.
Who wants to be scared tonight? While there are fantastic streaming services dedicated to horror nuts, there’s also a wealth of genre hits and indie darlings on Prime Video. In fact, they have one of the most diverse arrays of horror hits, including films by vets like David Cronenberg and Paul W.S. Anderson, alongside newer films from indie studios. This regularly updated list will keep Prime Video subscribers in the know on what are the best horror movies they can watch right now. Turn the lights off and lock the doors.
The Blair Witch Project
Year: 1999
Runtime: 1h 20m
Director: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez
When this movie dropped at Sundance back in 1999, it felt like something entirely new. Two decades of found footage imitators has dulled some of its impact, but The Blair Witch Project remains the model for how to do this kind of DIY horror well. And it’s still pretty damn terrifying.
Candyman
Year: 2021
Runtime: 1h 31m
Director: Nia DaCosta
Too many people easily dismissed the Nia DaCosta remake of the 1992 classic about a boogeyman who terrorizes a Chicago community. Yes, it’s imperfect in its messaging, but it’s a spectacularly well-made film, including some excellent sound design and chilling compositions. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars in this film that was co-written by the insanely talented Jordan Peele.
Carnival of Souls
Year: 1962
Runtime: 1h 20m
Director: Herk Harvey
An independent filmmaker who had made his career doing industry safety videos just happened to direct one of the most essential horror flicks of all time in this absolute classic. Candace Hilligoss stars as Mary Henry, a woman who barely survives a car accident and starts seeing ghostly, zombie-like figures in the new city she’s trying to call home. As the figures draw her to an abandoned carnival, some of the best horror imagery of the 1960s surfaces in a film that didn’t get much attention on its release but has gone on to be recognized as a genre masterpiece.
Cube
Year: 1998
Runtime: 1h 30m
Director: Vincenzo Natali
A true cult hit, this horror classic didn’t really make a dent at all until it was successful on VHS first and then DVD and Blu-ray. It’s a film with an undeniable premise as a group of people wake up in a facility that contains multiple, connected cubes. As they travel the labyrinth, they discover some cubes are safer than others. It’s a sharp, clever piece of genre filmmaking.
Dawn of the Dead
Year: 2004
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: Zack Snyder
Forget that Rebel Moon junk over on Netflix and watch this instead. Long before anyone could imagine what The Snyder Cut would mean, Zack Snyder helmed this remake of one of the best horror films of all time, George A. Romero’s masterpiece of the same name. While very different in tone, this one totally works on its own terms, featuring excellent horror-action direction from Snyder and a great cast that includes Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, and Jake Weber.
The Dead Zone
Year: 1983
Runtime: 1h 43m
Director: David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg and Stephen King joined forces on one of the best adaptations of the master of literary horror. Christopher Walken stars as a normal guy who discovers he has psychic powers, which lead him to a senator who could destroy the world. It’s a smart, tight piece of genre filmmaking by one of the best horror directors of all time.
*Evil Dead Rise
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: Lee Cronin
Rebooting the Evil Dead series for the second time (after the successful 2013 iteration), this one moves the action to an L.A. apartment building where a single mother (the phenomenal Alyssa Sutherland) gets taken over by the same evil force that once terrorized poor Ash. Twisted and clever, Evil Dead Rise is a gruesome horror flick that was so successful that it feels like a sixth film in the series won’t take a decade to rise from the dead.
Hell House LLC
Year: 2015
Runtime: 1h 23m
Director: Stephen Cognetti
We’re all tired of found footage movies but this flick can be one of the exceptions. So popular that it spawned a franchise (there have already been two sequels), this is the story of a documentary crew that captures the creation of a Halloween haunted house that becomes all too real, ultimately killing 15 ticket buyers and staff. Structured both in a “what happened that night” and in-the-moment found footage doc, this is a truly clever indie horror film.
