Put on some flip-flops, leave your cellphone at home, and wander alone into a dangerous place the town weirdo definitely warned you about, because it's time to get scared!
Right now on HBO Max, the horror category is an embarrassment of terrifying riches with top-shelf selections available from every decade of horror history. You've got 2000s tank top horror next to 1980s slashers next to 1950s camp and more. It's rad.
There's so much great stuff to choose from, but we've somehow managed to narrow it down to these 18 horror movies. Honestly, you can't go wrong.
1. Night of the Living Dead
Visionary of the zombie apocalypse George A. Romero tops this list with his most iconic film: Night of the Living Dead. This 1968 classic makes for a great watch — not only as a standard-setting staple of cinema, but also as a vehicle for terror that gets under your skin and festers there. Expertly executed from start to finish, this bleak tale of strangers versus an army of the undead needles at you in a way that's still tough to shake more than 50 years later.* — Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter
How to watch: Night of the Living Dead is now streaming on HBO Max.
2. Eraserhead
God, Henry is just so fucked. The directorial debut of walking-talking id David Lynch, Eraserhead follows the poor guy, played by Jack Nance, as he wanders through a surrealist blend of horror and humor, featuring an alien baby, sperm monsters, a lady with big ol' cheeks, and more bizarre characters. The plot has been interpreted as a representation of Lynch's own fear of being a parent, with Henry serving as a kind of placeholder for Lynch himself. It's fascinating, freaky, and really fun. — A.F.
How to watch: Eraserhead is now streaming on HBO Max.
3. Cronos
Guillermo del Toro's first film carries with it all the hallmarks of the Mexican auteur's career-to-come — gross monster mayhem with delightful creature design, religious and political settings and symbolism, the innocence of children as a contrast to all adult awfulness. This time around it's the story of an elderly antique dealer named Jesús (Federico Luppi, who also had roles in The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth) and the 500-year-old golden scarab he finds tucked away inside the base of a statue.
Winding it up the scarab suddenly springs to life and injects the old man with a mysterious substance, and before you know it Jesús' youth is being restored to him… alongside a newfound taste for blood. When a tough guy named Angel (Ron Perlman) shows up to find the device, the film turns into a showdown between Jesús and Angel for eternal life. Not particularly subtle there, Guillermo! But Cronos is a blast anyway, and the perfect introduction to one of modern horror's reigning kings. — Jason Adams, Contributing Writer
How to watch: Cronos is now streaming on HBO Max.
4. The Blob
Mark my words, anyone who reduces director Irvin Yeaworth's iconic The Blob to "just a B-movie" hasn't actually seen it. An astounding feat of filmmaking for the time, that maintains a surprisingly watchable flow 63 years later, The Blob is a solid selection for anyone seeking that classic scary movie vibe. Stand by helplessly as intergalactic goo terrorizes the citizens of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Then, be genuinely impressed by how the '50s townspeople manage to corral the thing through smart, sensible sci-fi means. Nice job, humans! — A.F.
How to watch: The Blob is now streaming on HBO Max.
5. House
Reader, cue up House and avail yourself of one of the weirdest and most wonderful viewing experiences out there.
Sometimes listed as Hausu, director Nobuhiko Obayashi's surreal 1977 horror comedy is a whirlwind of spectacular and bizarre images unlike any other title on this, or frankly any, list. Running just under an hour and a half, it's a breezy jolt of strange beauty and intense dread that uses dreamlike images to tell the story of six girls as they're eaten by a house. Yeah, it's something. — A.F.
How to watch: House is now streaming on HBO Max.
6. Scanners
Get your mind blown by Scanners. (See what I did there? 'Cause it's about people's heads exploding?) In writer-director David Cronenberg's super goopy sci-fi nightmare, Earth must contend with a super-powered group of people capable of telepathy and psychokinesis — and the bad dudes who want to use that power for evil. It's no The Fly, The Dead Zone, or even Shivers. But it's the best body horror on Max right now. — A.F.
How to watch: Scanners is now streaming on HBO Max.
7. Carnival of Souls
The definition of slow burn, writer/director and lead ghoul Herk Harvey's 1962 classic horror film Carnival of Souls is basically all vibes — and it probably had to be, given the nothing budget he was working with. But he rode that empty wallet straight to heavenly cinematic gold, giving us a steady stream of unforgettable visuals shot in the eeriest black-and-white. If you can get yourself onto Carnival of Souls' wavelength, you will be rewarded with spooky nightmares for life.
