This post is updated frequently as movies leave and enter Hulu. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.Â
Isn’t the world scary enough nowadays? Of course not! Everyone needs a good break from reality now and then, and horror can be the best way to do that. And Hulu has a remarkably deep catalog of horror films, including massive hits, indie darlings, and even a few originals. These are the best chillers on Hulu right now, updated monthly.
28 Weeks Later
Year: 2007
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle handed off directorial duties on this sequel to his 28 Days Later to Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, and the result is an underrated action flick, a zombie movie that moves at lightning speed as it details the effort to establish a safe zone from the undead apocalypse in London. It has a phenomenal cast that includes Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Imogen Poots, and Idris Elba. There are reports that the long-delayed 28 Months Later may finally go into production soon — so catch up now.
*Alien
Year: 1979
Runtime: 1h 57m
Director: Ridley Scott
The one that changed everything. Alien didn’t just launch a mega-franchise or create an iconic character in Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. It shifted the entire sci-fi/horror landscape forever. And what’s even more stunning about Alien is that over four decades later, it still rips. From beginning to end, it is one of the rare movies that could be called perfect.
Barbarian
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 43m
Director: Zach Cregger
Georgina Marshall plays a woman who discovers that her AirBnB has been double-booked when she arrives and finds someone already staying there—the excellent Bill Skarsgard. Despite her instincts, she decides to stay too, and then things go very sideways, but not in the way you expect them to. A truly odd movie, Barbarian was a massive hit, making ten times its budget and producing roughly a million WTF reaction TikToks.
birth/rebirth
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 38m
Director: Laura Moss
This mesmerizing riff on Frankenstein is one of the best horror films of 2023. Judy Reyes stars as a nurse whose daughter dies at the age of five, only to be brought back to life by a morgue technician (an unforgettable Marin Ireland) who has been experimenting with a daring new process. How far would you go to bring a child back from the dead? What lines would you cross? birth/rebirth is a brilliant, unforgettable piece of work.
Bone Tomahawk
Year: 2015
Runtime: 2h 12m
Director: S. Craig Zahler
S. Craig Zahler has become one of the most divisive filmmakers working today after three vicious, brutal movies — Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99, and Dragged Across Concrete. Bone Tomahawk is arguably the best, a slow-burn Western that stars Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, and Richard Jenkins as a posse of men who hunt a group of indigenous cannibals. The final act is terrifying and intense. (If you like it, check out Brawl too, also on Hulu.)
The Empty Man
Year: 2020
Runtime: 2h 17m
Director: David Prior
20th Century Fox had absolutely no idea what to do with David Prior’s adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name, and so quietly shuttled it into theaters and then VOD. The funny thing is that this ambitious study of an ex-cop (James Badge Dale) who investigates a missing girl has already started to develop a cult following of its own. It’s a smart, unique piece of work that is only going to get more and more popular.
The First Omen
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: Arkasha Stevenson
There’s no reason for The First Omen to be as good as it is. First off, most studio horror films don’t take anywhere near the kind of risks that this daring genre flick takes. Second, horror prequels are very rarely good. This one is great. Nell Tiger Free (Servant) plays an American novitiate in Rome who discovers a vile plan to bring the antichrist to life. With stunning use of practical effects and an incredible lead performance, this is one of the best horror films of the 2020s.
The Fly
Year: 1986Â
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: David Cronenberg
David Cronenberg delivered one of the best remakes of all time when he tackled the classic tale of a scientist who slowly becomes a fly after an experiment goes very wrong. Eschewing cheese for true body horror, Cronenberg pulled arguably the best performance of the career of Jeff Goldblum as the poor guy at the center of this waking nightmare. It’s gruesome and timeless.
The Host
Year: 2006
Runtime: 2h
Director: Bong Joon-ho
The success of Parasite brought an entirely new, larger audience to the work of Bong Joon-ho, and they probably loved this riveting genre piece about a giant monster living in the Han River. Parasite star Song Kang-ho plays the patriarch of a family that’s forced into action when the creature kidnaps his daughter. When it was released, it became the highest-grossing South Korean film of all time. It rules.
The Invitation
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 46m
Director: Jessica M. Thompson
Sony bungled the release of this one, being coy about its plot in ads that didn’t make it seem that appealing. It’s a fun horror movie, a retelling of Dracula from the perspective of a victim bride. It follows a young woman who goes to find her estranged family overseas only to, well, you can imagine. Nathalie Emmanuel goes all in on a film that should have found a bigger audience, and likely will on streaming services like Hulu.
