38 Best Halloween Movies to Stream This Spooky Season

1 | Sleepy Hollow (1999)

While not considered Richard Burton's best work, this fog-machine-heavy tale of Ichabod Crane (Johnny Depp) investigating some grisly decapitations while falling in love with the beautiful daughter of a wealthy family (Christina Ricci) has got to be the most atmospheric Halloween movie ever. (Available on Paramount+)

2 | Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Horror franchise reboots have become as mediocre as they are common, but it’s fair to say that Zack Snyder built upon all the best elements of the George A. Romero classic. The 2004 remake provides even more scares while still honoring the original source material. (Available on Peacock)

3 | The Village (2004)

You've got to have a little M. Night Shyamalan on the list, and The Village is the perfect spooky addition. The 2004 film is about a secluded nineteenth-century village that is being terrorized by creatures who live in the woods. Even better, it one of the best twist endings of Shyamalan's oeuvre. (Available on FXNow)

4 | The Sixth Sense (1999)

Another Shyamalan classic and the original surprise twist, this story of a psychologist with a crumbling marriage (Bruce Willis) trying to help a child who sees ghosts (Haley Joel Osment) is another incredible blast from the '90s past. (Available on Max)

5 | Saw (2004)

If you're looking for horror in the truest sense of the word, you can't get any better than the 2004 original of this gruesome story of two men who find themselves forced to be players in a dying sadist's twisted game. For the true enthusiast, Saw 1-6, and Saw: The Final Chapter, are also available for your stomach-turning pleasure. (Available on Max)

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6 | The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Tim Burton's animated masterpiece about a lonely pumpkin king who tries to recreate Christmas in Halloweentown is the perfect way to celebrate the season and get excited about the holidays at the same time. (Available on Disney+)

7 | Young Frankenstein (1974)

Want something funny and classic that the whole family, including grandpa, can enjoy? Mel Brooks' hilarious 1974 retelling of the Frankenstein story has some glorious gags that, while dated, will never grow old. (Available on Max)

8 | Us (2019)

This modern-day Jordan Peele horror classic takes the concept of being your own worst enemy very literally. In this nail-biter, murderous doppelgangers emerge from underground bunkers to attack their surface-dwelling counterparts. (Available on Peacock)

9 | Practical Magic (1998)

This delightful romantic comedy about two witch sisters (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman) under a terrible curse that renders any man they fall in love with dead, is another '90s classic. (Available on Max)

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10 | The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

The very best horror movies tend to have a layer of campiness just below their formulaic surface that makes them that much more enjoyable to watch. So why not embrace it? This tongue-in-cheek send-up of the genre has as many laughs as genuine scares, following a cliche group of susceptible young adults who learn their trip to a cabin in the woods is part of a much larger operation. (Available on Peacock)

11 | The Craft (1996)

Another feminist masterpiece, this cheesy horror film is about a teenage girl who comes to a new Catholic school and quickly falls in with a coven. Dubbed a "sleeper hit," The Craft became a cult classic for goths and teenage misfits everywhere. (Available on Peacock)

12 | The Babadook

This Australian indie psychological thriller was hailed by film critics as the scariest movie of 2014. It strategically uses slow pacing and skilled special effects to really instill the childhood fear of having a creepy character from a storybook come to life. (Available on Netflix.)

13 | Donnie Darko (2001)

A really weird teen (Jake Gyllenhaal)befriends a man in a large rabbit suit in this dark, cerebral, and ultimately oddly uplifting journey through suburban America. (Available on Amazon Prime Video and Hulu)

14 | The Addams Family (1991)

America's favorite eccentric family is up to their usual, spooky antics in this 1991, kid-friendly classic. (Available on Paramount+)

15 | Zodiac (2007)

A group of San Francisco detectives (Mark Ruffalo, Anthony Edwards) and reporters (Gyllenhaal, Robert Downey Jr.) try to track down a serial killer terrorizing civilians and leaving taunting clues in newspapers. Based on a true story, the identity of this madman never was established, reminding us that people are still the most frightening creatures out there. (Available on Fubo)

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16 | Thanksgiving (2023)

Just because Halloween hasn’t happened yet doesn’t mean you can’t start thinking about the next major holiday. This slasher follows a mysterious masked killer as he terrorizes the residents of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Fair warning if you're squeamish—it's handled with the high level of in-your-face horror audiences have come to expect from director Eli Roth. (Available on Netflix)

17 | The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

This 1974 horror film about a madman with a chainsaw gruesomely killing a group of friends in rural Texas is famous for embodying dozens of traditional slasher tropes. (Available on Amazon Prime and Peacock)

18 | What Lies Beneath (2000)

Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford star in this gripping thriller about a woman who suddenly starts to see the ghost of a strange young woman in her lakehouse. She then embarks on a quest to discover her identity, revealing personal secrets she could have never imagined. (Available on Peacock)

19 | Pet Sematary (2019)

In this remake of the 1989 adaptation of the Stephen King bestseller, a family's cat ghoulishly comes back to life after being placed in a cursed burial ground in rural Maine. (Available on Paramount+)

20 | Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later (1998)

