The 21 Scariest Movies on Netflix Right Now (April 2024)

For more than a decade, Netflix’s streaming service has been a harbor for the dissemination of horror movies. It’s been host to indie darlings and silver screen legends alike and acted as a distributor for many prominent genre film directors. All this to say, it’s accumulated a catalog of truly terrifying original titles. Keep reading to discover the scariest movies on Netflix.

Can’t find what you’re looking for here? Check out our lists of the best horror movies on Hulu, Prime Video, and HBO or the best movies on Netflix across all genres.

Disclaimer: These titles are available on US Netflix.

Editor’s note: This article was updated April 2024 to include The Babadook.

‘The Babadook’ (2014)

Rotten Tomatoes: 72% | IMDb: 6.8/10

Written and directed by Jennifer Kent in her feature directorial debut, The Babadook is a supernatural psychological horror film that follows a mother and son who are terrorized by a mysterious monster. Based on Kent’s 2005 short film Monster, The Babadook stars Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman. Though the film failed to find commercial success in its native Australia, The Babadook has received widespread acclaim following its international release. A horror movie that explores themes of grief and parenthood, the film has significantly influenced the genre and is now considered one of the greatest recent works of elevated horror. The Babadook has been praised for its narrative, plot, performances, and the design of its titular creature, which was put together through practical effects and stop-motion. The movie has also won numerous accolades, and its central creature has become a viral meme, reframed as an icon of the LGBTQ+ community (even though the film doesn’t have any actual references to LGBTQ+ culture).

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‘Ouija’ (2014)

Rotten Tomatoes: 5% | IMDb: 4.5/10

Stiles White’s directorial debut, Ouija follows friends Laine (Olivia Cooke), Isabelle (Bianca Santos), Trevor (Darren Kagasoff), and Pete (Douglas Smith), who unwittingly unleash a powerful demonic entity through the power of an antique Ouija board. Featuring a powerful host of executive producers behind the camera, including the likes of Jason Blum and Michael Bay,

Ouija was also co-written by White with his spouse and frequent collaborator, Juliet Snowden.

A by-the-books horror film, Ouija speeds through its 90-minute run time, breathlessly drawing scares from almost every scene and creating an eerie, unsettling atmosphere throughout. The movie was critically planned but commercially successful. In 2016, the film got a prequel, Ouija: Origin of Evil, which was directed by Mike Flanagan (The Fall of the House of Usher) and was far better received by critics.

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‘Vivarium’ (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes: 73% | IMDb: 5.9/10

A surreal psychological thriller directed by Lorcan Finnegan and written by Garret Shanley, Vivarium is an exceptionally creepy look at suburbia. The film follows young couple Tom and Gemma (Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots), who are trying to find a new home. Lured by Jonathan Aris’s strange real estate agent to a suburban housing development called Yonder, Tom and Gemma are soon trapped in a house and forced to raise a child, slowly losing their minds in the process.

Vivarium debuted at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival and received favorable reviews from critics. The film’s sometimes-comical first half is beautifully contrasted by the horrific events of the second, with Eisenberg and Poots perfectly capturing their characters’ gradual descent into existential crisis. A movie with deeper socio-cultural messages, Finnegan and Shanley’s story finds metaphor with almost every line, cutting between the eerily relatable and the outright surreal. A critical commentary on 21st-century suburban life, Vivarium manages to cling onto its unsettling Twilight Zone-esque atmosphere throughout its runtime, dragging a terrified but thoroughly engrossed audience along with it.

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‘The Pope’s Exorcist’ (2023)

Rotten Tomatoes: 49% | IMDb: 6.1/10

The Pope’s Exorcist is a fictionalized version of the accounts of the real Father Gabriele Amorth, who was said to have performed over 10,000 exorcisms. Directed by Julius Avery (Overlord), written by Michael Petroni and Evan Spiliotopoulos, and starring Russell Crowe (Gladiator), this supernatural horror film is based on Father Amorth’s 1990 book, An Exorcist Tells His Story, and its 1992 follow-up, An Exorcist: More Stories. The story follows Amorth (Crowe) as he struggles to remove a demon from a young boy, leading him to discover a bigger mystery that the Vatican has been covering up for centuries.

Though it received mixed reviews, The Pope’s Exorcist was quite successful with audiences and is an entertaining watch with some genuine scares. The movie feels like a combination of The Exorcist, the film that launched a thousand copycats, and the early 2000s sensation, TheDa Vinci Code. While the visuals are pretty standard fare for the exorcism genre, the mystery of the demon and Crowe’s performance are the main draw of the film. A sequel movie is currently in the works, with Crowe expected to return as Father Amorth.

