There's just something about October -- the decaying leaves, the dark evenings, the spirit of Halloween -- that reminds us of the flimsy veil between the living and the dead. It's the perfect time to curl up with a terrifying movie. If you love a good scare, Netflix has some of the most bone-chilling, make-your-palms-sweat scary movies out there. There are gory slasher flicks, tales of the undead and supernatural frights galore. And they're all going to turn your terror level to 11. (Looking for a scary series instead? We can help with that, too.)
Read on to see which horror movies on Netflix right now will give you the biggest thrills this spooky season.
Smile Movie via Facebook Smile (2022) Sosie Bacon stars as Dr. Rose Cotter, a therapist who sees a patient with curious behavior who then eerily smiles at Rose just before slitting her own throat. Shortly after, Rose begins hallucinating and believes she's been exposed to a curse. The deeply creepy juxtaposition of sinister smiles followed by brutal deaths, along with the psychological torment of those forced to witness it all, makes Smile as unsettling as they come. The film is available now on Netflix, but it leaves the platform on Nov. 13.
Searchlight Pictures 28 Days Later (2002) 2002's 28 Days Later stars Cillian Murphy as a bike messenger who awakens from a coma to find that Britain has been ravaged by zombie-like creatures infected with a rage virus. The film, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland, helped revive (no pun intended) the zombie genre and it's easily one of the best out there. Netflix currently has both 28 Days Later and 28 Years Later on the platform. (You can check out 28 Weeks Later on Hulu.)
Paramount Pictures Heart Eyes (2025) Heart Eyes is the rare slasher film that could work for multiple holidays: It's arguably appropriate for Halloween or Valentine's Day. (It also happens to be a genuinely funny horror-comedy. It really ticks so many boxes.) The film stars Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding as co-workers who are mistaken for a couple by a serial killer known as the Heart Eyes Killer. The HEK targets the two, who find themselves in a race to save their lives and uncover the killer's identity. Jordana Brewster, Devon Sawa and Michaela Watkins all co-star, and in a ridiculously meta twist, the detectives investigating the murders are named Hobbs and Shaw -- a nod to characters in the Fast and Furious films that Brewster starred in.
The Orchard Creep (2014) This psychological horror film is deeply unsettling in the best ways. A videographer named Aaron (Patrick Brice) responds to a Craigslist ad placed by a dying man named Josef (Mark Duplass), who says he wants to record a video diary for his unborn son. But when Josef starts behaving strangely, Aaron becomes increasingly uneasy, and a series of disturbing events unfold.
Netflix The Elixir (2025) The Indonesian zombie thriller The Elixir blends two of today's most popular themes: zombies and wellness culture. When a local family that runs an herbal medicine company decides to test a new wellness drink, the result is the ultimate immunity boost: The drinkers turn into bloodthirsty zombies. The Netflix original film just arrived on the platform this month.
Netflix Malevolent (2018) In the Netflix original Malevolent, Florence Pugh stars as Angela, a con artist who pretends to be clairvoyant and able to connect with ghosts so that she and her brother Jackson (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) can scam vulnerable, bereaved people out of money. When they're hired by a woman (Celia Imrie) to rid an orphanage of spirits, Angela starts to actually see things she wishes she couldn't. While the ghosts of dead children are creepy enough, the film is also about the horrors that real people inflict, too.
Shudder Host (2022) The 2022 British film Host (not to be confused with Bong Joon Ho's The Host or the 2013 film of the same name starring Saoirse Ronan) is very much of its time. A lockdown film made during the height of COVID-19, it was shot entirely over Zoom. Returning to that bleak time might be enough to make some people panic, but the concept is actually what makes the movie so compelling. When a group of friends invites a medium to their video call, they unwittingly conjure a dark spirit. Separated by miles but witnessing everything via webcam, they helplessly watch their friends get accosted by terrifying, inexplicable things. It's a fresh take on the found footage genre, and while some of the on-screen frights are a little silly, the anticipation and terror as we wait for them is a real thrill.
New Line Cinema/Screenshot by CNET The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Both the original 1974 version of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as well as the 2022 reboot are available now on Netflix, and we prefer the original, now a cult classic. Loosely inspired by serial killer Ed Gein (the subject of Netflix's latest season of the Monster TV series), the film was made on a shoestring budget and depicts a group of teens who fall victim to a family of cannibals. Leatherface is a brutal killer who wears a mask made of the skin of his victims, and whose weapon of choice is, naturally, a chainsaw.
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