Candace Hilligoss plays Mary, a good girl who gets caught up in a road race that flies out of control in the film's opening scene. Recovering in its aftermath, Mary begins experiencing visions of an odd haunted theme park on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. Her isolating job as a church organist, along with constant harassment from an aggressive next door neighbor, only further dissociates her from those around her, until she can no longer tell what's real and what's not, with it all leading to one of the all-time great twist endings. Carnival of Souls is probably the closest thing we'll ever get to a Twilight Zone episode directed by Ingmar Bergman. — J.A.
How to watch: Carnival of Souls is now streaming on HBO Max.
8. Kwaidan
Just a couple of years after delivering his three-part WWII masterpiece The Human Condition, writer/director Masaki Kobayashi gathered together four old Japanese folk tales to make Kwaidan. This horror anthology takes us all the way to Hell, but it must've felt like a relief to make after the atrocities he put on-screen in those epic war films. Visually magnificent, there are enormous images in Kwaidan that will sear themselves into your brain forever after. But it mostly revels in the small betrayals that haunt its protagonists and their relationships forever after — the sorts of awful human conditions that echo across every culture. — J.A.
How to watch: Kwaidan is now streaming on HBO Max.
9. The Brood
With all-time greats like The Fly and The Dead Zone available, The Brood rarely makes horror fans' short lists for David Cronenberg recommendations. But if you're looking for a uniquely weird psychological thriller with an amazing gross-out finale, this 1979 romp just can't be beat.
Oliver Reed stars as Dr. Hal Raglan, a clinical psychologist experimenting with what he calls "psychoplasmics" — a process by which chemically induced physical ailments, designed to alleviate long-standing emotional trauma, are administered to vulnerable patients. But when Nola, a patient played by Samatha Eggar, is hospitalized by Raglan, her estranged husband Frank, played by Art Hindle, decides to investigate. — A.F.
How to watch: The Brood is now streaming on HBO Max.
10. The Lure
The Lure has been described as a lesbian mermaid horror musical, but somehow even that doesn't come close to capturing what this audacious Polish film is. Agnieszka Smoczyńska's debut feature is the darkest retelling of The Little Mermaid you could imagine, incorporating grisly violence and the sex work industry into that classic fairytale.* — Oliver Whitney, Freelance Contributor
How to watch: The Lure is now streaming on HBO Max.
11. The Witch
Writer/director Robert Eggers's haunting folk horror flick follows an isolated family living in 1630 New England as paranoia and religious fervor brew after an infant goes missing. Rebellious teen Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) bears the brunt of the blame from her Puritan parents, but her eerie twin siblings (is there any other kind?) and their friendship with a goat they've nicknamed Black Phillip lets the viewer know something far stranger is afoot.
"What really sets this movie apart from its horror peers [...] is its sheer beauty," wrote Yohana Desta in her review for Mashable. "Every scene is meticulously styled. The costumes have a quiet beauty. Every frame could be a painting, or a macabre Vogue editorial. The score (and scenes with lack thereof) is a perfect accompaniment, rattling and haunting."* — Sam Haysom, Deputy UK Editor
How to watch: The Witch is now streaming on HBO Max.
12. Sisters
It's probably pretty important to note upfront that his 1972 shocker Sisters is very much of its time, although you could say this about pretty much every movie that Brian De Palma has ever made (ahem, Dressed to Kill). Which is to say, don't go in expecting a modern read on mental health issues in this story about formerly conjoined twins turned fashion models who go on a murder spree. But as dated as some of its psychological concepts are, not to mention its emphasis on Hitchcock's Psycho, Sisters remains a magnificently crafted thriller that will have you jumping out of your seat more than once. And Margot Kidder's having a terrific time with the soapiness of ping-ponging between good and evil twins. The movie that somehow made birthday cake terrifying! — J.A.
How to watch: Sisters is now streaming on HBO Max.
13. I Saw the TV Glow
Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow is such a mood, especially if you're someone who came of age in the late '90s/early aughts with any of the teen-centric television shows that aired on the WB. Starring Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine as Owen and Maddie, two outcasts who bond over their love of the Buffy-esque program The Pink Opaque, Schoenbrun, a trans filmmaker, is explicitly exploring the places where our obsessions fracture our identities, and vice versa — how we build ourselves in the image of fiction.
The movie casts an eerie spell with its bizarre overlapping realities that make the shifting dynamics of a Christopher Nolan movie seem pat and hollow. And there might be no more unsettling monster this year than the moon-faced Mr. Melancholy, whose discount-budget cheapness gives way to a true chasm of uncanniness. — J.A.
How to watch: I Saw the TV Glow is now streaming on HBO Max.