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‘Run Rabbit Run’ (2023)

Rotten Tomatoes: 37% | IMDb: 5.0/10

Directed by Daina Reid and written by Hannah Kent, Run Rabbit Run is a terrifying psychological thriller about an ambitious fertility doctor (played by Succession’s Sarah Snook) who is forced to confront the possibility that the spirit of her dead sister Alice has somehow found its way into the body of her daughter (Lily LaTorre) and is now haunting her.

Run Rabbit Run premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2023. Though it didn’t do too well with critics, the movie is a good watch, with a gripping (if familiar) horror narrative set in the beautiful countryside of Australia. Leaning into mystery elements and classic horror tropes, Run Rabbit Run stands out with stellar performances not only from Snook but also from the young and incredibly talented LaTorre.

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‘Old People’ (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes: 40% | IMDb: 5.1/10

Perhaps the opposite premise of Children of the Corn, Old People is a gory German thriller by director/writer Andy Fetscher. The film stars Melika Foroutan, Stephan Luca, and Anna Unterberger. Set in a small town during a thunderstorm, the movie follows a young mother visiting with her children to attend her sister’s wedding. Taking advantage of the treacherous weather conditions, residents of a local retirement community escape the facility and embark on a violent killing spree.

Though panned by critics, Old People is an entertaining film that takes a premise prone to satire and still pulls in some genuine scares. Buried under gruesome visuals and quite a few cliches, Old People sprinkles in themes of aging, love, and societal disregard for humanity, all while a family defends themselves against the elderly.

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‘Malevolent’ (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes: 58% | IMDb: 4.8/10

Florence Pugh (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) and Ben Lloyd-Hughes (Me Before You) star in Malevolent as a sibling team of ghost-busting scam artists. Directed by Olaf de Fleur Johannesson, Malevolent was written by Ben Ketai and Eva Konstantopoulos, who also wrote the novel on which the film is based. The movie follows these fake ghostbusters on an assignment that quickly spirals out of their control.

With mixed to positive reviews from critics, Malevolent may not be an instant horror classic, but it’s got some solid scares in store. Unsurprisingly, Pugh’s outstanding performance as one of the fake mediums in her paranormal investigator scam is flawless and a highlight of the terrifyingly eerie movie. The ideal film for haunted house fans, Malevolent is a delightfully scary, psychologically rousing horror flick.

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‘Hellhole’ (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes: 57% | IMDb: 5.8/10

Directed by Bartosz M. Kowalski, who co-wrote the script with Mirella Zaradkiewicz, Hellhole is a terrifying Polish horror movie about uncovering the hauntingly dark secrets of a monastery. Set in 1987, the film stars Wojciech Niemczyk, Piotr Zurawski, and Olaf Lubaszenko and follows an investigation surrounding unexplained disappearances of residents, leading a young man to infiltrate the remote religious community and intending to explain the strange circumstances. As Hellhole’s plot unfolds, the inquirer must dive deeper into the tormented residents seeking treatment from the clergy housed within, cut off from society and the outside world.

Though it received mixed reviews from critics, Hellhole is an engaging, atmospheric movie with some good performances and a creepy narrative style. The film starts like a traditional possession film and then shifts gears as it enters progressively darker terrain. With a well-crafted story packed with terror, Hellhole is a great pick for fans of cult and religious horror.

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‘Death Note’ (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes: 36% | IMDb: 4.6/10

Death Note, the live-action film loosely adapted from the popular manga of the same name, follows Light Turner (Nat Wolff), a high school boy who discovers a leather-bound notebook called a “Death Note,” which allows him to kill people by inscribing their names and manner of death. Accompanying the notebook is the death god Ryuk, voiced by the wonderfully creepy Willem Dafoe, who encourages Light to use the notebook as he pleases. The movie was directed by Adam Wingard, and its screenplay was written by Charles Parlapanides, Vlas Parlapanides, and Jeremy Slater.

Death Note blends murder mystery with fantastical elements to create a thrilling horror film. The movie performed poorly with critics, but it was well received by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the original creators of the manga. There have also been plans for a sequel in the pipeline for a while, though it’s been some time since we heard anything about that project, so it appears to be stuck in development limbo for now. While distinctly different from the manga (and anime) that inspired it, Death Note is an enjoyable movie with an interesting question about humanity and whether the ends justify the means.

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‘Incantation’ (2022)

Rotten Tomatoes: 75% | IMDb: 6.2/10

Incantation is a found-footage film based on a real case of mass hysteria reported in Taiwan, where a family claimed they were possessed by various Chinese folk religion deities, resulting in the death of the eldest daughter. The fictionalized version follows Li Ronan (Tsai Hsuan-yen), who, after breaking a religious taboo, must save her young daughter from a deadly, ancient curse she accidentally unleashed. The film was directed by Kevin Ko, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Chang Che-wei.

