Mashable

There's a certain kind of person you don't want to be Too Online. I'd be uneasy, for instance, if my brain surgeon had a vast meme collection — put down the phone, pick up the scalpel.

Politicians, however, are in a more complicated position. In 2024, it's impossible to run an effective campaign while ignoring the internet, especially since millions of Gen Zers will be eligible to vote for the first time in this election. But it's easy for campaigns to cross the rubicon from effectively using the internet to being Too Online. There is the risk of confusing online noise for meaningful outreach, fringe concerns for real issues, and engagement as good press.

I'd argue that the pendulum has swung too far. Today's presidential campaigns are Too Online, and it's to the point where real-life issues might get lost in the noise of memes and digital posturing.

This isn't to say both campaigns are the same; they're not. However, both candidates have leaned heavily into online spaces, albeit very differently. Kamala Harris' campaign has embraced popular internet trends like "Brat Summer" and viral TikTok sounds like Chappell Roan's "Femininomenon" to court young voters. Donald Trump's camp, on the other hand, has veered into race-baiting edgelord memes, such as baseless claims about Haitian immigrants eating pets, framing it as a crucial election issue for his base.

The difference remains stark: Harris risks coming across as cringe-worthy or overly focused on online voters, while Trump pushes dangerous, often fabricated ideas to rile up his fervent supporters.

Campaigning in the Meme Age

So, how are these campaigns "too online"? First, let's acknowledge that it's likely not actually the candidates themselves. Trump famously doesn't use a computer — his phone is seemingly just a machine for posting tweets or updates on Truth Social — and I doubt Harris or her running mate Tim Walz are scrolling all that much. JD Vance might be knee-deep in forums, but who knows? Still, it's clear that their campaigns are focused on online culture.

SEE ALSO: Tortured no longer: Taylor Swift endorses Kamala Harris after presidential debate

Walz, a 60-year-old Midwest football coach, verbally described the Abe Simpson "old man yells at cloud" meme when asked to review Trump's debate performance. Over on the @KamalaHQ social media accounts, Harris' campaign leaned into Brat and coconut tree memes; it even dunked on the Trump campaign with a popular Real Housewives of Salt Lake City audio on TikTok. (The @KamalaHQ TikTok account is run by five Gen Z staffers.) Some of this is necessary. The world is, after all, an online world.

"Candidates can really set the agenda [on social media] and make sure that people are talking about the things that they want people to pick up on," said Dr. Caroline Leicht, a researcher at the University of Southampton who studies media and political communication with a focus on social media.

Leicht added: "With social media, there are these opinion leaders who then take over the conversation and spread the message further. So it's really free advertising in a way."

Harris' campaign, in particular, has capitalized on this free advertising. A spokesperson told Semafor that their online strategy aims to "meet voters where they are." After President Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July, Harris saw a spike in online interest. The memes worked — but maybe they learned the wrong lesson. The excitement mattered more than the memes. Voters welcomed a fresh face on the ticket, and memes followed naturally. You can't force a meme. Over-prioritizing an online presence risks becoming a distraction, emphasizing engagement that doesn't necessarily translate to votes. Focusing too much on crafting viral content or having the most polished online presence could be a damaging fool's errand. Let's not forget Hillary Clinton's attempt to connect with young voters in 2020. Her use of the phrase "Pokémon Go to the polls" got a lot of attention online, but none of it was positive. The phrase was endlessly memed and mocked.

To be fair, the Harris campaign has said its hope is to capitalize on trends, not create them.

"We're leveraging organic viral trends and online energy for V.P. Harris's presidential bid to do two big, and election-winning things: bring the conversation about the stakes of this election to the places a lot of our voters are getting their news from and two, transfer the enthusiasm we're seeing online to grow our grass-roots supporter network,” Seth Schuster, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, told the New York Times in August.

SEE ALSO: The Trump campaign's take on Tim Walz's coaching days proves they don't know football

But spend enough time online, and it will poison your brain in some way. I say this as a professional Too Online person. It's literally my job. But have you ever tried to explain a new meme to someone? You end up sounding fully detached from reality because, well, you are. It's like the Jesse/Walt meme from Breaking Bad — yes, I'm using a meme to describe being Too Online, I see the irony — and someone really does need to ask you what the fuck are you talking about?

Tweet may have been deleted

The campaigns must realize that most people aren't as online as they are. Do you know who works on campaigns? People who spend all day online. Spending all day online is an easy way to get fooled into thinking it matters more than it does.

Pew data showed that 44 percent of people between the ages of 18-49 say they go online "almost constantly," but this could be anything from Googling to emailing to, yes, posting memes. That number drops steeply with older folks. Just 22 percent of those between the ages of 50-64 say they were that online. The number craters to 8 percent of those 65 and older. Do you know who votes? Older people. The type of folks who might actually care that Harris did three interviews with influencers before a mainstream TV sit-down. (Though, of course, she has courted older voters, too, with moves like her interview with Oprah, a Baby Boomer icon.) Fifty-five percent of the electorate was 50 or older in the last presidential election. Meanwhile, 67 percent of folks between the ages of 18-49 didn't vote — and that is a much better turnout than in non-presidential elections.

In other words, the most online folks aren't reliable voters. The people seeing your campaign's memes might not cast a ballot. Or, worse, the memes could turn them off because they might not appear genuine.

That's how you get the Harris campaign sending out a Dril tweet and then Dril — perhaps the most influential Twitter poster of our time — immediately hating it in a very public, very direct way that wasn't a good look at all for the VP. He called out some of the worst alleged atrocities from Israeli soldiers. The war in Gaza is a major issue for young voters — who often are not aligned with the current administration's support for Israel — and especially among those who are Very Online. If the campaign is going to engage with young voters who are super online, then you're inviting criticism on what's proven to be a third-rail issue for politicians.

Tweet may have been deleted

Or, less seriously, being super online risks the Harris campaign looking cringe to younger voters or out-of-touch with others. It's how you get a bungled, embarrassing CNN segment trying to explain the whole Brat thing, which is more on CNN but also a super awkward thing for a campaign courting CNN viewers. I'd rather Harris' platform or speeches get that airtime instead of a chartreuse meme. Remember what I said about trying to explain a meme out loud? The Harris campaign and its need to win the meme wars is flirting with that reality.

Even some of the creators who support Harris want to see more emphasis on substantive policy talk. Elizabeth Booker Houston, a millennial TikTokker who attended the DNC in August, told TIME, "People want policy, and they do want to talk about the details of things, right? Not everything can be sugar — you’re going to get a tummy ache."

"They're eating the dogs!"

Trump and Vance, well, that's entirely different. They've immersed themselves in the anger-fueled, rightwing online ecosystem. If the Harris campaign relies too heavily on memes, then the Trump campaign is being dragged down by them.

They're seemingly following the path of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' campaign, which mistook the rightwing's online grievance culture for a sizable voting bloc. Most notably, Trump's baseless, race-baiting claims about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio, have been an utter disaster. As BBC reported, the rumor was started by a self-described social media influencer at a city meeting, took off on Facebook, and then spiraled into a national talking point — without a shred of evidence or truth.

Tweet may have been deleted

It makes sense that the Trump campaign might lean on Facebook memes, even as Meta itself shifts away from current events and politics. Republican voters tend to be older, as do Facebook users. Sprout Social data found that 51 percent of Facebook users were at least 40 years old. More than 60 percent of TikTok users, meanwhile, were under 40. Pew data showed, meanwhile, that Facebook is the only social media platform used more by Republicans than Democrats. (It's also the world's largest social media network.) The divide is clear.

SEE ALSO: Donald Trump posts AI image to attack Kamala Harris

Trump, however, ran with the Facebook rumor on the national debate stage, screaming, "They're eating the dogs!" — something everyday voters would have to find ridiculous. What began as a meme soon became another meme, with some mocking Trump and Vance and others supporting them. The audio even started trending on TikTok. With time, everywhere you looked online, people were posting about eating dogs and cats. Is this really what's going to win over the vanishingly few undecided voters? Vance seemed to think so, even asking folks to "keep the cat memes flowing."

The kicker? Vance even admitted it's probably made up. "If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that's what I'm going to do," he said in an interview with CNN. In other words, it's just shitposting...but, you know, as an effort to get access to the nuclear codes.

Tweet may have been deleted

But the Trump campaign really does seem to think shitposting is a winning strategy. They've rolled out what NPR dubbed a tour of "dude influencers." Trump has talked with some of the pre-eminent right-leaning and rightwing online bros, like Logan Paul, Tucker Carlson, and Adin Ross. These are the sorts of folks that right-leaning young men might find controversially funny or interesting. In short, it's a press tour for male shitposters.

A need for balance

Clearly, a digital presence matters — 2016 showed us that. What was 2016 if not a referendum on the internet's power, with Trump seemingly tweeting his way into the White House? It makes some sense, then, that the Harris campaign recently spent $200 million on digital ad-buys, which was a record amount. But there's a line between effective online engagement and over-reliance. Maybe we don’t need Tim Walz narrating memes aloud, and we definitely don’t need any more rightwing cat memes.

As Dr. Leicht notes, "There is a very difficult balance to find, and I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all solution."

For most voters, a campaign's memes won't change their vote. Even young voters won't likely cast a vote based on online presence. Polls show they care about economic issues — like most voters — and mostly don't support sending military aid to Israel or the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Posting online matters for attention purposes, but from there, campaigns need to have something tangible to offer.

Focusing too much on memes also opens the door for errors — like becoming the next "Pokémon Go to the polls" moment. There's a fine line between being savvy and losing sight of what's really important to constituents. The Harris campaign risks falling into the latter category with its meme obsession, while the Trump campaign has gone too far down the rabbit hole of internet conspiracies.

Perhaps I’m biased, being so entrenched in the online world. I'm always logged on, and it makes me think they're always logged on. But I'd argue it takes one to know one, and it’s safe to say these campaigns have become Too Online. They've started confusing the digital world with the real one.

It's time to log off a little — touch grass, if you will — or, more importantly, go knock on more doors.

Jon Stewart pretended to be an undecided voter on "The Daily Show", and used some charts to analyse Donald Trump's responses to specific policy questions.

The Daily Mini Crossword is one of the many popular daily word games available on Mashable. Powered by Arkadium, the mini crossword offers a speed round of puzzle fun with clues that are sure to challenge experienced crossword enthusiasts.

But there's no need to let the challenge get in the way of your enjoyment! If moments are turning to minutes after getting stuck on a clue, find the answers you need to progress right here.

And when you're done, check out the many other word games you can play on Mashable, including a full-size crossword.

Also, if you get stuck on any other daily word games, such as Wordle, Connections, or Strands — we have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle hints and answers for October 1 SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on Mashable

Here are the clues and answers to Daily Mini Crossword for Tuesday, October 1, 2024:

AcrossSimba's scourge

• The answer is Scar.

"_____" you loud and clear!

• The answer is IRead.

LazyTown antognist and internet celebrity Robbie

• The answer is Rotten.

Android alternative

• The answer is iPhone.

Children's doctor?

• The answer is Seuss.

Real-time encryption system

• The answer is RTEs.

DownApple assistant

• The answer is Siri.

Harvests

• The answer is Crops.

Air of Athena, Ares, and Aphrodite

• The answer is Aether.

Snitch slangily

• The answer is Ratout.

Closely compacted

• The answer is Dense.

Lock ____

• The answer is Ness.

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Featured Video For You The Wordle Strategy used by the New York Times' Head of Games

Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today's Strands.

Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Mini Crossword.

Travelling requires a lot of planning. You need to be prepared with a checklist of essentials, and then pack everything in such a way that you're not left with a crumpled mess of belongings on the other side.

Something you don't need to pack is a VPN, but it should still be at the top of your list. Why? These security services protect your data and personal information when you're travelling, as well as providing access to top streaming sites from around the world. So whether you're dreaming of getting away, planning your next big trip, or in the departure lounge, you need a VPN by your side.

What is a VPN?

VPNs provide protection for your data and identity when you're online by creating an encrypted tunnel for your online traffic. This protects your personal information by hiding your IP address, and allowing you to safely use public WiFi hotspots.

This means that your internet traffic can't be tracked and recorded by your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or other third party, wherever you are in the world.

Do you need a VPN for travelling?

A VPN is an essential when you're travelling for two key reasons: encryption of your web traffic and access to the websites and apps you use when you're at home.

Any sort of activity on an unsecured WiFi network leaves your private information and browsing habits exposed to the world, unless you're using a VPN. The likelihood of using an unsecured network is increased when you're away from home, so the need for a VPN is great.

The need to access content when travelling is also significant. There will be plenty of moments when you need to access a particular site or app when you're on the road, but you're blocked due to your location. VPNs can bypass these blockades by hiding your real IP address and connecting you to a server in the UK. This process can trick your favourite services into thinking that you're back home, meaning that you can continue to access the content you love.

What are the most important VPN features for travelling?

The best VPNs for travelling will have certain features in common. To help you make sense of everything, we have highlighted a selection of the most important things to think about before committing to a service. You should consider connection speed, server network, number of simultaneous connections, and more:

• Bandwidth — There are VPNs that place monthly caps on network bandwidth. You should avoid these services, unless you're on a free trial. If you're paying for a VPN, you need to be able to download and upload as much as you want.

• Connection speed — You shouldn't accept a significant drop in connection speed with a VPN, because this is going to result in buffering when you're streaming. If you're planning on watching a film or downloading a file when travelling, you should opt for something with decent connection speeds.

• Encryption — You are likely to come across terms like "military-grade" and "enterprise-grade" encryption. There are clearly different levels of encryption, and whilst it's important to take note of the grade provided by your VPN, the best options will all offer powerful protection for your data.

• Number of simultaneous connections — The best VPNs let you connect a large (or unlimited) number of devices with the same account. A service that offers multiple simultaneous connections lets you protect all of your devices with the same plan.

• Privacy policy — You should be aware of the data-handling, storage, and usage practices of a VPN, and these practices should be clearly laid out in a privacy policy. Most VPNs require access to your IP address, online transactions, and browsing history, plus your personal details when you sign up, so it's absolutely vital that your VPN is not going to store these details.

• Server network — The very best VPNs provide access to thousands of geographically diverse servers. It's useful if a VPN has a lot of servers in key locations, because you should always be able to find a stable and speedy connection for streaming, shopping, or browsing anonymously when you're travelling around.

You should also think about things like price and subscription options, but these features represent are a good place to start.

Do you need to pay for the best VPNs?

There are a lot of free versions of top VPNs, plus free trials of VPNs with full access to everything you get with a premium plan. With this in mind, why would you ever pay for a VPN?

The fact is you get what you pay for with VPNs. There are always catches with free versions, and it's normally in the form of limited data usage. These plans will work fine for some people, but if you're going to be streaming or downloading on the move, it isn't going to work. Free trials work differently: they come without limitations, but don't tend to last very long. Trials give you the opportunity to test out a service before committing, but this isn't a long-term solution if you're travelling.

To gain access to advanced security features without limitations on usage, you need to pay up. The best VPNs are generally the most expensive, but there are plenty of cheap plans out there, especially if you're willing to commit to a lengthy contract.

What is the best VPN for travelling?

There are a lot of VPNs out there all offering different sets of features, with different pricing plans. Finding the best service for you is not easy, so we recommend taking some time to carefully access your options and decide on what you really need from a provider. Once you have established your priorities, you can check out this roundup of the best VPNs for travel.

We have tracked down everything on offer and lined up a selection of the very best VPNs for travelling. We have tried to find something for everyone and every budget, and you can find popular services like ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and CyberGhost VPN in this roundup.

These are the best VPNs for travelling in 2024.

There is no such thing as too many streaming sites. Sure, you might already be subscribed to Netflix and Prime Video, but there might be hit shows and newly-releases movies still out of reach. We're not suggesting you subscribe to everything out there, but one more subscription couldn't hurt.

If you're looking to expand your content options, you might have considered Max. This popular streaming platform offers TV favourites, blockbuster movies, and new Max originals. So what's stopping you? Well, despite Max expanding into Europe in 2021, the UK is still not on the list. Try and visit the platform from the UK, and you'll be greeted with "Sorry, Max isn’t available in your region yet."

We know this is tough news to take, but you still have the ability to stream on Max in the UK. All you need is a VPN.

What is a VPN?

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) provide protection for your data and identity when you're online. They create a private network that hides your real IP address, which boosts your online privacy and anonymity, and makes sure that your activity is untraceable and secure.

It's not the easiest concept to grasp, so it can be helpful to think about a VPN like an encrypted tunnel. All of your online traffic passes through this tunnel, and nobody can see inside. Everything inside the tunnel is protected against online threats like viruses, hackers, and malware.

Why should you consider investing in a VPN?

VPNs are designed to provide protection for your sensitive information, which is obviously a major reason to consider investing in a service. Cybersecurity is an absolutely vital part of existing online these days, and VPNs offer the features needed to secure your online world against the worst of the web. It's not all about online security and privacy though, because an increasing number of subscribers are looking to boost their content options.

VPNs can be also be used to watch content that is normally blocked in your location. By hiding your real IP address and connecting you to a server in another country, you can watch all your favourite content from that location. VPNs can bypass the geo-restrictions of the most popular streaming sites, including Max.

How do you access Max with a VPN?

The process of accessing Max with a VPN is not exactly simple. First you need to do is open up your preferred VPN, select an American server in order to spoof your IP to a U.S. address, and then head to Max. This makes Max think you're in the U.S. when you're actually in the UK. The next step is to add your payment information.

Max only lets you sign up if you have a payment card that’s tied to the U.S. If you don't have this, you'll need to follow these steps:

• Open up your preferred VPN on your iOS/Android device and connect to a server in the U.S.

• Create an Apple ID/Google Play account

• Register your account on the app store

• Download and install the Max app

• Create a new account in the Max app with your email address and password

• Pay with your UK PayPal account

We know this is a little laborious, but it's worth it.

What should you consider before investing in a VPN?

Rather than listing off every feature offered by the best VPNs, we have highlighted a selection of the most important things to think about if you're planning on streaming with a VPN. You should look out for connection speed, server network, number of simultaneous logins, and other important features:

• Connection speed — Using a VPN is likely to produce a drop in your connection speed, but you shouldn't accept anything significant. This will result in buffering, which is going to make it difficult to stream without frustration.

• Number of simultaneous connections — The best VPNs let you connect an unlimited number of devices with the same account. You should seek out services that offers multiple simultaneous connections, so you can stream on all your devices at the same time.

• Privacy policy — It's worth paying attention to the data-handling, storage, and usage practices of the VPN you are planning on using to stream, because access to extra content shouldn't come at the expense of your online privacy and anonymity.

• Security — We know you're here to find a VPN for streaming, but you shouldn't forget about security. The best services will let you unblock top streaming sites whilst offering powerful protection for your data.

• Server network — Some VPNs provide access to literally thousands of geographically diverse servers. The best services offer access to a lot of servers in key locations, so you should always be able to find a stable and speedy connection for streaming.

There are other things to consider, like price and subscription plans, but these features are a good place to start.

What is the best VPN for Max?

We've lined up a selection of the very best streaming-friendly VPNs for unlocking Max, including popular services like ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN. You just need to consider all of these options, and pick out the service that best suits you and your lifestyle.

These are the best VPNs for Max in 2024.

We can talk about decision fatigue in the context of buying robot vacuums on the buyer's end all day, but let's consider an equally fatiguing decision experienced by me: a professional robot vacuum reviewer constantly being asked, "Which robot vacuum should I get?"

After testing over 20 robot vacuums in the past five years, I can totally rattle off recommendations easily to someone, but only after I've also asked them a million questions. Mostly, I need to know whether they care more about budget, the thorough cleaning itself, or a true hands-off cleaning experience.

SEE ALSO: How to choose a robot vacuum in 2024: Consider these 5 features before buying

But when I got my hands on the Eufy X10 Pro Omni soon after it came out at CES 2024 in January, I quickly realized I might just have a new catchall answer to that big, general robot vacuum question — or at least a recommendation that meets goals of people who prioritize getting a bang for their buck and people who prioritize doing as little work as possible on their end.

Why the Eufy X10 Pro Omni is so impressive on paper

Over the past two-ish years, two robot vacuum features, in particular, have emerged to set the premium robot vacuums apart from the entry-level ones. They are AI-powered small obstacle avoidance technology and self-washing and drying mopping pads. Not only did Eufy bravely attempt both of them without severely hiking the price tag to match, but both features are actually pretty competent — I wouldn't have been surprised if a cheap robovac talking this fancy talk couldn't actually walk the walk.

If you really care about the automation aspect of a robot vacuum, those two convenience-related features are reason to choose the X10 Pro Omni over similarly-priced hybrid models like the Roomba Combo j7+ or Roborock Q8 Max+, which still require you to manually handle the mopping pads and refill the water tank after each use or two.

