(Photo by Netflix/courtesy Everett Collection)
The 50 Best Horror Movies on Netflix
Last updated May 5, 2020
Looking for the best scary movies on Netflix? After a guided map of the most terrifying dingy dungeons, creaky manors, home-invaded houses, and deeply dark woods you can find on the streaming service? Then your search has led you to your glorious streaming doom: The 50 Best Horror Movies on Netflix!
We’ll get right to the really good scary Netflix movies you can find, such as Train to Busan, the popular South Korean zombie flick. Or A24’s The Witch, which transports viewers to 17th-century New England and into the clutches of mysterious evil. And before Jordan Peele’s update comes out, you can watch the original Candyman. And that’s alongside Netflix horror originals, like Gerald’s Game, The Platform, and Bird Box.
How did we whittle down our list of horror? We took every last scary movie on Netflix that had at least 20 reviews, and sorted them by Adjusted Tomatometer, a weighted formula that takes into account several factors, including the movie’s release year and its number of reviews. The older the movie, and the more reviews it has, the stronger its case. What emerges is a portrait of which films unnerved and spooked out critics, have the potential to get audiences’ heart racing, and maybe even broke new ground and bones for the genre. So enough delaying the inevitable: Here are the 50 best Netflix horror movies to stream and scream right now!
#50
Adjusted Score: 59.126%
Critics Consensus: 47 Meters Down doesn't take its terrifying premise quite as far as it should, but its toothy antagonists still offer a few thrills for less demanding genre enthusiasts.
Synopsis: Two sisters vacationing in Mexico become trapped in a shark cage on the ocean floor. As their oxygen starts to...
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#49
Adjusted Score: 57.791%
Critics Consensus: The Craft's campy magic often overrides the feminist message at its story's core, but its appealing cast and postmodern perspective still cast a sporadic spell.
Synopsis: Sarah has always been different. So as the new girl at St. Benedict's Academy, she immediately falls in with the...
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#48
Adjusted Score: 46.954%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: I AM THE PRETTY THING THAT LIVES IN THE HOUSE tells the story of a Lily, a young nurse hired...
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#47
Adjusted Score: 55.311%
Critics Consensus: Though restrained by most torture porn standards, Would You Rather's brilliant premise is ultimately harmed by its tendency towards blood and guts.
Synopsis: In the wake of her parent's death, Iris (Brittany Snow) struggles to make ends meet while caring for her terminally...
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#46
Adjusted Score: 52.294%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: A shock accident on a lonely country road has terrifying repercussions for a Bangkok photographer and his frightened wife in...
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#45
Adjusted Score: 63.49%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: In this intense and heart pounding supernatural thriller, Jessie (Kate Bosworth) and Mark (Thomas Jane) decide to take in a...
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#44
Adjusted Score: 70.404%
Critics Consensus: Bird Box never quite reaches its intriguing potential, but strong acting and an effectively chilly mood offer intermittently creepy compensation.
Synopsis: When a mysterious force decimates the world's population, only one thing is certain: if you see it, you take your...
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#43
Adjusted Score: 68.261%
Critics Consensus: Its plot hinges on typically implausible horror-movie behavior and recycles countless genre cliches, but Sinister delivers a surprising number of fresh, diabolical twists.
Synopsis: Sinister is a frightening new thriller from the producer of the Paranormal Activity films and the writer-director of The Exorcism...
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#42
Adjusted Score: 64.193%
Critics Consensus: St. Agatha makes admittedly uneven use of its story's well-worn religious tropes, but the overall effect may still be just chilling enough for horror fans.
Synopsis: It's the 1950's in small town Georgia, a pregnant con woman on the run seeks refuge in a convent hidden...
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#41
Adjusted Score: 65.866%
Critics Consensus: 13 Sins may be derivative of other horror films that made their moral points with more finesse, but it atones with a grim sense of humor and sleek style.
Synopsis: A cryptic phone call sets off a dangerous game of risks for Elliot, a down-on-his luck salesman. The game promises...
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#40
Adjusted Score: 71.132%
Critics Consensus: Aside from a shaky final act, Insidious is a very scary and very fun haunted house thrill ride.
Synopsis: Saw franchise veterans James Wan and Leigh Whannell team with Paranormal Activity writer/director Oren Peli to give the familiar haunted...
