21 Horror Movies On Netflix You Should Never Watch Alone

When Bol (Sope Dirisu) and Rial (Wunmi Mosaku) flee South Sudan with their daughter and seek refuge in England, they not only must contend with the challenges of adjusting to living in a unwelcoming, racist neighborhood, but with an insidious evil force lurking within the walls of their own home. It’s a nail-biting film about assimilation and the refugee experience that is guaranteed to keep you up at night.

Based on the 1992 Stephen King novel, Netflix’s 2017 adaptation of Gerald’s Game is about a woman, Jessie (Carla Gugino), who ends up alone and handcuffed to a bed with no food, no water, and seemingly no way to get out alive. Not only will this film make you swear off handcuffs in the bedroom, but it will also make you swear off any secluded vacations.

The moral of 2014’s Creep is twofold: Never answer ads on Craigslist and never be alone with a stranger. Partially inspired by director, star, and co-writer Patrick Brice’s own online experiences, the found footage horror film also stars the usually quite lovable Mark Duplass, the film’s other co-writer. Don’t be fooled — in this role, he’s actually quite terrifying.

Based on Stephanie Perkins’ 2017 novel of the same name, this 2021 Netflix original slasher film stars Sydney Park (Moxie) as Makani Young, a high school senior transfer student from Hawaii who ends up in the middle of several horrific murders in her new, small Nebraska town. Directed by Patrick Brice (Creep) and produced by Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) and James Wan (Malignant), the film follows Young and her friends as they set out to discover the serial killer’s identity.

Madeline Brewer stars in this critically acclaimed 2018 film as Alice Ackerman, a cam girl who discovers she’s been replaced on her stream by a doppelgänger. The Handmaid’s Tale star gives a phenomenal performance in this psychological horror, directed by Daniel Goldhaber and written by Isa Mazzei (50 States of Fright), which will satisfy and scare viewers until the very end.

Don’t let the gorgeous visuals fool you — 2016’s I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House isn’t all pretty sets and costumes. The American-Canadian gothic supernatural horror movie is about young nurse Lily Saylor (Ruth Wilson), who moves into a remote home to take care of aging author Iris Blum (Paula Prentiss), and it will make you never want to walk down a dark hallway ever again.

Arguably delivering her best performance since Jennifer’s Body, Megan Fox stars in Till Death as Emma, an unhappy housewife who wakes up handcuffed to her husband, Mark (Eoin Macken), seconds before he shoots himself dead. Directed by S.K. Dale in his directorial debut, the 2021 thriller follows Emma as she navigates horrific traps set by her late husband while trying not to die in sub-zero winter temperatures.

Directed by Mike Flanagan (Gerald’s Game) and produced by Trevor Macy (Oculus) and Jason Blum (Paranormal Activity), 2016’s Hush is a terrifying home invasion thriller starring Kate Siegel as Maddie Young, a deaf writer attacked in her home. With near-universal acclaim from critics and even Stephen King himself, if nothing else, this film will make you want to get a home security system ASAP.

Based on R.L. Stine’s book series of the same name, Netflix’s 2021 Fear Street trilogy follows a group of teenagers in fictional Shadyside as they attempt to take down an evil force that’s terrorized their town for centuries. Starring Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, and Benjamin Flores Jr., each installment sees the main characters travel in time to stop the recurring local murders. While the books were kid-friendly, the Leigh Janiak-directed films are R-rated and extremely gory, so don’t go into this trilogy looking for pure nostalgia.

The second installment in The Conjuring franchise, this sequel follows Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga reprising their roles as paranormal investigators), this time traveling to England to see about poltergeist activity in the Enfield council house. If these movies scratch your horror itch, there’s another sequel and a handful of spin-offs in the Conjuring universe to keep you occupied.

