While “Netflix and chill” is the more popular phrase, sometimes “Netflix and thrills” is far better. But we all know how hard it can be to find real scares on this popular streaming platform. Fear not, fear fans: I sifted through the streamer for the freakiest frights and the most slaughter-filled slashers. Grab some popcorn and keep reading to discover the best spooky films to watch on Netflix!

10

Thanksgiving

When Scream came out in 1996, it flipped the horror genre on its head. Audiences had never before experienced such a potent mixture of slasher violence and whip-smart writing. The result was a stylish film that instantly became part of the same pop culture zeitgeist that it skewered, along with a bevy of helpless teen characters. And ever since, fans wondered if they’d ever get another film that combined humor and horror into such a stylish package.

Thanks to Thanksgiving, the wait is over. This spooky film from Eli Roth takes the infamous director’s more gore-heavy tendencies down a few notches to deliver a tale about a Thanksgiving-obsessed masked killer who wants to take the stuffing out of the town’s residents, one slice at a time. This is one horror film with all the fixin’s, including standout performances from both Patrick Dempsey and Addison Rae.

Trust me when I say the mask alone in this freaky film will haunt you even worse than your mother’s overcooked Thanksgiving turkey.

9

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice was an iconic film that spawned an unlikely franchise that would later include a surprisingly great children’s cartoon and a hit Broadway musical. However, it took over a quarter of a century for the original film to get a proper theatrical sequel. With Burton back in the director’s chair and Michael Keaton back in his ghoulishly great get-up, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice delivers more of what made fans fall in love in the first place.

New additions to the cast, such as Jenna Ortega and Willem Dafoe, help expand the boundaries of this colorfully off-kilter world. The real delights, though, come from the performances of Michael Keaton and Catherine O’Hara, each of whom takes turns stealing scenes. Throw in killer costuming and creature work, and you’ve got a spooky sequel that reminds us why its titular demon is still “the ghost with the most.”

8

The Babysitter

The Babysitter is a film that I didn’t expect to be so good. Who the heck expected McG, the director of action vehicles like Charlie’s Angels and Terminator Salvation, to be so good at directing a slasher? Nonetheless, he delivers a witty, fast-paced fright night in which the titular babysitter (Samara Weaving) and her fellow satanists try to imbue themselves with dark powers.

The only thing in their way is the young boy (Judah Lewis) who was supposed to stay tucked into his bed. Once he discovers the cult’s antics, he has to use all his wits and all his toys to stay one step ahead of the colorful villains out for his head. If you’ve ever wanted a grislier Home Alone with an epic body count, this exclusive proves that Netflix is still worth it.

7

The Babysitter: Killer Queen

Outside of genuine classics (like the iconic Friday the 13th Part 2) and cult favorites (like the accidental gay masterpiece A Nightmare on Elm Street 2), most horror sequels fall flat. The same can’t be said for The Babysitter: Killer Queen, in which the original protagonist is trying to move on after the events of the first film. However, cultists old and new conspire to make his next move a long walk into a shallow grave.

Without giving any spoilers, this movie upends much of what you thought you knew about the original. It does this in fresh and exciting ways while serving up gobs of gore in between quote-worthy lines of dialogue. While this Netflix exclusive gives us a great performance from Wednesday star Jenna Ortega, it’s Samara Weaving who needs to be crowned as the ultimate modern-day scream queen.

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6

Smile

More than any other genre, horror is all about transforming the scary ideas of the past into the genuinely haunting ideas of the present. For example, Smile builds on the model of It Follows, a scary movie in which characters are stalked by a kind of living sexually transmitted disease. In Smile, a different kind of curse moves from person to person, turning them into destructive monsters whose faces become off-putting rictus grins.

Performances from stars like Sosie Bacon bring this unconventionally terrifying tale to life. But what really makes Smile work is how it transforms the friendly sight of a smiling face into something guaranteed to make your skin crawl. A central mystery helps keep this plot moving, but if you’re anything like me, you may be too busy with your hands over your eyes to appreciate our protagonist channeling Scooby-Doo, one clue at a time.