Maintenance: I simply love not touching soggy mopping pads

Past automatic emptying, which is more common than not for a robot vacuum to have these days, the Eufy X10 Pro Omni's dock also automatically washes and dries its two mopping pads after each use. Its dock also has two large water tanks: one with clean water that refills the smaller water tank onboard the vacuum and a dirty water one that holds whatever's wrung out of the mopping pads after each use. Refilling the clean water tank and dumping the dirty water are only required every few weeks, depending on mopping frequency and intensity. I mopped my kitchen and bathroom several times a week for four-ish months and only had to deal with the tanks a couple of times.

The two water tanks sit on the left and the big dust bin (bag) sits on the right. Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable The washing and drying garage under the dock does need to be wiped down occasionally. Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

I have thought about the mopping pads 100 percent fewer times. The Omni X10 Pro's dock deals with them completely, washing them and then drying them with hot air to prevent that moldy wet fabric smell. You know, the exact one that I have to be near when testing a 2-in-1 robot vacuum that needs its mopping pads to be removed and washed by hand. That level of effort (and grossness) is enough to make me want to skip mopping altogether, so I think that the self-cleaning mopping pad system is actually pretty crucial for getting your money's worth out of the mop part.

The self-empty dust bag in the dock lasts even longer than the water tanks. The Eufy X10 Pro Omni vacuumed various floors in my homes almost every other day from mid-May to mid-September, and I didn't get a "full" notification until the end of that period.

Cleaning performance: Not always spotless, but satisfactory

Allegedly, the X10 Pro Omni dishes out 8,000 Pa of suction power — pretty high compared to the market leading 10,000 Pa seen on a few Roborock models or the alleged 11,000 Pa seen on a Yeedi model. Compared to other robot vacuums in this price range, 8,000 Pa kicks ass — on paper.

But comparing cleaning prowess based on that one suction power metric alone is kind of a moot point when not every robot vacuum brand even measures suction power in Pascals. (iRobot and Shark are the two big ones that don't.) The real test is simply how much the botvac sucks up in real life.

In my testing, the Eufy X10 Pro Omni's suction power was strong enough to pick up about 90 percent of the dry debris I threw at it on hardwood, and was about 80 percent successful at pulling hair and rice from a medium pile rug. It's not the level of thoroughness I'd achieve when taking my Dyson out for a spin, but I felt comfortable letting the Eufy X10 Pro Omni take care of the random crumbs that show up in the kitchen, as well as kitty litter in my bathroom.

One or two giant chip crumbs is probably the more likely mess over a handful, but I posed a challenge here. Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable Aside from that one tiny crumb that was somehow dragged onto the rug, the X10 Pro Omni got them all. Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

The few occasions when some debris around the edges was left behind taught me to always opt for two cleaning passes instead of one and either turbo or max suction (the strongest two out of the four).

The X10 Pro Omni's mopping performance has a similar story: It's absolutely reliable enough for keeping hard floors nice and shiny on a daily basis, especially if you're even less likely to mop or Swiffer by hand than you are to vacuum. I can almost always tell the difference in stain visibility when a hybrid robot vacuum mops with one flat pad or two spinning pads, as the latter just seems to be more robust — less wiping, more scrubbing. I felt like I could trust the X10 Pro Omni's dual pad situation enough to thoroughly spot clean a marinara sauce or wine spill before the cats could get to it.

You can put Eufy's cleaning solution in the water tank for a more hygienic gloss. Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

There were a few instances where two passes and one of the higher water intensities were necessary, like a spot where I spilled sesame oil — just one single light pass left the hardwood feeling greasy. I also noticed that the shoe stains by the front door aren't completely gone after the X10 Pro Omni has attempted them on a few occasions, but then again, every 2-in-1 robot vacuum struggles with those.

User friendliness and navigation: The X10 Pro Omni assimilates pretty easily

Much of the robot vacuum experience comes from how seamless of an addition it is to your home and lifestyle. In this regard, the Eufy X10 Pro is overall a pretty polite house guest.

Its long battery life (over two hours of cleaning on one charge) means that I can comfortably queue up my "two passes for good measure" task in multiple rooms without it having to pause and charge in between. Though those extra passes might take a few extra minutes, the X10 Pro Omni isn't unbearably loud, even on max suction. The automatic emptying roar isn't so demure, but it's not a huge deal.

SEE ALSO: As a Dyson stan, I wouldn't tell anyone to buy the Dyson 360 Vis Nav robot vacuum

But for me, the main criterion that makes a robot vacuum a polite house guest is whether or not it continually navigates to the right spot without getting lost or stuck. The X10 Pro Omni whipped up a very accurate map of my home on the first try, only requiring me to split one room (many robot vacs I test think that, like, four rooms are the same room). I only experienced the X10 Pro Omni being unable to figure out its position and returning to the dock during a handful of cleaning sessions, but queuing it up again does the trick.

As long as it's not unable to complete a task because it's physically stuck, I'm pretty satisfied. The X10 Pro Omni carves around table and chair legs with ease, finding the perfect angle to scoot around rather than giving up and sitting there. My favorite part? It hasn't eaten any cords or socks (though my cat's shoelace toy did have to be untangled from below).

Downsides: My one major gripe feels so fixable

Unfortunately, the X10 Pro Omni's obstacle avoidance technique is also the source of my main complaint. It's so cautious about not sucking up rogue pieces of laundry that it mistakes the fluffy bath mat in front of my shower as a piece of laundry to avoid. Every single time. That wouldn't be so annoying if there was an option to ignore an incorrectly-identified obstacle like several other robot vacuum apps offer, but there's no way to do that on Eufy's app. Shouldn't the AI powering the obstacle recognition want to learn and adjust?

No other robot vacs I've tested recently have an issue with that pink rug. Credit: Leah Stodart / Mashable

This means that I have to move that rug out of the bathroom ahead of a cleaning. However, I've learned to do that with all small rugs regardless, because if the X10 Pro Omni actually does attempt to vacuum a rug, it turns up the corners and jumbles it all around. It even has a hard time gently hoisting itself over the edges my large low pile living room rug and kitchen runner.

Is the Eufy X10 Pro Omni worth it?

The Eufy X10 Pro Omni doesn't do... anything perfectly (does any robot vacuum?), but it cleans, navigates, and maintains itself competently enough to make it a front runner over a ton of older hybrid vacuums. Specifically, the X10 Pro Omni is the better value over any hybrid model that isn't equipped with those two game-changing features: small obstacle avoidance technology and self-cleaning mopping pads.

I won't pretend that there aren't some performance and navigational quirks that'll need some getting used to, but for the price, the X10 Pro Omni covers all of the bases necessary to make your day-to-day a lot easier. If you're still iffy, look for it during October Prime Day — that $599.99 sale price is impossible to argue with.

Eufy X10 Pro Omni $799.99 at Amazon
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You already know you can ask Alexa to tell you the weather (and if it’s rainy, she’ll kindly suggest you bring an umbrella) but there are actually a ton more ways she can help you lead a more efficient, less stressful life. You just have to know what she can do. 

1. Make a grocery list

Did you finish up the last of the milk in this morning’s cereal? Ask Alexa to add some 2% to your shopping list. Make it a family thing and remind everyone who eats in your house to tell Alexa when they’ve finished something, too. When you’re ready to go to the market have her read off everything you’ve collected during the week.

2. Entertain your dog

Have to leave your best friend for a bit and don’t want him to fret? Just say “Alexa, play relaxing dog music in the kitchen.” Because yes, she has a playlist for that. Maybe your pup wants something more upbeat? Ask Alexa to “open Puppy Jams” and she’ll first ask how your pooch is feeling so she can tailor her musical choices to his mood. Not for nothing, Alexa is also a great initial resource when your pooch eats something he shouldn't. “Alexa, open MyPetDoc. Are grapes bad for dogs?” (They are.) Of course, Alexa should never replace an in-person vet visit, but she can get you started and can even connect you with a vet if you need one.

3. Manage multiple cooking timers

The pasta and the garlic bread will be done at different times, and both are no beuno if they go too far. Ask Alexa to set a timer for 8 minutes to get the perfect al dente pasta and then ask her to set another timer (4 minutes?) for the bread. While you’re at it, ask her to how many calories are in a glass of Chianti.

4. Call everyone to dinner

We are tired of screaming through the house when it’s time for dinner. Ask Alexa to save your vocal cords by doing it for you. Saying, “Alexa, make an announcement – dinner time!” activates every Alexa in the house with a clanging dinner bell and your voice saying “dinner time!” No screaming required. How quickly the kids actually show up is another thing entirely.

5. Activate your Roomba

Alexa can pair with a bunch of robot vacuums, starting and stopping cleaning by voice command. Setting it up is as simple as going into the Alexa app and searching for your vacuum. Once you find and link the device you’re good to go.

6. Order household supplies

You’re never near your list when you run out of batteries, or paper towels, or moisturizing lotion. But it’s likely you’re near an Alexa. Ask her to send you some AAAs, and she’ll ship you the exact same type and brand you bought the last time, which means the task is completely off your mental list before it even went on it.

7. Make a chore chart

Build out a list of weekly chores for everyone in your house – bring the recycling down on Monday night, change the sheets on Sunday, even study for a Friday morning math test. Once you’ve listed the chores, assign them to their various owners. When someone completes a chore as intended, they let Alexa know. Here’s the best part: She keeps score. So at any moment during the week you can ask her for a “chore score.” At one point per completed chore, it turns things into a competition and may actually mean stuff gets done.

An icy visitor is flying through the inner solar system.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, also called Comet C/2023 A3, has grown brighter as it's approached the sun, allowing astronauts aboard the International Space Station to capture vivid footage of this ancient ball of ice, rock, and dust. NASA astronaut Matthew Dominick recently posted a view of the comet rising beyond Earth as the station zipped through its orbit at some 17,500 mph.

"Comet rises above the horizon just before orbital sunrise amongst aurora and swirling satellites," the space agency's flight engineer posted online. The comet makes its appearance at the bottom of the view at about 12 seconds into the short clip.

SEE ALSO: NASA scientist viewed first Voyager images. What he saw gave him chills.

In this view from Sept. 29, the comet is some 75 million miles from Earth, and 38 million miles from the sun (Earth is 93 million miles from our star). As comets approach the sun, they heat up and eject dust and gas into space, leaving long wakes of millions-of-miles-long material, as you can see below. Comet C/2023 A3 just made its closest approach to the sun on Sept. 27, and is now en route to the profoundly frigid realms of the deep solar system.

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Comets have a lot of material to burn, as they're typically miles long to tens of miles long. "When frozen, they are the size of a small town," NASA explained. One particular comet, discovered in 2021, is a whopping 85 miles wide.

Although Dominick captured the comet with a camera, he did note that it's visible to the naked eye from the space station, too. And down on Earth, it might be visible to skygazers. The "best show," as the comet zooms between Earth and the sun, is likely to happen in mid-October.

But if this comet eludes you, or you can't escape to dark enough skies, enjoy the view from space.

Most default screensavers are pretty dull. Like, I already know my TV is a TCL — I don't need the TCL logo to be constantly present onscreen. And don't get me started on those old-school bouncing DVD icons that never made it into the corner.

Luckily, it's relatively easy to turn your TV screensaver into a slideshow of your own photos, so that you can see your family, friends, pets, or bygone vacations smiling back at you when you're not watching Netflix. It's a small change that can make your home feel a little cozier — a little more like your space.

The best method will vary depending on your TV, so here are a few options to try.

Option #1: Investigate your TV's cloud-based features

Your smart TV likely includes built-in features for setting up a photo screensaver. 

Roku, for example, has Photo Streams, which is accessible to anyone with a Roku account. Simply log in, create a new "stream," and upload your photos. From there, the Photo Streams channel should appear on your Roku menu, and your screensaver will be "automatically set to Photo Streams," according to Roku.

Similarly, an Amazon Fire TV can set a slideshow screensaver using images you've uploaded to Amazon Photos. A Google TV can create a screensaver using images from Google Photos. You get the idea.

Option #2: Opt for an add-on streaming device

Even if you don't have a smart TV, adding a streaming device to your current TV can help you access the same features outlined above. For example, a Roku device means you'll have a Roku account, which means you can use Photo Streams — and it'll likely cost you less than $50.

An Apple TV box is especially simple to use for custom screensavers. Just open the Photos app, which should be synced with the rest of your Apple devices, and select an entire album to use. 

You can also use AirPlay to cast photos straight from your iPhone or iPad, though that's not really a set-it-and-forget-it method. It can be helpful if you want to display a slideshow during a get-together, though!

Option #3: Turn to the trusty USB

Are the other options not working out? It's time to get vintage with it. Load your selections onto a USB drive, then plug it into the USB-A port on your TV. From there, many TVs will detect the drive and give you a list of options for media playback, including slideshow speed.

If you want even more control over your slideshow's pacing, you can upload all your photos into a PowerPoint presentation, set transitions between slides, and save that to the USB drive before you plug it in. Just be sure it's a file type compatible with your particular TV — an mp4 should do the trick in most cases.

Even if you have to do some extra work, having a custom slideshow on your TV can go a long way toward personalizing your home. 

And if you want to use something other than your own photos? Try matching your home's aesthetic with a slideshow of open-access images, like from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's open-access collection. 

The possibilities are endless, really. After all, it's your space.

TL;DR: Get lifetime access to this CompTIA and IT exam training bundle for just $49.99 through October 27 — featuring top-rated exam simulators and hands-on labs.

Opens in a new window Credit: ExamsDigest The Complete CompTIA & IT Exam Lifetime Access Training Bundle $49.99
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Breaking into the IT world can feel daunting — but not when you’ve got the right tools and training on your side. This CompTIA and IT course package could be your ultimate resource for building a solid foundation in IT, covering everything from networking and security to coding and cloud architecture.

Get lifetime access to this online learning resource for $49.99 through October 27.

Here’s what you get:

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Whether you’re building a professional portfolio, troubleshooting network issues, or exploring cloud architecture, this CompTIA and IT exam training bundle can help — priced at just $49.99 until October 27.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Get lifetime access to BitMar, a Bing-powered streaming content finder, for only $19.99 through October 6 — no ads, just endless content.

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Endlessly scrolling through apps trying to find something to watch can be exhausting. That’s where BitMar steps in — think of it as your personal content concierge.

With lifetime access to BitMar on sale for only $19.99 (reg. $150, on sale through October 6), you can search across multiple streaming platforms without jumping between apps.

Powered by Bing search and BitMar’s own filtering algorithms, it narrows down exactly what you want to watch, instantly. Whether it’s a new show, a niche documentary, or a hidden gem, BitMar makes it easy to find.

But here’s the best part: BitMar brings all this together without annoying ads. If you’re someone who streams YouTube, you’ll know how rare that is unless you’re paying a pretty penny for a premium subscription. With BitMar, you can watch content from YouTube, free of ads, saving you the monthly cost.

BitMar’s design isn’t just functional; it’s a breeze to use. The intuitive interface makes finding and streaming content smooth, even if you’re not super tech-savvy. And for all you cord-cutters and streamers, it’s a cost-effective solution with lifetime access. No subscriptions, no recurring charges — just an endless supply of free content at your fingertips.

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Until October 6 at 11:59 p.m. PT, get a lifetime subscription to the BitMar Streaming Content-Finder on sale for $19.99.

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TL;DR: Get an 8-inch touchscreen car display compatible with CarPlay and Android Auto on sale for $99.99 (reg. $159.99).

Opens in a new window Credit: Mesay 8-inch Rotatable Touchscreen Display with Wireless Apple Carplay / Android Auto Compatibility $99.99
$159.99 Save $60.00 Get Deal

’Tis the season for road trips, whether you’re navigating back home for the holidays, to a friend’s house, or visiting Grandma. This year, make the drive safer and more enjoyable by adding CarPlay and Android Auto to your ride. Yeah, you can do that, even if your car is older than you.

If your car, truck, or Batmobile has a cigarette lighter for power and somewhere to mount the screen, it’s compatible with this 8-inch touchscreen display. Easily update your car for just $99.99 (reg. $159.99).

Imagine plugging in your destination on your phone, seeing the directions on a much larger screen on your dash, and controlling your road trip playlist, all from one central hub. It even rotates from landscape to portrait orientations, so you always get the best viewing experience.

Quick, seamless installation

You don’t need to be a tech expert to set this thing up. After you hook it up to power and install it on your dash, just figure out how you want to listen to music. It has built-in speakers, or you can use Bluetooth, FM radio, or an aux cable to connect to your car’s stereo.

Safer road-tripping? Check out the rear camera. 

Just when you thought the deal couldn’t get any sweeter, this CarPlay display comes with reverse-view capability. (Note that you may need external products to use this feature.) When you put your vehicle in reverse, the screen automatically switches views so you get a clear view of what’s behind you. No more backing into shopping carts or trees.

Make your road trips and daily commute easier and safer with this CarPlay and Android Auto car screen, now $99.99 (reg. $159.99).

StackSocial prices subject to change.

TL;DR: Get your hands on 1080p HD Digital Night Vision Binoculars for $69.99 (reg. $129.99) and start capturing fascinating sights in the night.

Opens in a new window Credit: Mesay 1080p HD Digital Night Vision Binoculars with 2.8-inch Screen $69.99
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Ever wondered what’s really going on in the woods or the sky after dark?

Find out with 1080p HD Digital Night Vision Binoculars on sale for almost half off at $69.99 (reg. $129.99).

You don’t have to just rely on shaky phone videos or blurry pics from others — you can be the one to capture everything that happens when the sun goes down.

These binoculars are equipped with powerful night-vision technology, allowing you to spot things in the dark with crisp 1080p HD clarity, and save it. Whether you’re scanning the night sky for some extraterrestrial activity or just trying to catch a glimpse of wildlife, you’ll have the edge with this gadget. The 2.8-inch screen makes viewing easy, so no squinting or missing out on key details.

They’re not bulky, either. Designed to be lightweight and compact, these binoculars are perfect for outdoor adventures or just casually hanging out in your backyard. And with the ability to capture video, you can document everything — no more “I swear I saw something” moments. You'll have the footage to back it up.

Your ticket to becoming the night’s ultimate observer is here — get these 1080p HD Digital Night-Vision Binoculars on sale for $69.99 for a limited time.

StackSocial prices subject to change.

In the first six months of 2024, Americans lost $65 million to Bitcoin ATM scams. The machines offer an easy way for people to get into cryptocurrency, and they're increasingly showing up in grocery and convenience stores, gas stations, smoke and vape shops, and laundromats across the country.

Their growing accessibility, plus the lack of consumer protection and industry regulation, make the cash-receiving kiosks an appealing target for scammers, says John Breyault, vice president of public policy, telecommunications and fraud at National Consumers League.

Take, for example, a Houston area man who recently received a phone call from a thief impersonating law enforcement. The scammer told his victim that he'd failed to report to jury duty and had an active warrant for his arrest, according to the NBC News affiliate Click2Houston. The only way the victim could get out of legal trouble? By depositing cash into a Bitcoin ATM at a nearby grocery store.

"They were pretty sophisticated and pretty adamant that, you know, you couldn't get off the phone, it had to be dealt with right now," the victim, who was only identified by the first name of Loyd, told Click2Houston. By the time Loyd had finished putting money into the Bitcoin ATM, he'd lost nearly $60,000.

SEE ALSO: Scammers are using pictures of your home to amplify sextortion threats

Breyault says that Bitcoin ATM scammers are incredibly skilled at convincing their victims to part with their cash. Though consumers older than 60 are more likely to be targeted, the median loss in these schemes across all ages is $10,000, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The agency issued a warning about Bitcoin ATM fraud in September, noting that losses have increased nearly 10-fold since 2023.

Breyault says scammers are so successful because they get "people into such an agitated state emotionally that they're not able to make rational decisions."

In order to prepare consumers for that possibility, Breyault shared basic information about how Bitcoin ATMs work, whether victims can recover their losses to a scam, and warning signs that you've become a target. The FTC, which has its own list of similar tips, says that if anyone sends you to a Bitcoin ATM, it's a scam.

How do Bitcoin ATMs work?

As cryptocurrency went mainstream, companies that sell it began to place Bitcoin ATM machines in heavily trafficked stores and businesses, says Breyault. While the number of machines varies depending on the source, one estimate published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City put the figure at about 49,000.

Before the spread of those kiosks, customers needed tech savviness to create and access cryptocurrency accounts. The ATM machines make it much easier to deposit cash and purchase Bitcoin. But unlike traditional ATM machines, Bitcoin consoles don't typically allow withdrawals.

The companies that operate the machines lease a business's space, much like banks do to place their ATMs in front of consumers. However, the rapid appearance of Bitcoin ATMs has far outpaced consumer protections and education. For example, the machines inconsistently feature signs warning customers about fraud. Victims may also be told to ignore such messaging.

When scammers direct their victim to a Bitcoin ATM, they usually give specific instructions to create a new account and then to provide the thief with the QR code or digital key that provides them access to the cash. Victims may also be told to deposit the money into an established account.

