38 Best Halloween Movies to Stream This Spooky Season
DreamWorks Pictures
On the surface, Halloween is all about finding the best costume and doling out candy to trick-or-treaters. But it’s also the one time of year when shorter nights, cooler temperatures, and an overall eerie vibe make it much easier to give yourself a good scare with a great film. Whether you’re a bonafide expert on everything from slashers to sci-fi or if you can barely get through a scary scene without covering your eyes, sometimes the best way to get into the spirit is to curl up on the couch and hit “play” on a classic . Read on for the best Halloween movies to stream this spooky season.
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Mandalay Pictures
While not considered Richard Burton’s best work, this fog-machine-heavy tale of Ichabod Crane ( Johnny Depp ) investigating some grisly decapitations while falling in love with the beautiful daughter of a wealthy family ( Christina Ricci ) has got to be the most atmospheric Halloween movie ever. (Available on Paramount+)
Universal Pictures
Horror franchise reboots have become as mediocre as they are common, but it’s fair to say that Zack Snyder built upon all the best elements of the George A. Romero classic. The 2004 remake provides even more scares while still honoring the original source material. (Available on Peacock)
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
You’ve got to have a little M. Night Shyamalan on the list, and The Village is the perfect spooky addition. The 2004 film is about a secluded nineteenth-century village that is being terrorized by creatures who live in the woods. Even better, it one of the best twist endings of Shyamalan’s oeuvre. (Available on FXNow)
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Another Shyamalan classic and the original surprise twist, this story of a psychologist with a crumbling marriage ( Bruce Willis ) trying to help a child who sees ghosts ( Haley Joel Osment ) is another incredible blast from the ’90s past. (Available on Max)
Lionsgate Films
If you’re looking for horror in the truest sense of the word, you can’t get any better than the 2004 original of this gruesome story of two men who find themselves forced to be players in a dying sadist’s twisted game. For the true enthusiast, Saw 1-6, and Saw: The Final Chapter , are also available for your stomach-turning pleasure. (Available on Max)
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Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Tim Burton’s animated masterpiece about a lonely pumpkin king who tries to recreate Christmas in Halloweentown is the perfect way to celebrate the season and get excited about the holidays at the same time. (Available on Disney+)
20th Century Fox
Want something funny and classic that the whole family, including grandpa, can enjoy? Mel Brooks’ hilarious 1974 retelling of the Frankenstein story has some glorious gags that, while dated, will never grow old. (Available on Max)
Universal Pictures
This modern-day Jordan Peele horror classic takes the concept of being your own worst enemy very literally. In this nail-biter, murderous doppelgangers emerge from underground bunkers to attack their surface-dwelling counterparts. (Available on Peacock)
Warner Bros.
This delightful romantic comedy about two witch sisters ( Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman ) under a terrible curse that renders any man they fall in love with dead, is another ’90s classic. (Available on Max)
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Lionsgate Films
The very best horror movies tend to have a layer of campiness just below their formulaic surface that makes them that much more enjoyable to watch. So why not embrace it? This tongue-in-cheek send-up of the genre has as many laughs as genuine scares, following a cliche group of susceptible young adults who learn their trip to a cabin in the woods is part of a much larger operation. (Available on Peacock)
Columbia Pictures
Another feminist masterpiece, this cheesy horror film is about a teenage girl who comes to a new Catholic school and quickly falls in with a coven. Dubbed a “sleeper hit,” The Craft became a cult classic for goths and teenage misfits everywhere. (Available on Peacock)
Umbrella Entertainment
This Australian indie psychological thriller was hailed by film critics as the scariest movie of 2014. It strategically uses slow pacing and skilled special effects to really instill the childhood fear of having a creepy character from a storybook come to life. (Available on Netflix.)