Hellraiser
Year: 1987
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Clive Barker
The horror author Clive Barker directed this adaptation of his own novella The Hellbound Heart and made genre movie history. Introducing the world to the iconic Pinhead, who would go on to appear in so many sequels, the original film here is still the best, the tale of a puzzle box that basically opens a portal to Hell. The sequels have kind of lost the thread, but the original is still incredibly powerful. It’s one of the few films from the ‘80s that would still shatter audiences if it were released today.
High Tension
Year: 2005
Runtime: 1h 29m
Director: Alexandre Aja
This movie is bonkers. Directed by Alexandre Aja (and sometimes called Switchblade Romance) it stars Cecile de France and Maiwenn as two young woman who go to a secluded farmhouse, where they’re attached by a serial killer. The twist ending to this brutal film will likely either make it or break it for you. Note: Shudder also added a few other French Horror Wave films, including Inside and Martyrs — both essential for horror fans, neither for the faint of heart.
The Host
Year: 2007
Runtime: 1h 59m
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.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Year: 1978
Runtime: 1h 55m
Director: Philip Kaufman
There’s a reason that Hollywood keeps returning to Jack Finney’s novel The Body Snatchers—it strikes at a common fear that our neighbors and loved ones aren’t who they were yesterday. The best film version of Finney’s tale is the ‘70s one with Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy. A riveting unpacking of ‘70s paranoia, this is a truly terrifying movie.
It Follows
Year: 2015
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: David Robert Mitchell
Maika Monroe stars in this 2014 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.
Pearl
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 42m
Director: Ti West
Mere months after the release of X, Ti West dropped a prequel in the form of this unforgettable horror flick that will now be the centerpiece of a trilogy with the Summer 2024 release of MaXXXine. Mia Goth is phenomenal as the title character, now captured in the early part of the 20th century as she tries to be a movie star but ends up a serial killer instead. It’s a fearless performance, topped by one of the genre’s best monologues.
Phantasm
Year: 1979
Runtime: 1h 29m
Director: Don Coscarelli
Another low-budget flick that produced an empire, Don Coscarelli’s totally bonkers 1979 film isn’t as much an influential genre classic as it is kind of unlike anything before or since. Who can forget the first time they saw Angus Scrimm as The Tall Man, one of the best horror characters of his era? The crazy plot here is secondary to the unforgettable imagery and style. There’s a reason it spawned four sequels and has a very loyal cult following 40 years later.
*The Silence of the Lambs
Year: 1991
Runtime: 1h 53m
Director: Jonathan Demme
Movies don’t get much better than Jonathan Demme’s adaptation of Thomas Harris’ chilling thriller about Clarice Starling and Dr. Hannibal Lecter. With career-defining performances from Jodie Foster and Sir Anthony Hopkins, this movie still absolutely slays a quarter-century after it was released. It’s fascinating to see its DNA in so many modern genre films. Nothing about it is dated, which isn’t something that can be said about many films that are over three decades old.
Smile
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 55m
Director: Parker Finn
Paramount has been regularly funneling some of their biggest theatrical hits to their streaming service for a small window of time before they roll over to Prime too. That was the case with Parker Finn’s debut feature film that was in theaters just last summer and made a fortune worldwide (over $200 million). One of the biggest commercial and critical horror hits of 2022, Smile is about a therapist who discovers something supernatural stalking her patients. It will get under your skin.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Year: 1986
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: Tobe Hooper
No one had any idea what to do with Tobe Hooper’s sequel to his breakthrough film when it was released. Why? Because it’s insane. More black comedy than horror, it’s almost a parody of the first film, featuring truly wild performances from Dennis Hopper, Bill Johnson, Bill Moseley, and more. Audiences were confused in the ‘80s but they’ve come around to view this as a cult classic.
Totally Killer
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Nahnatchka Khan
What if Scream and Back to the Future had a baby? It would look a lot like this Prime Original thriller about a young woman (a fun Kiernan Shipka) who travels back in time and joins forces with the teenage version of her mother to stop a serial killer. Quirky and clever, it works as a mystery, slasher film, and an ‘80s comedy.
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