Even though these past 18 months of Pandemic have been scary enough, spend your Halloween weekend with one or more of these truly scary, gory and even racy films to download or stream, instead of attending parties or parades.
Our list mixes Hollywood classics and more recent horrors, including one silent film from the 1920s that started the genre, and remains one of the most frightening of all time, even after 100 years of film making.
These movies are mostly terrifying, some actually have a Halloween theme, although most are just plain frightening movies, and many have brilliant performances and memorable scenes.
Watch at your own risk.
All these truly scary and movies are available through such streaming services such as Amazon Prime, Vudu, Fandango, Twitch to rent or buy from other sources such as Redbox, or available FREE from the library or on YouTube.
See also our lists of
Best Halloween Movies for Young Kids
Best Halloween Movies for Older Kids & Adults
Halloween Freebies at Fast Food Restaurants
Truly Scary, Racy, Gory Halloween movies
Alphabetically, because that’s the only fair way.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (NR).
An Iranian Vampire Western, shot in black & white with a great soundtrack. It’s a love story about two tortured souls in a desolate Iranian Ghost-town called ‘Bad City’, where a lonely vampire is stalking the towns most depraved denizens.
Alive (R)
A true story about a Uruguayan rugby team in 1972, on their way to a match, when their plane crashed in the Andes mountains. They are forced to use desperate measures to survive, including cannabilism, which is inferred, not actually shown.
Blade (R).
Wesley Snipes as a half-vampire, half-mortal man who becomes a protector of the mortal race, while slaying evil vampires. Short on plot, but the action is fierce, plentiful, and stylish.
Carrie (R).
A horrifying look at high school cruelty and religious zealousness with a blood-bath for a prom.
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Deliverance (R)
Starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox, this 1972 film starts innocently as four friends take a rafting trip down a rural Georgia river, and descends into unspeakable horror. The phrase “Squeal like a pig!” comes to mind. One beautiful segment is a memorable banjo performance by a developmentally challenged young man.
I’ve always wondered what happened to that young man, and I’ve loved banjo music ever since - although I wouldn’t go on a canoe or camping trip again for a couple of years
Donnie Darko (R).
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes. A daring, original, mind-bending story with Jake Gyllenhaal as the troubled title character.
Exorcist (R).
Regarded as one of the scariest films of all time, about a 12-year-old girl possessed by a mysterious entity. Her distraught mother seeks the help of two priests to save her.
Fatal Attraction (R).
A married man’s one-night stand comes back to haunt him when the woman begins to stalk him and his family. Starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close as the malevolent and murderous rejected woman. There’s a frightening twist ending, too - of course.
Halloween (1978, R)
Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again. The other 12 movies in the series pale in comparison to the original.
Hereditary (R).
A harrowing, unsettling horror film about a family that begins to unravel after the death of the matriarch. Cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets unfold about their ancestry.
It (R)
A group of bullied kids band together to destroy a shape-shifting monster, which disguises itself as a clown and preys on the children in their small Maine town.
Joker (R).
An original standalone story of the iconic villain from “Batman”. Arthur Fleck, brilliantly played by Joaquin Phoenix - in a role which earned him an Academy Award - aspires to be a stand-up comic but finds the joke always seems to be on him. It’s a gritty character study with a broader cautionary tale.
Much of it was filmed in New York City, including the Joker’s sinister dance down a set of steps.
Lighthouse (R).
Black-and-white horror film chronicles the story of two lighthouse keepers as they are faced with solitude. They start to lose their sanity and become threatened by their worst nightmares.
Night of the Living Dead (1968, NR).
Five people spend the night in a Pennsylvania farmhouse, surrounded by flesh-eating, walking dead. I was truly frightened the first time I watched this; a friend of mine laughed all the way through. So there you go.
Nosferatu
In this highly influential 1922 silent horror film, the mysterious Count Orlok summons Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) to his remote Transylvanian castle in the mountains. Orlock is played by Max Schreck - an apt name for a monster, since schreck is the German word for frightening, or terror. Orlok transforms from an ugly man into a horrifying beast - and even after nearly 100 years, he remains one of the most terrifying characters ever to be put on film.
You don’t need dialogue to feel the danger. Based on the classic Dracula story by Bram Stoker.
Psycho (R)
This classic and brilliant Hitchcock thriller stars Janet Leigh as the innocent victim - actually one of the innocent victims - and Anthony Perkins as the psycho.
The shower scene is one of the most famous and terrifying in movie history. You may never want to shower alone again.
Rocky Horror Picture Show (R).
A quirky, tongue-in-cheek, cult classic musical romp. A couple has a flat tire during a storm (of course) and seek help at the eerie mansion of Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a transvestite scientist and his household of wild characters. Tim Curry is brilliantly funny as the wacko doctor, and Susan Sarandon is the innocent young wife changed forever by the experience. Everybody should see this happy nonsense at least once in their lives.
Shaun of the Dead (R).
The Conjuring (2013, R).
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. They discover the area is steeped in a satanic haunting and must defeat the spectral menace. Well-crafted and creepy, complete with old-school scares.
The Crow (R).
A year after he and his fiancée are murdered, a poetic guitarist is brought back to life by a crow. The crow guides him through the land of the living, leading him to his killers. Dark and action-packed.
The Fly (1986, R).
After one of his experiments in matter transportation goes horribly wrong, a scientist (Jeff Goldblum) is transformed into a half man/half fly.
The Game (R).
A brother (Sean Penn) treats his wealthy banker sibling (Michael Douglas) to a birthday gift–a mysterious, personalized, real-life adventure game that turns frightening.
The Invisible Man (2020, R).
After staging his own suicide, a crazed scientist uses his power to become invisible in order to stalk and terrorize his ex-girlfriend. When the police refuse to believe her story, she decides to take matters into her own hands and fights back.
The Omen (1976, R).
The story opens with an American ambassador whose wife has a stillborn child. In the hospital, he is approached by a priest to take a newborn whose mother has just died in childbirth. Without telling his wife, he agrees. Violent and grotesque events begin to occur and the ominous warnings of a priest lead him to believe that the child he took for their own is evil incarnate.
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The Shining (R).
Chilling story that starts out idyllic and hopeful slowly descends into terror as sinister forces grip a family that is isolated during winter at remote resort. Brilliant cast with Jack Nicholson at his maniacal best, Shelly Duvall as his terrified wife, Scatman Crothers in one of his finest roles, and Danny Lloyd as the boy with supernatural powers. I watched this again recently, and was reminded what a truly great flick this is.
- Note -The hotel which inspired Stephen King in his novel, upon which the film is based, is the grand Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. It was used in Fall 2020 as a dormitory for firefighters and support teams fighting two of the worst forest fires in Colorado history nearby in Rocky Mountan Park and in Estes Park.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974, R).
A group of five friends fall victim to a family of cannibalistic psychopaths with power tools. A bloody, gory, and terrifying low-budget movie.
The Thing (1982, R).
A research team in Antarctica is pursued by a shape-shifting alien that assumes the appearance of its victims. Truly terrifying, even with the usually lighthearted and appealing Kurt Russell as one of the stars.
The Vanishing
A young man life changes forever when his girlfriend disappears from a highway rest stop. His three-year search for her and her diabolically twisted abductor ends with a horrifying twist that may have you decide never to use a highway rest stop ever again. I warned you.
This is the 1988 Dutch film original. Skip the insipid recent US remake.
What is your favorite scary movie?
This list was published in October 2020 and updated for re-publication in October 2021
What do you think about this? We welcome your comments.