5

Scream (2022)

Scream is the horror franchise that famously lampooned the long-running horror trope of villains coming back to life for one last scare. Decades after that first film, Scream (2022) went full meta, bringing back this violent and venerable franchise that had seemingly died with original director Wes Craven. And against all the odds, this “requel” (a term the film coined!) breathes new life into a franchise that was starting to limp worse than David Arquette’s Dewey.

He’s joined by franchise veterans like Courteney Cox and (who else?) Neve Campbell. But they’re mostly here to pass the torch to a new group of would-be victims led by Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega. The plot moves fast and the dialogue even faster in a film that does for the Scream franchise what the original movie did for horror as a genre.

4

Dawn of the Dead

The one thing horror fans can usually agree on is that remakes are trash. Accordingly, Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake gets a lot of hate from fright fans for falling short of George Romero’s iconic original film. But for those who can put down their nostalgia-tinted glasses, this remake offers plenty of heart-stopping frights, starting with its very first scene.

Yes, the zombies are fast, and some consider that a dealbreaker. But it makes the monsters scarier and even enhances the film’s central metaphor: if the zombies are a reflection of our mindless consumer society, these speedy corpses are a manifestation of completely unrestrained capitalism. Anchored by performances from Sarah Polley and Ving Rhames, Dawn of the Dead is a totally terrifying transition to the postmodern creature feature.

3

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Ever put a bit of each drink in your cup at the McDonald’s soda fountain? Most of the time, you get something awful. Occasionally, though, you find that mixing a bunch of wildly different ingredients creates something unpredictably and inexplicably tasty. For horror fans, that’s the perfect description of I Know What You Did Last Summer, a movie that combines post-Scream slasher sensibilities with urban legends and a fun whodunit wrapper.

On paper, none of those things really go together. But a screenplay by Scream scribe Kevin Williamson and great performances from 90s heartthrobs like Jennifer Love Hewitt and Sarah Michelle Gellar help keep things lively (or should that be deadly?). If nothing else, this is a great movie to stream when you have friends over, and it perfectly prepares you for a long-running horror franchise that, like the villain of the first movie, simply refuses to die.

2

Heart Eyes

Heart Eyes has a laughably silly premise: that a serial killer who wears a heart-eye mask is constantly on the hunt for new victims when Valentine’s Day rolls around. But thanks to director Josh Ruben (who previously brought us sleeper horror hits like Scare Me and Werewolves Within), this film alternates between heartwarming scenes and heart-stopping scares.

Fittingly enough, Heart Eyes is a romantic comedy as well a horror film, and there is wonderful chemistry between Olivia Holt (best known to genre fans for her role in the terrifying, time-traveling movie Totally Killer) and Mason Gooding, who killed it (so to speak) in Booksmart and Scream (2022). That makes this the rare horror film that makes for a great date night, though you might want to save that nice, romantic dinner for after you watch this film’s collection of creative kills.

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1

Psycho

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Netflix is often accused of having a pretty scattershot horror selection. While it’s true that the streamer is filled with direct-to-video duds, it notably has Psycho, the Alfred Hitchcock classic that many consider the very first slasher film. If you like horror as a genre, Psycho is required viewing because it effectively gave birth to the next half-century of spooky cinema.

If you only know this film by reputation, then you probably think it’s all about Janet Leigh and that infamous shower scene. However, the film is so much more than that, and it’s filled with twists and turns that helped turn a one-off movie into the first major horror franchise. By the time the credits roll, you may never look at showers or unassuming motels the same way ever again.

With these horror films, you can enjoy Netflix and thrills with just the click of a button. It may not be Halloween, but each movie provides a different flavor of cinematic candy. And these kinds of tasty treats are worth streaming–er, screaming–about!