Breyault says employees of stores and businesses that host Bitcoin ATMs often don't have training to spot scams underway, or the know-how to intervene. One victim was even offered a chair to sit in while spending hours stuffing thousands of dollars into an ATM, according to a story reported by AARP.

Can I get my money back from a Bitcoin ATM scam?

Once the money is deposited into an account, and the thief has the digital key to access it, the cash can be moved to another account almost instantly. This makes recovering the victim's money nearly impossible, Breyault says.

He adds that this is largely because cryptocurrency is loosely regulated. As a result, it's subject to "weak" fraud controls. Unlike fraudulent credit card spending, which banks try to flag immediately, and which can be recouped, there are no such consumer protections for Bitcoin scams.

While federal legislation could change that in the future, scammers are currently taking advantage of the "insecure technology," Breyault says.

"Nobody is immune to this," he adds. "What's important to stress is that these are professional criminals. This is what they do all day, every day. They're very good at it."

The FTC advises consumers who've lost their money to a Bitcoin ATM scam to inform their bank or fund immediately, then report it to the agency.

Warning signs of a Bitcoin ATM scam

1. Requests to deposit money into a Bitcoin ATM

The biggest red flag is when someone asks you to deposit money into a Bitcoin ATM. This might seem like it casts too wide of a net, but Breyault says that consumers should be skeptical of any such request — even from someone they feel like they know and trust, and have met in person.

That's because some Bitcoin ATM scams involve grooming victims over time. Colloquially known as "pig butchering," like an animal being fattened before slaughter, these schemes start as online friendships or romances in order to build trust. The thief might eventually talk about crypto investing, or say they need help paying for an unexpected expense, but it's a scam designed to empty the victim's bank account.

Even if you're comfortable with crypto and have an account of your own, Breyault recommends never sharing your private key with anyone.

"That's like handing cash to them," he says.

2. The person you're talking to has created a sense of urgency

If someone that you're talking to, whether they're a stranger or person who feels like a friend, is insisting that you deal with a problem immediately by taking money out of your bank account, it's likely a scam, Breyault says.

Common tactics include telling the victim that they have to act now or they or a loved one will be jailed because they violated the law; that a government agency, like the Internal Revenue Service, will come to their house; or that a "risk-free" crypto deal is only available for a very limited time.

"If you are feeling pressured to act quickly, no matter how dire they make the situation sound, stop and ask a friend or a loved one," Breyault says.

3. The person knows a lot about you — and seems legitimate

Scammers can be very persuasive when they seem to know a lot about their victim, including where they live. But Breyault says that a lot of that information is publicly available or can be obtained via data breaches or for a small fee from data brokers.

Recently, for example, scammers have used publicly available pictures of people's homes to pressure victims in Bitcoin sextortion schemes.

Scammers can also spoof phone numbers and email addresses to make it seem like they're contacting the victim from an official government agency. Breyault recommends people avoid trusting communication from seemingly legitimate sources when they involve urgent demands for money and information.

4. Promises for big returns on a Bitcoin investment

Some Bitcoin ATM scams revolve around offers to invest in cryptocurrency that will lead to massive financial gain. Breyault says scammers use traditional marketing tactics, offering limited-time deals or insider knowledge. Those promises are almost bound to be lies.

Breyault recommends only getting involved in cryptocurrency as a "sophisticated" investor who's prepared to lose money.

If you suspect you've been targeted by or you've become the victim of a Bitcoin ATM scam, Breyault says to report it to law enforcement.

Doing so helps them create a record, spot trends, and "hopefully put some of these bad guys behind bars."

Every day can be Halloween if you put in a little effort! And by effort, all we mean is "switch on Peacock" with your remote control and enjoy. This subscription streamer has heaps of terrific horror movies just laying in wait. Classic ghost tales, feminist werewolf revampings, slashers old and new. With so much to choose from you might well be overwhelmed. 

SEE ALSO: What to watch: Best scary movies

So, let us narrow it down for you a smidge — here are 26 of the best horror movies now streaming on Peacock. 

Let the Right One In Credit: Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.

Redefining all that B.F.F. can mean, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy director Tomas Alfredson's timeless 2008 adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel gives us the tender tween love story of a bullied boy named Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) and the eternal nightmare monster from hell, Eli (Lina Leandersson), who just happens to look like a sweet sullen young girl. Meeting up in the dead of night on the snowy playground outside their forbidding brutalist apartment building, the two young people sweetly bond, all while Eli's blood-harvesting sidekick goes through a series of tribulations nobody would wish on their worst enemy. But a twist of fate could change both of their lives forever. 

You only really realize after the fact how horrifying this love story truly is. Alfredson plays it all like a YA novel, and that's ultimately the deepest horror of all. And, yes, Matt Reeves's 2010 American remake Let Me In (starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Grace Moretz as the young couple) is far better than it has any right being, but still — Team Original, if you ask me.

How to watch: Let the Right One In is now streaming on Peacock.

Tourist Trap

This deeply bizarre 1979 flick is courtesy of director David Schmoeller, who also gifted the world Klaus Kinski's wildly unhinged turn in 1986's Crawlspace, not to mention the first Puppet Master. Tourist Trap finds a group of horned-up twentysomethings getting lost on their way through the California desert and stumbling upon some sort of haunted mannequin museum, with dire consequences. Not that there are really any other kind of consequences when one stumbles upon a haunted mannequin museum. You've never heard anybody say they stumbled upon a haunted mannequin museum and had a good time, that much we can guarantee. 

Anyway, it's the usual stuff — pretty young things picked off one by one by a masked killer. But it's all so freaking weird, with the mannequins and everything, that you won't soon forget it.

How to watch: Tourist Trap is now streaming on Peacock.

Black Christmas (1974)

It doesn't even have to be the holiday season to watch this slasher classic. Four years before Michael Myers stabbed his way onto the scene, there was director Bob Clark of A Christmas Story fame unleashing a perverted killer on a sorority house full of extremely likable girls — including Olivia Hussey, Andrea Martin, and Margot Kidder (pre-Lois Lane).

As a group of sorority sisters on winter break endure a series of increasingly obscene phone calls, their enormous house begins feeling smaller and smaller. Black Christmas masterfully isolates the girls one by one with no idea they're being stalked, much less that half their friends have already been murdered. Not until it's inevitably too late. 2001 star Keir Dullea co-stars as a rageaholic pianist slash main suspect, but nothing in this deeply unsettling flick is ever as clear as it seems. Except maybe that crystal unicorn figurine that one of the girls gets stabbed with.

How to watch: Black Christmas is now streaming on Peacock.

Curtains

Some say the 1983 Canadian slasher Curtains is only worth watching for one scene. But that's unfair as there are many delights to be had… as long as Canadian slashers from the '80s are the sorts of things you find delight in. 

Directed by Richard Ciupka, the film's got an unusual plot as far as slasher movies go. A prestigious slimeball movie director invites a gaggle of young, thirsty-for-fame actresses to an isolated mansion to audition for the lead role in his new movie. Showing up out of the blue to complicate matters is the director's former muse (Samantha Eggar of The Brood fame), who has "aged out," as far as the director is concerned. She's prepared to fight for the role tooth-and-nail anyway. Suffice it to say that tensions are running high even before a masked killer shows up and starts offing the actresses one by one. 

All of the expected cat-fighting and the humor at the expense of overly serious actors in Curtains remains totally on point, especially when it's Eggars on-screen, as nobody in 1983 was doing big-eyed unhinged better than she. But that aforementioned one killer scene does get hollered about for good reason. You take one iced-over pond and a maniac wearing a hag mask while wielding a sickle, and that's cinema, baby. 

How to watch: Curtains is now streaming on Peacock.

Ginger Snaps

Teen sisters Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) are as close as they come, bonded by their experiences in a shitty world where they've been forced to take care of one another. The introvert Brigitte gets bullied a lot, and Ginger's always there to save her. Then, one night while out in the woods, Ginger gets her first period, and, uhh, things change. Namely, a werewolf drawn by her menstrual blood bites her, and she becomes a werewolf, much to Brigitte's chagrin. 

An immediately classic spin on the werewolf mythos that folds monster tropes into the horrors of puberty, Ginger Snaps has two sequels and a pack of diehard lycan-fans. But the original stands on its own two sturdy hind legs just fine, telling a standalone story of a familial bond being tested and of useless boys being chewed up and spat to the side. Make sure to watch it with your sister on a full moon, especially if your cycles are in sync!

How to watch: Ginger Snaps is now streaming on Peacock.

The House of the Devil Credit: Photo by Graham Reznick, courtesy of Magnet Releasing.

Even before he was resurrecting the grindhouse aesthetic with X and indulging in an Oz-esque technicolor period phantasmagoria with Pearl, writer-director Ti West has shown an affinity for the past. One great example of this is 2009's The House of the Devil, a babysitter-in-peril horror flick that feels like a forgotten artifact dug up out of the early 1980s. 

Jocelin Donahue stars as Samantha, a college student so desperate to rack up some cash that she ignores her intuition around a mysterious "baby-sitting" gig at a weird old mansion in the middle of nowhere. The House of the Devil is deeply infatuated with not just the aesthetics of its setting but also all the creepy trappings of the Satanic Panic stories of that era. It's a spooky vibe that anybody who was alive then will still feel in their bones. Quick cue the blood moon, weird knocking noises upstairs, and a banger of a scene involving a Walkman, not to mention an all-too-brief appearance by Greta Gerwig as Samantha's bestie. By the time the legend Mary Woronov shows up, we'll all be praying for daylight.

How to watch: The House of the Devil is now streaming on Peacock.

Starry Eyes

The lust for fame has perhaps never been shown to be so brutal as it is in Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer's 2014 horror movie. Alexandra Essoe gives one hell of a performance as a gifted but flailing young actress in Hollywood whose career is going nowhere and whose friends all suck. We spend just enough time with her in her miserable situation to understand why she'd be willing to make some sacrifices to move upward in The Biz. 

SEE ALSO: 'The Substance' creator, Coralie Fargeat, on reclaiming aggression and rage for women

Unfortunately for her (and for those shitty friends), those "sacrifices" start getting out of hand quickly. A casting director with a pentagram pendant is just the start of this deeply cynical A Star Is Born narrative's undoing, which literalizes the Faustian pact in blood and flesh and tears and pretty dresses for movie premieres. But as straightforward a narrative as Starry Eyes ends up telling, it's turned riveting by Essoe's fierce commitment and by a killer synth score that sets it all spinning. Some stylish devilry, indeed.

How to watch: Starry Eyes is now streaming on Peacock.

Eaten Alive

Though director Tobe Hooper rightly made his name with his 1974 masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (see further down this list), we nevertheless have a deep fondness for his 1976 alligator attack movie Eaten Alive. It is just so much weirder than this sort of thing has any right to be, and ends up all the more transfixing for it. 

Filmed on a swampy soundstage that always feels like you're sitting in the audience for a regional theatrical production of a lesser-known Tennessee Williams play, the sweaty rednecks that Hooper specialized in find themselves converging on a run-down Bates-esque hotel. Only instead of a mother-loving boy in a wig there's a crocodile. And Real Housewives star Kyle Richards. And, yes, wigs too. Eaten Alive has a little of everything, and utter chaos ensues as it all comes smashing together. If this movie makes you feel like you've lost a little bit of your sanity while watching it, one suspects that's precisely what Hooper was aiming for.

How to watch: Eaten Alive is now streaming on Peacock.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Credit: HA / THA / Shutterstock

Famously shot during a brutally hot Texas summer, you can immediately feel the sweat soaking through director Tobe Hooper's 1974 grindhouse masterpiece The Texas Chain Saw Massacre even before its characters are given any reason to work up one. We first meet our group of wayward twentysomethings (led by horror icon Marilyn Burns playing our final girl Sally) riding in one of those stereotypical hippie vans of the moment with the windows rolled down. But all the same, you can hardly breathe. The air itself looks thick and dirty. Squalid. And that sensation will only grow worse with every passing minute. 

There's been a rash of grave-robbing in central Texas, as described in a nice little introductory monologue by John Laroquette (who received some of Texas's finest marijuana from Hooper as payment). Sally and her friends are headed to visit their grandfather's grave to make sure it's intact. Along the way, they pick up a seriously creepy hitchhiker, jaw about slaughterhouses, and end up at the home of a family of miscreants whose appetites for red meat has truly gotten the best of them. Texans and their barbeque, man! Still, as admirably disgusting as all that sounds, Hooper accomplishes his horror almost entirely through implication — but what disturbing implications they are. Just coming to understand how Leatherface gets his name is enough to turn you vegan. One of, if not the, greatest horror films ever made.

How to watch: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is now streaming on Peacock.

The Changeling

1980's The Changeling stars George C. Scott as a composer named John Russell who, after his wife and daughter are killed in a car accident in front of him, retreats to an isolated mansion outside of Seattle. Of course, the house is isolated for a reason. Slowly but surely, it begins spilling its secrets to him – there's knocking on the walls, a broken window, and an infernal red ball that keeps bouncing down the stairs.

Already in a fragile mental state due to his grief, John finds himself easily swept up in the unraveling of the mysteries, and the spirits in the house take full advantage. Brimming with iconic imagery, this is about as classic a ghost story as they come.

How to watch: The Changeling is now streaming on Peacock.

The Wailing

Horror films are a genre that are normally served best when brief. Too long a runtime, and it's hard to sustain the mood or the tension. The audience will inevitably begin poking holes in the plot. And yet Na Hong-jin's 2016 South Korean film The Wailing manages to sustain itself for nearly three hours – it's an anomaly! 

How he does it is by making The Wailing several movies in one. It's a comic police procedural and a zombie outbreak movie and a terrifying demonic possession movie. It switches tones frequently, lurching from comedy to terror with wild abandon. In fact, there's so much going on it's difficult to summarize and capture anything near the scope of it. But the gist is there's this police officer (Kwak Do-won) whose daughter has gone missing, and all of the strange things happening in a rural village seem to be connected to that. And, ooh, are they ever. 

How to watch: The Wailing is now streaming on Peacock.

Dead & Buried

"Seaside town with a secret" movies are one of the greatest of horror subgenres, from Messiah of Evil to The Fog. Dead & Buried belongs right there among the classics. 

Directed by Gary Sherman (Poltergeist III), it takes us to Potters Bluff, where every tourist who comes into town meets the grisliest of ends at the hands of the locals. The sheriff (James Farentino) starts digging into the murders with the assistance of the local mortician (Jack Albertson, aka Grandpa Joe from Willy Wonka!). But things only get weirder and weirder as they go along. There are too many surprises here to ruin — just trust, you will not guess where this one is going.

How to watch: Dead & Buried is now streaming on Peacock.

The Beyond

If you've never seen a Lucio Fulci movie, there's no good place to dive right in. It's all chaos, all the time. And even after you've seen most of his movies, you're still likely to have no idea what the hell is going on in half of them. 

1981's The Beyond is the middle chapter in his so-called "Gates of Hell" trilogy of films, sandwiched between City of the Living Dead and The House by the Cemetery. But there's not really a coherent order to what occurs; just expect a gateway to hell to be opened and all sorts of truly vicious horrors to come spilling out. Fulci films are all about the languorous nightmare vibes — everyone behaves totally irrationally, but they somehow still work if you can subscribe to their dream logic. 

The Beyond stars (as do all three of the films in the trilogy) the great Catriona MacColl. She plays a different person in each movie,  and here she's Liza, a New Yorker who's moved to New Orleans to take over a crumbling hotel she's recently inherited. Immediately, strange things start happening, mostly involving reanimated corpses and exceedingly slow scenes of grotesquery, and Liza does her damndest to figure out what's driving it before Hell takes over Earth. And let's just say that Fulci's not known for happy endings. 

How to watch: The Beyond is now streaming on Peacock.

Abigail Credit: Universal

Taking a break in between Scream sequels — a break that would prove to be permanent soon after — the directing duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (aka Radio Silence) reunited with Scream star Melissa Barrera to toss off this vampire ballerina goof, which ended up being a total crowd-pleaser and their best movie since Ready or Not. Barrera plays Joey, a laconic member of a gang of criminals led by Frank (Dan Stevens, doing his thing again). Together, they kidnap Abigail (Alisha Weir), the daughter of a very powerful man, and plan to hold her for ransom. 

Little do they know though that, much like Kirsten Dunst in Interview with the Vampire before her, Abigail is actually an ancient bloodsucker trapped in the body of a tween ballerina, and have they ever busted into the wrong mansion this time. With a game cast that also includes Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand, Angus Cloud (in his final role), and Giancarlo Esposito, Abigail might play its big twist way past when we've already figured it out, but it's having such a bloody good time you really don't care.

How to watch: Abigail is now streaming on Peacock.

Us Credit: C Barius / Universal / ILM / Kobal / Shutterstock

What if there was a world underneath our own world where doubles of each and every one of us lay in wait, biding their time doing weird pantomimes of our behavior until they could one day all report topside and take our places? Our places having been recently vacated because these doubles have just murdered us with large scissors, of course. That's the bizarre tale that Jordan Peele's 2019 doppelganger freakout Us spins, and that's before we even get into the "Hands Across America" of it.

SEE ALSO: 4 ways of understanding Jordan Peele's 'Us'

With a killer cast including Lupita Nyong'o, Elisabeth Moss, and Winston Duke, Peele makes the oddness of his conceit work in what is essentially a home-invasion picture, delivering an unforgettable pile-up of scenes that are chock-full of immediately iconic imagery. The scissors, the red jumpsuits, the bunnies, oh my! And in the pantheon of horror performances that deserved but didn't get awards attention, Nyong'o's double-forked performance in Us stands especially tall. Tall, wielding scissors, and smiling that big broad terrifying smile — the one that will make you wanna crawl right outta your skin.

How to watch: Us is now streaming on Peacock.

Old

The current period in M. Night Shyamalan's directing career has been referred to as "Mid-Night," and that's a delightful play on words — as long as we're talking "middle-aged" and not "mid" in quality,  because it's been banger after ridiculous banger from the man as far as I'm concerned. Shyamalan has embraced the sublimely outrageous, throwing logic and reality out the window in favor of stone cold entertainment and cinematic show-offery, and Old, his movie about a beach that makes people turn old, is some prime-cut movie beef.

Starring an international cast of genuinely superb thespians who are ready, willing, and excited to fully embrace this nonsense, Old features Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Abbey Lee, Alex Wolff, Thomasin McKenzie, Eliza Scanlen, and Aaron Pierre as the residents of a lush tropical resort who decide to take a day trip and visit a gorgeous secluded spot on the island. And suddenly minutes turn into hours, and the kids are all adults, and it's legitimately bonkers. But as silly and often scary as it is, Night also turns this into a moving paean to our lives slipping away from us. He's a magician.

How to watch: Old is now streaming on Peacock.

Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

Every Nosferatu movie to date has been a classic, up to and including Shadow of the Vampire, the one about the fictionalized making of the original Murnau movie. But Werner Herzog's 1979 take on the infamous Dracula rip-off is in my estimation the lushest, the most gorgeous, and by far the weirdest. It certainly helps to be lush and gorgeous when your movie stars Isabelle Adjani. And it definitely helps being way out there weird when the other star is Klaus Kinski. 

Herzog bridges the gap between those two actors' very different energies nimbly; this movie feels like dream and nightmare simultaneously, and there's nothing else like it. Visions of plague rats and burial caskets overtaking the streets of 19th-century Germany move through a fine grainy mist, as the cursed dance between the beauty and her beast slowly, surely inches itself toward the bleakest of dawns. It's the purest horror cinema: the essence of wanton despair. Wrap yourself up in this beauty, because you're about to get real cold, real quick.

How to watch: Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) is now streaming on Peacock.

Child's Play

Killer doll movies have been a staple of the genre since its inception, but none have gone on to become more iconic than Chucky, the Good Guy doll that gets possessed by the spirit of a serial killer and spends the next four decades hack-slashing his way up and down the toy aisles. It all starts here, with the 1988 original from Fright Night director Tom Holland, with a script by Chucky's main man, Don Mancini. A single mom (Catherine Hicks) gives her little boy Andy (Alex Vincent) the large, ginger-haired doll she'll hope will cure his loneliness, only to have the foul-mouthed murderer in little red sneakers create a world of deadly mayhem instead. Whether you like your Chucky camp and over-the-top (as he's gotten in later installments) or simply terrifying, this classic straddles both sides of the petrifying poppet's personality perfectly.

How to watch: Child's Play is now streaming on Peacock.

Dawn of the Dead (2004) Credit: Moviestore / Shutterstock

Zack Snyder's greatest movie, hands down! (DC fans, that bait's just for you.) The Justice League director may not have nailed the capitalist critique that made George A. Romero's original 1978 zombie classic so biting, but Snyder's 2004 remake kicks all kinds of unholy ass all the same. It certainly helps that he's got Oscar–winner Sarah Polley as his leading lady, a nurse named Ana who returns from a long shift to find the world exploding into a cannibalistic apocalypse in an opening outbreak sequence for the ages.