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#39
Adjusted Score: 71.786%
Critics Consensus: XX's array of distinct female filmmaking voices -- and the empowerment their collection represents -- offer enough thrills to make up for the overall uneven quality that plagues most anthology projects.
Synopsis: XX is a new all-female helmed horror anthology featuring four dark tales written and directed by fiercely talented women: Annie...
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#38
Adjusted Score: 74.246%
Critics Consensus: Child's Play occasionally stumbles across its tonal tightrope of comedy and horror, but its genuinely creepy monster and some deft direction by Tom Holland makes this chiller stand out on the shelf.
Synopsis: Child's Play seems to have been concocted by a parent who went berserk after standing in line for hours on...
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#37
Adjusted Score: 76.879%
Critics Consensus: With little gore and a lot of creepy visuals, The Ring gets under your skin, thanks to director Gore Verbinski's haunting sense of atmosphere and an impassioned performance from Naomi Watts.
Synopsis: A disturbing videotape appears to hold the power of life and death over those who view it in this offbeat...
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#36
Adjusted Score: 72.325%
Critics Consensus: Enjoyable if not particularly original, The Babysitter makes the most of its familiar genre ingredients with energetic direction and a killer cast.
Synopsis: The Babysitter, directed by McG, follows Cole (Judah Lewis), who is madly in love with his babysitter Bee (Samara Weaving)....
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#35
Adjusted Score: 76.464%
Critics Consensus: It doesn't fully deliver on the chilly promise of its Blair Witch-style premise, but The Last Exorcism offers a surprising number of clever thrills.
Synopsis: Disillusioned charlatan Reverend Cotton Marcus (Patrick Fabian) comes face to face with pure evil after recruiting a documentary film crew...
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#34
Adjusted Score: 74.06%
Critics Consensus: Slow-building and atmospheric, The Blackcoat's Daughter resists girls-in-peril clichés in a supernatural thriller that serves as a strong calling card for debuting writer-director Oz Perkins.
Synopsis: A deeply atmospheric and terrifying new horror film, The Blackcoat's Daughter centers on Kat (Kiernan Shipka) and Rose (Lucy Boynton),...
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#33
Adjusted Score: 75.389%
Critics Consensus: Led by a pair of compelling performances, The Perfection is a smart, gripping thriller that barbs its wild twists with cutting wit.
Synopsis: When troubled musical prodigy Charlotte (Allison Williams) seeks out Elizabeth (Logan Browning), the new star pupil of her former school,...
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#32
Adjusted Score: 76.111%
Critics Consensus: Director David Bruckner makes evocative use of the Scandinavian setting and a dedicated cast to deliver a handsome -- if familiar -- horror story.
Synopsis: Following the sudden, violent death of their best mate, four young men reunite for a hike through the Scandinavian wilderness....
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#31
Adjusted Score: 78.637%
Critics Consensus: Though it ultimately sacrifices some mystery in the name of gory thrills, Candyman is a nuanced, effectively chilling tale that benefits from an interesting premise and some fine performances.
Synopsis: Researching urban folklore, a University of Chicago student snoops around the housing projects of Cabrini Green to find more about...
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#30
Adjusted Score: 79.096%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: Chucky returns to prey upon Nica (Fiona Dourif), who's been confined to an asylum for four years. Chucky's nemesis from...
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#29
Adjusted Score: 81.218%
Critics Consensus: The Eyes of My Mother uses a shocking trauma to fuel a hauntingly hypnotic odyssey whose nightmarish chill lingers long after the closing credits.
Synopsis: In their secluded farmhouse, a mother, formerly a surgeon in Portugal, teaches her daughter, Francisca, to understand anatomy and be...
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#28
Adjusted Score: 82.942%
Critics Consensus: Horror icon Wes Craven's subversive deconstruction of the genre is sly, witty, and surprisingly effective as a slasher film itself, even if it's a little too cheeky for some.
Synopsis: The sleepy little town of Woodsboro just woke up screaming. There's a killer in their midst who's seen a few...
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#27
Adjusted Score: 80.167%
Critics Consensus: Apostle resists easy scares in favor of a steady, slow-building descent into dread led by a commanding central performance from Dan Stevens.