Pandora Cinema/Newmarket Films
Paramount Pictures
America’s favorite eccentric family is up to their usual, spooky antics in this 1991, kid-friendly classic. (Available on Paramount+)
Paramount Pictures
A group of San Francisco detectives ( Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards ) and reporters (Gyllenhaal , Robert Downey Jr. ) try to track down a serial killer terrorizing civilians and leaving taunting clues in newspapers. Based on a true story, the identity of this madman never was established, reminding us that people are still the most frightening creatures out there. (Available on Fubo)
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TriStar Pictures
Just because Halloween hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean you can’t start thinking about the next major holiday. This slasher follows a mysterious masked killer as he terrorizes the residents of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Fair warning if you’re squeamish—it’s handled with the high level of in-your-face horror audiences have come to expect from director Eli Roth . (Available on Netflix)
Bryanston Distributing Company
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DreamWorks Pictures
Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford star in this gripping thriller about a woman who suddenly starts to see the ghost of a strange young woman in her lakehouse. She then embarks on a quest to discover her identity, revealing personal secrets she could have never imagined. (Available on Peacock)
Paramount Pictures
In this remake of the 1989 adaptation of the Stephen King bestseller, a family’s cat ghoulishly comes back to life after being placed in a cursed burial ground in rural Maine. (Available on Paramount+)
Dimension Films
Twenty years (and several sequels) after surviving massacres by her murderous and otherworldly brother, Michael, Jamie Lee Curtis is still being hunted in suburbia by this masked, knife-wielding maniac. (Available on Paramount+)
A24
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Maslow Entertainment/Umbrella Entertainment/Ahi Films
When a group of teens realizes they can communicate with the dead using an embalmed hand, it becomes a source of fun and games. But things quickly take a turn for the worse when some participants get more than they bargained for with the experience. It’s become something of a modern horror classic for being equal parts horrifying and unsettling. (Available on Paramount+)
Artisan Entertainment
Thanks to the now infamous found footage technique, many people thought this “documentary” was real when it premiered in 1999. In the trendsetting film, college students get lost in the woods looking for a legendary witch. (Available on Peacock)
Warner Bros. Pictures
This 2013 thriller is about a family that calls on famous paranormal investigators to exorcise the evil spirits in their new house. Thanks to some incredible cinematography from director James Wan , it’s as scary as it is visually satisfying. (Available on HBO)
20th Century Fox/Brandywine Productions
Even decades after its release, it’s hard to think of a film that captures the genuine terror of being trapped on a ship in deep space with a murderous alien quite as well as this Ridley Scott classic does. One rewatch can also be a great reminder of how refreshing it can be to step away from the CGI overload that dominates the genre today. (Available on Hulu)
Dimension Films
By both playing into and parodying traditional horror film tropes, the Scream franchise is about a high school girl ( Neve Campbell ) who’s being hunted by a masked killer named Ghostface, which absolutely defines the teen slasher genre. And while the original and films since have all been enjoyable, this second installment in the franchise is an undeniably solid—and arguably iconic—addition that achieves the tongue-in-cheek metanarrative. (Available on Max)
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DreamWorks Pictures
In this remake of a Japanese box office smash, Naomi Watts plays a mother who has seven days to solve an urban legend to prevent the ghost of a little girl from crawling out of a television and sucking the soul out of her and her child. (Available on Paramount+)
Paramount Pictures
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Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
It’s hard to believe this Disney cult classic wasn’t a huge hit when it was first released in the ’90s. But for millennials, it’s hard to think of a more appropriate annual tradition than rewatching the Sanderson sisters come back to life three centuries after being hanged for witchcraft and attempting to lure the children of Salem, Massachusetts, in an attempt for immortality. And, of course, the campy and over-the-top performances from Bette Midler , Kathy Najimy , and Sarah Jessica Parker have helped it age all the better.
Warner Bros.
Three witches ( Cher , Pfeiffer, and Susan Sarandon ) in a small town get their wish when a handsome stranger comes to call and seduces them. However, things soon take a complicated turn. (Available on Tubi)
Universal Pictures
In this zany dark comedy, two rivals (played by Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn ) manage to achieve immortality. However, the dynamic shifts when they realize their supposed gift might be more of a curse than anything. (Available on Peacock)
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Columbia Pictures
While it might not have the same franchise longevity, I Know What You Did Last Summer remains a quintessential part of the ’90s slasher revival. Not only is it a star-studded cast made up of the top young stars of the decade (including Jennifer Love Hewitt , Sarah Michelle Gellar , Ryan Phillippe , and Freddie Prinze Jr. ), but it’s a genuinely scary movie with plenty of jump scares and plot twists. (Available on AMC+)
Paramount Pictures
The original #demonbaby film, Roman Polanski’s 1968 critically-acclaimed horror movie will make you terrified of giving birth, as well as moving into suspiciously underpriced Manhattan apartments. (Available on Paramount+)
Orion Pictures
Warner Bros. Pictures
It’s hard to find a millennial who wasn’t traumatized by this film adaptation of the Roald Dahl story when it was first released. But as adults, revisiting this movie about a boy who stumbles across a witch convention while staying at a seaside hotel in England can be a great way to slip into the Halloween spirit. (Available on The Criterion Channel)
Unison/Paladin
Before it became a beloved TV series, What We Do in the Shadows won over movie audiences as a hilarious mockumentary. In a truly unique take, the film follows a group of vampires helping a recently converted victim acclimate to his new life as a creature of the night.
American International Pictures
This 1979 thriller about a family that’s terrorized by supernatural forces when they move into a house with a gruesome history is one of cinema’s most famous ghost stories. (Available on Max)
Universal Pictures
This story has been updated to include additional entries, fact-checking, and copy-editing.