Fans of The Wicker Man won’t want to miss this eerie 2018 period horror film about Thomas Richardson (Dan Stevens), a British man who who attempts to rescue his sister, Jennifer (Elen Rhys), from a cult in 1905. Released on Netflix to critical acclaim, Apostle also stars Michael Sheen and Lucy Boynton, and it’s an unsettling slow burn with several twists guaranteed to leave you reeling.

Released in 2019 and produced by Blumhouse, this creature feature stars Kiersey Clemons as Jennifer Remming, the sole survivor of a boat crash who becomes stranded on a deserted island. Only, it turns out she isn’t quite as alone as she thought, as a terrifying, giant sea monster also occupies the island. The acclaimed survival horror also stars Emory Cohen and Hanna Mangan-Lawrence, and Clemons has described the story as a political allegory with themes of racial empowerment inspired by the 2016 election.

It, the reincarnation of Stephen King’s popular novel about a clown-shaped monster who terrorizes the kids of a small town, was hailed as a “well-acted and fiendishly frightening” remake of the beloved novel and 1990 miniseries of the same name. Bill Skarsgård's portrayal of Pennywise — the story’s demonic monster — was both the highlight and the stuff of nightmares, so proceed with caution.

The Netflix adaptation of Stephen King and Joe Hill’s 2012 novella of the same name manages to capture the most frightening aspect of the story: the helplessness of being at the mercy of forces you may never understand. Throughout the movie, the characters are forced to reckon with the notion that they may never escape their harrowing situation, no matter how hard they try.

Based on a novel by Elizabeth Brundage, this 2021 horror is set in 1979 and stars Amanda Seyfried as Catherine Claire, a Manhattan art restorer who moves out of the city to a small town with her husband, George (James Norton), and daughter, Franny (Ana Sophia Heger). There, the family begins witnessing spirits and soon learn about their home’s violent history, which comes back to haunt them.

Florence Pugh and Ben Lloyd-Hughes star in this 2018 British horror film as Angela and Jackson, siblings who make money as fake paranormal investigators, taking advantage of people who believe their homes are haunted. However, one of their scams proves to be more than they can handle, as they’re called to investigate a house where brutal murders occurred nearly two decades prior.

This 2017 Spanish supernatural horror is very loosely based on a true story, in which a teenage girl died after using a ouija board in 1991. Directed by Paco Plaza, the film stars Sandra Escacena in its titular role, for which she received multiple awards. Add in some uncanny imagery, a nun, and a demon, and you have this gripping paranormal feature that’ll make you throw out that ouija board in your basement.

Thomas Jane (Boogie Nights) stars in this Stephen King adaption as Wilf James, a farmer who manipulates his teenage son, Henry (Dylan Schmid), into assisting in the murder of his mother, Arlette (Molly Parker). In the wake of this horrific crime, the duo are haunted by what they’ve done, both literally and figuratively. Released to Netflix in 2017, 1922 currently holds a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Released on Netflix in 2021, this British horror is based on a 2014 novel of the same name by Adam Nevill and stars Cristina Rodlo as Ambar, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who relocates to Cleveland following her mother’s death. There, Ambar moves into an old, deteriorating boarding home with a history of murders that she quickly learns is far from over.

A group of hikers, led by Luke (Rafe Spall), embark on a hiking trip through Sweden in remembrance of their friend who was killed during a robbery in this 2017 British horror. Along the way, one of them gets injured, and in order to save time and get help, they decide to leave their marked trail and cut through a forest. They’re haunted by strange phenomena, and one by one, find themselves isolated from the group, forced to survive against the forest’s mysterious inhabitants.

Under the Shadow tells the story of an Iraqi woman, Shideh (Narges Rashidi), and her daughter, Dorsa (Avin Manshadi), who find themselves haunted by a djinni, all against the backdrop of war-torn Tehran in the 1980s. The setting lends a fascinating social subtext to the horror, as it manages to make the world outside of Shideh’s haunted apartment just as dangerous as the one plagued by a malevolent spirit.