The 20 Best Horror Movies on Amazon Prime Video

This list is regularly updated as movies rotate on and off of Prime Video. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.

Who wants to be scared tonight? While there are fantastic streaming services dedicated to horror nuts, there’s also a wealth of genre hits and indie darlings on Prime Video. In fact, they have one of the most diverse arrays of horror hits, including films by vets like David Cronenberg and Paul W.S. Anderson, alongside newer films from indie studios. This regularly updated list will keep Prime Video subscribers in the know on what are the best horror movies they can watch right now. Turn the lights off and lock the doors.

Abigail

Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 49m
Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

The directing duo known as Radio Silence helmed this clever twist on the vampire flick with a great ensemble. Melissa Barrera and Dan Stevens lead a crew of kidnappers who decide to snag the daughter of a crime lord, only to discover that the kid happens to be a killing machine. It’s not perfect, but it’s fun enough for Prime Video.

American Psycho

Year: 2000
Runtime: 1h 41m
Director: Mary Harron

Mary Harron’s adaptation of the Bret Easton Ellis novel was instantly controversial but also instantly iconic. Christian Bale stepped into the role of the serial killer that had caused an uproar in the literary world and redefined the way we see psychopaths in cinema. His performance has been mimicked so many times just in the two decades since this unforgettable film was released.

*The Cabin in the Woods

Year: 2012
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Drew Goddard

Drew Goddard’s deconstruction of the entire horror genre is so great because it’s also a wonderful scary movie on its own terms. With a great cast that includes a pre-huge Chris Hemsworth, Richard Jenkins, and Bradley Whitford, The Cabin in the Woods is endlessly rewatchable thanks in large part to a razor-sharp script from Goddard and Joss Whedon, bringing some of the wit that we saw in their collaborations together on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel to the big screen.

Compliance

Year: 2012
Runtime: 1h 29m
Director: Craig Zobel

In Kentucky in 2004, something horrible happened. A prank call went way too far when someone phoned a fast-food restaurant and pretended to be a police officer. How far would you go if you believed the voice on the other end of the line was an authority figure? Ann Dowd plays the manager who ends up humiliating an employee, played by Dreama Walker. We all like to think we would do the right thing in a situation like this but the horror here is how easy it is to be fooled.

Doctor Sleep

Almost four decades after Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House) adapted the sequel by Stephen King with what felt like mixed results. However, in just the few years since this movie came out, it feels like the cult following has grown. It’s a stylish drama that kind of falls apart in the final act, but has enough good stuff before that to recommend a look. (Note: This is the lengthy director’s cut, which may not be “better” but isn’t readily available on streaming so take the chance while you can.)

The Fog

Year: 1980
Runtime: 1h 29m
Director: John Carpenter

John Carpenter used the success of Halloween to make a very different kind of horror film, one that wasn’t really well-received when it came out but has grown in esteem over the last four decades. The legendary Adrienne Barbeau stars in this ghost story about a crew of mariners who descend on a small town in California when the fog rolls in. The problem is that they’ve been dead for a century.

*Hannibal

Year: 2001
Runtime: 2h 11m
Director: Ridley Scott

The massive success of The Silence of the Lambs made any kind of follow-up a project that was destined to fail, especially after recasting Julianne Moore in the Clarice Starling role. No one would argue this is a better film than Demme’s, but it’s a better one that its reputation, thanks largely to Ridley Scott’s remarkable craftsmanship and another fun performance from Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Hell House LLC

Year: 2015
Runtime: 1h 23m
Director: Stephen Cognetti

We’re all tired of found footage movies but this flick can be one of the exceptions. So popular that it spawned a franchise (there have already been two sequels), this is the story of a documentary crew that captures the creation of a Halloween haunted house that becomes all too real, ultimately killing 15 ticket buyers and staff. Structured both in a “what happened that night” and in-the-moment found footage doc, this is a truly clever indie horror film.

Hellraiser

Year: 1987
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Clive Barker

The horror author Clive Barker directed this adaptation of his own novella The Hellbound Heart and made genre movie history. Introducing the world to the iconic Pinhead, who would go on to appear in so many sequels, the original film here is still the best, the tale of a puzzle box that basically opens a portal to Hell. The sequels have kind of lost the thread, but the original is still incredibly powerful. It’s one of the few films from the ‘80s that would still shatter audiences if it were released today.

