13 Best Horror Movies to Watch on Prime Video (May 2026): ‘Weapons’ and More

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.

WWI vets Smoke and Stack Moore (both played by Michael B. Jordan) are twin brothers who are about to open their own nightclub in 1930s Mississippi. But on the club’s opening night, the patrons’ laughter and loud music attract the Irish vampire Remmick (Jack O’Connell), who has been converting some of the town’s citizens into creatures of the night. What was once a night of celebration turns into chaos as the Moore brothers defend their club — and everyone inside it — from Remmick and his growing legion of the undead.

One of 2025’s most critically acclaimed and Oscar-nominated movies, Sinners is also a massively entertaining horror film. Inspired by the movies of John Carpenter, the film has elements similar to the director’s 1982 classic, The Thing, and 1998’s Vampires, but with its own distinct style, feel and message. Led by Jordan, the cast is top-notch, with O’Connell superbly portraying a vampire so charming, you’ll catch yourself contemplating his tempting offer of immortality.

The iconic Universal horror film received an update from director Leigh Whannell, who delivered a fantastic reworking of The Invisible Man back in 2020. Here, he brings Wolf Man to the present day, starring Julia Garner and Christopher Abbott as a married couple who experience the worst night of their lives. When husband Blake is attacked by a werewolf and slowly begins turning into one, Charlotte must protect the lives of her and their daughter.

The film adds more of a complex, psychological bent to an originally more simplistic story, but it is by no means at the expense of the film. Rather, it adds some necessary depth in addition to being an extremely freaky and entertaining bit of body horror. Additionally, Garner and Abbott display excellent chemistry in a film that also shines in its kinetic pacing and claustrophobic set pieces.

After a spaceship carrying British and American astronauts crashes on Earth, a team of scientists investigates the remains. A lone survivor, Colonel Tom Carlsen (Steve Railsback), reveals that his crew found a bat-like alien species that wants to drain the life force of everyone on the planet. Disguised as two men and a beautiful woman, these aliens suck the energy out of London’s unwitting populace so their mothership has enough energy to travel to Earth and conquer it.

Or something like that. Lifeforce has a bonkers plot that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it has such a fast pace that you barely notice. It combines the cheesiness of 1950s sci-fi with the gore of 1980s slasher pictures, resulting in a horror movie unlike any other. Director Tobe Hooper opts to take all this hokum seriously, which makes it even more silly — and effective. The climax is satisfyingly insane, with alien conspiracy theories, interspecies psychic connections, Halley’s comet and St. Paul’s Cathedral thrown at you before abruptly ending. Lifeforce is truly one of a kind — but what kind is left up for you to decide.

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.