7 Best Scary Movies To Watch Right Now

It’s difficult enough just trying to exist beside the frightful realities of our everyday world that using horror movies to escape from that profound mental stress shouldn’t be a seasonal activity. Whenever and wherever a monster dwells, either under your bed or out there in the existential gloom, any valiant attempts to banish it shouldn’t have to wait until the month Spirit Halloween begins to rent retail space. Maybe you’re an avowed freak for horror who doesn’t need the calendar to say boo, but nevertheless finds it difficult to keep up with the latest genre content. Or perhaps the recent passing of Exorcist director William Friedkin and new trailer for David Gordon Green’s upcoming Exorcist reboot has you considering your options for a night of classic horror film frights. Thanks to the breadth and depth of today’s streaming platforms, you can access a full whack of frights at any time of year with just a few clicks. Looking for the best horror movies to stream right now? Decider poked into the darkest places and cobwebbiest corners of the streaming landscape and found your best scary movies to watch on HBO Max, Amazon Prime, Paramount Plus, Netflix and more. Get ready to stream … and scream!

1. Hereditary (2018)

   Director: Ari Aster

   Stars: Toni Collette, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro, Gabriel Byrne 

   Rating: R

   Written and directed by Ari Aster in his feature debut, and featuring an absolutely spine-tingling central performance from Toni Colette, Hereditary not only helped establish a certain vibe for A24, its distributor, but made an immediate name for itself as one of the past decade’s scariest films. When a woman’s mother dies, the lasting traumas of her childhood pale in comparison to the evil that takes hold of her family in the present, forcing a reckoning with a power that’s not of this earth. A cryptic sigil, talk of demonic legends, a terrible accident and its horrifying aftermath – Hereditary will make you think twice about everyday challenges, such as sidestepping nut allergies and preventing area cult members from corrupting your physical form. All hail King Paimon!  

   where to stream hereditary

2. The Black Phone (2021)

   Director: Scott Derrickson

   Stars: Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Jeremy Davies

   Rating: R 

   For many of us, Stranger Things unlocked a big creaky door of horror genre nostalgia, with the show’s repeated references to an era of movies where kids were forced to confront their fears without adults backing them up. That is also an era which The Black Phone understands. Starring Ethan Hawke as “The Grabber,” a serial killer who stalks the streets of 1970s Denver in search of kids to abduct and torment, The Black Phone is a compartmentalized TV dinner of creepy things: kids doing their developmental best at the hands of checked-out parents; the souls of missing “milk carton” children communicating from the great beyond; a performance from Hawke, complete with creepy mask, that’s committed to the bit; and the more subtle scares of frightening new environments and the mysteries of analog technology.

   where to stream the black phone

3. Pearl (2022)

   Director: Ti West

   Stars: Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright

   Rating: R

   When a woman is consumed by her oppressive circumstances and the elusive promise of her big Hollywood dreams, she takes matters into her own hands with the help of sharp farm implements and a hungry alligator who lives in a nearby swamp. There are nods to the original (and still the best) Texas Chainsaw Massacre with Ti West’s Pearl, which is actually a prequel and stars Mia Goth as a younger version of the mysterious elderly woman she would eventually play in X. And while the people who come in contact with Pearl in these movies are not lucky at all, you will be, because both of West’s interesting and bloody 2022 films, in which he eagerly deconstructs and then reinvents the forever-durable slasher genre, are ready to stream on Paramount+.

   where to stream pearl

4. Nanny (2022)

   Director: Nikyatu Jusu 

   Stars: Anna Diop, Michelle Monaghan, Sinqua Walls

   Rating: R

   The full-length debut of filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu, and winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival – not an award typical for horror films – the somewhat underappreciated Nanny spins psychological torment, dread, the immigrant experience, anxiety, and the connecting bonds of motherhood into the kind of slow-burn tale that inspires promise in where the horror genre can travel in the future. (And it’s always traveling somewhere.) “Alienation and guilt may be the most poignant horrors in this story,” wrote John Serba in his review for Decider. “There’s plenty to like and appreciate about Nanny, especially the cast,” and Anna Diop’s performance definitely has the power to linger on the fringes of everyday realities and more expansive threats from the spectral realm.

   watch nanny on amazon prime video

6. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

   Director: Michael Chaves

   Stars: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ruairi O’Connor

   Rating: R

   People just love to submit themselves to frequent jump scares while Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson wield the techniques of paranormal investigation against encroaching demons, and wear period-specific eyeglasses and chunky brown sweaters while they do it. With Farmiga and Wilson as crusading supernatural sleuths Ed and Lorraine Warren, the Conjuring Universe has raked in billions of dollars in horror movie revenue, and this direct sequel to the original two films keeps on playing the hits. It’s got your strange and foreboding exorcisms, your demons passing through and possessing various people on earth, your confluence of Christian and pagan belief systems, and your references to other films in this series, complete with an appearance by Annabelle the creepy doll. Best of all, The Devil Made me Do It works just as well as an entry point into all of that lore. (Note: Max also features the original Conjuring if viewing this film ends up transforming Patrick Wilson your scream king daddy.)

   where to watch the conjuring: the devil made me do it

7. The Babadook (2014) 

   Director: Jennifer Kent

   Stars: Essie Davis, Hayley McElhinney, Daniel Henshall

   Rating: Unrated

   In The Babadook, the clenching, disruptive, all-encompassing power of grief is seen to twist together with fears of the unknown for a kind of claustrophobia that’s able to remove its own borders in the dark. “I’ve never seen a more terrifying film than THE BABADOOK. It will scare the hell out of you as it did me.” That’s the late William Friedkin, director of the legendary fright fest The Exorcist, tweeting that Jennifer Kent’s 2014 film deserves every accolade that has placed it in the category of new horror classics for the 21st century. And that’s great for us, because we live in the 21st century, and as everybody knows, you can’t get rid of the Babadook. This scare is here with us to stay.

   where to watch the babadook

8. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

   Director: Wes Craven

   Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Ronee Blakley, Robert Englund

   Rating: R

   With his bladed gauntlets, ruined skin, and gravelly last word yawp, Freddy Krueger inspired a generation of horror genre antagonists, and it all began with director and writer Wes Craven’s twisted and darkly funny 1984 slasher classic. In A Nightmare on Elm Street  – Max features the original, its four direct sequels, and its 2010 remake – Freddie has the power to transcend teenage dreams and become the physical manifestation of their psychological and sexual anxieties. Just ask Johnny Depp, who made his Hollywood debut in a memorable Nightmare death scene as a hapless victim sucked into his own mattress. The radio and the television won’t save you from his clutches. Neither will your friends. Are you prepared to get got by Freddy, who’s sharpening his blades against the walls of your childhood home? Whatever you do, don’t fall asleep. 

   where to watch a nightmare on elm street

Johnny Loftus is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. Follow him on Twitter: @glennganges