*The Menu

Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 42m
Director: Mark Mylod

A regular director on Succession, Mylod made his directorial debut with this Fall 2022 black comedy/horror film about a chef’s tasting to remember. Ralph Fiennes bites into a juicy role as a celebrity chef who has decided that the meal he’s cooking for his wealthy guests might be their last. Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, and Janet McTeer co-star in a film that hit streaming while it was still in some theaters, but has now expanded to the other streamers too.

Oculus

Year: 2014
Runtime: 1h 44m
Director: Mike Flanagan

Before he became the MVP of Netflix Horror with projects like The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass, Mike Flanagan adapted his own short film into this sharp horror film that also features a performance from a young Karen Gillan. The MCU star plays a woman who believes that an antique mirror is at the root of her family’s problems. She’s not wrong.

A Quiet Place: Day One

Year: 2024
Runtime: 1h 39m
Director: Michael Sarnoski

Who would have guessed that this would work? Jim Krasinski handed his franchise off to the director of Pig and the luminous Lupita Nyong’o to tell a prequel story of the day that the murderous aliens arrived. It’s a sharply made genre flick, elevated greatly by the consistently impressive work from Nyong’o.

Saint Maud

Year: 2021
Runtime: 1h 20m
Director: Rose Glass

Morfydd Clark is fearless as a hospice nurse who converts to Roman Catholicism and becomes convinced that only she can save the soul of her latest patient, a former dancer (Jennifer Ehle) who is in the final days of her life. Is Maud a true vessel for miracles or could she be going insane? Rose Glass’s debut stunner plays with audience expectations until its final unforgettable shot.

*The Serpent and the Rainbow

Year: 1988
Runtime: 1h 37m
Director: Wes Craven

The masterful Wes Craven adapted the non-fiction book of the same name by Wade Davis into a purportedly true story about the seemingly impossible. It’s the story of a man who was poisoned, buried alive, and then revived, leading to, well, problems. Craven’s imagery here is some of his most powerful, and Bill Pullman is fantastic.

*Smile 2

Year: 2024
Runtime: 2h 7m
Director: Parker Finn

It’s very rare for a sequel to be better than the original, but that’s the case here as writer/director Parker Finn builds on the ideas of the first Smile in a manner that’s ambitious and accomplished. Naomi Scott gives one of the best performances of 2024 as a pop star who becomes attached to the smile demon, sending her down a terrifying rollercoaster to one of the most memorable horror movie endings in years. Finn has said he’s working on a third film, but the bar is now remarkably high.

Suspiria

Year: 1977
Runtime: 1h 33m
Director: Dario Argento

The Luca Guadagnino remake is also on Prime, but the Argento original is the one to watch. One of the most important and influential of all the Giallo films, it stars Jessica Harper as a ballet student who goes overseas to study and discovers that her new school is populated by witches.

Synchronic

Year: 2020
Runtime: 1h 41m
Director: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead

Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan star in this original sci-fi/horror flick from the directors of Spring and The Endless. They play paramedics in New Orleans who discover a drug that, well, allows for time travel. It’s the kind of crazy idea that really shouldn’t work but the talent of Benson and Moorhead hold it together.

Terrifier 2

Year: 2022
Runtime: 2h 18m
Director: Damien Leone

The Terrifier movies are a legitimate cultural phenomenon. You should see what all the fuss is about! The saga of Art the Clown started in a short by writer/director Damien Leone and then a truly low-budget feature film, but this is the movie that really put the series on the map, a truly chaotic piece of filmmaking that’s elevated by its intense gore, vicious sense of humor, and remarkable make-up effects.

Totally Killer

Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Nahnatchka Khan

What if Scream and Back to the Future had a baby? It would look a lot like this Prime Original thriller about a young woman (a fun Kiernan Shipka) who travels back in time and joins forces with the teenage version of her mother to stop a serial killer. Quirky and clever, it works as a mystery, slasher film, and an ‘80s comedy.

*The Visit

Year: 2015
Runtime: 1h 30m
Director: M. Night Shyamalan

It feels like everyone is back to digging Shyamalan’s undeniably original voice, but people forget that he desperately needed a comeback from the damage of films like The Last Airbender and After Earth in the early 2010s. That came in the form of this horror found footage film about a couple of kids who go to visit their truly creepy grandparents. Clever, funny, and twisted, it really launched its creator back to the forefront of the horror genre.

Willow Creek

Year: 2013
Runtime: 1h 19m
Director: Bobcat Goldthwait

Yes, the comedian and Police Academy star is also a killer director, including helming one of the best found footage horror movies of all time in this clever werewolf flick. It’s proof of how much can be done with forced POV and killer sound design.

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