As Ana and other survivors (or zombies-to-be) — including stalwart character actors like Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, Mekhi Phifer, and Michael Kelly — all descend on a shopping mall to barricade themselves in for humanity's last stand, Snyder ramps everything up to eleven, twelve, and thirteen. This killer group of actors is what truly make this movie soar, giving us real-seeming people to worry about as the big zombie rampage starts turning them into snacks.

How to watch: Dawn of the Dead is now streaming on Peacock.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum

If you love found-footage horror, then this 2018 example from South Korea ranks among the most entertaining, jump-off-your-seat examples. The set-up is a standard one: Six YouTubers who host a ghost-hunting series head to a scary location and hit record until all hell breaks loose. In this case, the eponymous asylum is the setting, where it's rumored the hospital's director lost his mind and murdered everybody inside. Of course, we'll glean little bits of that backstory as the scares start kicking in. 

But like all the best examples of this kind of movie, it's all in the execution (pun intended). Writer/director Jung Bum-shik nails both the atmosphere and the jump scares alike that are needed to make your trip to Gonjiam a terrifyingly memorable one. A flooded basement and a floating ping-pong ball have truly never been scarier!

How to watch: Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum is now streaming on Peacock.

Q: The Winged Serpent

This is a horror movie for cityfolk who know there's nothing scarier than having a mysterious liquid drip on your head as you walk down the street. Cult maestro Larry Cohen (It's Alive, The Stuff) went absolutely bonkers with this 1982 monster movie that sees a giant dragon perch itself inside the top of the Chrysler Building in Manhattan, and then proceed to chow down on the human-sized morsels milling below. There is a truly nonsense backstory involving an Aztec cult (Q is short for "Quetzalcoatl") and a rampaging cop slash jazz pianist (Michael Moriarty) that you 100% don't have to pay attention to. Q: The Winged Serpent lives and breathes by its scenes of a claymation dinosaur descending into rooftop pools and snatching unsuspecting New Yorkers off the sidewalks into its jaws and its claws. And by that metric, it's a sweeping serpentine success.

How to watch: Q: The Winged Serpent is now streaming on Peacock.

Night of the Demons

Totally grody and a heap of hoots and hollers, this 1988 supernatural slasher features the requisite set-up — a gang of unlikeable teens descend on an abandoned mortuary to have sex and do, like, drugs and stuff — but goes so wildly off the rails that it's hilariously unforgettable. It kicks off on one fateful Halloween evening when our intrepid gang of assholes, led by goth girl Angela (Amelia Kinkade), moons an old man on the street. And so he curses them. 

Yes, that's the entire diabolical set-up, and yes, that is the most 1980s horror movie set-up ever crafted. From there, the gang holds a seance, some nasty spooks get loosed, and everybody starts turning into demons one by one. And before you know it, horror icon Linnea Quigley (as the indispensable horny girl, Suzanne) is doing unmentionable things with a lipstick tube, there's strobe-filled dance sequence set to Bauhaus' "Stigmata Martyr," and Night of the Demons earns its place in the pantheon of perfect 1980s schlock.

How to watch: Night of the Demons is now streaming on Peacock.

Halloween III: Season of the Witch

Everybody who hated Halloween III: Season of the Witch when it came out in 1982 because it didn't have Michael Myers in it needs to send an apology note and a crisp ten dollar bill to writer/director Tommy Lee Wallace, because they were wrong — so very wrong! John Carpenter and Debra Hill decided after the second Halloween movie that Myers' tale had been told, and the Halloween films should instead become an anthology series. And oh, that it could've gone that route instead of descending into the decades of nonsense it eventually did when this movie flopped. 

SEE ALSO: 31 essential, history-making horror movies to stream this spooky season

The tale of an evil toy corporation that's run by pagans plotting to murder children with cursed masks that contain a sliver of Stonehenge, Season of the Witch makes us mourn for all of the All Hallows-themed wackiness we missed out on. And just you try to get that "Silver Shamrock" jingle out of your head once it's wormed its way in there!

How to watch: Halloween III: Season of the Witch is now streaming on Peacock.

Frankenstein Credit: Universal / Kobal / Shutterstock

Sometimes only a classic Universal Monster will scratch that spooky itch, and thankfully the greatest of them all is here with its big fingers at the ready: James Whale's 1931 masterpiece Frankenstein, and its equally excellent sequel, Bride of Frankenstein. Adapting Mary Shelley's legendary novel about a mad doctor (Colin Clive) bringing a corpse back to life through that modern boogeyman "electricity," Whale & Co. didn't make a single bad step in the movie's making. From Boris Karloff's casting as the monster, all the way down to the design of the bolts on his neck, every decision proved iconic. 

It's as watchable and eerie as it was when it dropped in theaters almost a full century ago. It is, dare I say, alive!!!!

How to watch: Frankenstein is now streaming on Peacock.

Sleep Tight

In the middle of helming the exquisite found-footage [REC] quadrilogy, writer/director Jaume Balagueró took some time to concoct this chilling little 2011 thriller about a demented apartment concierge named César (celebrated Spanish actor Luis Tosar) who doesn't let little things like "privacy" or "doors" keep him from snooping around the lives of his unknowing tenants. Kind of like Phillip Noyce's infamous 1993 piece of trash Sliver with Sharon Stone but actually great and terrifying, Sleep Tight sees César sneaking into everybody's homes in the middle of the night, chloroforming them as they sleep, and then doing whatever the hell he wants to whilst they remain not-so-blissfully unconscious. 

Balagueró's movie ends up being so super creepy precisely because it seems way too possible; indeed, there are echoes of many real-world news stories in this unsettling premise. Balagueró leans hard into every single one of the nightmares from this set-up that your brain can conjure up. Don't sleep on this underrated little terror! 

How to watch: Sleep Tight is now streaming on Peacock.

Happy Death Day

Coming out of nowhere in 2017 and immediately seizing a spot in our collective imaginations (and then somehow repeating the trick with an equally terrific sequel, also on Peacock), writer Scott Lobdell's slasher-meets-Groundhog Day conceit is so perfect it amazes that nobody thought of it earlier. Actor Jessica Rothe — who is the big charismatic reason why these movies work — plays Tree, a college sorority girl who gets murdered by a killer wearing a terrifying baby mask on the night of her birthday. 

Until the next morning, when Tree wakes up — back in her bed, alive, on the morning of her birthday all over again. Forced to figure out what the hell's going on and to elude the killer who has it out for her, director Christopher Landon's Happy Death Day reinvigorates the old slash-n-dash concept we've seen a million times over with charm and wit and a whole bunch of stabbing. Rothe rules the roost as a hilarious, exasperated time-tripping treasure.

How to watch: Happy Death Day is now streaming on Peacock.

UPDATE: Sep. 26, 2024, 1:56 p.m. EDT This feature was originally published on Nov. 18, 2023. It has been updated since to reflect current streaming options.

Opens in a new window Credit: Peacock Peacock Get Deal

Are you a connoisseur of horror? You appreciate all flavors of this rich genre, from the spine-tinglingly spooky to the gleefully gruesome, from the sickeningly suspenseful, to the willfully outrageous. But maybe you've seen so many horror movies that it has become a challenge to find something fresh to thrill. We've been there, and we're here to help.

Scouring Shudder's streaming library of horror, we've collected highlights that boast eerie ghost stories, vengeful witches, cackling corpses, a love-struck zombie, and unconventional slashers.

Here are the 25 best hidden gems now streaming on Shudder.

1. Rift

Want something uniquely chilling? Then check out this 2017 Icelandic thriller set in a frigid and frightful landscape. Written and directed by Erlingur Thoroddsen, Rift follows a man (Björn Stefánsson) to a remote cabin, where he hopes to help his distraught ex-boyfriend (Sigurður Þór Óskarsson) and maybe find some closure over their breakup. However, their reunion is rattled by a series of strange events that suggest they aren’t alone. Something is in the darkness, watching and waiting. This fantastic film lures you in with beautiful vistas and a slow-burn pace, then spirals into scares sure to linger like a cold shiver down your spine. — Kristy Puchko, Film Editor

How to watch: Rift is now streaming on Shudder.

SEE ALSO: What to watch: Best scary movies 2. The Awakening Rebecca Hall hunts for ghosts in "The Awakening," Credit: Bbc Films / Kobal / Shutterstock

In the mood for an old-fashioned ghost story? Set in 1921 England, The Awakening centers on a professional skeptic Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall), who dedicates her life to debunking so-called clairvoyants and their showy seances. With ruthless reasoning and science experiments, she has exposed frightful frauds and infuriated believers. However, Florence may have met her match when she travels to a boys’ boarding school to confront a reportedly murderous apparition. Director Nick Murphy imbrues this spooky tale with suspense and dread, unfurling a final act that’s uniquely haunting. Dominic West and Imelda Staunton co-star. — K.P.

How to watch: The Awakening is now streaming on Shudder.

3. Nina Forever

Yearning for a dark comedy that’s bloody fun? You’ll fall hard for Nina Forever. Co-writers/co-directors Ben Blaine and Chris Blaine have dreamed up a truly deranged tale of love and letting go, and it all begins with a macabre crush. Grocery clerk Holly (Abigail Hardingham) hopes she can help mournful motorcyclist Rob (Cian Barry) forget his last girlfriend, who died in a grisly accident. But every time these new lovers crawl into bed, Nina (Fiona O'Shaughnessy) intrudes. Or more specifically, her broken and bloody corpse crashes the party with snarky one-liners and withering eye-rolls. Full of gore, sex, and jaw-droppingly outrageous gags, this horror-comedy earns its hard-R, yet delivers a surprisingly tender tale. — K.P.

How to watch: Nina Forever is now streaming on Shudder.

SEE ALSO: What is Shudder? Everything you need to know about the horror streaming platform. 4. The Queen of Black Magic Something wicked this way comes in "The Queen of Black Magic" (2020). Credit: Shudder

It’s a rare thing for a remake to outdo the original. Yet Kimo Stamboel’s gruesome 2019 offering does just that by upping the ante on body-horror with frightfully realistic gore. Deep in rural Indonesia, a humble orphanage is supposed to be the site of a warm reunion between three friends (Ario Bayu, Tanta Gintin, and Miller Khan), who long ago spent their boyhoods there. But in the past and in this place, they buried a terrible secret. Now, something horrid has risen to claim vengeance on them and their families. With creeping dread, stomach-churning scares, and ruthless supernatural twists, this one is not for the faint of heart. — K.P.

How to watch: The Queen of Black Magic is now streaming on Shudder.

SEE ALSO: The 8 scariest horror movies on Shudder to keep you up at night 5. Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street Mark Patton reckons with his place in horror history in "Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street." Credit: Christine Rampage / AMC Networks

Shudder boasts a robust documentaries selection, which offers audiences deep cuts into their favorite movies or horror subgenres. The best of the bunch is this funny, personal, and political exploration of the infamous A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. Long mocked for its queer content, the subversive sequel proved a nightmare for its unconventional scream queen, Mark Patton. However, directors Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen present the charismatic Patton with the opportunity to reclaim the narrative (and share a slew of stories, both thrilling and heartbreaking). The result is a bio-doc that’s sensationally bold, surprisingly funny, and proudly gay as hell. — K.P.

How to watch: Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street is now streaming on Shudder.

6. Jack Frost

Seeking something sloppy, silly, and unapologetically dumb? Then revel in the bad taste of this seasonal slasher about a homicidal snowman. It all began on a wintry night when a vicious serial killer named Jack Frost (Scott MacDonald) met with a corrosive chemical accident that melded his rotten core into sentient snow! Director Michael Cooney festoons this cult classic with gleefully ludicrous slayings, cringe-worthy sight gags, and practical effects so bad they're hilarious. — K.P.

How to watch: Jack Frost is now streaming on Shudder.

7. Zombie for Sale A family observes a zombie from a safe distance in "Zombie for Sale." Credit: Christine Rampage / AMC Networks

What if zombie bites weren’t all bad? More specifically, what if a nip from the undead would give the impotent new life below the belt? That’s the preposterous premise that kicks off this gleefully bonkers South Korean comedy. The Park family is scraping by running a battered gas station when their fortunes are turned by a zombie (Jung Ga-ram) with a rejuvenating bite. That’s just the first act of director Lee Min-jae’s playful horror-comedy. Family hijinks, ghoulish action, gross-out gags, and absurdly earnest romance also pop up, making for a movie that is chaotically charming and pleasantly unpredictable. — K.P.

How to watch: Zombie for Sale is now streaming on Shudder.

8. Revenge Matilda Lutz fights back in  "Revenge." Credit: M E S Productions / Kobal / Shutterstock

"Vengence is Hers" is a Shudder collection that offers an array of nail-biting tales about women fighting back with all their might and no regrets. A standout in this section is this critically acclaimed 2017 action-thriller from writer/director Coralie Fargeat. Matilda Lutz stars as an American socialite who's living it up as the girlfriend of an obscenely wealthy playboy. That is until a horrid betrayal leaves her battered, broken, and left for dead. Filled with righteous wrath, this party girl hurls herself into a scorching quest not only to survive but also to burn down the men who tried to destroy her. Electric with bone-crunching violence and candy-colored accents, Revenge is as ferocious and feminine as its rampaging heroine deserves. — K.P.

How to watch: Revenge is now streaming on Shudder.

9. Deadly Games Home Alone can't compare to the home invasion holiday horror of "Deadly Games." Credit: Fantastic Fest

Before there was Home Alone, French writer/director René Manzor dared to dream up a kid-centered holiday home invasion that is unapologetically scary. Since its 1989 debut overseas, this festive thriller could not get a US theatrical run. So, it became a coveted treasure for American horror fans, who’d heard of its heady combination of terror, twists, and toys. Mazor’s own son, Alain Lalanne (credited as Alain Musy), stars as a clever boy, who must use all his wits and playthings to survive the night, once a menacing mall-Santa breaks into his home hellbent on homicide. Forget paint cans and Wet Bandits. Manzor’s spin on this story is far darker, zanier, and bolder, making for a movie that’s outrageously funny, truly frightening, and ultimately unforgettable. — K.P.

How to watch: Deadly Games is now streaming on Shudder.

10. Oddity Credit: IFC Films

If you're going to find yourself violently murdered, it's always a good idea to have a clairvoyant sister on hand to sleuth out what happened to you. That's just one of the many lessons in Irish director Damian McCarthy's 2024 gem Oddity, which stars Carolyn Bracken in the dual roles of doomed Dani and her seer sis Darcy. 

SEE ALSO: 'Oddity's Damian McCarthy reveals the origins of his Wooden Man

The mystery surrounding Dani's death is where the film unravels its weird magic. One year after the murder, Darcy heads out to the country home of Dani's widower Ted (Gwilym Lee) to understand what really went down that cold, dark, and deadly night. Her tools of investigation include a life-sized Wooden Man, which played big in the film's marketing. Oddity has so much going on that it might feel scattered at first glance, but that's just McCarthy waving his hand one way so you don't see him sneaking up behind you to scare the bejesus out of you. Ruthlessly. — Jason Adams, Contributing Writer

How to watch: Oddity is now streaming on Shudder.

11. Messiah of Evil 

Forgotten and only available as inferior copies of copies for decades, American Graffiti scribes Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz's unclassifiably strange 1973 seaside horror film Messiah of Evil only started getting its due recently, with a newly restored version made available just in time for its 50th anniversary last year. The film spins the deliciously inexplicable tale of the residents of Point Dume, California, where a blood moon turns them all into flesh-eating zombies… or something? 

The movie's incoherence works, as the viewer feels like all logic was left behind at the county line. Essentially, we're caught up in somebody else's nightmare and the usual rules of existence do not apply. Plus, Messiah of Evil features two of the greatest horror sequences ever filmed — one inside a supermarket and the other inside a movie theater — that make it a must-see for any genre scholar or lover of flesh-munching alike. — J.A.

How to watch: Messiah of Evil is now streaming on Shudder.

12. Hell House LLC

The first film in this long-running found-footage franchise centers on the disaster that befalls a group of young people staging a Halloween haunted house attraction just outside of New York City. Their fatal flaw: choosing an actual haunted hotel as their location. And not just any old normal haunted hotel, but the Abaddon Hotel. As if the name weren't a clue to get the heck out of dodge, the basement is full of nightmare-inducing clown mannequins. Now most people would avoid these things on sight, but these ding dongs decide to integrate the things they find scattered around the hotel right into their show. As they lead up to opening night, things just get weirder and weirder — until all hell breaks loose.  

With an ultra-creepy framing device featuring a lone survivor being interviewed by a documentary crew, the movie becomes a clown cascade of found-footage shenanigans, with the bozo beasties popping up behind people like The Descent monsters in oversized silk pants. It's a true jump-scare paradise – coulrophobes, beware! — J.A.

How to watch: Hell House LLC is now streaming on Shudder.

13. Good Madam Credit: Visit Films

An incredibly eerie morality tale set in modern-day South Africa, Good Madam tells the story of Tsidi (Chumisa Cosa) and her 9-year-old daughter Winnie (Kamvalethu Jonas Raziya), who become homeless when Tsidi's grandmother (who raised her) dies. Needing a stable home, Tsidi reaches out to her estranged mother Mavis (Nosipho Mtebe), who's been a live-in domestic servant in the home of a rich white woman since Tsidi was a child. And that's when the skin-crawling creepy feelings start piling up.

There in this big fancy house, they find the good madam catatonic in bed, all while Mavis inexplicably maintains her grueling schedule of work around the clock for the unconscious woman. Something is deeply amiss, and as Tsidi starts pulling at threads it all starts to unravel. And co-writer/director Jenna Cato Bass manages to lay a sharp critique of post-apartheid racial relations in South Africa against the scares too — Good Madam unnerves as much as it enlightens. — J.A.  

How to watch: Good Madam is now streaming on Shudder.

14. Mad God

30 years in the making, Mad God is a surreal and horrific stop-motion masterpiece from Phil Tippett, the legendary special-effects master behind everything from the aliens in Starship Troopers to the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. Dropping us without explanation into a hellish, wordless netherworld filled with creatures that must be seen to be believed, Mad God defies simple explanation. But it is so much wild eye candy at a certain point you stop trying to understand, to put what you're seeing into words, and you just take the ride toward the disgusting rebirth of the cosmos with him. It makes Alice's descent into Wonderland seem like a trip to the corner store. — J.A.

How to watch: Mad God is now streaming on Shudder.

15. Rabid Grannies

A slice of camp horror magic that is the definition of under-seen and under-appreciated, this 1988 Troma release is basically Evil Dead meets your grandma. And who doesn't want Evil Dead meets your grandma? (The hilarious gross-out vibes definitely bring to mind early Peter Jackson earlier films, like Bad Taste and Dead Alive, if that's your jam.)

Rabid Grannies focuses on sweet twin grandmothers Elizabeth and Victoria Remington (Danielle Daven and Anne-Marie Fox) who invite their no-good family over to their mansion one dark and stormy night for their birthday party. But when a satanic curse turns the lovely elderly ladies into perverse flesh-chomping maniacs, those ingrate relatives get what they deserve, i.e. their flesh chomped by these Rabid Grannies! Seriously silly and slapstick gross, you'll wish these golden girls of gore forgot their devilish dentures on this day! — J.A.

How to watch: Rabid Grannies is now streaming on Shudder.

16. Infested

If you're afraid of insects but love freaking yourself out anyway — that vertiginous attraction-repulsion sensation that all horror fans seek out — then have I got the bug movie for you. French co-writer/director Sébastien Vaniček's Infested puts the focus on the residents of a rundown apartment building in the suburbs of Paris who find themselves under attack by a swarm of lethal spiders. If that wasn't bad enough, these spiders' fast-killing venom is only outpaced by their ability to rapidly multiply. 

Infested has a pointed subtext about race and class, specifically how these characters living in poverty are ignored and forced to fend for themselves, which then allows this nightmare to go unchecked. But mostly Infested just lets itself be a terrifying roller-coaster ride of enormous spiders leaping onto people's faces. Unrelenting but massively entertaining stuff. — J.A.

How to watch: Infested is now streaming on Shudder.

17. Mosquito State Credit: Shudder

Writer/director Filip Jan Rymsza threads one hell of a needle with his truly odd 2020 film Mosquito State, which metaphorically links the 2008 financial collapse with the mating habits of the mosquito. And it somehow works! 

Beau Knapp (Road House) gives a hypnotic performance as Richard, a Wall Street numbers-cruncher who is obsessed with obscure patterns, using them to see into the financial future. When a single mosquito stows away under his shirt collar and lays eggs in Richard's fastidiously sterile apartment, he descends into swollen madness trying to understand the message the insects must be transmitting through their every sting. For my fellow entomophobes, this one will have you itching your eyes out even as you gape at the strange beauty of it all. — J.A.

How to watch: Mosquito State is now streaming on Shudder.

18. Ghostwatch

An artistic prank on the level of Orson Welles' infamous War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938, the BBC mockumentary Ghostwatch was unleashed on an unsuspecting public on Halloween night 1992. Using real-life UK-famous personalities and journalists like Michael Parkinson, Sarah Greene, Mike Smith, and Craig Charles, the film plays out as a live on-air broadcast from in-studio as well as from the home of a woman and her three daughters, who insist their house is haunted. 

