Almost all of the major streamers loaded up on horror titles for Halloween, but few have the impressive lineup that Amazon Prime Video boasts. Prime Video has brought together an amazing selection of horror flicks from the past and present that includes terrifying tales, as well as an amazingly funny comedy.
To get you ready for the end of this spooky season, here are our picks for the five best Amazon Prime Video movies to stream this Halloween. But make your plans quickly, because some of these flicks are leaving Prime Video on November 1.
If you’re curious about what’s available in horror on other streaming services, we also have guides for the best horror movies on Netflix, the best horror movies on Hulu, as well as the best horror movies on Amazon Prime Video. For more options, check out guides for the best new movies to stream and the best movies on Amazon Prime Video.
The Thing (1982)
Is The Thing the best horror movie of the ’80s? We certainly think so. John Carpenter created an amazingly suspenseful movie, as helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady (Kurt Russell in one of his best movies) and the rest of the men stationed at an arctic outpost come face-to-face with an alien lifeform that may have been buried in the snow for thousands of years.
Unfortunately, said alien is not very friendly at all, and it has the ability to infect and replicate anyone who it manages to touch. Before long, MacReady isn’t sure if he can trust that any of the other guys haven’t been turned. He’s not even sure about himself.
Watch The Thing on Prime Video.
Barbarian (2022)
Barbarian is a more recent horror film that works best if you don’t know what to expect from it. So we won’t spoil any surprises here. It starts off like a rom-com, as Tess (Georgina Campbell) finds herself double-booked at a rental home with a guy named Keith (The Crow‘s Bill Skarsgård). Rather than split, they kind of hit it off together.
That’s where things start taking a turn into an Airbnb nightmare, because something is seriously off in the house. And Tess isn’t prepared for what she’s going to find there.
Watch Barbarian on Prime Video.
Terrifier 2 (2022)
Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) lives to kill again in Terrifier 2, the movie that preceded Terrifier 3‘s very successful box office run. This is the film that introduced Lauren LaVera as Sienna Shaw, a young woman who has dreams about Art before she encounters him in real life.
After escaping from the grave, Art attacks both Sienna and her younger brother, Jonathan (Elliott Fullam). And while Sienna is an uncommonly prepared heroine, she’s also out of his depth against this seemingly immortal madman. To defeat Art, Sienna has to become something more than she was at the beginning of her ordeal.
Watch Terrifier 2 on Prime Video.
Army of Darkness (1992)
The third Evil Dead movie abandons any pretense of straight horror and veers right into comedy. Thankfully, Army of Darkness is so hilarious that you won’t even care that it isn’t scary. This film has Bruce Campbell’s best performance as Ash Williams, and he’s so impressively funny that the entire Duke Nukem video game franchise ripped off his persona from this movie.
After the events of Evil Dead 2, Ash is trapped in the Middle Ages with no easy way back to his own time. His only hope of a safe return to the present is by retrieving the Necronomicon, an evil tome that can unleash the Deadites. There wouldn’t be much of a movie if Ash hadn’t blown that chance, but what follows is an all-time great horror comedy.
Watch Army of Darkness on Prime Video.
Hellraiser (1987)
The first appearance of the Cenobites in the initial Hellraiser movie instantly made an icon out of the lead demon, Pinhead (Doug Bradley). It’s not enough for Pinhead and his fellow Cenobites to kill their victims. They want to corrupt the souls of everyone foolish enough to meddle with the enigmatic puzzle box before condemning them to an eternity of pleasure and pain in a dark corner of Hell.
Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) doesn’t know that her uncle, Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman), made a deal with the Cenobites and escaped back to the mortal realm before murdering her father, Larry (Andrew Robinson). Kirsty’s only hope of avoiding Frank’s eternal damnation is by delivering her uncle to Pinhead. Even then, there’s no guarantee that Pinhead will honor their arrangement and spare her.
Watch Hellraiser on Prime Video.
