14 Best Horror Movies to Watch on Prime Video (July 2026): ‘The Devil’s Mouth’ and More

Is there anything scarier than underwater cave exploring? Most people would say “yes,” but for five friends about to graduate from college, they see it as the perfect activity to say goodbye to their youth and hello to the adult world. They sign up for a diving expedition in The Devil’s Mouth, a remote cave system in Thailand, but a freak storm has sent loads of sea life into the water that the friends are diving in. That doesn’t sound too bad until they realize there’s an apex predator that is gobbling up all the marine life – and they’re next on the menu.

The Devil’s Mouth is a strange hybrid of The Summer I Turned Pretty (Gavin Casalegno is one of the buddies who’s potential shark bait) and Jaws, with a dash of The Descent thrown in. With a cast that includes Kathryn Newton and Lana Condor, the film successfully puts its young stars in mortal danger, with as much danger coming from each other as it comes from the creature that’s stalking them. All of them want to survive, of course, but not all of them can, and part of The Devil’s Mouth’s pleasure is watching these friends turn on each other to save their own skins.

The Devil’s Mouth will stream on July 29.

In space, no one can hear you scream. The same holds true in water, at least according to Leviathan, an entertaining rip-off of the Ridley Scott classic, Alien. Peter Weller stars as Steven Beck, a geologist who oversees a deep-sea mining operation with a ragtag group of scientists, divers and grunts. After exploring an abandoned Russian submarine, one of the crew unwittingly carries an alien virus aboard the ship. The virus soon mutates into a monstrous creature that threatens to kill everyone on board – and maybe everyone on the planet if it makes it to the surface.

Leviathan is a shameless Alien ripoff, but it’s also an entertaining one. There are some creepy scares throughout the film as the crew slowly discovers what’s happening to them and how the odds of their survival grow increasingly slim by the minute. The creature effects were done by Stan Winston, the legendary makeup artist who helped bring prehistoric dinosaurs to life in Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park, and the creature’s final form in the climax is both scary and impressive-looking.

War is hell, both for the soldiers who fight on the frontlines and for the loved ones they leave behind. For Anne (Sophie Turner), she’d rather be anywhere than at home, where she’s stuck with her overbearing mother-in-law, Morwen, while waiting for the return of her beloved hubby, Seamus (Laurence O’Fuarain), from battle in the War of the Roses. He never comes back, but his childhood friend and fellow soldier, Jago (Kit Harington), does, and he brings nothing but trouble to Anne’s household. Anne clearly has feelings for him, but they’re overshadowed by reports of a murderous knight beheading people in the woods.

The Dreadful is a modern attempt at ‘70s folk horror, and it mostly does a good job at setting up its spooky medieval atmosphere. It’s a bit weird to see former Game of Thrones siblings Turner and Harington as unfaithful lovers, but they make a convincingly guilt-ridden couple. The Dreadful is best when Harden graces the screen as the mother-in-law from hell, who doesn’t mind murdering her rich neighbors to steal some of their spoils.

Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is a pop star with a death wish. Still haunted by the death of a former boyfriend, she visits her former classmate and drug dealer, Lewis (Lukas Gage), for some relief. Instead, she inherits a curse that can only be broken if her heart stops. At first, she doesn’t believe it, but as those around her start to suffer and die, Skye realizes she’s being stalked by a demonic entity that wants to kill her. 

A follow-up to the mega-successful 2022 horror flick Smile, Smile 2 improves on its predecessor in every way. It takes the possessed demon concept in a radically different direction, and dramatically ups the stakes, especially in the jawdropping finale. As Skye, Scott gives one of modern horror’s best performances. She completely sells the far-out concept of someone being menaced by an invisible entity, and her performance is every bit as award-worthy as Inde Navarrette’s in Obsession.