Synopsis: London, 1905. Prodigal son Thomas Richardson (Dan Stevens) has returned home, only to learn that his sister is being held...
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#26
Adjusted Score: 74.509%
Critics Consensus: A yuletide nightmare full of familial angst and slithering scares, Await Further Instructions is a genre treat that pretty much any horror fan will want in their stocking.
Synopsis: It's Christmas Day and the Milgram family wake to find a mysterious black substance surrounding their house. Something monumental is...
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#25
Adjusted Score: 89.401%
Critics Consensus: Using its low-budget effects and mockumentary method to great result, Paranormal Activity turns a simple haunted house story into 90 minutes of relentless suspense.
Synopsis: A haunted house makes no secret of the fact it's not pleased with its new tenants in this independent tale...
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#24
Adjusted Score: 84.331%
Critics Consensus: While it may feel muddled at times, The Platform is an inventive and captivating dystopian thriller.
Synopsis: One day Goreng wakes up with his future colleague Trimagasi in the 33rd level of a prison style place, crossed...
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#23
Adjusted Score: 87.96%
Critics Consensus: Like the best horror/comedies, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil mines its central crazy joke for some incredible scares, laughs, and -- believe it or not -- heart.
Synopsis: Tucker & Dale vs Evil is a hilariously gory, good-spirited horror comedy, doing for killer rednecks what Shaun of the...
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#22
Adjusted Score: 92.655%
Critics Consensus: Full of pith and Grand Guignol grossness, this macabre musical is perfectly helmed and highly entertaining. Tim Burton masterfully stages the musical in a way that will make you think he has done this many times before.
Synopsis: Unjustly sent to prison, a man vows revenge, not only for that cruel punishment, but for the devastating consequences of...
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#21
Adjusted Score: 86.336%
Critics Consensus: A chillingly effective horror story rooted in rich folklore, The Golem blends centuries-old stories with timely themes to powerful effect.
Synopsis: During an outbreak of a deadly plague, a mystical woman must save her tight-knit Jewish community from foreign invaders, but...
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#20
Adjusted Score: 90.431%
Critics Consensus: The Autopsy of Jane Doe subverts the gruesome expectations triggered by its title to deliver a smart, suggestively creepy thriller that bolsters director André Ovredal's growing reputation.
Synopsis: It's just another night at the morgue for a father (Brian Cox) and son (Emile Hirsch) team of coroners, until...
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#19
Adjusted Score: 87.444%
Critics Consensus: Uncommonly restrained for a movie about a flesh-eating menace, Ravenous offers a satisfyingly nuanced entry in the crowded zombie apocalypse subgenre.
Synopsis: A group of people transform into zombies in a small Canadian town. Labeled the "hungry," they feast upon their loved...
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#18
Adjusted Score: 98.328%
Critics Consensus: It Comes at Night makes lethally effective use of its bare-bones trappings while proving once again that what's left unseen can be just as horrifying as anything on the screen.
Synopsis: Imagine the end of the world. Now imagine something worse. Award-winning filmmaker Trey Edward Shults follows his incredible debut feature...
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#17
Adjusted Score: 88.449%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: As their parents head out for a date in the city, the three young Thompson children immediately take to their...
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#16
Adjusted Score: 90.446%
Critics Consensus: Cargo takes a refreshingly character-driven approach to the zombie genre that's further distinguished by its Australian setting and Martin Freeman's terrific lead performance.
Synopsis: Stranded in rural Australia in the aftermath of a violent pandemic, an infected father desperately seeks a new home for...
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#15
Adjusted Score: 91.431%
Critics Consensus: The Invitation makes brilliant use of its tension-rich premise to deliver a uniquely effective -- and surprisingly clever -- slow-building thriller.
Synopsis: In this taut psychological thriller by Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, Jennifer's Body), the tension is palpable when Will (Logan Marshall-Green, Prometheus)...
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#14
Adjusted Score: 89.132%
Critics Consensus: A smart, odball take on found-footage horror, Creep is clever and well-acted enough to keep viewers on the edges of their seats.
Synopsis: Looking for work, Aaron (Patrick Brice) comes across a cryptic online ad: "$1,000 for the day. Filming service. Discretion is...
