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Evil Dead
Photo: New Line Cinema"Evil Dead (2013)"

The best horror movies on Netflix UK right now

From cult classics to scary slashers, these are the best horror movies streaming on Netflix UK now

Written by
Phil de Semlyen
Written by
Andy Kryza
&
Matthew Singer
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Everyone loves watching scary movies in October, of course. But true fright fans know no calendar. For real aficionados of the dark cinematic arts, any month, any day is a good time for horror, and Netflix is a proverbial graveyard full of terrifying delights waiting to be streamed.

As with most genres on the platform, though, it takes some digging to find the real scream of the crop. That’s why we’ve done the grave-robbing for you. And in the UK, Netflix has an impressive amount of terrifying classics, new-school scares and hidden gems. Here are the best horror movies streaming on Netflix right now.

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🧟 The best zombie movies of all-time

Horror movies on Netflix UK

  • Film
  • Horror

A key film in the new wave of smash-hit mainstream horror (see also Sinister, The Conjuring), Insidious is the one with the creepy kid, the astral plane and the demon hiding behind the Big Red Door. Watch it alone, and completely scare your own pants off.

Evil Dead (2013)
  • Film
  • Horror

It takes some gall to remake one of the most cultishly beloved horror movies of all time, but this reboot succeeds largely by knowing what it can’t do. Without Bruce Campbell’s singular leading-man charisma, director Fede Alvarez couldn’t hope to achieve the original’s mix of sick horror and absurd humour. Instead, Alvarez focuses exclusively on the sick horror, amping up the blood-and-guts to levels Sam Raimi’s 1981 budget would never allow. In terms of sheer terror, it might even outdo the original – quite a feat.

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  • Film
  • Horror

Iran’s answer to The Babadook, this chilling, provocative horror film brings the terrors of war home – quite literally. A Tehran woman and her daughter find themselves trapped inside with something malevolent during the height of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. As the missiles rain down, it’s hard to know if it’s more dangerous to be inside or out. It’s directed by Iranian-born, British-based writer-director Babak Anvari, who has a canny knack both for social commentary (Iran’s repressive, sexist regime is a second villain here) and scaring you shitless. 

  • Film
  • Thrillers

In Edgar Wright’s typically stylish time-travelling thriller, an aspiring fashionista with a ‘60s jones (Thomasin McKenzie) slips through a rip in the space-time continuum transporting her back to favourite decade. But when she falls in with a mysterious cabaret singer (Anya Taylor-Joy), the miracle turns sinister. Wright lends the ensuing nightmare a hypnotic surrealism that earned critical raves but scared off audiences – it’s well worth another look.

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Zombieland (2009)
  • Film
  • Comedy

Wilfully goofy but spilling over with inspired visuals and vibrating splat-tastic energy, Zombieland is quite possibly the zaniest zomcom ever made. Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson are both perfectly cast, the former as a shy poindexter narrating survival tips for the audience and the latter as a doomsday survivalist thriving in the zombie apocalypse. And if you’ve made it this far without having the epic mid-movie cameo spoiled for you, put your blinders on and watch immediately.

  • Film
  • Science fiction

In a rare example of Hollywood sci-fi-horror thoughtfulness, Annihilation has grand concepts in mind, ideas about self-destruction and rebirth. The film follows cellular biologist Lena (Portman) as she ventures to The Shimmer, an anomalous electromagnetic field, to discover the truth about what happened to her husband Kane (Isaac), who visited The Shimmer and returned in poor health and his memory missing. Spooky stuff. 

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  • Film
  • Horror

John Krasinski’s sequel to his leftfield horror smash lacks the element of surprise of the original yet still manages to squeeze an impressive amount of suspense from its central conceit. Set in the immediate aftermath of the previous film, it continues to follow Emily Blunt and family as they tiptoe through a muted world overrun by savage beasts who hunt entirely by sound – except this time out, the threats to their safety aren’t just from extraterrestrial maneaters. 

Gerald's Game (2017)
Netflix

8. Gerald's Game (2017)

In this Stephen King adaptation, a struggling couple look to reignite the flames of their flagging marriage with some kinky sex at an isolated lake house. Then he dies of a sudden heart attack while she’s handcuffed to the bed. It’s an anxiety-inducing scenario, and Carla Gugino’s impressive performance keeps you glued to the screen even as she spends much of the runtime lying on her back.

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Saw (2004)
  • Film
  • Horror

James Wan’s original grimy mindbender is often credited with inaugurating the ‘torture porn’ wave of the mid-aughts, but nearly 20 years on it seems almost quaint compared to what came afterward, including its own sequels. In retrospect, though, the first Saw flick probably doesn’t deserve to be lumped in with the empty, gory schlock that followed it – in truth, its true horrors are more psychological than physical, and it’s got a twist ending that rivals Usual Suspects for forehead-smacking, ‘Why didn’t I see that coming?!’ surprise.

Paranormal Activity (2007)
  • Film
  • Horror

If we’re being honest, the ‘found footage’ gimmick never really improved upon The Blair Witch Project, the movie that made it trendy in the first place. But of all the imitators that followed, the original Paranormal Activity did the best job of using the concept to elevate what’s essentially a straightforward haunted house story. You know the deal: a family suspects their home is possessed by evil spirits and sets up a camera to document the nightly happenings. It’s simple but effectively unnerving.

