10 Scariest Horror Movies on Netflix This Week

Any time of year is a good time to enjoy a few bumps in the night. Fans of the scariest horror movies on Netflix shows like us usually yearn for the thrill of a good scare throughout the entire year. 

There’s no shortage of terrifying content, ranging from existential horrors to gore fests and eerie encounters.

It is not the appropriate move to aimlessly scroll through the horror tab for forty-five minutes. We’ve compiled a list of the scariest horror films that are currently streaming on Netflix for this reason. 

Scariest Horror Movies on Netflix Right Now

Enjoy yourself while screaming and streaming through our collection below;

1. Ravenous

Beyond winning Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival, Ravenous seemed to be overlooked by genre aficionados.

This could be because it’s in French instead of English, or it could be the product of the “indie zombie drama” subgenre, which seems to have run its course in movies like The Battery. 

All in all, this is a skillfully written little drama thriller for the zombie enthusiast, complete with top-notch acting from unknown talent and a thought-provoking perspective on the aftermath of zombification. 

The infected in this place sometimes resemble your typical Romero ghouls, but they’re also something more: lost souls holding onto a peculiar, primitive culture all their own. 

2. Ouija: Origin of Evil

The first Ouija was a drab, paint-by-numbers cash grab that lacked any originality, but its follow-up, directed by Mike Flanagan, a well-known horror fan and prolific genre filmmaker who released three excellent films in 2016 alone, has a ’60s horror vibe to it. 

Origin of Evil shows that Flanagan was having fun with the creative possibilities of the project, from the use of the Universal logo from the era to a faded, sepia-pastel look. 

For fans of the genre and movie buffs, all of that material may be fascinating, but if Flanagan’s goals weren’t met in terms of tone and performance, the whole thing would fall apart. 

3. The Pope’s Exorcist

A blatantly formulaic and conventional supernatural horror tale, The Pope’s Exorcist is perfect for horror moviegoers on a weeknight. It revolves around a well-cast central lead who gives a performance that makes everything else fall into place. 

The priest, spurned by the “modern” church but acting at the Pope’s command to root out evil, is portrayed in the movie as a kind of rogue police detective in an action movie from the mid-1980s. 

The possession narrative that introduces Amorth to Spain is sadly very formulaic and squanders the skills of renowned horror actress Alexandra Essoe, whose remarkable previous roles in movies like Starry Eyes speak for themselves. 

4. The Babysitter

The Babysitter is a little naive in its blatant quest for praise for being a tribute to ’80s slasher films, but it’s also good enough to win some of that praise.

It’s best when its hyper-charismatic teenage characters run wild rather than when it slavishly recreates a bygone era, with twists courtesy of Fright Night and Night of the Demons. 

The Babysitter is a stylish, gory, and profane film that boasts a few amazing performances. Robbie Amell plays a near-invincible football jock, Samara Weaving plays the title character, Lewis’s dream girl and Judah Lewis plays a late-blooming 12-year-old. 

5. Verónica

The R.E.C. sequels, helmed by Spanish director Paco Plaza, have mostly yielded diminishing returns since the release of the seminal found footage horror film in 2007. 

Therefore, even though the outcomes are definitely on the derivative side, Verónica has been hailed as a welcome foray into a new concept for the director.

In the style of Witchboard, this spirit/demonic possession film centers on a fifteen-year-old Spanish student named Sandra Escacena, who, while holding an Ouija session with her classmates, unintentionally invites evil into her home. 

6. 1922

This subdued, gothic tale, set in Depression-era Middle America and told in the form of a confession by the husband, is anchored by a chameleonic performance by Thomas Jane. 

Their son, Dylan Schmid, is coerced into helping his wife (Molly Parker) commit a gruesome murder by Jane’s unsophisticated field hand, Dylan, when she refuses to work the land she inherited. 

But as with all Grand Guignol stories, we already know that the worst part isn’t the killing itself—rather, it’s the constant fear of being killed.

That translates to a vengeful and inevitable haunting in the case of the film’s guilty narrator, complete with all the eerie imagery and anticipation you came for.

7. Little Evil

Director Eli Craig has finally made a comeback with an exclusive for Netflix titled Little Evil, seven years after he gave us one of the best horror comedies in recent memory, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil. 

Little Evil is a clear parody of The Omen and other “evil kid” films, and it wears its references and influences on its sleeve in a loving if not particularly clever, way. 

Adam Scott is the depressed father who, for some reason, got sucked into a fast-paced courtship and marriage, all the while remaining oblivious to the fact that his new step-son is the kind of child who dresses like a miniature version of Angus Young and always seems to leave disasters in his wake. 

8. Fear Street Part Two: 1978

That sums up Fear Street Part 2: 1978 pretty well. This second installment of director Leigh Janiak’s ambitious trilogy of R.L. Stine adaptations for Netflix gets off to a fast start, riding high on the momentum of the surprisingly visceral Fear Street: 1994.

While it manages to live up to the violent deaths and vibrant visuals of that movie, it falls short in terms of interesting characters and variety. 

1978 is a lighter diversion that sometimes feels like it’s spinning its wheels, but it makes up for it with an unexpected change of pace that leads to the starting point for the last entry on Fear Street: 1666.  But in this second chapter, it seems like middle-child syndrome has probably kicked in.

9. #Alive

At least one South Korean zombie film was eagerly anticipated by fans of the genre this year: Although much anticipated, Peninsula, the highly acclaimed follow-up to Train to Busan, ultimately fell well short of the first. 

Fortunately, though, a considerably more successful (if modest) Korean zombie film called #Alive was just waiting in the wings to take its place. 

This story will sound familiar to readers of the original World War Z novel because it closely resembles one of the book’s most beloved passages.

This tells the story of a young hacker/gamer in Japan who becomes so engrossed in the internet that he is unable to notice the world around him turning into a zombie apocalypse until he is finally forced to unplug and continue.

10. Day Shift

Day Shift marks longtime stunt coordinator J.J. Perry’s successful directorial debut. Although it’s not a revelation, it’s hilarious and violent, and it seems like everyone who worked on it enjoyed themselves while doing their jobs well. 

As the modern equivalent of straight-to-video, streaming seems like a huge distribution-side miscalculation for certain films (like Prey). Although Day Shift isn’t quite up to the same level as the franchise, we would have loved to see it in a theater. 

A part of me wishes it had been a more gritty, unpolished Shudder release, with the same actors and creative team more overtly referencing 1970s exploitation rather than 1980s action-comedy-horror.

However, if you were one of those people who wished Blade had morphed into Bad Boys or Lethal Weapon in the early 2000s, Netflix has you covered.