Of course, things get more unhinged as the show goes on, and many BBC viewers who tuned in after the broadcast's beginning (or were only half paying attention) missed that this was a fiction film. And they absolutely freaked out, calling into the TV station in a state of alarm. Which is understandable because Ghostwatch, with its eerie found footage constantly catching blink-and-you'll-miss-it horrors, gets under your skin even if you know it's all staged. Just utter the ghost's name, "Pipes," to someone who's seen Ghostwatch, and you'll see skin crawl before your very eyes. And British television has never aired the movie again! — J.A.

How to watch: Ghostwatch is now streaming on Shudder.

19. Death Game

1977's Death Game has the great Seymour Cassel playing the role of George, a wealthy married businessman who finds himself alone at home on his birthday when two gorgeous women, Jackson and Donna (Sondra Locke and Colleen Camp), come knocking on his door. Playing out like a Penthouse fantasy come to life, the women are drenched from a rainstorm and say their car broke down, only to relentlessly flirt with him until he — you guessed it — relents.

But that fantasy immediately descends into a nightmare as the women refuse to leave when morning comes, and they start teasing and tormenting him, with their abuses growing more and more hilariously over the top. Terrified that his wife will return home before he can get rid of them, George is boxed in; it's every cheating jerk's nightmare brought to vivid life. But ultimately, Death Game turns into a blow-out showcase for the actresses (in particular Locke), who are having so, so much fun tormenting this pathetic man. (And if this all sounds familiar,  that's because Eli Roth remade this movie, and pretty well, in 2015 as Knock Knock with Keanu Reeves.) — J.A.

How to watch: Death Game is now streaming on Shudder.

20. Impetigore Credit: Everett / Shutterstock

Writer/director Joko Anwar is a bright and shining light in today's international horror scene, almost single-handedly rejuvenating the Indonesian market with his 2017 remake of the 1980 cult classic Satan's Slave. That was followed in 2019 with his script for The Queen of Black Magic (also on this list), as well as his 2019 follow-up Impetigore, which he also directed. All of these movies are streaming on Shudder, and every one (along with his sequel to Satan's Slaves) is awesome and worth their own mini-film fest. 

Impetigore remains my favorite of the bunch. Here, Anwar gives us a pair of truly loveable leading ladies in best friends Maya and Dini (Tara Basro and Marissa Anita), who get sucked into an investigation of a haunted property out in the middle of nowhere. These two are smart and funny and their friendship shines, and as they stumble into a situation beyond their control, we become deeply terrified for them. Don't believe me? Watch the first ten minutes. Impetigore has one of the greatest horror opening scenes in recent memory. — J.A.

How to watch: Impetigore is now streaming on Shudder.

21. Birth/Rebirth Credit: Courtesy of Shudder. An IFC release.

A deliciously disturbing update of Frankenstein, Birth/Rebirth exposes the twisted tale of medical technician Rose (Marin Ireland) and obstetrics nurse Celie (Judy Reyes) whose paths cross when Celie's ill daughter Lila (AJ Lister) suddenly dies. Writer/director Laura Moss pits the two women's different reasons for wanting to cheat death against each other, even when they're working together. The end result is one horrific consequence spiraling after another. 

The film becomes in a way a wrestling match over modern ideas of motherhood, and both its lead actors give brilliant turns coming together and clashing over what that means — or could mean. Birth/Rebirth ends up spinning a deeply feminist Franken-myth that would've made Mary Shelley beam with pride. — J.A.

How to watch: Birth/Rebirth is now streaming on Shudder.

SEE ALSO: Let's talk about 'Birth/Rebirth's big twist 22. Arcadian

Arcadian stars Nicolas Cage as the father of two young boys in a post-apocalyptic world, where some strange breed of vicious creatures have taken to stalking the countryside at night for prey. As darkness falls, the beasts shake and rattle against the doors of their house, trying to break in. The family spends their hours of daylight gathering food and supplies and reinforcing the structure to keep the not-wolves at bay. 

SEE ALSO: 'Arcadian' stars Jaeden Martell and Maxwell Jenkins play "Slash or Pass"

Of course, this embattled existence can't last forever. One breakdown in their routine leads to disaster. As the family finds itself scattered in the dark, they're beset upon by the creatures, and this is where Arcadian really sets itself apart. Its monsters are wondrous, unlike anything you've ever seen before. Somewhere between an ostrich and a tarantula — maybe with some woodpecker mixed in? — they have big grinning skulls that make the most horrible thwacking sounds. Half the movie's fun is just trying to figure these horrible things out, and they keep swerving just when you think you've got a handle on what they're capable of. They're some absolutely bonkers monster designs, and you won't soon forget their rampage. — J.A. 

How to watch: Arcadian is now streaming on Shudder.

23. La Llorona

The ancient folk tale of La Llorona, who drowns her children only to spend her eternal ever-after crying out for them, has been adapted into a number of horror movies, but writer/director Jayro Bustamante's 2019 adaptation is our favorite — brilliant and hauntingly beautiful.

This version is set mainly within the walled-off Guatemalan compound belonging to Enrique Monteverde (Julio Díaz), the country's one-time brutal dictator. Now an elderly man on trial for genocide and besieged by protestors on all sides, Monteverde — who is based on the late dictator Efraín Ríos Montt — suddenly finds the tables righteously turned when the indigenous workers on his compound begin getting their revenge. What follows is poetic, strange, surreal, and unforgettable. It would also make for a terrific double-feature with Pablo Larraín's 2023 movie El Conde, which imagines Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet as a vampire. — J.A.

How to watch: La Llorona is now streaming on Shudder. 

24. In a Violent Nature Credit: Courtesy of Pierce Derks. An IFC Films & Shudder Release.

In a Violent Nature kicks off with a couple of nitwits disturbing the accursed underground slumber of the undead Johnny (Ry Barrett), a lumbering slasher killer who rises up from the dirt to exact his revenge. And then the camera follows Johnny, methodical step after methodical step through the forest, as he finds the nitwits who did him wrong (or those who are just, you know, there, being nitwitty) to brutally murder them all one by gory one. 

SEE ALSO: 'In A Violent Nature' has the year's most intense ending. Here's what it means.

If this sounds familiar it should – it's the plot of every slasher movie. What sets this apart is you could almost mistake it for a Terrence Malick movie in between the kills, as the killer's POV is one that mainly consists of a series of slow contemplative walks through the beautiful forest. Of course, the kill scenes are wildly over the top, as if to make up for the slowness of the rest of the proceedings. This gives the film a lackadaisical rhythm punctuated by extreme violence that becomes weirdly hypnotic, if you let it. Deeply grisly, this one's for the adventurous gorehounds among you! — J.A.

How to watch: In a Violent Nature is now streaming on Shudder.

25. Speak No Evil (2022)

The 2024 Blumhouse remake with James McAvoy is one thing, but you really need to watch Christian Tafdrup's 2022 Danish original to properly savor the flavor of Jean-Paul Sartre's lament, "Hell is other people." When two families (one Danish, one Dutch) meet during an Italian vacation, they make vague plans that they should hang out down the road. When Bjørn (Morten Burian), Louise (Sidsel Siem Koch), and daughter Agnes (Liva Forsberg) head to the remote Dutch countryside for a weekend with Patrick (Fedja van Huêt), Karin (Karina Smulders), and Abel (Marius Damslev), a pitch-black comedy of manners — where the comedy is replaced by relentless, nerve-shattering awkwardness and horror — quickly ensues.

The original Speak No Evil  brutally weaponizes social niceties, closing the noose around the innocent family as they just try to not make too much of a fuss. They eventually realize that a fuss was most certainly exactly what was needed, just far far too late, culminating with one of the darkest endings ever put on film. Hollywood could never. — J.A.

How to watch: Speak No Evil (2022) is now streaming on Shudder.

UPDATE: Sep. 19, 2024, 1:12 p.m. EDT This list was first published on Oct. 22, 2021. It has since been updated to reflect current streaming options.

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Put on some flip flops, leave your cellphone at home, and wander alone into a dangerous place the town weirdo definitely warned you about, because it's time to get scared!

Right now on Max, the horror category is an embarrassment of terrifying riches with top-shelf selections available from every decade of horror history. You've got 2000s tank top horror next to 1980s slashers next to 1950s camp and more. It's rad.

There's so much great stuff to choose from, but we've somehow managed to narrow it down to these 20 horror movies. Honestly, you can't go wrong.

SEE ALSO: What to watch: Best scary movies 1. Night of the Living Dead If you ever see this face... RUN. Credit: Image Ten / Kobal / Shutterstock

Visionary of the zombie apocalypse George A. Romero tops this list with his most iconic film: Night of the Living Dead. This 1968 classic makes for a great watch — not only as a standard-setting staple of cinema, but also as a vehicle for terror that gets under your skin and festers there. Expertly executed from start to finish, this bleak tale of strangers versus an army of the undead needles at you in a way that's still tough to shake more than 50 years later.* — Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter

How to watch: Night of the Living Dead is now streaming on Max.

2. Eraserhead

God, Henry is just so fucked. The directorial debut of walking-talking id David Lynch, Eraserhead follows the poor guy, played by Jack Nance, as he wanders through a surrealist blend of horror and humor, featuring an alien baby, sperm monsters, a lady with big ol' cheeks, and more bizarre characters. The plot has been interpreted as a representation of Lynch's own fear of being a parent, with Henry serving as a kind of placeholder for Lynch himself. It's fascinating, freaky, and really fun. — A.F.

How to watch: Eraserhead is now streaming on Max.

3. Cronos

Guillermo del Toro's first film carries with it all the hallmarks of the Mexican auteur's career-to-come – gross monster mayhem with delightful creature design, religious and political settings and symbolism, the innocence of children as a contrast to all adult awfulness. This time around it's the story of an elderly antique dealer named Jesús (Federico Luppi, who also had roles in The Devil's Backbone and Pan's Labyrinth) and the 500-year-old golden scarab he finds tucked away inside the base of a statue. 

SEE ALSO: Yes, that was Guillermo del Toro in 'Barry'

Winding it up the scarab suddenly springs to life and injects the old man with a mysterious substance, and before you know it Jesús' youth is being restored to him… alongside a newfound taste for blood. When a tough guy named Angel (Ron Perlman) shows up to find the device, the film turns into a showdown between Jesús and Angel for eternal life. Not particularly subtle there, Guillermo! But Cronos is a blast anyway, and the perfect introduction to one of modern horror's reigning kings. — Jason Adams, Contributing Writer

How to watch: Cronos is now streaming on Max.

4. Trick ‘r Treat

Be warned: this horror anthology is so deliciously spooky that you’re gonna wanna make it an annual tradition. Written and directed by Michael Dougherty, Trick ‘r Treat tears a page from Creepshow, unfurling a collection of horror shorts with comic book-style panache. In the mix are vengeance-seeking ghosts, trouble-making trick-or-treaters, werewolves on the prowl, and a cryptic critter, who is a deadly enforcer for the rules of Halloween. Splashed with gore, rich in lore, and studded with familiar faces, this terror-laced film is a terrific treat. — Kristy Puchko, Film Editor 

How to Watch: Trick 'r Treat is now streaming on Max.

5. The Blob "Intergalactic goo" sounds funny enough until you're screaming in your living room watching "The Blob." Credit: Allied / Kobal / Shutterstock

Mark my words, anyone who reduces director Irvin Yeaworth's iconic The Blob to "just a B-movie" hasn't actually seen it. An astounding feat of filmmaking for the time, that maintains a surprisingly watchable flow 63 years later, The Blob is a solid selection for anyone seeking that classic scary movie vibe. Stand by helplessly as intergalactic goo terrorizes the citizens of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Then, be genuinely impressed by how the '50s townspeople manage to corral the thing through smart, sensible sci-fi means. Nice job, humans! — A.F.

How to watch: The Blob is now streaming on Max.

SEE ALSO: The 20 scariest horror movies now streaming for free with Prime Video

6. House

Reader, cue up House and avail yourself of one of the weirdest and most wonderful viewing experiences out there.

Sometimes listed as Hausu, director Nobuhiko Obayashi's surreal 1977 horror comedy is a whirlwind of spectacular and bizarre images unlike any other title on this, or frankly any, list. Running just under an hour and a half, it's a breezy jolt of strange beauty and intense dread that uses dreamlike images to tell the story of six girls as they're eaten by a house. Yeah, it's something. — A.F.

How to watch: House is now streaming on Max.

7. Anaconda

Anaconda might be a horror movie about the very real threat of a very real and very enormous snake that actually exists in the world — I have seen way too many videos on the internet of people finding these things in their plumbing to ever truly relax on this. But director Luis Llosa knows we've come to have fun, so he never skimps on the laughs. After all, the 1998 movie is infamous for its scene of Oscar-winning actor Jon Voight getting regurgitated right onto Jennifer Lopez. (Voight, covered in snake slobber, then winks at her.) 

And so Anaconda remains all these years on a massively entertaining 89 minutes of animal attack nonsense set in the scenic Amazon, with a game cast (also including Ice Cube and Owen Wilson) getting gobbled up one by one as the big snake's buffet. They could honestly put out a new one of these movies with a brand new cast every year, and I wouldn't be angry at it. More, more, more barfed-up actors, please! Just no more internet videos. — J.A.  

How to watch: Anaconda is now streaming on Max.

8. Scanners "Scanners" has absolutely 0 chill Credit: Moviestore / Shutterstock

Get your mind blown by Scanners. (See what I did there? 'Cause it's about people's heads exploding?) In writer-director David Cronenberg's super goopy sci-fi nightmare, Earth must contend with a super-powered group of people capable of telepathy and psychokinesis — and the bad dudes who want to use that power for evil. It's no The Fly, The Dead Zone, or even Shivers. But it's the best body horror on Max right now. — A.F.

How to watch: Scanners is now streaming on Max.

9. Carnival of Souls

The definition of slow burn, writer/director and lead ghoul Herk Harvey's 1962 classic horror film Carnival of Souls is basically all vibes — and it probably had to be, given the nothing budget he was working with. But he rode that empty wallet straight to heavenly cinematic gold, giving us a steady stream of unforgettable visuals shot in the eeriest black-and-white. If you can get yourself onto Carnival of Souls' wavelength, you will be rewarded with spooky nightmares for life. 

SEE ALSO: 31 essential, history-making horror movies to stream this spooky season

Candace Hilligoss plays Mary, a good girl who gets caught up in a road race that flies out of control in the film's opening scene. Recovering in its aftermath, Mary begins experiencing visions of an odd haunted theme park on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. Her isolating job as a church organist, along with constant harassment from an aggressive next door neighbor, only further dissociates her from those around her, until she can no longer tell what's real and what's not, with it all leading to one of the all-time great twist endings. Carnival of Souls is probably the closest thing we'll ever get to a Twilight Zone episode directed by Ingmar Bergman. — J.A.

How to watch: Carnival of Souls is now streaming on Max.

10. Kwaidan

Just a couple of years after delivering his three-part WWII masterpiece The Human Condition, writer/director Masaki Kobayashi gathered together four old Japanese folk tales to make Kwaidan. This horror anthology takes us all the way to Hell, but it must've felt like a relief to make after the atrocities he put on-screen in those epic war films. Visually magnificent, there are enormous images in Kwaidan that will sear themselves into your brain forever after. But it mostly revels in the small betrayals that haunt its protagonists and their relationships forever after — the sorts of awful human conditions that echo across every culture. — J.A.

How to watch: Kwaidan is now streaming on Max.

11. The Brood

With all-time greats like The Fly and The Dead Zone available, The Brood rarely makes horror fans' short lists for David Cronenberg recommendations. But if you're looking for a uniquely weird psychological thriller with an amazing gross-out finale, this 1979 romp just can't be beat.

Oliver Reed stars as Dr. Hal Raglan, a clinical psychologist experimenting with what he calls "psychoplasmics" — a process by which chemically-induced physical ailments, designed to alleviate long-standing emotional trauma, are administered to vulnerable patients. But when Nola, a patient played by Samatha Eggar, is hospitalized by Raglan, her estranged husband Frank, played by Art Hindle, decides to investigate. — A.F.

How to watch: The Brood is now streaming on Max.

12. Midsommar Credit: A24

Being afraid of the dark and the things lurking within it is a totally normal human reaction, and so the horror movies that can make broad daylight work in their favor are rare birds indeed. Among this elite group, Ari Aster's Midsommar might just be the greatest example of unblinkingly bright horror. The 2019 film is about a young woman named Dani (Florence Pugh) who tags along with her passive-aggressive boyfriend (Jack Reynor) and his college pals as they visit a reclusive commune in rural Sweden. The Swedes' friendliness feels immediately surreal and sinister, and Aster turns the unyielding sunshine (and the cult members' smiles) into his greatest weapon. There is nowhere for any of these dumb American kids to run or hide; there are no shadows. All they can do is just stare in disbelief as the story surrounding them turns too terrible and dark to imagine. — J.A.

How to watch: Midsommar is now streaming on Max.

13. Pulse

The greatest of the turn-of-the-millennium J-horror films, period. In 2001, writer/director Kiyoshi Kurosawa distilled the previous best of the genre, like Ringu and Ju-On, down to their most disturbing essence with Pulse. The gist is basically that the internet has become a door to the afterlife, so the ghosts in the machines have begun literally tumbling out into the real world. When there's no more room in Hell, the dead will download! But Kurosawa tells this story with unfailing restraint and an overwhelming sense of mounting dread; he's able to make you crawl over the back of your seat just by showing a woman walking down a hallway. But he'll go big when he needs to, and Pulse's unforgettable final scenes must be seen to be believed. — J.A. 

How to watch: Pulse is now streaming on Max.

14. Scream

Scream is one of those landmark moments in horror history that can be used to define everything that came before and after it. Directed by A Nightmare on Elm Street's Wes Craven, the story of scream queen Sidney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell, teeing off with masked murderer Ghostface is full of tense turns, sensational kills, and the best jokes about horror movies ever made.

Supporting performances from Courteney Cox, Rose McGowan, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, Skeet Ulrich, and more offer a solid throwback viewing that doesn't compromise on quality. This is a genuinely good movie, even if the self-referential comedy from Craven can get a little exhausting. — A.F.

How to watch: Scream is now streaming on Max.

15. The Lure

The Lure has been described as a lesbian mermaid horror musical, but somehow even that doesn't come close to capturing what this audacious Polish film is. Agnieszka Smoczyńska's debut feature is the darkest retelling of The Little Mermaid you could imagine, incorporating grisly violence and the sex work industry into that classic fairytale.* — Oliver Whitney, Freelance Contributor

How to watch: The Lure is now streaming on Max.

16. The Witch Credit: Parts And Labor / Rt Features / Rooks Nest / Upi / Kobal / Shutterstock

Writer/director Robert Eggers's haunting folk horror flick follows an isolated family living in 1630 New England as paranoia and religious fervor brew after an infant goes missing. Rebellious teen Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) bears the brunt of the blame from her Puritan parents, but her eerie twin siblings (is there any other kind?) and their friendship with a goat they've nicknamed Black Phillip lets the viewer know something far stranger is afoot.

"What really sets this movie apart from its horror peers [...] is its sheer beauty," wrote Yohana Desta in her review for Mashable. "Every scene is meticulously styled. The costumes have a quiet beauty. Every frame could be a painting, or a macabre Vogue editorial. The score (and scenes with lack thereof) is a perfect accompaniment, rattling and haunting."* — Sam Haysom, Deputy UK Editor

How to watch: The Witch is now streaming on Max.

17. Sisters

It's probably pretty important to note upfront that his 1972 shocker Sisters is very much of its time, although you could say this about pretty much every movie that Brian De Palma has ever made (ahem, Dressed to Kill). Which is to say, don't go in expecting a modern read on mental health issues in this story about formerly conjoined twins turned fashion models who go on a murder spree. But as dated as some of its psychological concepts are, not to mention its emphasis on Hitchcock's Psycho, Sisters remains a magnificently crafted thriller that will have you jumping out of your seat more than once. And Margot Kidder's having a terrific  time with the soapiness of ping-ponging between good and evil twins. The movie that somehow made birthday cake terrifying! — J.A. 

How to watch: Sisters is now streaming on Max.

18. The Fury

Another Brian De Palma movie! But can you blame us? The man made his name by updating Hitchcock's obsessions with cinematic sleaze and brutality, bringing them into the modern era, and he has given us more classics that you'll want to take a shower after than most directors could dream of. With a script by best-selling author John Farris based on his own novel, The Fury  is basically the sexier version of Cronenberg's head-exploding extravaganza Scanners (which came out the following year). Amy Irving plays a college student named Gillian whose psychic powers are proving more than she can handle, so Gillian gets sent off to a research institute where it turns out they're up to no good. It all leads up to legendary actor John Cassavetes exploding from about twenty different angles, and if that's not reason enough to watch a movie I don't know what is. Plus, it feels like an extension of sorts to De Palma's Carrie, which came out two years before and also co-starred Irving as good girl Sue Snell. — J.A.

