It's October and you can explore new horror offerings right now -- no need to wait until Halloween. Peacock, Prime Video, Netflix and other streaming services are putting frights front and center by providing fresh TV and film originals that will get your skin crawling and heart racing.
In addition to those exclusives, streamers are keeping the scares going with noteworthy films that recently spooked audiences in theaters. The result is a bloodcurdling lineup of serial killers, rituals, ghosts, zombies, monsters and killer clowns. If that sounds like a scary party you'd want to attend, here's what horrors are brewing on streaming services.
Ben Blackall/Prime Harlan Coben's Lazarus (Oct. 22, Prime Video) Mystery and a spooky atmosphere are elements of this new six-episode Harlan Coben thriller series, starring Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy.
Disney The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (Oct. 22, Hulu) Hulu has a remake of the 1992 psychological thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle on the creepy calendar. Ominous vibes abound in the new version, which stars horror regulars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Maika Monroe as a suburban mom and new nanny.
Netflix The Elixir (Oct. 23, Netflix) This upcoming Indonesian Netflix movie unleashes zombie horrors after the owner of a herbal medicine business whips up an ill-fated new recipe.
Amazon MGM Studios Host (Oct. 23, Prime Video) Disturbing incidents occur at an all-girls reform school on a secluded island in this new supernatural Thai horror movie.
HBO Max Weapons (Oct. 24, HBO Max) Weapons stars Julia Garner as a teacher blamed by a community when most of the students in her class suddenly (and rather creepily) vanish. Weapons is written and directed by Zach Cregger (the 2022 horror film Barbarian) and also stars Josh Brolin as the father of a missing kid.
Video screenshot by Meara Isenberg/CNET It: Welcome to Derry (Oct. 26, HBO Max) If you've seen 2017's It and 2019's It: Chapter Two, Bill Skarsgård's Pennywise needs no introduction. This new HBO prequel show will transport viewers to Derry, Maine, in 1962. Skarsgård and Andy Muschietti, the director of the aforementioned It films, are involved in the bone-chilling series based on Stephen King's novel.
Video screenshot by Meara Isenberg/CNET R.L. Stine's Pumpkinhead (out now on Tubi) You can pluck an original young adult horror flick from Tubi's twisted patch this Halloween. R.L. Stine's Pumpkinhead is inspired by the horror anthology TV series The Haunting Hour -- not the 1988 monster movie Pumpkinhead, though that's also available on the free, ad-supported streamer.
Sony Pictures I Know What You Did Last Summer (out now on Netflix) After covering up their role in a fatal car accident, a group of friends start to be stalked by a vengeful killer in this new installment in the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt reprise their roles from the first two films. Note that only ad-free Netflix plan subscribers in the US -- not ad-supported plan customers -- will be able to stream the slasher movie because of licensing restrictions.
Brooke Palmer/Peacock Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy (out now on Peacock) Based on a 2021 Peacock docuseries of the same name, this eight-episode scripted miniseries stars Michael Chernus as the notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy. The series won't show Gacy's murders on-screen and will present the victims' stories through flashbacks, according to NBC.
A24 Bring Her Back (out now on HBO Max) Bring Her Back is bleak and disturbing, with frightening rituals and foster mothers, and it has a scary good score of 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. The A24 film has the same directors as 2022's Talk to Me.
Mubi The Substance (out now on HBO Max) Demi Moore stars in this wild body horror flick as Elisabeth Sparkle, who gets fired from her job on a fitness TV show and turns to a product called The Substance to create a different version of herself. The Substance earned a best picture Oscar nomination (it won for makeup and hairstyling), and now HBO Max subscribers will be able to watch.
Paramount Plus Vicious (out now on Paramount Plus) Paramount Plus will offer this Dakota Fanning-led film in the US following its world premiere at Fantastic Fest. In Vicious, Fanning's character is in for a relentlessly horrific night after a stranger shows up with a mysterious box and tells her three things go inside: something she needs, something she hates and something she loves.
Netflix Monster: The Ed Gein Story (out now on Netflix) The third season of Netflix's dark anthology series Monster is about the infamous Wisconsin serial killer and grave robber Ed Gein. Whether you watch the eight-episode installment inspired by his life or read about the true story of the murderer, prepare to be disturbed.