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Veronica (2017)
Photograph: Apache Films

11. Veronica (2017)

When this Spanish-language horror first landed on Netflix, people took to Twitter to admit that they found it so frightening that they had to turn it off. From director Paco Plaza, who also helmed the equally horrifying [Rec], the story is apparently based on a true story and follows the horrifying events after a group of friends decide to do a ouija board session together. Is it the ‘scariest film ever’, as many have suggested? Maybe so...

Freaky (2021)
Universal

12. Freaky (2021)

In this devilish subversion of the typical body-swap comedy, Vince Vaughn is an ageing serial killer who wishes upon a cursed dagger and ends up trading consciousness with a bullied teenage girl (Kathryn Newton). Genius, right? Okay, so that premise could easily flop. But director Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day) finds the ideal balance between knowing humour and serious gore. The only way to improve it would be to make Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan the leads.

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The Perfection (2018)
Image: Netflix

13. The Perfection (2018)

In this bizarre blend of psychological thriller and body horror, Allison Williams and Logan Browning play rival concert cellists whose trip to China to visit the music school where they were both trained turns into a twisty, majorly screwed-up descent into hell. It’s something like Cronenberg directing Black Swan, with a twist of Whiplash

Creep (2014)
Photograph: Blumhouse Productions

14. Creep (2014)

Patrick Brice directs and stars in this found-footage two-hander about Aaron, a videographer who is hired to record a video diary for the eccentric and supposedly terminally ill Josef. When the pair meet, though, Aaron is distrubed by his subject’s increasingly bizarre behaviour, which in the end could rival Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. Unsettling yet oddly humorous, this is one that’ll stay with you after the credits roll. 

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El Conde (2023)
Photograph: Pablo Larrain / Netflix

15. El Conde (2023)

It’s 2023, and Augusto Pinochet is ready to die. ‘Uhh, what?’ you’re probably asking. You see, in this bizarro blend of political satire and horror-comedy from Chilean provocateur Pablo Larrain, the former dictator is a 250-year-old vampire who faked his death in 1990 and retired to a farm, but who can’t quite outrun his past. And that’s not even the weirdest part. It sounds adjacent to historically-informed gimmicks like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, but Larrain is an expert button-pusher, and the film was recently awarded Best Screenplay at Venice. Like its immortal old tyrant, it should live on.

Cam (2018)
Netflix

16. Cam (2018)

In this knotty techno-thriller, an internet cam girl suddenly finds herself competing for views with her own doppelganger. On the surface, it sounds like something from Black Mirror, but the smart script and strong lead performance from Madeline Brewer give it an identity all its own – and in the era of increasingly convincing A.I. deep fakes, its central idea is seeming less metaphorical with each passing year.

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Fear Street (2021)
Photograph: Netflix

17. Fear Street (2021)

This teen-focused horror trilogy is based on Goosebumps scribe RL Stine’s other book series, and plays like a sister series to Stranger Things – one of the films even stars Sadie Sink. Spread across multiple decades (and centuries), the movies follow a group of kids attempting to figure out why their small US town is cursed, and what they can do to bring it to an end. 

  • Film
  • Horror

It’s pretty audacious to make your directorial debut by remaking one of the most lauded horror movies of all time, but that’s Zack Snyder for you. To his credit, his take on George A Romero’s 1978 zombie classic is way better than anyone could have anticipated. Sure, he wipes out a lot of the social satire that made Romero’s original so brilliant, but he replaces it with more relevant post-9/11 paranoia and enough of his own narrative touches – including making the zombies fast-moving à la 28 Days Later – to make it his own thing rather than simply a poor cover version. And the effects are downright nasty.

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Werewolves Within (2001)
Image: IFC Films

19. Werewolves Within (2001)

Based on the video game of the same name, this small-scale horror-comedy has a fairly pat set-up – the residents of a small Vermont town are trapped during a snowstorm and begin to suspect that one of them is a werewolf – but it manages to earn both big laughs and light thrills due to its excellent cast. Admittedly, there’s more of the former than the latter, but that’s what happens when you’ve got Veep’s impossibly charming Sam Richardson in the lead role as a newly arrived forest ranger trying to navigate the community’s quirks and relationships.   

  • Film
  • Horror

To be honest, Old has many of the same problems that have plagued M Night Shyamalan movies for two decades: cringey dialogue, unconvincing characters and absurd plotting delivered with grave seriousness – in this case, an inescapable island beach that causes visitors to age decades within hours. But! If you assume that the director is laughing along with you, Old can be watched as a fairly fun B-movie, with some genuinely chilling imagery.    

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The Final Destination (2009)
  • Film
  • Horror

The wheels had started to come off the popular horror franchise by the time of its obligatory 3D entry – literally, the movie starts with an accident at a racetrack that sends tires and other debris flying into the stands. But hey, if you just can’t get enough of pretty, anonymous twentysomethings getting killed in increasingly absurd ways, you’ll still receive what you came for. 

From Oscar winners to cult classics

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