Best Horror Movies On Amazon Prime In 2024

While physical movies haven’t disappeared from the market entirely, and potentially never will, odds are you’re not running your finger along DVD spines when you’re figuring out what to watch next anymore. Instead, you’re hopping onto a streaming service and seeing what it has to offer. Great on the surface as depending on the services you’re subscribed to, and the rate at which new content is added, you’ll probably never run out of things to watch. The downside is with all that choice, finding and actually deciding on what to watch can be a little bit of a nightmare.

If you’re anything like me, you’ll spend most of the free time you have to watch a movie mindlessly scrolling through your options. It’s frustrating, but that’s where this guide comes in. If you’re planning to settle down and watch a good horror movie sometime soon, or even right now, especially with Halloween right around the corner, below are some of the best scary films you can watch on Amazon Prime. A mix of titles included with your subscriptions and others you can rent or buy, we’ve got something for everyone, other than the kids of course, from jumpscares to psychological horror to good old-fashioned gore.

Updated on October 5, 2024, by Sai Vsr: In this update, we’ve added Totally Killer, another brilliant Halloween option available on Prime. Check it out below.

Best Horror Movies On Amazon Prime Video

Totally Killer is an excellent mash-up of Back to the Future and your classic slice-and-dice flicks. Kiernan Shipka absolutely kills it as Jamie, your average modern teen who gets zapped back to 1987. There, she’s got to stop some gruesome murders to make sure her mom’s future stays intact. The movie bites into ’80s tropes and cultural differences in a witty way, delivering both laughs and minor spooks. While the horror stuff may not satisfy gorehounds, the film’s bargain lies in its funny dialogue and fish-out-of-water comedy. It’s not the greatest thing to happen since sliced bread, but if you want something easily-digestible and not too spooky, this right here is your ghost.

If you have been avoiding The Nun, and I get it because it’s terrifying, or simply haven’t gotten around to watching it yet, now may well be the best time to catch up. The Nun 2 has hit cinemas so if you want to go and see it, you’re going to need to have seen the first movie in the series. The only problem is this is technically the fifth movie in the series as it follows on from The Conjuring series of films. The Nun can really be its own thing, though. Despite happening in the same world as The Conjuring, it can be framed as its own thing. I also can’t imagine you’ll be thinking too deeply about its lore while being scared out of your wits.

The Final Destination movies hit cinemas just at the right time in my life to make me mildly obsessed with them when they were released in quick succession. I’ve honed in on Final Destination 3 for this particular guide because not only does it not matter if you have seen the first two or not, but this is the movie from the series that really stuck with me. Not only because I sat and watched its horrific rollercoaster crash a week before visiting a theme park, but also because it’s the one with the somewhat comical but also incredibly horrific sunbed scene. If you want to use either of those things ever again, maybe give this movie a miss.

As someone who loves a twist in a movie, mainly because I almost never see them coming, Saw is the epitome of the horror movie genre for me. Nine movies later, it still hasn’t topped what it did in this very first film. Whether you know what’s coming or not, I defy you not to get chills when the iconic theme starts to play and exactly what has been going on for the previous 80 minutes or so finally becomes clear. If this is a first-time watch for you and you want to carry on with the series, I’d personally recommend stopping at Saw 3. If you do want to carry on after that, more power to you.

Evil Dead may well be what most people think of when they hear the term horror movie. Amusing on some level as even though the films have gone on to become synonymous with the genre, the first installment in the series was unintentionally amusing. Still pulling from its past, Evil Dead Rise has a little of that, but not nearly as much as those original movies. Despite where it starts, it also trades in the traditional woodland and cabin combo for an innercity backdrop. A pretty gnarly story told in a very gory way. If blood and guts are what pique your horror movie interest, Evil Dead Rise is the horror movie for you.

Horror movies don’t always need to keep you up at night or make you feel like you’re literally going to jump out of your skin if there’s even one more jumpscare. They can even be funny, and Renfield proves that. Unlike Evil Dead, however, it’s Renfield’s intention to make viewers laugh. At least I think that’s the case and it wasn’t just the studio casting Nicholas Cage as Dracula and him not being able to play it seriously. An overlooked 2023 movie in my opinion as it hit cinemas around the same time as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, now is the perfect time to give it a chance if you missed it on the big screen.

I’m always impressed when a studio comes up with a new twist on a vampire movie, hence two atypical examples appearing in this guide. Let Me In combines vampires with romance rather than comedy and includes a terrific performance from Chloe Grace Moretz fresh off breaking into the mainstream via Kick-Ass. Moretz plays Abby, a vampire with the appearance of a young girl who must convince her neighbor Thomas to remain friends with her after he discovers her secret. A very well-done vampire flick and something of a hidden gem, especially when compared to the other movies on this list which are all much more well-known.

This really wouldn’t be a horror movie list worth its salt if there wasn’t a Scream on here, and there has still been no Scream movie better than the original. Turning the slasher genre on its head, the first Scream movie introduced the world to Ghostface. Perhaps the Halloween mask with the most mileage 25 years later. Yes, its story has basically been retold in sequels over the years, but that’s why I’m recommending the original. Also, most of the Scream movies that have come since are pretty great too.

FAQ

What Movie Kicked Off The Horror Genre?

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly where any genre of movie definitively started. However, when it comes to the modern-day definition of horror movies, and when the ball really got rolling, aficionados tend to consider 1974’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre the true starting point for how we view the genre to this day.

What Is The Highest-Grossing Horror Movie?

Raking in a little more than $700 million at the box office, It is the highest-grossing horror movie ever. There’s a little bit of debate as to what a horror movie is right after that as The Sixth Sense is in a close second, and then I Am Legend is third.