This list is regularly updated as movies rotate on and off of Prime Video. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.
Who wants to be scared tonight? While there are fantastic streaming services dedicated to horror nuts, there’s also a wealth of genre hits and indie darlings on Prime Video. In fact, they have one of the most diverse arrays of horror hits, including films by vets like David Cronenberg and Paul W.S. Anderson, alongside newer films from indie studios. This regularly updated list will keep Prime Video subscribers in the know on what are the best horror movies they can watch right now. Turn the lights off and lock the doors.
Abigail
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 49m
Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
The directing duo known as Radio Silence helmed this clever twist on the vampire flick with a great ensemble. Melissa Barrera and Dan Stevens lead a crew of kidnappers who decide to snag the daughter of a crime lord, only to discover that the kid happens to be a killing machine. It’s not perfect, but it’s fun enough for Prime Video.
*American Psycho
Year: 2000
Runtime: 1h 41m
Director: Mary Harron
Mary Harron’s adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel was instantly controversial but also instantly iconic. Christian Bale stepped into the role of the serial killer that had caused an uproar in the literary world and redefined the way we see psychopaths in cinema. His performance has been mimicked so many times just in the two decades since this unforgettable film was released.
*Beau Is Afraid
Year: 2023
Runtime: 2h 59m
Director: Ari Aster
Movies don’t get much more messed up than this one, and the first hour is one of the most terrifying hours of filmmaking in a generation. That set-up gets us in the head of Joaquin Phoenix’s Beau, recreating anxiety and abject panic in ways that we’ve never really seen before. It’s too long, but just watch that first hour if you want to see a cinematic panic attack.
Candyman
Year: 2021
Runtime: 1h 31m
Director: Nia DaCosta
Too many people easily dismissed the Nia DaCosta remake of the 1992 classic about a boogeyman who terrorizes a Chicago community. Yes, it’s imperfect in its messaging, but it’s a spectacularly well-made film, including some excellent sound design and chilling compositions. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars in this film that was co-written by the insanely talented Jordan Peele.
Carnival of Souls
Year: 1962
Runtime: 1h 20m
Director: Herk Harvey
An independent filmmaker who had made his career doing industry safety videos just happened to direct one of the most essential horror flicks of all time in this absolute classic. Candace Hilligoss stars as Mary Henry, a woman who barely survives a car accident and starts seeing ghostly, zombie-like figures in the new city she’s trying to call home. As the figures draw her to an abandoned carnival, some of the best horror imagery of the 1960s surfaces in a film that didn’t get much attention on its release but has gone on to be recognized as a genre masterpiece.
Child’s Play
Year: 1988
Runtime: 1h 23m
Director: Tom Holland
Who could have guessed the industry that would spawn from this story of a boy who ends up playing with a doll that’s been cursed by the soul of a serial killer? Unforgettably voiced by Brad Dourif, Chucky came at the end of the era of horror icons like Freddy, Jason, and Michael Myers, carving out his own loyal fandom, one that’s so strong that Chucky products, like a recent TV show are still being produced over three decades later.
*Compliance
Year: 2012
Runtime: 1h 29m
Director: Craig Zobel
In Kentucky in 2004, something horrible happened. A prank call went way too far when someone phoned a fast-food restaurant and pretended to be a police officer. How far would you go if you believed the voice on the other end of the line was an authority figure? Ann Dowd plays the manager who ends up humiliating an employee, played by Dreama Walker. We all like to think we would do the right thing in a situation like this but the horror here is how easy it is to be fooled.
Doctor Sleep
Almost four decades after Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House) adapted the sequel by Stephen King with what felt like mixed results. However, in just the few years since this movie came out, it feels like the cult following has grown. It’s a stylish drama that kind of falls apart in the final act, but has enough good stuff before that to recommend a look. (Note: This is the lengthy director’s cut, which may not be “better” but isn’t readily available on streaming so take the chance while you can.)
Green Room
Year: 2016
Runtime: 1h 31m
Director: Jeremy Saulnier
Jeremy Saulnier is one of the best current genre directors—seriously, go watch Blue Ruin and Rebel Ridge—and this might still be his best film. The sadly gone Anton Yelchin stars as a member of a band that ends up at an event populated by violent Nazis. Things go very wrong from there. It’s a perfectly paced movie with unexpected twists and brutal violence.