How to watch: The Fury is now streaming on Max.

19. The Shining

All work and no play makes Uncle Stevie a dull boy! Stephen King might not like what Stanley Kubrick did with his book, but Stephen King has been known to be wrong now and then. And so the rest of us who can see the forest for the trees can see the 1980 film for what it is: a masterpiece. 

As the story of Jack (Jack Nicholson), Wendy (Shelley Duvall, RIP queen), and little Danny (Danny Lloyd) Torrance, who all three descend into their own variations of madness during a winter season trapped in a possibly haunted hotel, The Shining cleaves right down to your bones. It's a metaphor for abuse, it's an ice-cold descent into madness, it's the anxiety of watching the ash end of Shelley Duvall's cigarette get longer and longer and longer until you can barely stand the tension anymore. — J.A.

How to watch: The Shining is now streaming on Max.

20. Urban Legend 

When it comes to the slasher boom that followed in the wake of 1996's Scream, nobody is going to mistake director Jamie Blanks' Urban Legend from 1998 to be its pinnacle. Starring Alicia Witt, Jared Leto, Rebecca Gayheart, Joshua Jackson, and Tara Reid, it's fairly standard stuff: A killer in a hooded parka stalks a bunch of college students, with the twist being the murders are staged like infamous urban legends (the hook hand on the door handle at lover's lane, etc). 

And yet there's something a little bit extra unhinged about Urban Legend that keeps it always on the level of great fun, whether it's Loretta Devine's hysterical performance as campus security or whatever it is that Gayheart is doing. This is knowingly goofy entertainment that plays great with a mountain of popcorn and candy; just don't mix any Pop Rocks with your soda, or else! — J.A.

How to watch: Urban Legend is now streaming on Max.

21. The Craft

Millions of goth girls and boys have now had three decades to revel in the demonic wonder that is Fairuza Balk in The Craft, and we're all the fiercer for it. She plays Nancy Downs, the deliciously unhinged leader of a coven of four teenage high school girls (Neve Campbell, Rachel True, and Robin Tunney as goody-two-shoes Sarah) who find themselves getting in over their heads with their revenge-fueled witchery and bitchery toward the popular kids who torment them. As ever with such monkey's paws, the good stuff sours quick, and small supernatural pranks quickly escalate to a life-and-death battle for their souls. And Fairuza tears the screen to magical little shreds as Nancy steamrolls over everybody, may Manon bless her. — J.A.

How to watch: The Craft is now streaming on Max.

22. I Saw the TV Glow Credit: A24

Writer/director Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw the TV Glow is such a mood, especially if you're someone who came of age in the late '90s/early aughts with any of the teen-centric television shows that aired on the WB. Starring Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine as Owen and Maddie, two outcasts who bond over their love of the Buffy-esque program The Pink Opaque, Schoenbrun, a trans filmmaker, is explicitly exploring the places where our obsessions fracture our identities, and vice versa — how we build ourselves in the image of fiction. 

SEE ALSO: 'I Saw the TV Glow' review: Queer horror has a new arthouse masterpiece

The movie casts an eerie spell with its bizarre overlapping realities that make the shifting dynamics of a Christopher Nolan movie seem pat and hollow. And there might be no more unsettling monster this year than the moon-faced Mr. Melancholy, whose discount-budget cheapness gives way to a true chasm of uncanniness. — J.A.

How to watch: I Saw the TV Glow is now streaming on Max.

23. The Strangers

While there are pieces here and there to recommend from the sequels, the horrific strength of writer/director Bryan Bertino's 2008 The Strangers comes from the simplicity of its conceit and execution (pun definitely intended). A fracturing couple (Scott Speedman and Liv Tyler) find their home besieged by three terrifying visitors in masks one night and… Well, that's it. It's just a game of cat and cat and cat and mouse and mouse for 85 brief minutes, where chaos is the only reason given. 

The film's heft is aided tremendously by the two heartbreaking turns from Speedman and Tyler, who get to play fleshed-out people already on edge when they suddenly find themselves staring down a faceless horror. Bertino does stellar work mapping out the space of their home and its environs, so when the masks start silently appearing in its background, you're already ready to crawl out of your own skin, long before a single drop of blood is spilled. — J.A. 

How to watch: The Strangers is now streaming on Max.

24. Evil Dead Rise Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

More than four decades after we first rendezvoused with Sam Raimi's demon troupe of Deadites, Evil Dead Rise proved there's still plenty of juice — not to mention a myriad of other less savory liquids — left in the franchise. And it did so by simply shifting location; who needs a creepy cabin in the woods when we've got a run-down apartment building isolated from the outside world by a power outage during a big storm? 

It also benefits from a big shift in character dynamics. Rather than a group of sexy young people (hubba hubba, Bruce Campbell) tearing each other to shreds after reading from the Book of the Dead, writer/director Lee Cronin gave us a single mom and her young kids all battling to save and/or swallow each other's souls. While the nasty, bloody business stays the same, it sure hits different when it's your possessed mommy (an outstandingly acrobatic Alyssa Sutherland) trying to carve you up like Christmas dinner. — J.A.

How to watch: Evil Dead Rise is now streaming on Max.

25. Fright Night

If you're the only child to a single mom, then there's never been anything more relatable put on screen than the quest of the teenager Charley (William Ragsdale) to convince his mom (Amanda Bearse) that the next-door neighbor that she's just begun dating (Chris Sarandon) is really an evil vampire from hell in the 1985 film Fright Night. Charley enlists everyone from his best friend to a cheesy vampire hunter TV host (Roddy McDowall) to stake this home invader before anybody can have any of his Mom's time but him, darn it. It's a perfect metaphor.

Writer/director Tom Holland went on to direct the first Child's Play movie, which, funny enough, is also about the miscommunication between a single mom and her son being brought to monstrous life. In both movies, Holland threads the needle between comedy and horror seamlessly. This movie is often deeply goofy, and it is 100% a time capsule of its moment; there actually might not be a more 1985 movie in all of existence. It feels created in a lab for vegging out with sugary snacks, and McDowall's turn gives us a true camp horror icon. — J.A.  

How to watch: Fright Night is now streaming on Max.

Asterisks (*) indicate the entry comes from a previous Mashable list.

UPDATE: Sep. 12, 2024, 2:33 p.m. EDT This story was first published on April 23, 2021. It has since been updated to reflect the current streaming options.

Opens in a new window Credit: Max Max Get Deal

If you spent the 2010s actively popping red balloons, avoiding reading creepy children’s pop-up books, and declining invitations to quaint cabins in the woods, you must have been feasting on as many monster movies as we did.

One of the oldest forms of horror cinema, monster movies and their dreaded villains come in all shapes. Whether they're aliens, ghouls, demons, or vampires, monsters can represent a manifestation of our own fears. Or more uncomfortably, they can represent who we truly are. And honestly, we have a lot to fear these days, even if these fears aren't always straightforward to explain — that’s where monsters come in.

SEE ALSO: What to watch: Best scary movies

From 2010 to 2019, Pennywise the Clown chased us through the sewers, Mister Babadook became an icon on-screen and off, and vampires got unexpectedly polite. Here are 13 of our favourite monster movies, unranked, from the 2010s. Just remember, if you find a creepy diary in a cabin basement, don't read the Latin.

1. IT Noooooope. Credit: Warner Bros / Everett / Shutterstock

All it took for this modern horror masterpiece's marketing team was a bunch of well-placed red balloons to strike fear into the hearts of cinema-goers. Andrés Muschietti's formidable 2017 adaptation of Stephen King's classic 1986 horror novel was realised in two parts, with the former being one of the best monster movies of the decade — both smashing critical responses and box office numbers.

Set in the fictional town of Derry, Maine, IT sees a motley group of seven kids, the so-called Losers' Club, who must confront their own personal demons to battle the terrifying Pennywise, a murderous clown who casually slithers out of the sewer system to prey on children. While the film’s not just about a scary clown, and delves deeper into fears associated with adolescence, the clown will truly haunt you. Bill Skarsgård, who's been perfecting that fucked-up smile since he was a kid, truly spins an unforgettable Pennywise — if he's not on-screen, you dread when he will be. While IT: Chapter Two proves an ample ending and features an undeniably top-notch performance by Bill Hader, it is the first chapter that truly stands out. Or rather, floats.

How to watch: IT is now available to rent or purchase on Prime Video.

2. A Quiet Place No crunchy snacks allowed. Credit: Moviestore / Shutterstock

John Krasinski’s tense directorial debut, A Quiet Place, weaponized sound to the point that audiences found themselves too scared to eat crunchy snacks during the movie. This hold-your-breath horror film follows a young family — led by Krasinski himself, alongside Emily Blunt — doing their best to silently survive in a world where monsters hunt by sound.

"Sound plays another character in this film. Sound's the enemy of this family," said Blunt. It's this plot device that had the film constantly compared to Netflix's Bird Box, but A Quiet Place differentiates itself in many ways, one of which is the decision to show the monsters. Reveal aside, the film will leave you with many lingering questions, some of which we can help with.

Plus, there's a sequel and a prequel if you survive the first film.

How to watch: A Quiet Place is now streaming on Paramount+.

3. The Babadook Still recovering... Credit: Shutterstock

Ba-ba-DOOOOOK. You'll never quite see a children's pop-up book the same way after watching Australian director Jennifer Kent's frightening feature-length debut. Based on Kent’s 2005 short film Monster, The Babadook is an elegant, poignant, and frankly terrifying analysis of grief, not to mention one of the most impactful monster movies of the last decade.

Lead actor Essie Davis truly puts everything into her performance as Amelia Vanek, a woman who is tormented, along with her son, by the titular monster — a croaking, towering figure in a top hat you won't easily forget. Kent used puppetry and stop-motion to create the now-iconic creature, which took on a life of its own outside the film when Mister Babadook emerged as an unofficial mascot of Pride.

How to watch: The Babadook is now streaming on Shudder.

4. Attack the Block Oh, you want a great alien film? Here. Credit: Screen Gems / Everett / Shutterstock

Featuring John Boyega's feature-length film debut and co-starring future Doctor Who Jodie Whittaker, Attack the Block is one of the most creative and fun monster movies of the decade.

Written and directed by Joe Cornish (also his feature-length film debut), this British sci-fi comedy horror sees a group of teenagers, led by Boyega, who must defend their council estate from some incredibly pissed-off aliens — or rather, "big alien gorilla wolf motherfuckers" — all on Guy Fawkes Night. It’s gruesome and hilarious, and produced by the studio behind Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.

How to watch: Attack the Block is now streaming on Max.

5. What We Do in the Shadows The mockumentary that launched the TV series. Credit: Moviestore / Shutterstock

The 2014 mockumentary that spawned the excellent TV spin-off sees Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement as co-writers, co-directors, and hilarious co-stars as vampire housemates — along with Jonathan Brugh and Cori Gonzalez-Macuer — living their very best lives after dark in Wellington, New Zealand. Throw in some exceedingly polite werewolves, led by Conchords alum Rhys Darby, trying their best to avoid being rude — "We're werewolves, not swearwolves!" — and you’ve got one hell of a fun monster movie.

How to watch: What We Do in the Shadows is now available to rent or purchase on Prime Video.

6. Shin Godzilla Who is responsible for this situation? Credit: Cine Bazar Toho Company / Kobal / Shutterstock

While the rebooted big-budget popcorn blockbusters Godzilla and Godzilla: King of the Monsters have smashed and crashed through cinemas before this, another take on the terrible lizard took the crown in the 2010s. From Evangelion mastermind Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi, Shin Godzilla unpacks the bureaucracy behind handling the invasion of a Giant Unidentified Creature. The film blatantly takes its cues from the government's handling of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, and the subsequent Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

Though there are some spectacularly destructive city-stomping scenes, the film focuses on the repercussions of a government slow to act during a disaster. You'll sit through meeting upon meeting, weighing pros and cons, considering expert testimony, and managing logistics before any action is taken. Which government agency is responsible for this thing? What's the biggest priority: people or damage? While this is all happening, the evolving monster itself just looks like it's having the greatest time, slithering and smashing its way to global chaos.

How to watch: Shin Godzilla is now available to rent or purchase on Prime Video (but only in the UK right now).

7. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night 11/10 film. Credit: Say Ahh Prods / Spectrevision / Logan/Black Light District / Kino Lorber / Kobal / Shutterstock

You've never seen an Iranian feminist vampire Western like this. Seriously, it's the only one. Writer/director Ana Lily Amirpour's feature-length film debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night hinges on the nightly hunts of an intense young vampire (Sheila Vand) who rides a skateboard. Set in the ominous small town of Bad City, it's at once a sweet love story, a slick crime movie, a full-blown noir, a reinvented Western, and a bloody monster flick, with one of the best soundtracks around.

How to watch: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is now streaming on Kanopy.

8. Troll Hunter Oop, there's one. Credit: Film Fund Fuzz / Filmkameratene / Kobal / Shutterstock

If you were to tell me that a found-footage horror about trolls would actually be an effective monster movie, I’d think you were... trolling me (pew! pew!). But Norwegian director André Øvredal's Troll Hunter uses dry humour and creative mythology-building to ask one question: What if there are trolls hiding in the mountains, and the Norwegian government not only knows about it but has deployed specialised hunters to keep them at bay?

It’s a mockumentary that deploys the ol' student filmmaker-shot, first-person POV techniques popularised by The Blair Witch Project. While there are some good scares, it's actually kind of fun too. The key lies in the troll hunter himself.

How to watch: Troll Hunter is now streaming on Max.

9. The Cabin in the Woods Everything is not as it seems. Credit: MGM / Kobal / Shutterstock

A film that's much smarter than it looks, The Cabin in the Woods is the ultimate slasher/monster movie homage. The directorial debut of Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer Drew Goddard, the film unpacks the horror genre as expertly as Randy from Scream would. A group of college friends, each embodying a well-known horror trope, hit the road for the requisite drunken weekend away in a remote forest cabin.

But if you think you know where this film's going, you're wrong. That's the key to this savvy horror film, with two mysterious figures (the show-stealing Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins) quite literally changing the game on our protagonists. There are monsters aplenty, in every shape and size. If only everyone would listen to Marty (Fran Kranz): "Do not read the Latin."

How to watch: The Cabin in the Woods is now streaming on Peacock.

10. Train to Busan All aboard. Credit: Everett / Shutterstock

There are zombie films, and there are zombie films, and South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho's 2016 thriller Train to Busan is one of a kind. Almost entirely set on a train travelling from Seoul, the film follows Seok-woo (Gong Yoo) and his daughter Su-an (Kim Su-an), an estranged pair who find themselves passengers amid a zombie outbreak.

As fast-paced as its hordes of undead (these zombies run, Dawn of the Dead remake-style), the film sinks those gnashing teeth in and doesn't let go until the final sequence. The sheer scale of the zombie population in this film is realised through impressive extra work, and there are more than a few sequences that'll have you shifting uncomfortably in your seat. Genuinely moving, very bloody, and above all, an example of who the true monsters inevitably turn out to be during a disaster: us.

How to watch: Train to Busan is now streaming on Peacock.

11. Crimson Peak Underrated. Don't even try me. Credit: Legendary / Universal / Kobal / Shutterstock

Guillermo del Toro dabbled in a spot of Victorian-era Gothic horror in 2015 with his big-budget ghost story Crimson Peak. It's your classic set-up: A mysterious English baronet (Tom Hiddleston) with a crumbling mansion in northern England piques the romantic interest of an aspiring New York author (Mia Wasikowska), and off they trot to their creepy new home. But of course, the mansion holds a secret, not to mention conveniently blood-red clay grounds, some frighteningly bloody ghosts, and a highly sinister sister figure (Jessica Chastain). Armed with some solid jump-scares, Crimson Peak is the kind of camp, isolated-location nightmare that the likes of Edgar Allan Poe might appreciate.

How to watch: Crimson Peak is now streaming on Prime Video.

12. Under the Skin Not your average monster movie. Credit: A24 / Everett / Shutterstock

Now here's an unconventional monster movie that will stay, uh, under your skin for a long time after the credits roll. The Zone of Interest director Jonathan Glazer's haunting 2013 sci-fi Under the Skin sees Scarlett Johansson as a predatory alien who drives around hunting men in Scotland. But it's not that straightforward. It's one of the strangest, most hypnotic, and relentlessly unsettling movie experiences of the decade — and musician and composer Mica Levi's score is the stuff of seductive nightmares. Plus, the sheer ambition of this A24 production itself must be noted: Many of the scenes were filmed with hidden cameras within the film's white van, which Johansson herself drove as she trawled for everyday men, not actors, while Glazer and his team sat with monitors in the back.

How to watch: Under the Skin is now streaming on Kanopy.

13. Under the Shadow A hidden gem of a monster movie. Credit: Moviestore / Shutterstock

Tehran in the '80s during the Iran-Iraq War is the last place you'd expect to be facing a djinn, but in Under the Shadow, that’s exactly what's up. The feature-length directorial debut of Iranian-born, London-based filmmaker Babak Anvari, this modern version of a haunted house horror film centres around medical student Shideh (Narges Rashidi), whose family's apartment building is hit by a missile during the conflict. But that's not the only thing to worry about, with a shadowy presence threatening Shideh and her daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi) in between all-too-human attacks. It's a bona fide master class in tension building.

How to watch: Under the Shadow is now streaming on Netflix.

UPDATE: Sep. 20, 2024, 2:56 p.m. EDT This article was first published Oct. 18, 2019. It's been updated and republished since then to reflect current streaming options.

Looking to spike your cortisol levels? Then we've got the Netflix streaming guide for you.

From old frights to new fears, we've scoured Netflix's horror catalog to find the best cinematic nightmares for darkening your device. Of course, not all terrifying titles are born of the same fire and brimstone — so we've included a variety of ethereal ghost stories, stark home invasion horrors, gentrifying vampires, psychological thrillers, classic creeps, satirical scares, and more. Yes, Netflix originals like the Fear Street trilogy and I'm Thinking of Ending Things are on here. But we've also got genre staples and hidden gems.

Here are the best scary movies currently streaming on Netflix — all of them packed with eerie entertainment value, because you don't need to sleep ever again. Happy haunting!

SEE ALSO: What to watch: Best scary movies 25. The Autopsy of Jane Doe

Anybody who saw the absolute blast of found footage fun that was 2010's Troll Hunter knew that Norwegian director André Øvredal was somebody to watch out for. And yet six years later, his follow-up, this claustrophobic oddity about a father and son pair of coroners (pre-Succession Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch) who go to work trying to figure out what killed the mysterious, unblemished young woman whose body has been delivered to their lab, didn't make much of a sound. Not at first, anyway. 

But over the years the film's cult has steadily grown, and by now from where I stand, it's become a stone cold (or should I say, "corpse cold"?) classic. Awash in deeply unsettling body horror that digs its hooks deep into our anxieties about what's under our own skin, The Autopsy of Jane Doe eventually twists its scalpel to become something even stranger still. A real hidden gem. — Jason Adams, Freelance Contributor

How to watch: The Autopsy of Jane Doe is now streaming on Netflix.

24. El Conde Credit: Netflix

Chilean General Augusto Pinochet was one of history's most notorious dictators and a voracious embezzler, to boot. What if he were "bloodthirsty" in a more literal sense? 

From Spencer director Pablo Larraín,  this pitch-black satire reimagines Pinochet (played here by Jaime Vadell) as a 250-year-old vampire, living in exile with a family whose ready to tear him (and each other?) apart over his vast fortune. Think of it as "Blood Succession," but with a math-whiz nun at the center of it (Paula Luchsinger, who nearly steals the film). 

Filmed in lush black and white, El Conde is a dark, clever, and often gruesome gothic alternative history. It pulls off the feat of offering supernatural chills while never losing sight of the monstrous historical evils which it draws upon. — Rufus Hickok, Contributing Writer

How to watch: El Conde is now streaming on Netflix.

23. Under the Shadow 

Times are tense in 1980s Tehran for mother Shideh (Narges Rashidi) and her daughter Dorsa (Avin Manshadi). The former medical student is worried about running afoul of Iran’s repressive post-revolutionary government, and the country is mired in a seemingly endless war with Iraq. Her husband Iraj (Bobby Naderi) is called to serve as a doctor on the frontlines, and their apartment building is being shelled daily.

Things only get worse after a bomb hits their apartment building and lodges, unexploded, in the roof; as their neighbors flee to safer locations, the building becomes downright uncanny. Did the bomb let something — or someone — in? Precious objects are disappearing from their apartment or being thrown out entirely, which the feverish little girl blames on malevolent djinn. It's up to Shideh to save not only her daughter's life from all these external threats but her very soul from malevolent, seemingly mystical intruders. 

In his first feature-length film, Iranian-born director Babak Anvari proves adept at slowly ratcheting up the paranoid atmosphere and jittery details, before finally letting it all explode in the last act. — R.H. 