Who has taken Maybrook’s children? That’s what worried parents like Archer Graff (Josh Brolin) want to know after his son and 16 other kids disappeared one night at exactly 2:17 a.m. The missing children’s only connection is that they all belonged to Justine Gandy’s (Julia Garner) elementary class, but she is just as clueless as the rest of the townsfolk. Is Justine telling the truth? The only child in the class who didn’t disappear, Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher), seems to know something, but he’s too scared to talk.

Weapons starts as a puzzling mystery and ends in pure horror. That’s exactly what director Zach Cregger had in mind when crafting this strange story involving the occult in picture-perfect suburbia. Amy Madigan won an Oscar for her brief but bravura performance as Aunt Gladys, whose garish makeup and cheap wig hide something more sinister than anyone could possibly imagine.

Bickering siblings Trish (Gina Phillips) and Darry (Justin Long) are travelling through the Florida countryside when they see a man dumping bodies near an abandoned church. Naturally curious, they investigate only to discover that the “man” is actually an ancient creature called The Creeper (Jonathan Breck). Every 23 years, he awakens to satiate his hungry appetite — and Trish and Daarry are next on the menu.

Released 25 years ago, Jeepers Creepers still packs a horrific punch. The film has an intriguing set-up, and it executes it with style, some humor — and, yes, bloodshed. The brother-and-sister protagonists are a unique spin on the “final girl” horror trope, and the ending wraps things up satisfactorily while leaving just enough room for a sequel. Two years later, Jeepers Creepers II was released, and it’s also available to stream on Prime Video.

Are you ready to go back to Bates Motel? Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) is, although whether it’s a good idea that he return to the scene of his gnarly crimes is debatable. He swears he’s all better, and to prove it, he works at the local diner and starts dating a pretty waitress, Mary (Meg Tilly). It’s hard to keep a good Mother down, though, and when the bodies start stacking up, it looks like Norman is up to his old murderous tricks again. 

Any sequel to Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 masterpiece shouldn’t work, and while Psycho II is nowhere near as great as its predecessor, it’s a surprisingly decent thriller-horror flick. The mystery surrounding Norman, and who exactly is killing people and framing him, is intriguing, and the death scenes are appropriately gory. Most surprising is Perkins’ deeply felt performance — he really makes you feel Bates’ moral anguish as he increasingly believes he’s slowly going insane again.

All 12-year-old Andy (Alex Vincent) wants for his birthday is a Good Guy doll, which is the hot toy of the moment — and sold out everywhere. His single mom, Karen (Catherine Hicks), manages to snag one on the black market, but she soon realizes something isn’t quite right with the alarmingly lifelike doll. Nicknamed “Chucky” by her son, he seems to have a life of his own — he opens his eyes when he shouldn’t and talks even when he doesn’t have batteries powering him up. It turns out she’s right — Chucky’s been possessed by the soul of serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) and wants to take over poor Andy to continue his reign of terror.

That’s the twisted setup to Child’s Play, the 1988 sleeper hit that started an enduring franchise that’s now more comical than horrific. (In later films, Chucky gets married to Jennifer Tilly and spawns a gender-confused child.) But the original is surprisingly scary, and Chucky is played for scares rather than laughs. As voiced by Dourif, he’s a twisted little killer whose plastic smile conceals a barely constrained murderous rage. Like all good ’80s horror movies, the movie was later remade, but the just-fine 2019 reboot can’t hold a bloody knife to the original.

Before the Hellraiser movies fell to direct-to-video sequels, the original 1987 film was one of the most unsettling horror flicks of the decade. Clive Barker made his directorial debut with this film, and his Cenobites are never more terrifying than when they’re only briefly seen. This movie also marks the first appearance of Doug Bradley as Pinhead, the leader of the Cenobites.

Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman) found the puzzle box that opens a door to the Cenobites’ corner of Hell before losing his life in the process. But even death can’t keep Frank from targeting his brother, Larry Cotton (Andrew Robinson), and resuming his affair with Larry’s wife, Julia (Clare Higgins). Larry’s daughter, Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence), may be the only one who can send Frank back to Hell if the Cenobites don’t get her first.