Found footage is a genre staple, and Incantation capitalizes on the format to great effect. The highest-grossing horror movie in Taiwan when it came out, the film received positive reviews from critics and a number of awards. Creative and well-acted, Incantation offers up chilling supernatural scares.

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‘The Platform’ (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes: 80% | IMDb: 7.0/10

The Platform is a Spanish sociological horror film directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia. The film centers on a group of people living in a concrete tower – some as volunteers, others as punishment for a crime. Here, the people are fed via a platform that starts at the top of the building, with those living closest to the top getting as much food as they want and those at the bottom getting little to no food. The inhabitants are randomly switched every month, and the film explores the conflicts that arise within this system.

The Platform is one of the most inventive – not to mention disturbing – dystopian thrillers to come out in recent years. The story is tense and often gruesome, with its creative story and excellent performances making it a difficult yet extremely compelling watch. The film won the People’s Choice Award for Midnight Madness at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival (where it had its premiere) and has received widespread acclaim from critics and viewers.

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‘The Perfection’ (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes: 71% | IMDb: 6.2/10

The Perfection is a twist-heavy horror film about classical musicians struggling to perfect their craft and be the best. Charlotte (Allison Williams) is a cellist who has returned to a prestigious music conservatory after leaving to care for her dying mother. While there, she befriends a new ingenue but does so in order to drug her and trick her into cutting her hand off, and things only get more twisted from there. Directed by Richard Shepard, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Nicole Snyder and Eric C. Charmelo, The Perfection stars Allison Williams, Logan Browning, and Steven Weber.

Anchored by its compelling performances, The Perfection received generally favorable reviews from critics. The film is bold and gory, though it can, at times, veer into silliness. But above all else, the movie is a gripping watch that’s well-acted,well-crafted, and thoroughly discomforting.

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‘Apostle’ (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes: 78% | IMDb: 6.3/10

Set in an isolated island community, Gareth Evans’ folk horror film Apostle follows Thomas Richardson (Dan Stevenson) as he infiltrates the town seeking his kidnapped sister. He poses as one of the community, observing their peculiar traditions, rituals, and hardships, all while attempting to learn anything about his missing sibling.

Apostle is a Wicker Man-style slow burn with an explosive final act. Having received largely positive reviews from critics, it’s a well-crafted film that terrifies without succumbing to cliché. Evans’ eye for action creates some well-choreographed struggles rife with the tension of lethal consequences. Apostle is mysterious and fantastical in its narrative, critical of man’s attempts to control nature in its messaging. The film feels long, but the island setting and production design are so striking that it’s still captivating. It’s a rich, creative movie that would pair well with Crimson Peak as a double feature.

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‘Cam’ (2018)

Rotten Tomatoes: 93% | IMDb: 5.9/10

Cam is a digital-age horror film directed by Daniel Goldhaber and written by Isa Mazzei. The movie stars Madeline Brewer as Alice, aka Lola, a camgirl trying to make her way up the leaderboards. However, she soon finds that her account has been hijacked, with the appearance of her face, body, home, and accessories mysteriously replicated. The story is partly inspired by Mazzei’s own experiences with camming and features Patch Darragh, Melora Walters, Devin Druid, and Michael Dempsey in supporting roles.

Cam premiered at the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival and has received rave reviews from critics. While its thriller narrative is unsettling enough, the movie succeeds at making Alice’s day-to-day life terrifying as well. Stigma, stalkers, and the risk of exposure create vulnerability and tension throughout the movie. Despite framing itself around sex work and the online erotic webcam community, Cam‘s primary commentary concerns identity and digital presence. It’s a sort of monkey’s paw story wrapped in a doppelganger narrative and set in a contemporary forum. It’s scary, it’s provocative, and for the best viewing experience, it probably shouldn’t be watched with family present.

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‘Creep’ (2014)

Rotten Tomatoes: 91% | IMDb: 6.3/10

Creep is a found-footage film about a videographer hired to film a dying man’s message to his unborn son. Aaron, the videographer played by director and co-writer Patrick Brice, begins to suspect Josef (Mark Duplass) isn’t terminally ill but possibly dangerously demented. Brice and Duplass also co-wrote the story, and the film was Brice’s directorial debut.

A critically acclaimed film, Creep is an intimate, close-quarters thriller. Duplass plays quite the predator with his eerie and disturbing performance. It’s a two-man show, with the writers starring as the only characters in this uncomfortable, unnerving picture. The film’s tendency toward intimate terror over large set pieces is what helps make it so distinct, much like fellow docu-style horror film The Blair Witch Project. A sequel, Creep 2, was released in 2017, and a third movie is currently in development.