14. Evil Dead Rise
More than four decades after we first rendezvoused with Sam Raimi's demon troupe of Deadites, Evil Dead Rise proved there's still plenty of juice — not to mention a myriad of other less savory liquids — left in the franchise. And it did so by simply shifting location; who needs a creepy cabin in the woods when we've got a run-down apartment building isolated from the outside world by a power outage during a big storm?
It also benefits from a big shift in character dynamics. Rather than a group of sexy young people (hubba hubba, Bruce Campbell) tearing each other to shreds after reading from the Book of the Dead, writer/director Lee Cronin gave us a single mom and her young kids all battling to save and/or swallow each other's souls. While the nasty, bloody business stays the same, it sure hits different when it's your possessed mommy (an outstandingly acrobatic Alyssa Sutherland) trying to carve you up like Christmas dinner. — J.A.
How to watch: Evil Dead Rise is now streaming on HBO Max.
15. Sinners
Writer/director Ryan Coogler reimagined vampire lore as a way to explore what it means to be young, Black, and gifted in America.
Michael B. Jordan stars as the Smokestack Twins, Black gangsters turned juke joint proprietors whose opening night is crashed by a vicious white vampire (Jack O'Connell) thirsty for the blood of their magical bluesman, Sammie (Miles Caton in a jaw-dropping debut). The character-building in this 1932-set period piece is rich, developing emotional plotlines of love, loss, and injustice.
Critics praised the epic scope Coogler applied to his genre-fluid drama — which might be a horror musical. In my review of the film, I wrote, "Smoothly blending vampire horror into a unique tale of regret, resilience, and redemption, Coogler and Jordan have made a cinematic marvel that is terrifying, satisfying, and unforgettable."* — Kristy Puchko, Entertainment Editor
How to watch: Sinnners is now streaming on HBO Max.
16. Weapons
Like Jordan Peele before him, Zach Cregger took a hard turn from sketch comedy — as a member of Whitest Kids U' Know — to horror director with a jaw-dropping vision of terror. In 2022, he gave us the deeply twisted Barbarian. And this year, he gifted us the perfectly witchy icon in Weapons' Gladys (Amy Madigan).
In this deeply creepy tale of 17 children vanishing into the night, the focus leaps from one character to another, eerily unfolding the mystery at the heart of this missing persons case. A tormented teacher, a furious father, a bewildered principal, a cranky cop, and an unhoused goofball will collide in ways wild and unpredictable.* — K.P.
How to watch: Weapons is now streaming on HBO Max.
17. Bring Her Back
First, filmmaking duo Danny and Michael Philippou awed critics and horror fans with their haunted-hand hit Talk to Me. Next, they returned with this gnarly psycho-biddy horror offering starring two-time Academy Award nominee Sally Hawkins. This nail-biting film is so intense that it might well have you gagging, covering your eyes, or experiencing some hard-won catharsis. Probing further into grief, the Philippou brothers explore how the unmooring feeling of mourning can make the world around us feel unreal, hostile, and strange.
In Bring Her Back, Hawkins stars as a foster mom named Laura, who takes in orphans like Oliver (Jonah Wren Phillips), and siblings Piper (Sora Wong) and Andy (Billy Barratt). But despite Laura's chipper mumsy demeanor, 17-year-old Andy realizes something is off in her remote forest home. But can he stop the hell that's coming?* — K.P.
How to watch: Bring Her Back is now streaming on HBO Max.
18. The Substance
As the ferocious follow-up to her grisly and glorious directorial debut Revenge, French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat pulled no punches, delivering a thriller that's a gut-churning knockout.
Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, an actress whose star is fading as she ages, and heartless Hollywood execs (exemplified by a shellfish-chomping Dennis Quaid) hunger for young beauties and fresh blood. So when a miracle drug allows her to split her life with a perky younger model of herself (Drive-Away Dolls' Margaret Qualley), she leaps at the chance. But the brutal cost it takes is ugly.
A ghastly satire about the misogynistic beauty standards applied to women, The Substance shocked and awed critics and audiences alike with its giddily gruesome imagery. Speaking for those of us who loved The Substance, there's something undeniably exhilarating about a movie that's as proudly pink as Barbie but as unhinged as the gnarliest midnight movie.* — K.P.
How to watch: The Substance is now streaming on HBO Max.
Asterisks (*) indicate the entry comes from a previous Mashable list.
UPDATE: Feb. 12, 2026, 2:33 p.m. EST This story was first published on April 23, 2021. It has since been updated to reflect the current streaming options.
via Zero Tech Blog