How to watch: Under the Shadow is now streaming on Netflix.

22. Run Rabbit Run Credit: Netflix

Succession star Sarah Snook has more to worry about than the Roy family in this Aussie chiller. She plays Sarah, a divorced mother and fertility doctor suddenly in charge of her late father's estate — which includes her estranged mother, Joan (Greta Scacchi), who is in the beginning stages of dementia and is in an adult care home. If that weren't enough, Sarah's young daughter, Mia (Lily LaTorre), has begun acting strange. First, it’s the stray rabbit she’s brought home and started dressing like. Then, it’s some creepy crayon drawings and insistent demands to visit Joan, whom Mia has never met. Finally, it’s the girl’s conviction that she’s not Mia at all but Alice, Sarah’s sister who went missing when they were children at the same age Mia is now. Is Alice back for some sisterly spooks? Director Daina Reid makes deft use of unnerving sound design, creepy visuals, and a pervasive sense of dread and danger to strongly suggest the answer is yes. — R.H. 

How to watch: Run Rabbit Run is now streaming on Netflix.

SEE ALSO: We need to talk about 'Run Rabbit Run's twisted ending 21. The Babysitter

Y'know, I'm not sure The Babysitter really works as a movie; it's more the idea of a movie loosely strung together by one-liners and style. Still, it's a fun way to kill a few hours. Samara Weaving stars as the titular childcare professional, a popular teen with a passion for human sacrifice and one-liners. Judah Lewis stars as the kid being babysat, with supporting performances by Hana Mae Lee, Robbie Amell, Bella Thorne, and Andrew Bachelor. The sequel, released in 2020, is more of the same — so if you like the first, do a double feature. — Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter

How to watch: The Babysitter is now streaming on Netflix.

20. Bone Tomahawk

If you've already seen Bone Tomahawk — writer/director S. Craig Zahler's feature debut, the blackhearted 2015 Western that stars Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, and David Arquette — then you know the infamous scene that cemented this movie's place in the pantheon of cinematic nastiness. If not, well, prepare yourselves. This movie, and that scene in particular, definitely doesn't mess around. (With those vibes and Arquette's presence, it very much feels like the heir to Antonio Bird's 1999 masterpiece Ravenous, which is no small compliment.)

Russell plays the sheriff of a small desert town in the 1890s who's forced to head out into the wild with some men when several of his townspeople are kidnapped by a tribe of Native Americans who've gone off the deep end, to put it mildly. (The film manages to thread the needle on what could be considered problematic representation, making it clear this tribe is shunned by all the other tribes due to their inbred cannibalistic savagery.) That's basically the entirety of it: a rescue mission that goes very, very, very sour, very fast. It's brutally tense, truly nightmare-inducing stuff — torture porn on the Western front. — J.A. 

How to watch: Bone Tomahawk is now streaming on Netflix.

19. Velvet Buzzsaw Credit: Claudette Barius / Netflix

From the dude behind the brilliant 2014 psychological thriller Nightcrawler comes a hilarious — and horrifying — send-up of the Los Angeles art scene. In writer-director Dan Gilroy's epic Velvet Buzzsaw, Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Collette, and half a dozen other performers you probably love act their hearts out as fine art appreciators hunted down and killed by their priceless pieces. (Seriously, Billy Magnussen gets strangled by a painting of monkeys. It's awesome.) — A.F.

How to watch: Velvet Buzzsaw is now streaming on Netflix.

18. Blood Red Sky

Netflix's Blood Red Sky is one of those horror movies made so much better by knowing as little as possible going into it that I'm going to try to say as little as possible to get you to watch it. Directed by Peter Thorwarth, who co-wrote the script with Stefan Holtz, this action horror adventure combines the best parts of Flight Plan with tinges of A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night. Star Peri Baumeister is completely breathtaking as a woman attempting to protect her son from hijackers aboard a transatlantic voyage. — A.F.

How to watch: Blood Red Sky is now streaming on Netflix.

17. The Ritual

In director David Bruckner's scenic tour of a hellscape, four pals hike through northern Sweden to honor a departed friend. Of course, their trip soon morphs into a torturous and never-ending nightmare — with a killer lead performance by Rafe Spall. Slippery and divisive, this movie begs to be picked apart. More likely than not, you'll love the world it creates but hate the way it ends. Or, like me, you'll love the world it creates and how it ends. Have fun with it! And pack bug spray! — A.F.

How to watch: The Ritual is now streaming on Netflix.

16. Apostle Credit: Netflix

Before Michael Sheen became the angel Aziraphale in Amazon's Good Omens, he celebrated religion in a, uh... "different" way. Apostle is a completely bonkers period horror film that features Sheen at his most terrifying, playing a cult leader with an affinity for bloodletting and other "creative" religious sacraments. Lead Dan Stevens keeps the slow-paced narrative moving, with stunning supporting performances by The Politician's Lucy Boynton and Welsh stage actor Mark Lewis Jones. — A.F.

How to watch: Apostle is now streaming on Netflix.

15. Pearl

The middle child of director Ti West's X trilogy – flanked by X before and MaXXXine after – is, in typical middle child fashion, the weirdest of the bunch. No offense to middle children; we're so very here for it! Flashing us some 60 years back from the Texas Chain Saw-adjacent slasher setting of X, Pearl doles out the 1918-set backstory for that first film's elderly murderess (also played by Mia Goth), showing us what sent her off toward cuckoo-town in the first place. And oh, what a wild tale it is.

Isolated on her parent's farm during that year's notorious flu pandemic and finding her big flashy (and deluded) dreams of stardom dashed at every turn, Pearl works just fine as a demented little stand-alone picture. It never demands you be familiar with what happens in either of its bookend movies. It's just its own little surreal technicolor tale of ambitions curdled, featuring an instantly iconic horror performance from Goth as we watch Pearl give 40 whacks to every bastard who keeps her down. Cuz she's a star, dammit. And is she ever. — J.A.

How to watch: Pearl is now streaming on Netflix.

14. It Follows

Kicking off with a righteous banger of an opening scene — we watch a young woman run out of her house half-dressed in a panic from something we can't see, only to end up moments later unnervingly mangled in the sand of a local beach — David Robert Mitchell's 2015 new classic of atmospheric terror never lets up. Much like the shape-shifting entity at its heart, which passes from teenager to teenager like an STD on fire. 

Starring Maika Monroe (who cemented her Scream Queen status this year thanks to the double-feature of this and The Guest) as unwitting teen Jay, who's just met a sweet, mysterious boy she likes, It Follows immediately becomes a death march of tension that thrums along on Disasterpeace's masterful throwback synth score. And Mitchell's brilliantly off-kilter camera work does a lot of the heavy-lifting, giving us a nightmare that presents itself in bright light and familiar spaces, disfiguring ordinariness into something unforgettably horrific. — J.A.

How to watch: It Follows is now streaming on Netflix.

13. Cam Credit: Netflix

One of the most underrated titles in Netflix's original horror catalog, Isa Mazzei and Daniel Goldhaber's Cam combines the tumultuous world of professional webcam modeling with the insidious terrors of a body-snatching whodunnit. The Handmaid's Tale's Madeline Brewer stars as Alice Ackerman, an ambitious performer eager to climb up the digital ranks who finds herself confronted with a doppelgänger gunning to take her spot, her fans, and maybe...her life. — A.F.

How to watch: Cam is now streaming on Netflix.

12. The Babadook

Way back before becoming an inexplicable LGBTQ+ icon, The Babadook was just a simple ghoul standing in front of a girl asking her to "dook dook dook" it. Anyway, enough has been written in the last decade about director Jennifer Kent's 2014 film being an "allegory for grief" that we should probably start writing papers about those papers now. Or perhaps we should just wipe away the cobwebs and see the movie for what it is, which is a barn-burner of a tale about an overworked mom (Essie Davis, who deserved all of the awards for this performance) and her anxious little boy Samuel (Noah Wiseman, really earning that "World's Most Annoying Brat" mug) unraveling together hand-in-hand in the wake of family tragedy. The performances keep everything almost too relatable, and Kent's eye for gothic weirdness summoned a new horror icon right out of thin air. — J.A.

How to watch: The Babadook is now streaming on Netflix.

11. Bodies Bodies Bodies

Director Halina Reijn's Bodies Bodies Bodies is a spin on the "Old Dark House" trope — get a bunch of pretty people trapped inside a space and then start picking them off one by one, until the survivor(s) can suss out the killer(s) and their motive(s). Here it's a "Hurricane Party" thrown by rich dickweed David (Pete Davidson) at his parent's palatial place. We enter the festivities alongside girlfriends Sophie (Amandla Stenberg) and Bee (Borat 2 breakout​ Maria Bakalova), who want to showcase their new love to Sophie's old friends. But once the bodies start hitting the hardwood floors, old tensions and new questions — who is this stranger in their midst? — quickly arise. All that, plus a hilarious Rachel Sennott and a half-naked Lee Pace opening a champagne bottle with a sword! What more could one ask for? — J.A.

How to watch: Bodies Bodies Bodies is now streaming on Netflix.

SEE ALSO: Let's talk about that shocking 'Bodies Bodies Bodies' ending, with director Halina Reijn 10. 1922 Credit: Netflix

Directed by Zak Hilditch and based on Stephen King's novella of the same name, 1922 tackles classic themes of guilt, envy, and evil through the grim lens of the American Dust Bowl. Thomas Jane and Molly Parker square off to striking effect, painting a portrait of a marriage that is as at once remarkably absurd and nauseatingly plausible. The couple's son, played by Dylan Schmid, is just as compelling, with a heartbreaking storyline you won't soon forget. (FYI, fans of the book, there are big changes to the adaptation's ending that didn't bother me but could bother you.) — A.F.

How to watch: 1922 is now streaming on Netflix.

9. Ouija: Origin of Evil 

The biggest surprise in Ouija: Origin of Evil, the 2016 prequel to the mediocre 2014 film Ouija, was when it turned out to actually be a good movie. It makes sense now, since Origin of Evil's director Mike Flanagan has gone on to mesmerize us with The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher. But in 2016 this movie hit as a shock — the best kind. 

Set in the late 1960s, this is an old-fashioned tale of two sisters, one of whom asks the board to connect with their dead father and the other one who gets possessed by an evil spirit in the process. Flanagan manages to suss out big wallops of the oogie-boogies from the little wooden board and its recognizable planchette, which has haunted every sleepover for the past 130 years. (Ouija boards as we know them date all the way back to 1890, if you can believe it!)* — J.A.

How to watch: Ouija: Origin of Evil is streaming on Netflix.

8. Vampires vs. the Bronx

Want a movie that's got excitement, comedy, a scorching message about the evils of gentrification, and is a kid-friendly romp? Then take a bite out of Vampires vs. the Bronx. Oz Perkins' PG-13 horror-comedy centers on Afro-Latino teens, who recognize that a flurry of missing person posters and influx of rich white folks with tote bags means bad news for the neighborhood. Together, they team up Monster Squad-style to take down the bloodsuckers and save their community. With a sharp wit, a warm heart, a rich sense of atmosphere, and an equal appreciation for the Blade movies and '80s Amblin, Vampires vs. the Bronx is an easy watch full of rewards.* — Kristy Puchko, Film Editor

How to watch: Vampires vs. the Bronx is now streaming on Netflix.

7. The Fear Street trilogy Credit: Netflix

Director Leigh Janiak pulls off a small movie miracle in her Fear Street trilogy, delivering consistently fun and fright-filled sequels that just keep getting better. Start your journey off with Fear Street Part One: 1994, in which we meet the cursed teens of a town named Shadyside. For years, the suburban haven has been terrorized by mass murderers — all of them normal townspeople who seemingly "snapped" over nothing.

Across Fear Street Part Two: 1978 and Fear Street Part Three: 1666, get to the bottom of the mystery behind these killings and their connection to the legendary Shadyside Witch. Based on the Fear Street books by R.L. Stine, this is a punchy slasher with enough gore and goofs to fuel a straight-through binge. — A.F.

How to watch: The Fear Street trilogy is now streaming on Netflix.

6. The Perfection

From cellos and foreplay to hallucinations and hiking, The Perfection does absolutely whatever it wants. Featuring Allison Williams in her best role since Get Out and Dear White People's Logan Browning in her best part ever, this vibrant genre blend will get a reaction out of you. Not necessarily a good reaction, but a reaction nonetheless. It's body horror meets psychological thriller meets occult drama meets classical music. With bugs. And vomit. I, for one, loved it! — A.F.

How to watch: The Perfection is now streaming on Netflix.

5. His House Credit: Aidan Monaghan / Netflix

Writer-director Remi Weekes' His House is easily my favorite scary Netflix release from 2020. Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu star as refugees from South Sudan seeking asylum in Britain who are assigned to live in an eerie neighborhood where they aren't welcome. Spectacularly frightening and ruthlessly critical of its subject matter, His House delivers everything it must — and then some. — A.F.

How to watch: His House is now streaming on Netflix.

4. Gerald's Game

Another romp from Mike Flanagan, based on one of Stephen King's lesser-known terrors, Gerald's Game follows a couple on a romantic trip to a remote cabin where things are totally fine and nothing bad happens. Just kidding! It's so, so, so bad! This survival thriller rooted in psychosexual trauma offers an exquisite performance by Carla Gugino, who is devastating nearly every moment she is on screen. Really. It's Haunting of Hill House times 10. Watch it for her. — A.F.

How to watch: Gerald's Game is now streaming on Netflix.

3. Creep

Oh, you thought you liked Mark Duplass? Because he was the love interest in all those indie rom-coms, played that doctor in The Mindy Project, and is easily the best character in The Morning Show? Well, think again! In Creep, a found-footage film that foregoes pageantry for a stark sense of panic, Duplass plays a strange loner named Josef that freelance documentarian Aaron, played by writer-director Patrick Brice, can't quite pin down. Duplass's performance is intoxicating, and Brice imagines a universe so compelling it absolutely merits its equally great sequel (also on Netflix). — A.F.

How to watch: Creep is now streaming on Netflix.

2. Incantation Credit: Netflix

Kevin Ko's Taiwanese horror freaked people out so much that it even started a TikTok challenge and managed to become the all-time highest-grossing horror film in Taiwan. "When one imagines horror movies, it’s almost impossible to not associate them with jump scares, monsters, or slashers," wrote Rizwana Zafer for Mashable. "Incantation does not rely on any of those typical horror movie factors, so it’s not really 'scary' in the traditional sense. Instead, Ko manages to terrify us using suspense and dread, built on the intimacy and psychological terror of the heroine. He plays on our deepest fears to scare us, incorporating elements of gore, trypophobia, and the eeriness of the unknown, that something evil is always lurking in the background."* — Shannon Connellan, UK Editor

How to watch: Incantation is now streaming on Netflix.

1. I'm Thinking of Ending Things

Emotional demolitions expert/filmmaker Charlie Kaufman destroys audiences once more in the mind-boggling I’m Thinking of Ending Things. Adapted from Iain Reid’s novel of the same name, this cryptically titled psychological thriller follows a woman, played by Jessie Buckley, and her boyfriend, played by Jesse Plemons, on a disturbing visit to his parents’ remote farmhouse. What follows? Well, that depends on who you ask.

A transfixing meditation on art, existence, value, authorship, isolation, and more, I’m Thinking of Ending Things is a truly one-of-a-kind experience as profound as it is disquieting. You may not have a great time in this house of abstract horrors (especially when Toni Collette is on-screen doing those classically terrifying Toni Collette things), but it will be a lasting one.* — A.F.

How to watch: I'm Thinking of Ending Things is streaming on Netflix.

Opens in a new window Credit: Netflix Netflix Get Deal

* denotes that this blurb appeared in a previous Mashable list. 

UPDATE: Sep. 11, 2024, 3:30 p.m. EDT This story was originally published on Oct. 23, 2019. It has been updated to reflect Netflix's current streaming library.

Do you want to watch something scary? Well, you horror stan, Hulu is a great place to start looking.

Right now, the streaming service has a solid lineup of new and old frights, ranging from Hulu originals like False Positive, starring Ilana Glazer, to cross-genre international hits like Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. Of course, not all horror experiences freak us out in the same way — or to the same degree — so you'll want to know what you're getting yourself into before pressing play.

SEE ALSO: What to watch: Best scary movies

To help you out, we've combed through Hulu's catalog and selected the 26 all-around best horror movies available (in no particular order). 

Good luck out there, and remember: Never go alone!

1. False Positive Credit: Hulu

From Mother! to Rosemary's Baby, reproduction has been explored by enough horror titles to qualify pregnancy-terror as its own subgenre. In director John Lee's False Positive, co-written with star Ilana Glazer, the gross-out body stuff you've seen done countless times gets fresh framing with a snappy script that addresses modern mothering imperfectly but thoughtfully. Plus, Pierce Brosnan plays a campy, creepy OB-GYN villain you've just gotta see. — Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter

How to watch: False Positive is streaming on Hulu.

2. It Lives Inside

It Lives Inside stars Never Have I Ever's Megan Suri as Sam, short for Samidha, a first-gen Indian-American teenager who really wants to fit in at school. This means leaving behind the traditions her mother, Poorna (Neeru Bajwa), and her former best friend, Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), hold onto dearly. The tension between the women is already beginning to boil over when we first meet them. So when Tamira embarrasses Sam in the hallway between classes one day by freaking out and claiming there's a horrible spirit trapped inside the jar she's been carrying around, Sam finally breaks — as does the jar when Sam smashes it to the floor in a fit of rage, telling Tamira to get a grip. 

Yeah, needless to say, Tamira was onto something. And now the very real loosed spirit, called the "Pishach," is coming for everybody. A Hindu devourer of souls and flesh that works its way into our world via negative vibes, it's found a feast here among these conflicted immigrants. Out from all of this, director Bishal Dutta crafts a Babadook-ish metaphor with big scary fangs – assimilation as the real American horror story. And we watch Sam spiral into a supernatural tussle for the souls of everybody she cares about, a trail of terrors left in their wake. — Jason Adams, Contributing Writer

How to watch: It Lives Inside is now streaming on Hulu.

3. Jennifer's Body Credit: Doane Gregory / Fox Atomic / Kobal / Shutterstock

It was exiled in cult-ville for a while, but Jennifer's Body finally seems to have secured its rightful place as a stone-cold teen-horror classic. Directed by Karyn Kusama (The Invitation) and written by Diablo Cody (Juno), the film centers on nerdy teen girl Needy (Amanda Seyfried) and popular queen bee Jennifer (Megan Fox) and their unlikely BFF love affair. Their friendship becomes unlikelier still when Jennifer finds herself assaulted by a Satan-worshipping rock band and accidentally turns into a literal man-eating succubus.

As the pile of dead horny teen boys begins piling up, Needy must stop her bestie from bleeding the entire high school class dry. And all of teenage-dom's fraught bullshit becomes weaponized in a teen girl duel to the death that could've only come from the keyboard of Diablo Cody. — J.A.

How to watch: Jennifer's Body is streaming on Hulu.

4. Hatching

A perfect companion piece to Black Swan, Hatching is a Finnish horror film from 2022 about a tween girl ballerina named Tinja (Siiri Solalinna) whose overbearing influencer mother (Sophia Heikkilä) is far more concerned about presenting a perfect image to the world than any well-being, mental or physical, of her daughter's. That quest for perfection becomes a tad bit more complicated when Tinja starts raising the orphaned egg of a crow her mother murdered (for the crime of destroying a family portrait) — especially when the egg hatches and quickly grows into a massive carnivorous bird that Tinja tries, but fails, to control herself. (Just ask the poor puppy next door.) The monster bird is a wonder of puppetry (no CG here!), but the wonders of Hatching don't stop there; it's got 10 types of unexpected weirdness prepped. And you will absolutely not see where it's all headed until, like Tinja's mum, it's far too late to dance yourself outta this one. — J.A. 

How to watch: Hatching is streaming on Hulu.

5. Amulet Credit: Rob Baker Ashton / Head Gear / Kobal / Shutterstock

The first feature written and directed by British actor Romola Garai (Atonement), Amulet is a gothic chiller about an ex-soldier named Tomaz (Alec Secareanu of God's Own Country) who's being chased by the ghosts of his past. Not literally — this is not a ghost movie — but via the very bad memories he carries with him from his unnamed war-torn homeland. Ones which we become privy to via flashback, and ones that become gradually more disturbing as the film goes on. Unable to accomplish much in his life, he ends up on the streets of London, where a nun named Sister Claire (Imelda Staunton) takes pity on him and gets him a job as the live-in helper to a young woman named Magda (Carla Juri) who's taking care of her ill mother, hidden away in the attic. That's never a warning sign!