Hell House LLC
Year: 2015
Runtime: 1h 23m
Director: Stephen Cognetti
We’re all tired of found footage movies but this flick can be one of the exceptions. So popular that it spawned a franchise (there have already been two sequels), this is the story of a documentary crew that captures the creation of a Halloween haunted house that becomes all too real, ultimately killing 15 ticket buyers and staff. Structured both in a “what happened that night” and in-the-moment found footage doc, this is a truly clever indie horror film.
Hellraiser
Year: 1987
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Clive Barker
The horror author Clive Barker directed this adaptation of his own novella The Hellbound Heart and made genre movie history. Introducing the world to the iconic Pinhead, who would go on to appear in so many sequels, the original film here is still the best, the tale of a puzzle box that basically opens a portal to Hell. The sequels have kind of lost the thread, but the original is still incredibly powerful. It’s one of the few films from the ‘80s that would still shatter audiences if it were released today.
*I Saw the Devil
Year: 2011
Runtime: 2h 22m
Director: Kim Jee-woon
The great Korean director Kim Jee-woon (The Age of Shadows) directed this intense thriller that gets so dark that it qualifies as horror. Lee Byung-hun plays an NIS agent whose fiancée is murdered by a serial killer, played by Choi Min-sik, and so he dedicates his life to tracking him down and bringing him to justice.
Oculus
Year: 2014
Runtime: 1h 44m
Director: Mike Flanagan
Before he became the MVP of Netflix Horror with projects like The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass, Mike Flanagan adapted his own short film into this sharp horror film that also features a performance from a young Karen Gillan. The MCU star plays a woman who believes that an antique mirror is at the root of her family’s problems. She’s not wrong.
*Prince of Darkness
Year: 1987
Runtime: 1h 41m
Director: John Carpenter
Everyone loves John Carpenter, but this is one of his more underrated flicks, a gnarly little story about the end of the world, and a film that sits in the middle of something that the Master of Horror calls his “Apocalypse Trilogy.” It’s about nothing less than the return of Satan, and it reunites JC with the great Donald Pleasance.
*A Quiet Place: Day One
Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 39m
Director: Michael Sarnoski
Who would have guessed that this would work? Jim Krasinski handed his franchise off to the director of Pig and the luminous Lupita Nyong’o to tell a prequel story of the day that the murderous aliens arrived. It’s a sharply made genre flick, elevated greatly by the consistently impressive work from Nyong’o.
Suspiria
Year: 1977
Runtime: 1h 33m
Director: Dario Argento
The Luca Guadagnino remake is also on Prime, but the Argento original is the one to watch. One of the most important and influential of all the Giallo films, it stars Jessica Harper as a ballet student who goes overseas to study and discovers that her new school is populated by witches.
Synchronic
Year: 2020
Runtime: 1h 41m
Director: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan star in this original sci-fi/horror flick from the directors of Spring and The Endless. They play paramedics in New Orleans who discover a drug that, well, allows for time travel. It’s the kind of crazy idea that really shouldn’t work but the talent of Benson and Moorhead hold it together.
Terrifier 2
Year: 2022
Runtime: 2h 18m
Director: Damien Leone
The Terrifier movies are a legitimate cultural phenomenon. You should see what all the fuss is about! The saga of Art the Clown started in a short by writer/director Damien Leone and then a truly low-budget feature film, but this is the movie that really put the series on the map, a truly chaotic piece of filmmaking that’s elevated by its intense gore, vicious sense of humor, and remarkable make-up effects.
Totally Killer
Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Nahnatchka Khan
What if Scream and Back to the Future had a baby? It would look a lot like this Prime Original thriller about a young woman (a fun Kiernan Shipka) who travels back in time and joins forces with the teenage version of her mother to stop a serial killer. Quirky and clever, it works as a mystery, slasher film, and an ‘80s comedy.
V/H/S
Year: 2012
Runtime: 1h 56m
Director: Various
The one that started it all is arguably still the best in this anthology series. The talent in the directorial roster here is remarkable in hindsight, including Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Ti West, Joe Swanberg, and Radio Silence. There have been six sequels to this for a reason.
Willow Creek
Year: 2013
Runtime: 1h 19m
Director: Bobcat Goldthwait
Yes, the comedian and Police Academy star is also a killer director, including helming one of the best found footage horror movies of all time in this clever werewolf flick. It’s proof of how much can be done with forced POV and killer sound design.
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