If the word “boo” gets you all hot and bothered in a good way, you should probably use your Prime Video subscription in October.
The streamer has added a slew of classic and modern horror movies that put the “fright” in “frightening.”
Watch With Us has curated a thorough list of the best horror movies streaming on Prime Video, with the Kevin Bacon chiller Stir of Echoes and the ‘70s haunted house story The Amityville Horror leading the pack.
After he’s put under hypnosis by his hippie sister-in-law, working-class phone lineman Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon) begins having strange visions of a local girl, Samantha (Jennifer Morrison), who’s been missing for months. She’s probably dead, and she wants Tom to find the people who killed her. But is Tom stable enough to decipher the girl’s enigmatic clues and solve the mystery? Or will he be driven mad by his newfound psychic abilities?
Released only a month after the similar The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis, Stir of Echoes is different enough to be worth a watch. Yes, there’s a child (Tom’s son) who sees dead people, but he’s not the main character; Tom is, and Bacon is really good at conveying his character’s initial confusion and growing exhilaration at possessing a metaphorical third eye. The film’s central mystery isn’t all that complex — the killer(s) is/are easy to figure out — but the film’s main pleasures derive from Bacon’s performance and the unsettling atmosphere it so effectively conjures.
In a time when mortgage rates were over 11%, it’s easy to see why the middle-class couple George and Kathy Lutz (James Brolin and Margot Kidder) jumped at the chance to buy the heavily discounted home in Amityville, New York. Sure, the previous occupants were all murdered by one of their own family members, but those bad vibes can be waved away by the prospect of a low monthly payment and the blessing of a local priest. But when that priest flees the home in sheer terror and other strange things start to occur around the house, George, Kathy, and their children all begin to regret that they ever moved into their haunted Amityville home.
Allegedly based on true events, The Amityville Horror doesn’t need the patina of realism for it to be scary. Shot in desaturated colors, the film looks and feels gloomy — you can almost feel the breath of something on your neck. Brolin is all too effective as a bearded daddy who becomes hostile and withdrawn from his family. Is he possessed, or just a major asshole? The Amityville Horror invites you to judge for yourself, but you might be too busy hiding your eyes in terror to do so.
It’s every office worker’s worst nightmare — you get stuck in a small elevator with other people you barely know. That’s what happens at the start of Devil, when five different people — an old woman, a mattress salesman, a security guard, a mechanic and a young woman — all become trapped in a jammed elevator. But this isn’t an ordinary malfunction; there’s something supernatural at play, and security guard Ramirez (Jacob Vargas) thinks the Devil itself is in the elevator with them. Is Satan spending its time toying around in a nondescript Philadelphia office building? And if so, why?
Those are the questions you’ll ask at the beginning of Devil and by the end, they’ll be satisfactorily answered. With a script co-written by M. Night Shyamalan, expect a few narrative surprises in the third act, but Devil is mostly a straightforward horror film that makes great use of its confined space. If you suffer from claustrophobia, don’t watch it, but if you’re looking for a fun and inventive horror-thriller, you should watch Devil.
Beneath Saint Goddard’s monastery in Los Angeles lies a mysterious and centuries-old cylinder containing a swirling pool of green liquid. Where did the liquid come from, and what can it do? That’s what a team of scientists wants to find out when a priest (Donald Plesance) brings them in to investigate. But their research increasingly suggests it’s something that’s beyond science — and could possibly mean the end of the world.
Aside from die-hard horror fans, Prince of Darkness is a largely forgotten film, even though it was directed by Halloween filmmaker John Carpenter and has a silent supporting performance by rocker Alice Cooper. The film deserves a wider audience because it’s creepy as hell — a dark and apocalyptic look at the possibility of Satan itself walking among humanity.
The Boogeyman is back, and this time, it’s personal. Halloween II continues the night of terror that began in 1978’s Halloween, only this time, the slow-walking killer Michael Myers stalks an injured Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in an almost empty hospital. He wants to kill her for a reason, and Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) needs to find out why before it’s too late to save Laurie’s life.
Halloween II isn’t the masterpiece John Carpenter’s original is, but it’s still a brutally effective slasher with a healthy number of gruesome kills. If you want to see someone get burned to death or watch as a needle is stabbed into a nurse’s eyeball, Halloween II is just the treat for you.
Halloween II is available to rent or purchase.
Canadian fashion model Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) becomes unusually fascinated with a gruesome murder case involving Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), who is accused of killing three young girls, filming their deaths and streaming them in an exclusive “Red Room” on the dark web. Kelly-Anne doesn’t think he committed the crimes and is intent on proving his innocence. But as she attends his trial and tries to obtain a copy of the snuff film he allegedly filmed, she begins to lose her grip on her sanity.
Red Rooms is a great example of a movie telling its audience all the horrors its supposed villain committed rather than showing them. Director Pascal Plante knows that nothing is scarier than your imagination, and we’re left to wonder just what Ludovic — if he’s the killer, that is. The film is less concerned with revealing the culprit than with chronicling Kelly-Anne’s deteriorating psychological state. She can’t quite explain why she’s so fixated on Ludovic’s case, but she realizes too late that her initial curiosity quickly becomes an all-consuming obsession she can’t control.
The Warlock (Julian Sands) is a time-travelling witch who does the Devil’s bidding. His latest mission is his biggest — find three sections of an ancient book that, once assembled, contain a spell that could undo all of creation. The only beings that can stop him are the medieval witch hunter Giles Redferne (Richard E. Grant) and L.A. waitress Kassandra (Lori Singer), but they’re no match for the Warlock’s power and desire to see through his master’s apocalyptic plan.
Warlock has a plot that skews more toward fantasy than horror, but the film contains enough shocking deaths and violence to satisfy splatter fans. Sands’ coolly cruel witch will do anything to get what he wants, including gouging out a psychic’s eyes to use as a compass, and he’s powerful enough to make you wonder how the hell the film’s heroes will stop him.
When five friends stop at a seemingly abandoned farm on a hot Texas day, they have no idea what they’re walking into is a death trap. Lurking in the shadows is a deranged family of cannibals, including a hitchhiker who likes to skin animals alive and a chainsaw-wielding maniac named Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen). Even before the sun goes down, one person after another disappears, and soon, only one is left to survive a night of madness and terror.
Over 50 years later, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre remains one of the scariest movies ever made. It’s also one of the most deceptive, as the film contains far less blood and gore than most people believe there is. That’s why the film is a classic — it conjures a strange atmosphere of menace and death that hooks you right in and doesn’t let up, even after the credits roll. Quentin Tarantino once called it one of the most perfect movies ever made, and the Pulp Fiction auteur is right. Watching The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is like experiencing a nightmare made real, and you won’t ever forget it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