Yes, this gig turns out to be not exactly what he was sold on, and his discoveries about these two women become as scary as anything bubbling up from his disturbing past. Before he even realizes it, Tomaz finds himself trapped in a whole new sort of nightmare. It's not so surprising, given there's an actor in the director's chair, that Amulet prioritizes the slow and unsettling build of its performances, taking time to establish a sturdy and enviable relationship between Tomaz and Magda that we come to care about. Right before horribly ripping that rug out from under us and revealing the shrieking chasm of horror that's been right beneath their feet — or in this case, up in the attic — all along. — J.A. 

How to watch: Amulet is streaming on Hulu.

6. The First Omen

Not that these habits deserve defending, but if one were so inclined, The First Omen is a good movie to point to when people say that Hollywood's insistent reliance on IP is totally fruitless. This is one of the (few and far between) good examples in which adding onto an iconic story bore some fruit. Presented as a direct prequel to Richard Donner's 1970 film, director Arkasha Stevenson — whose fine work on the two streaming horror series Brand New Cherry Flavor and Channel Zero should not go unspoken — suffuses The First Omen in a sense of dread that proves worthy of its forebear.

The movie tells the story of an American nun-in-training named Sister Margaret (Nell Tiger Free from Servant) sent to Rome to work at an orphanage. After bonding with Carlita (Nicole Sorace), the resident weirdo orphan who's kept locked in her room so she can devote all her time to drawing weirdo drawings, Sister Margaret becomes convinced that there is a plot surrounding the girl. Specifically, her fellow nuns and the priests in charge mean to sacrifice Carlita in some sort of pact with the devil. And if you do know The Omen, you can probably guess where this is all going, but Stevenson packs the film to the rafters with wildly unsettling imagery, and Free is such a terrific actress that you're drawn into this nightmare anyway, deeply dreading those final moments that you know are looming ahead. — J.A.  

How to watch: The First Omen is streaming on Hulu.

7. Villains Credit: Hulu

Venerable horror icons Bill Skarsgård and Maika Monroe lead Villains, a Bonnie and Clyde-meets-Don't Breathe mashup with a sprinkling of '50s style you'll love. When criminal lovebirds Jules and Mickey decide to rob a house, they encounter a mystery within and must contend with the home's residents, played by Kyra Sedgwick and Jeffrey Donovan, to solve it. — A.F.

How to watch: Villains is streaming on Hulu.

8. Sea Fever

If you're a fan of the ever-reliable subgenre of aquatic horror (think Leviathan or The Deep) and you've never seen Neasa Hardiman's 2019 Sea Fever, then are you ever in for a treat. Starring the capable twosome of Connie Nielsen and Dougray Scott as a fishing boat captain and her husband who trawl the waters off of Ireland, the search for one big haul takes them and their crew into uncharted waters where, you guessed it, something sinister lurks below the surface. Meaning the surface of the water and then, unnervingly, beneath the surface of their skin. Convincingly marrying science with its horror a la Barry Levinson's equally underrated The Bay, Sea Fever manages to drag all manner of slippery grossness up; it becomes terrifying because the movie makes it seem terrifyingly plausible. — J.A.

How to watch: Sea Fever is streaming on Hulu.

9. I Saw the Devil Credit: Softbank Ventures / Kobal / Shutterstock

Essentially an extended chase scene between a cop named Kim Soo-Hyeon (Squid Game's Lee Byung-hun) and a psychotic serial killer Jang Kyung-chul (Oldboy star Choi Min-Sik) who murders Kim's fiancée in the film's incredibly disturbing opening scene, I Saw the Devil is a two and a half hour siege of relentless, breathless terror. 

It's not that we haven't seen this story before. It's basically a Western, just with sleek snowy parkas standing in for chaps. But it is very much how director Kim Jee-woon stages it all — a brutal knife fight between three men inside a moving car turns violence into poetry. As each man thinks they've gotten one over on the other, we watch them twist and turn toward hell together — it hits its marks but with such style. I Saw the Devil is thrilling, bloody, and extremely scary when it wants to be… which is thankfully very often. — J.A.

How to watch: I Saw the Devil is streaming on Hulu. 

10. Crimes of the Future

You think you know what you're getting into, with Crimes of the Future being hailed as the movie that finally saw legendary Canadian director David Cronenberg dipping his toe back into the Body Horror well that he so thoroughly defined, thanks to films like Videodrome and The Fly, that it became known as "Cronenbergian." And yet Crimes of the Future – which shares a title with a film Cronenberg made in 1970 but is not a remake – is even weirder and funnier and more out-there than you can imagine. 

Reuniting with his muse Viggo Mortensen, Crimes of the Future is really a rumination on the making of art. But in a way only Cronenberg could've come up with. Viggo plays Saul Tenser, a futuristic performance artist who has his deformed organs harvested on stage by his partner Caprice (Lea Sedoux) before growing new, even more bizarre organs in their place. Through no fault of his own, Saul becomes enmeshed in the battle between a group of evolutionary terrorists and the shady bureaucrats (including a hysterically strange Kristen Stewart) trying to stop them. It's basically The Man Who Knew Too Much but with lots of wound-fellating. Guaranteed to get under your skin! Where it will then wriggle around! — J.A.

How to watch: Crimes of the Future is streaming on Hulu. 

11. Prey Credit: David Bukach © 2022 20th Century Studios

The widely successful prequel to the Predator franchise, Prey is set in 1719 and follows Naru (Amber Midthunder) as she tries to protect her community from our favorite clicking, creepy alien nightmare. Hulu also has the entire Predator franchise available for streaming if you’re up for a marathon. — Yasmeen Hamadeh, Entertainment Intern

How to watch: Prey is streaming on Hulu.

12. Enys Men 

This is definitely one for the more adventurous among us. Writer-director Mark Jenkin's experimental 2020 twist on the folk horror genre stars a terrific Mary Woodvine as an unnamed scientist who's been left totally alone on a remote island off the coast of Cornwall, England, to study local plant life. Specifically, a kind of flower that only grows there, and the lichen that is devouring it. As usually happens with people left alone for long stretches of time in remote places, the woman slowly loses her moorings and her mind, as time stops making sense and some mysterious ghost miners start appearing to her. 

And so the movie goes — the woman's clockwork daily activities, which we've been using to navigate time's passing ourselves, begin expanding and contracting onscreen until we too find ourselves steadily loosed from any sense of reality. The film builds a rhythm, and then it turns it against us. Enys Men is a real trip, in other words. And one beautifully filmed on 16mm film; there are the kinds of images here — those strange flowers, especially — that will sear themselves deep onto your forever place. — J.A.

How to watch: Enys Men is streaming on Hulu.

13. Infinity Pool Credit: Neon

Like The White Lotus on meth, director Brandon Cronenberg's nightmarish Infinity Pool sends a pair of married well-to-do beauties named James (Alexander Skarsgard) and Em (Cleopatra Coleman) to an exclusive tropical resort to see what chaos they can wrangle up, all in the name of avoiding their marital problems. And does it ever wrangle up, first in the form of another pair of married well-to-do beauties – Gabi (Mia Goth) and Alban (Jalil Lespert). The foursome flirt over dinner, as beautiful rich people do, and the next day they find themselves breaking the resort's rules to head off into the countryside to taste a little local color. 

Unfortunately, the local color they find is all red – blood, gore, and some unknown science-fiction goo that traps them in a sticky tangle of consciousness cloning that'll have them wishing all the locals had wanted was their kidneys. Like all of Cronenberg Jr.'s movies to date, Infinity Pool proves itself to be a surreal puzzle that spirals outward into endless complexity, dissolving not just the walls of the body but those of the mind too. The barriers between our flesh and our fantasies turn to liquid in his hands — we're mostly water after all — and Infinity Pool means to drown us in its deep end. — J.A.

How to watch: Infinity Pool is streaming on Hulu.

14. The Host

Before South Korean maestro Bong Joon-ho went off and made the Oscar-winning Parasite in 2019, he seized the global stage's attention with this epic 2006 monster movie. It kicks right off with its titular amphibious monstrosity, the size of a city bus, leaping out of the Han River in downtown Seoul in the middle of the day and gobbling up a fleet of locals. Immediately, you know you're in for something new with The Host; usually monster movies take the Jaws route and conceal their beastie until the end. But Bong goes far above and beyond. Per usual. 

Besides being chock-full of incredible creature attack action sequences, The Host also manages to be an alternatingly heartbreaking and heartwarming family drama, with South Korean legend Song Kang-ho in the lead and Sense8 star Bae Doona kicking ass as his archer sister. As if that isn't enough, the movie is an act of political activism to boot, pointing its finger straight at the American military complex for poisoning Korea's waters. Bong juggles all the balls with perfect madcap aplomb. Anybody paying attention here could see right away this was a director going places. And we were right! — J.A. 

How to watch: The Host is now streaming on Hulu. 

15. Fresh Credit: Searchlight Pictures / Moviestore / Shutterstock

Flipping the script on the dangers of online dating, Mimi Cave's dark dark dark 2022 horror-comedy Fresh shows how the dangers of the long-lauded in-person meet-cute can trump the worst even Tinder might have to offer. Daisy Edgar-Jones plays Noa, who's seriously over the cyber-dating scene when suddenly a Prince Charming named Steve (Sebastian Stan, having a blast) bumps into her at the grocery store. They have an immediate connection, go on several dates, and Noa really thinks he might be the one.

Spoiler alert: Steve is not the one. This is a horror movie, after all. When the happy twosome decide to go on their first out of town trip together, Noa quickly learns Steve ain't no prince at all, and modern romance finds itself relentlessly skewered in Cave's skillful hands. This is the movie that proved MCU superstar Stan was up for taking seriously way-out-there risks. Without his hilariously creepy turn in Fresh, we probably wouldn't have then gotten his scrappy turns in A Different Man, Pam & Tommy, and The Apprentice. Fresh is delicious on all fronts. — J.A.

How to watch: Fresh is streaming on Hulu.

16. Immaculate

Newly minted movie star Sydney Sweeney seized her rightful Scream Queen crown (what a scream!) with this post-Roe v. Wade nightmare about a nun named Sister Cecilia (Sweeney) who finds herself blessed with an immaculate conception all her own. Or is it? (Unnecessary spoiler alert: Not so much!) 

After surviving drowning as a child, Cecilia becomes convinced that her life has been saved for a godly reason. She has a purpose. So when she's shipped off to Italy to work in a convent for sickly nuns, she grabs it, convinced this must be her path. Little does she know! The hot priest who invited her (Álvaro Morte) is a pile of red flags wrapped up in a sleek cassock, but it's not until Cecelia's belly starts growing that her suspicions take real hold. Immaculate bides its time, but its unholy destination is 100% one for the record books. Stumbling out of the end credits and back into the light, you will instinctively mutter a heap of Hail Marys whether you're Catholic or not. — J.A.

How to watch: Immaculate is now streaming on Hulu. 

17. Cobweb Credit: Courtesy of Lionsgate.

Vibing on similar themes as The Babadook and Coraline, director Samuel Bodin's debut feature stars C'mon C'mon's Woody Norman as a bullied eight-year-old named Peter whose overprotective parents Carol (Lizzy Caplan) and Mark (Antony Starr) don't much help matters. Refusing to let him partake in normal childhood activities like trick-or-treating, they keep him cooped up in the house most of the time, constantly warning him about a young girl who went missing in their neighborhood some years before. 

And then one night as Peter tries to sleep, a tap-tap-tapping on the inside of his bedroom wall begins, followed soon thereafter by a little girl's voice. And this little girl has nothing nice to say about Peter's parents. Slowly, Peter starts sensing his parents' strange behavior might be covering up a horrible secret, and before you can say "yellow wallpaper," the boy's suspicions begin unraveling his entire home life around him. Like a Grimm fairy tale sprung to life, this fabulous bedtime story features ace performances from all three of its leads (especially Caplan, who's clearly having a blast) and more goth atmosphere than you can shake a pumpkin full of bones at. An unduly overlooked gem! — J.A. 

How to watch: Cobweb is streaming on Hulu.

18. Skinamarink

Based on anecdotal data, Skinamarink works on about one out of every ten people who watch it. Those who do click with it may be few and far between, but this ultra low-budget indie leaves them shuddering in terror, unable to shake off its sense of absolute wrongness for days after. So lucky, we few! I do indeed count myself among those who found Kyle Edward Ball's experimental 2022 flick unnerving as hell. It got to me and then some.

SEE ALSO: What the heck is a 'Skinamarink'? Explaining the abstract horror gem

The story, as much as there is one, involves two little kids named Kevin and Kaylee who seem to have been left home alone one night, as long as you don't count the sinister presence stalking the hallways, whispering to them from the darkness, and making the doors and windows of their home disappear. Time seems to stretch out infinitely, which can feel either entertainingly terrifying or like 100 minutes of staring at walls with the occasional glimpse of a haunted toy. If you are one of those able to vibe on Skinamarink's wavelength, then watch out. Those walls will stare right back. — J.A.

How to watch: Skinamarink is streaming on Hulu.

19. 28 Weeks Later Credit: Susie Allnut / Fox Atomic / DNA / UK Film Council / Kobal / Shutterstock

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's 2007 sequel to Danny Boyle's revolutionary zombie movie 28 Days Later has never gotten the proper appreciation it deserves. Yes, tonally, it's a different beast, but I've always dug its concept of society crumbling all because of one man's simpering cowardice. Doesn't it just feel that way sometimes? 

Starring Trainspotting's Robert Carlyle as a man guilt-stricken over having run from a horde of infected and having left his wife to die, the film admittedly has a bit of a Jaws IV thing going on where the plague (slash shark) seems to have it out for one particular family, thereby straining all logic. But logic be damned, this one feels more like poetry, like a fairy tale turned to terrible life. — J.A.

How to watch: 28 Weeks Later is streaming on Hulu.

20. Alien

Witness the birth of three, yes three, horror icons! Ridley Scott's 1979 haunted-house-in-space masterpiece Alien gives us first the Xenomorph, the murderous outer space creature with acid for blood and a mean streak a million light-years long. And it gives us Ellen Ripley, the ultimate Final Girl brought to life by actress Sigourney Weaver, in what would be the first of four on-screen appearances by this character. Finally (and most importantly) it gives us Jonesy the cat, who's had enough of this shit for nine lifetimes. 

Still the best movie Scott's ever made, this horror classic about a group of space truckers who encounter one hell of a stowaway has lost none of its terrifying power in the four and a half decades since its making. Awash in killer character actors doing their thing (Yaphet Kotto! Veronica Cartwright! Ian Holm!) before getting torn to shreds one by one, every sequence of this movie, from chest-burster to Mother's countdown, deserves to be in the Horror Movie Hall of Fame. Just as long as they stay out of Jonesy's way. — J.A. 

How to watch: Alien is streaming on Hulu.

21. Piggy Credit: Jorge Fuembuena. Photo courtesy of Magnet Releasing.

Sara (Laura Galán) is an overweight teenager living a deeply unhappy existence in a rural Spanish town; she can't even go for a swim on the hottest day of the summer without being mercilessly bullied by a gang of mean girls. (The film's title is their cruel nickname for Sara.) Those mean girls get theirs, though; they're kidnapped by a mysterious man who leaves behind one witness who could help save them: Sara herself. 

And so writer/director Carlota Pereda's 2022 film, a feature-length reenvisioning of her own short film from a few years earlier, introduces its troubling moral quandary — should Sara show mercy for those who tormented her? Or should she give in to her thirst for revenge and leave them to rot on the vine? Pereda manages to complicate our feelings on the matter with every twist, all while delivering a terrific and tense exercise from the small-town drama surrounding the mystery of the missing girls. Galán gives a wonder of a performance, making Sara difficult to love but tremendously easy to empathize with. — J.A. 

How to watch: Piggy is streaming on Hulu.

22. Suitable Flesh

When director Stuart Gordon died in 2020, a lot of horror fans feared they'd never again get a goopy and gross and downright disgustingly sexy H.P. Lovecraft adaptation again. With Dagon, From Beyond, and his Re-Animator movies, Gordon had proven the clear master of those cherished 1980s classics. Enter director Joe Lynch in 2023, who crafted Suitable Flesh as an ode to all things Gordon-ian, and gave us one of the most entertainingly sickening examples of them all. 

An adaptation of the Lovecraft story "The Thing on the Doorstep," Suitable Flesh stars Heather Graham as the psychiatrist Elizabeth Derby, who's busy leading a perfect life with her hot, sweet husband Eddie (Johnathon Schaech). Perfect, that is, until she starts finding herself drawn, somewhat erotically, to a new patient named Asa (Judah Lewis), who's convinced his dying father has been possessing him. From there it all turns into a ton of bloody body-swapping fun that all of the actors have a hell of a good time playing with, especially once horror icon Barbra Crampton (star of several of Gordon's classics) swings in as Elizabeth's own psychiatrist. Great old-school vibes with lots of pink goo – just what the doctor ordered! — J.A.

How to watch: Suitable Flesh is now streaming on Hulu. 

23. Censor Credit: Magnolia Pictures / Moviestore / Shutterstock

The conservative argument that disturbing content (like horror movies, for instance) will rot a person's brain and turn them into a psychopath is brought to diabolical life in writer/director Prano Bailey-Bond's psychedelic 2021 thriller Censor. Set in the mid-'80s, when controversy over "video nasties" has taken England by storm, Censor stars a stellar Niamh Algar (Mary & George) as a prim woman named Enid who works for the British Board of Film Classification. Basically, it's her job to watch all of the really fucked-up movies and tell the filmmakers what they have to edit out if they want to be certified for public exhibition. 

So day after day, Enid sifts through the worst stuff imaginable, going frame by repulsive frame. It doesn't help that she's got her own childhood trauma involving a missing sister lurking about, which one film that she watches in particular seems to trigger a few repressed memories of real hard. And before you know it, our precious Enid finds herself falling down the filthy rabbit hole of exploitation cinema, her sanity a mere splatter upon its walls. And thank goodness nobody was around to censor Censor, because this is one fucked-up good time. — J.A. 

How to watch: Censor is streaming on Hulu.

24. The Feast

One of the best of the recent folk horrors that we've seen in the wake of Midsommar and The Witch, Lee Haven Jones' Welsh 2021 fright-fest The Feast is deeply creepy, stuffed to its tippy-top with hair-raising imagery that I dare you to forget anytime soon after. Set against a small dinner party at the country estate of a rich and powerful family, led by politician-father Gwyn (Julian Lewis Jones), it's easy enough to see pretty much where The Feast is going from its start. Anyone would clock these rich people as immediately awful, and the local girl Cadi (Annes Elwy) who's been hired to help out with the party has some sort of off-kilter and sinister vibe from the moment she steps onto their property. 

And yet the disturbing depths Jones takes everything to still shock – it's basically Triangle of Sadness meets The Wicker Man, but with way more booby-trapped genitals then that equation might at first imply. And to cap it all off, the mossy nightmare vibes of Bjorn Stale Bratberg's cinematography are absolutely breathtaking. This is, simply put, one of the most beautiful-to-behold horror movies of recent years. — J.A.

How to watch: The Feast is now streaming on Hulu.

25. Bone Tomahawk Credit: Caliber Media Company / Kobal / Shutterstock

The absolutely vicious first film from director S. Craig Zahler (who went on to make the also-vicious action flicks Brawl in Cell Block 99 and Dragged Across Concrete) remains his best work to date, somewhat by leaps and bounds. Bone Tomahawk is a 2015 Western set in 1890s California about two morons (David Arquette and Sid Haig) who stupidly desecrate a Native American burial site and end up dragging their entire town into utter hell for it. 

Their blunder sets into a chain of events that forces the sheriff (Kurt Russell) and a pack of local men (among them Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Patrick Wilson) to head out into hostile territory to save the wimmin-n-chillin', as the saying goes. Oh and did I mention that the tribe they're up against are inbred troglodyte cannibals that all the other Native Americans steer super clear of? That's probably an important detail. Featuring one of the most grotesque scenes of violence put on screen in the last 20 years, Bone Tomahawk makes the "hard" in "Goes Hard" work extra extra hard y'all. — J.A.

How to watch: Bone Tomahawk is now streaming on Hulu.

26. When Evil Lurks

Another one that goes super duper hard, Demián Rugna's When Evil Lurks lurched its monstrous way toward us in 2022 out of Argentina, telling us of the apocalyptic outbreak that happens after an evil spirit is not sufficiently disposed of by brother-farmers Pedro and Jaime (Ezequiel Rodríguez and Demián Salomon). Dropping pieces of its bizarre world-building little bit by little bit, Rugna keeps us guessing as to what the hell is happening as this seemingly small mistake spreads outward like the plague — evil infecting everything it comes into contact with; a genie that cannot be stuffed back into its bottle once loosed. Pedro and Jaime pick up family members along the way as they try to first stomp out their error and then just run from it – it's a road trip through the belly of hell, and When Evil Lurks isn't afraid to tear apart the most innocent among us as we all stare on helplessly. — J.A.

How to watch: When Evil Lurks is now streaming on Hulu.

Opens in a new window Credit: Hulu Hulu Watch Now

UPDATE: Apr. 24, 2024, 5:00 a.m. EDT This article has been updated to reflect current streaming options.