Twenty years (and several sequels) after surviving massacres by her murderous and otherworldly brother, Michael, Jamie Lee Curtis is still being hunted in suburbia by this masked, knife-wielding maniac. (Available on Paramount+)

21 | The Witch (2016)

Paranoia spreads within an ostracized family in 1630 New England when they suddenly suspect their eldest daughter of witchcraft. (Available on Amazon Prime Video)

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22 | Talk To Me (2022)

When a group of teens realizes they can communicate with the dead using an embalmed hand, it becomes a source of fun and games. But things quickly take a turn for the worse when some participants get more than they bargained for with the experience. It’s become something of a modern horror classic for being equal parts horrifying and unsettling. (Available on Paramount+)

23 | The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Thanks to the now infamous found footage technique, many people thought this "documentary" was real when it premiered in 1999. In the trendsetting film, college students get lost in the woods looking for a legendary witch. (Available on Peacock)

24 | The Conjuring (2013)

This 2013 thriller is about a family that calls on famous paranormal investigators to exorcise the evil spirits in their new house. Thanks to some incredible cinematography from director James Wan, it's as scary as it is visually satisfying. (Available on HBO)

25 | Alien (1979)

Even decades after its release, it’s hard to think of a film that captures the genuine terror of being trapped on a ship in deep space with a murderous alien quite as well as this Ridley Scott classic does. One rewatch can also be a great reminder of how refreshing it can be to step away from the CGI overload that dominates the genre today. (Available on Hulu)

26 | Scream 2 (1997)

By both playing into and parodying traditional horror film tropes, the Scream franchise is about a high school girl (Neve Campbell) who's being hunted by a masked killer named Ghostface, which absolutely defines the teen slasher genre. And while the original and films since have all been enjoyable, this second installment in the franchise is an undeniably solid—and arguably iconic—addition that achieves the tongue-in-cheek metanarrative. (Available on Max)

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27 | The Ring (2002)

In this remake of a Japanese box office smash, Naomi Watts plays a mother who has seven days to solve an urban legend to prevent the ghost of a little girl from crawling out of a television and sucking the soul out of her and her child. (Available on Paramount+)

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

What if you were lucky enough to find a safe haven in the middle of a major disaster—only to begin questioning your rescuer’s motives? This thriller-inside-a-sci-fi disaster film (or is it?) has a special way of keeping you on the edge of your seat, thanks in no small part to a stellar performance by John Goodman. (Available on Amazon Prime Video)

29 | Hocus Pocus (1993)

It’s hard to believe this Disney cult classic wasn’t a huge hit when it was first released in the '90s. But for millennials, it’s hard to think of a more appropriate annual tradition than rewatching the Sanderson sisters come back to life three centuries after being hanged for witchcraft and attempting to lure the children of Salem, Massachusetts, in an attempt for immortality. And, of course, the campy and over-the-top performances from Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker have helped it age all the better.

30 | The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

Three witches (Cher, Pfeiffer, and Susan Sarandon) in a small town get their wish when a handsome stranger comes to call and seduces them. However, things soon take a complicated turn. (Available on Tubi)

31 | Death Becomes Her (1992)

In this zany dark comedy, two rivals (played by Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn) manage to achieve immortality. However, the dynamic shifts when they realize their supposed gift might be more of a curse than anything. (Available on Peacock)

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32 | I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)

While it might not have the same franchise longevity, I Know What You Did Last Summer remains a quintessential part of the '90s slasher revival. Not only is it a star-studded cast made up of the top young stars of the decade (including Jennifer Love Hewitt, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ryan Phillippe, and Freddie Prinze Jr.), but it's a genuinely scary movie with plenty of jump scares and plot twists. (Available on AMC+)

33 | Rosemary's Baby (1968)

The original #demonbaby film, Roman Polanski's 1968 critically-acclaimed horror movie will make you terrified of giving birth, as well as moving into suspiciously underpriced Manhattan apartments. (Available on Paramount+)

34 | Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The only horror film to ever win Best Picture at the Oscars, the 1991 drama thriller about an FBI trainee (Jodie Foster) who enlists the help of a cannibalistic mastermind (Anthony Hopkins) to catch a truly insane serial killer is both cinematically and psychologically terrifying. (Available on Amazon Prime Video)

35 | The Witches (1990)

It’s hard to find a millennial who wasn’t traumatized by this film adaptation of the Roald Dahl story when it was first released. But as adults, revisiting this movie about a boy who stumbles across a witch convention while staying at a seaside hotel in England can be a great way to slip into the Halloween spirit. (Available on The Criterion Channel)

36 | What We Do in the Shadows (2014)

Before it became a beloved TV series, What We Do in the Shadows won over movie audiences as a hilarious mockumentary. In a truly unique take, the film follows a group of vampires helping a recently converted victim acclimate to his new life as a creature of the night.

37 | The Amityville Horror (1979)

This 1979 thriller about a family that's terrorized by supernatural forces when they move into a house with a gruesome history is one of cinema's most famous ghost stories. (Available on Max)

38 | An American Werewolf in London (1981)

If you want something shameless and campy yet classic, you can't do any better than this 1981 horror comedy. An American Werewolf in London is about two American college students whose backpacking trip through Britain is somewhat hampered when one of them turns into a werewolf. (Available on Amazon Prime Video)