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‘Crimson Peak’ (2015)

Rotten Tomatoes: 73% | IMDb: 6.5/10

Guillermo del Toro returned to the director’s chair for a scary and colorful ode to gothic romance stories with Crimson Peak, a movie he co-wrote with Matthew Robbins (Pinocchio). Set in the Edwardian era, the film stars Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) as Edith, an aspiring author who falls in love with English baronet Sir Thomas Sharpe, played by Tom Hiddleston (Loki). After the two are married, Edith travels with Thomas and his sister, Lucille (Jessica Chastain), to the Sharpe family estate, where ghostly occurrences reveal the horrible history of the Sharpe siblings.

Crimson Peak premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2015 and has received largely favorable reviews from critics. A-list talent, decadent production design, and Guillermo’s gothic interpretation create a vivid, scary fever dream of a film. Crimson Peak takes its time fleshing out the lush setting and era, but the beautiful costumes, dramatic lighting, and hammy performances create an atmosphere unique to the movie that carries the viewer through the opening act. It’s a film where the audience is scared for the protagonist because they possess the knowledge of her peril, even when she does not.

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‘Don’t Listen’ (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes: 63% | IMDb: 6.1/10

Directed by Ángel Gómez Hernández in his feature debut, Don’t Listen is a spooky Spanish haunted house movie that starts with a boy (Rodolfo Sancho) confessing to a social worker that he’s hearing disembodied voices in his new home. The nightly whispers through his walkie-talkie compel and confuse him until his family can no longer ignore that something is wrong. Investigations into the property reveal a grim history that hints at what torments all those who dwell there.

Generally well-received by critics, Don’t Listen follows many of the same beats audiences familiar with the haunted house genre would expect. However, it’s the execution that elevates the film to a higher status; its consistent color application, symmetry in the opening and closing shots, and boldness in character expenditure all make the film an engaging and well-crafted watch.

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‘Eli’ (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes: 48% | IMDb: 5.8/10

Directed by Ciarán Foy and written by David Chirchirillo, Ian Goldberg, and Richard Naing, Eli stars Charlie Shotwell stars as the titular young boy who has a rare autoimmune disease. His family takes him to a sterile in-patient treatment center where they hope he will be cured, but Eli suspects the treatments are anything but helpful as his condition progressively worsens. Ghostly encounters complicate his treatment and isolate him from his family as he attempts to understand what’s happening to him.

Eli is a haunting movie that’s well-conceived, if a bit uneven. The ghosts are necrotic and menacing, and the way director Foy keeps the viewer in Eli’s shoes for each scare is part of what makes this movie so chilling. The film’s twisty final act may turn off dismissive audiences; it received rather mixed reactions from critics. Still, the special effects, imagery, and central familial love story coalesce into a climactic ending with an intriguing setup for a possible sequel.

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‘Gerald’s Game’ (2017)

Rotten Tomatoes: 91% | IMDb: 6.5/10

Mike Flanagan’s first Stephen King adaptation, the captive thriller Gerald’s Game, stars Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House) as Jessie, whose husband, Gerald (Bruce Greenwood), suffers a heart attack during some unexpectedly kinky sex games she neither planned for nor wanted, leaving her handcuffed to a bed with no way to get free. Events escalate as Jessie struggles to survive and signal for help while handcuffed to an immovable wooden bed frame. Tormented by imaginary confrontations and repressed memories as her time isolated ticks on, Jessie realizes that she is the only person who can save her. Flanagan directed and edited the film and also co-wrote the screenplay with Jeff Howard.

Critically acclaimed and popular with audiences, Gerald’s Game is one of the most well-rounded films on this list, with poignant performances, contrasting colors, and genuinely horrific hallucinations and special effects. The pain of the martial strain between Jessie and Gerald and the trauma of Jessie’s past evoke feelings that are hard to digest — especially combined with the anxiety of watching a helpless woman squirm for her life.

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‘His House’ (2020)

Rotten Tomatoes: 100% | IMDb: 6.5/10

Written and directed by Remi Weeks in his feature debut, His House stars Wunmi Mosaku (Lovecraft Country) and Sope Dirisu (Gangs of London) as a married couple seeking asylum in England after fleeing South Sudan that is plagued by the curses of a “night witch.” The film also stars Matt Smith, Javier Botet, and Emily Taaffe.

His House premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival to overwhelmingly positive reviews. The film’s depiction of a couple’s attempts to assimilate into the country, facing horrors both supernatural and bureaucratic, is as terrifying as it is moving. Slick editing and special effects create jaw-dropping, eye-popping, emotionally devastating moments that punctuate the themes and plot of the picture. It’s a bleak story that depicts the struggle to conform, relate, and grow in the wake of trauma.

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