Hellraiser is streaming on Prime Video.

When their friend Tommy (Bill Cone) is mysteriously murdered at a cemetery, Reggie (Reggie Bannister), Jody (Bill Thornbury) and Jody’s 13-year-old brother, Mike (A. Michael Baldwin), decide to investigate. They get more than they bargained for when they encounter The Tall Man (Angus Scrimm), an imposing figure who possesses unnatural strength and vague psychic abilities. The Tall Man knows why Tommy was killed, but he’s not telling, so it’s up to the three men to find out what he’s up to, why his mortuary might be a portal to another dimension and how the hell he can control two silver flying spheres that can kill people in an instant.

It’s a compliment to say that watching Phantasm feels like a bad dream you want to wake up from, but can’t. While it has its share of blood, the film is less of a slasher and more of a horror movie about the unknown. Nothing really makes sense or is explained, which makes Phantasm even scarier — you’re not given the comfort of an explanation. And for a movie made in 1979, the special effects still hold up — those flying spheres look real and deadly. 

Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) is a single mother of two who is still mourning the death of her husband. One day, she’s troubled by the sudden appearance of a mysterious woman (Okwui Okpokwasili), dressed entirely in black and sitting calmly in her front yard. The woman never speaks, and, as time goes on, she keeps moving closer to the house with each passing day. What does she want? And why is Ramona so terrified of her?

The Woman in the Yard is a trauma horror movie that’s not unlike Hereditary, starring Toni Collette, or Midsommar. The movie takes its time to reveal what exactly is going on and what the mute woman’s intentions are toward Ramona and her family. But it’s worth the wait, and a big reason why The Woman in the Yard works is that its third-act explanations make sense. There’s logic behind this movie’s horror, which is perhaps the best way you can scare people.

Directed by Midnight Mass’ Mike Flanagan, Oculus stars Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy) as a woman attempting to rebuild the fractured relationship with her brother, a task that goes awry when she suspects an antique mirror is behind a tragedy they experienced. The film received positive reviews upon release, with critics praising it for its intense atmosphere of dread, exceptional pacing, and impressive cinematography.

Kaylie (Gillan) and her brother Tim (Brenton Thwaites) are still haunted by the deaths of their parents from a decade prior. However, Kaylie begins to suspect that their demise was somehow caused by an antique mirror in their childhood home, which seems to hold a supernatural force that looks malevolently back at those who gaze into its reflection.

A disgraced puppeteer (Sean Harris) returns to his childhood home, where he is forced to contend with his horrific stepfather. He carries with him a disturbing puppet named “Possum,” which features an array of spider legs underneath a replica of a man’s head. As the puppeteer must confront trauma that has followed him since childhood, he also experiences visions in which Possum is coming terrifyingly to life.

Possum was directed and written by Matthew Holness, who created and starred in the cult classic horror parody series, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. Here, Holness trades horror comedy for something far more grave, flexing his arthouse chops in this steely, minimalist take on a psychological horror film. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised in particular the unnerving performance by Harris, the chilling atmosphere and striking cinematography.

Before you ask, no — you really don’t need to watch Terrifier before you watch Terrifier 2. All you have to know is that Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) has come back to life and is intent on continuing the blood-soaked Halloween night killing spree that he started. With an all-new set of victims for Art to terrorize, Terrifier 2 more or less stands on its own as a rollicking good and gory time. The film was a surprise hit back in 2022, taking in over $10 million against a budget of only $250,000.

One year following Art The Clown’s Miles County massacre, the face-painted villain has been mysteriously resurrected and arrives on the doorstep of All Hallow’s Eve, trailing another group of unsuspecting victims. Unfortunately for him, one of his targets, teenager Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera), isn’t going to go down without a proper fight.