*Late Night with the Devil
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 33m
Director: Colin Cairnes, Cameron Cairnes
A theatrical hit for IFC, the latest horror gem from the Cairnes landed on Shudder while it was still in some theaters, and has now escaped to Hulu. The wonderfully talented David Dastmalchian plays a ‘70s talk show host who has devised an unforgettable show for Halloween night, including a possessed girl as a guest. To say things go wrong would be an understatement. Stylish, funny, and original, this is one of the best horror films of 2024.
Little Monsters
Year: 2019
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Abe Forsythe
Lupita Nyong’o can do absolutely anything. Just look at this horror-comedy about a group of schoolchildren who get attacked by waves of the undead. Lupita rules as the teacher and the only one who knows how to act heroic in the moment. And she’s joined by a fun supporting performance from Josh Gad, who is very from Olaf here.
Mandy
Year: 2018
Runtime: 2h 1m
Director: Panos Cosmatos
Panos Cosmatos gave Nicolas Cage one of the best roles of his career in this 2018 film that already feels like a cult classic. For about an hour, Mandy is a slow burn about a man who goes through a living hell when a cult kidnaps and murders his wife (Andrea Riseborough). And then for the second hour, it’s a crazy movie that’s just washed in blood and features a chainsaw fight. You can’t adequately describe it in words, so you just need to see it.
Ready or Not
Year: 2019
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: Matt Betttinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
The excellent Samara Weaving stars as a newlywed who discovers that her new husband’s family are a bunch of murderous lunatics. They hunt Weaving through the night as a part of a crazy Satanic ritual that takes place after every family wedding. The script is clever, the direction is tight, but this is Weaving’s show, and she rules.
The Royal Hotel
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 31m
Director: Kitty Green
It’s not traditional horror, but this thriller is so tense that it qualifies. The excellent Julia Garner reunites with Kitty Green (after 2019’s The Assistant) and co-stars alongside Jessica Henwick as two American women backpacking through Australia. They end up in one of those small towns in the deep outback that time seems to have forgotten, bartending at the Royal Hotel, where the clientele seems to be in a state of constant threat. It’s a sharp thriller about gender dynamics that doesn’t go where you think it’s going to go.
Skinamarink
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: Kyle Edward Ball
The little movie that could jumped from being a Shudder exclusive to Hulu after a brief stint in theaters that netted this five-figure movie over $1 million at the box office. Filming for almost nothing in his own childhood home, Ball taps into something primal — that feeling in the middle of the night when you wake up and can sense something is just wrong. Divisive in ways that always produce fascinating conversations, this is one of the essential horror movies of the 2020s.
Smile
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 58m
Director: Parker Finn
Just weeks before the launch of the sequel to one of the biggest surprise horror hits of 2022 (over $200 million) worldwide, Hulu has pried it away from Paramount+ for its subscribers. One of the biggest commercial and critical horror hits of the decade, Smile is about a therapist who discovers something supernatural stalking her patients. It will get under your skin.
Suitable Flesh
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: Joe Lynch
Dennis Paoli, the writer of Re-Animator and From Beyond, returns to H.P. Lovecraft with this unforgettable adaptation of “The Thing on the Doorstep.†Heather Graham, Judah Lewis, Bruce Davison, and the legendary Barbara Crampton star in a movie about identity, possession, and control, all of it with Lovecraftian insanity. How does one even begin to “blurb†a movie this defiantly strange? You just need to see it for yourself.
Watcher
Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: Chloe Okuno
One of the best films of 2022, this was a Shudder exclusive until recently. Inspired by ‘70s paranoia horror, Watcher stars Maika Monroe (It Follows) as a woman who has moved to Romania with her husband Francis (Karl Glusman). Without much to do and unable to speak the language, she starts to get paranoid that someone is watching her from across the courtyard. Stylish and riveting, it’s a must-see.
When Evil Lurks
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: Demian Rugna
When Evil Lurks is one of the most messed-up horror flicks you could watch on any streaming service. An Argentinian horror film that originally dropped on Shudder shortly after its Toronto Film Festival premiere and theatrical release, it’s the story of two brothers who discover that there’s a demonic entity living on the edge of their village. When it gets accidentally released, things get really bad. Gorey and strange in equal measure, this film takes no prisoners.
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