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#13
Adjusted Score: 97.608%
Critics Consensus: A quiet, dialogue-driven thriller that delivers with scene after scene of gut-wrenching anxiety. David Fincher also spends more time illustrating nuances of his characters and recreating the mood of the 70s than he does on gory details of murder.
Synopsis: Based on the true story of the notorious serial killer and the intense manhunt he inspired, Zodiac is a superbly...
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#12
Adjusted Score: 98.686%
Critics Consensus: With its vivid stop-motion animation combined with Neil Gaiman's imaginative story, Coraline is a film that's both visually stunning and wondrously entertaining.
Synopsis: Coraline Jones is a girl of 11 who is feisty, curious, and adventurous beyond her years. She and her parents...
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#11
Adjusted Score: 102.805%
Critics Consensus: As thought-provoking as it is visually compelling, The Witch delivers a deeply unsettling exercise in slow-building horror that suggests great things for debuting writer-director Robert Eggers.
Synopsis: In this exquisitely made and terrifying new horror film, the age-old concepts of witchcraft, black magic and possession are innovatively...
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#10
Adjusted Score: 93.472%
Critics Consensus: Carla Gugino carries Gerald's Game's small-scale suspense with a career-defining performance.
Synopsis: When her husband's sex game goes wrong, Jessie (Carla Gugino) -- handcuffed to a bed in a remote lake house...
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#9
Adjusted Score: 91.964%
Critics Consensus: Thanks to director Zak Hilditch's patient storytelling and strong work from lead Thomas Jane, 1922 ranks among the more satisfying Stephen King adaptations.
Synopsis: 1922 is based on Stephen King's 131-page story telling of a man's confession of his wife's murder. The tale is...
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#8
Adjusted Score: 100.098%
Critics Consensus: Green Room delivers unapologetic genre thrills with uncommon intelligence and powerfully acted élan.
Synopsis: GREEN ROOM is a brilliantly crafted and wickedly fun horror-thriller starring Patrick Stewart as a diabolical club owner who squares...
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#7
Adjusted Score: 93.097%
Critics Consensus: Tense, well-acted, and at once atmospheric as well as brutally impactful, Backcountry marks a memorably assured debut from writer-director Adam MacDonald.
Synopsis: In this terrifying and critically-acclaimed thriller, a young couple's romantic camping trip becomes a tale of survival as they face...
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#6
Adjusted Score: 93.704%
Critics Consensus: Hush navigates the bloody waters of home invasion thrillers and incisive slashers for a contemporary horror puree.
Synopsis: In this heart-pounding thriller from acclaimed writer and director Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Before I Wake), silence takes on a terrifying...
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#5
Adjusted Score: 97.9%
Critics Consensus: Train to Busan delivers a thrillingly unique -- and purely entertaining -- take on the zombie genre, with fully realized characters and plenty of social commentary to underscore the bursts of skillfully staged action.
Synopsis: TRAIN TO BUSAN is a harrowing zombie horror-thriller that follows a group of terrified passengers fighting their way through a...
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#4
Adjusted Score: 94.67%
Critics Consensus: Carried by Kiersey Clemons' performance, Sweetheart balances smart subtext and social commentary against effective genre thrills.
Synopsis: Jenn has washed ashore a small tropical island and it doesn't take her long to realize she's completely alone. She...
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#3
Adjusted Score: 103.678%
Critics Consensus: Director Jonathan Demme's smart, taut thriller teeters on the edge between psychological study and all-out horror, and benefits greatly from stellar performances by Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster.
Synopsis: In this multiple Oscar-winning thriller, Jodie Foster stars as Clarice Starling, a top student at the FBI's training academy whose...
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#2
Adjusted Score: 101.792%
Critics Consensus: Under the Shadow deftly blends seemingly disparate genres to deliver an effective chiller with timely themes and thought-provoking social subtext.
Synopsis: Shideh (Narges Rashidi) and her family live amid the chaos of the Iran-Iraq war, a period known as The War...
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#1
Adjusted Score: 100.051%
Critics Consensus: Creep 2 has everything that made the original work and more -- more laughs, more awkwardness, more unsettling terror.
Synopsis: Desiree Akhavan ("Girls", APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR) stars as Sara, a video artist whose primary focus is creating intimacy with lonely men....
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