The best horror movies on Netflix right now

Ti West’s X trilogy arguably peaked with 2022’s Pearl, a prequel to X that was released the same year. The film centers on the titular character, played by an outstanding Mia Goth, a young and ambitious woman who dreams of escaping her farm and unhappy marriage to pursue a career on the stage. As her dreams fall apart, Pearl slowly unravels, leading to murderous results.

With a tour de force performance from Goth and a visual style that wears its influences on its sleeve, Pearl is an incredible horror movie that honors the slasher subgenre while offering a compelling story about broken dreams and the dangers of unexpressed frustration.

Speaking of quasi-reboots, 2022’s Scream acted as a reinvention for its franchise. Melissa Barrera stars as Sam Carpenter, who returns to Woodsboro after a new Ghostface attacks her sister. As secrets from her past emerge, Sam will have to look for answers in this haunted town as a new wave of killings begin, attracting figures from the past and adding more carnage than ever before.

Scream introduced a new cast of young characters that injected some much-needed life into a dying franchise. Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, and Mikey Madison brought their A-game, proving Scream could succeed without overly relying on nostalgia. The film’s sharp commentary about the current state of horror is as biting as ever, and the return of crucial characters to the story further enhances the experience.

The underrated Carla Gugino stars opposite Bruce Greenwood in Mike Flanagan’s 2017 psychological horror film Gerald’s Game. Adapted from Stephen King‘s 1992 novel, the film follows a married couple at a secluded getaway home. Looking to rekindle their strained relationship, the man handcuffs the woman to the bed; however, he suddenly dies of a heart attack, leaving his wife in a dire situation. With little hope of escaping and a series of demons haunting her mind, the woman must do everything in her power to survive.

Director Susanne Bier’s 2018 genre film Bird Box was released the same year as Jon Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, and both films deal with similar narrative threads — primarily, a reliance on humanity’s keen senses as a means for survival on a near-apocalyptic Planet Earth. In Bird Box, the story is about a world devastated by an omnipotently horrific presence that, if witnessed, renders a person insane and forces them into suicide. Five years after the presence first emerges, Malorie Hayes (Sandra Bullock), who’s caring for two children (one of which is her own), seeks salvation with the two kids, played by Vivien Lyra Blair and Julian Edwards. But in order to live, the trio must traverse a destroyed world without their ability to see. Based on the 2014 Josh Malerman novel of the same name, Bird Box presents an engaging concept that branches off into many exciting directions, and Sandra Bullock commands a relatable lead role. It’s not a perfect film by any means, but it’s definitely immersive and entertaining.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a franchise that has seen many peaks and valleys through its near-50-year saga. The latest entry, 2022’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is a direct sequel to the 1974 original film, ignoring all the other titles in the franchise. Our story follows Dante (Jacob Latimore), a social media influencer, and his close-knit band of friends. Arriving in a small Texas town that they plan to gentrify (much to the chagrin of the remaining locals), what the posse of pals doesn’t plan for is the emergence of a chainsaw-wielding brute that isn’t ready to vacate a dilapidated orphanage. While it lacks some of the tension-building and sensible character motivations of other Chainsaw flicks, this straight-to-Netflix iteration brings bold slasher sensibilities, exciting camera work, and an inventive (if not challenged) storyline to the fold.

Perusing the annals of the top streaming platforms, there’s a number of documentaries that chronicle the rise and fall of major startups — scam-artists that finally pay their penance. Such a premise is at play in the 2018 Netflix original, Malevolent. Starring Florence Pugh (Midsommar, Black Widow) and Ben Lloyd-Hughes as a fraudulent paranormal-investigation duo, the brother-sister team is called to a supposedly haunted estate to carry out their con-artist workflow — a job that takes a wicked turn when the decrepit homestead has plans of its own. A chilling haunted-house flick that doesn’t break the mold but lives comfortably in the confines of the tropes that laid its foundation, Malevolent is a fun plunge into a world of creepy whispers, slamming doors, and disturbed psyches turning on our main characters.

The director of The Hills Have Eyes (2006), Horns, and Crawl, Alexandra Aja takes a deep plunge into the popular crossover world of horror-meets-sci-fi with 2021’s Oxygen. The film stars Mélanie Laurent as Elizabeth Hansen, a woman who wakes up in a cryogenic pod with depleting oxygen levels, with no clue about how she got there. As the air pours out of her cell, Liz must fight to reclaim any semblance of who she is and why she’s been in a cryo-induced slumber. While the narrative may not be entirely fresh, you’ll want to watch Oxygen for the breathtaking lead performance from Mélanie Laurent, an actor who brings mighty chops to a role that a run-of-the-mill talent could easily phone in.