Anyone can watch horror movies on Halloween, but what about horror movies that are actually scary? Sure, we all have different thresholds when it comes to fear and/or gore in our horror movies. Some of us get scared at the slightest thing. Others might need a deep-seated personal dread to feel any terror. To actually come up with a list of universally scary movies is notably impossible, but we’re going to do our best.
Below you’ll find 10 movies that we actually think are scary. And, bonus, they’re all actually streaming, so you can watch them right now with very little effort. Do you agree with the list? Do you not? Let us know below and also, maybe find the perfect film to make this the perfect Halloween.
Bring Her Back
The newest film on the list (it opened this summer) is not just incredibly creepy and off-putting; it’s got some of the most disturbing violence we’ve seen in a long, long time. It’s about a woman who adopts kids that she, maybe, doesn’t want. Why would she do that? Stream it on HBO Max.
Insidious
Normally, when a movie has a ton of sequels, you can ignore those sequels and just go to the original for the best of the best. That’s certainly the case with Insidious, which balances not just an overwhelming dread but also some pretty great jump scares too. It follows a family whose son ends up trapped in an evil alternate plane of existence called the Further and you do not want to go there. (Also, some of the Insidious sequels are good too but once you know what to expect, they lose some of their power.) Stream it on HBO Max.
It Follows
What’s so fantastic and terrifying about David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows is that it’s so devilishly simple. There’s some great world-building around it, but ultimately, it’s about a terror that just never stops coming for you. Hence the title. Once you’re marked, there’s no way to stop it. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. And wow, that’s bone-chilling. Stream it on HBO Max.
Paranormal Activity
Since The Blair Witch Project isn’t streaming anywhere, when it comes to actually scary found footage movies, we’ll go with the one that sort of reinvented it after that. The original Paranormal Activity is scary both because of the way it builds tension and because it brings its evil into your home. The safest place is no longer. And that’s just creepy as well. Stream it on Paramount+.
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