10 Horror Movies Streaming on Prime Video to Put on Your Halloween Watchlists

It’s the final full weekend before Halloween, which means it’s time to lock in those marathon playlists for Halloween preparations and gatherings. Prime Video has no shortage of horror available, of course, and has also curated a Halloween hub to make narrowing down your selections even easier. There’s a wealth of deep cuts and Halloween horror movies lurking beyond the seasonal favorites, though.

If the overwhelming selection causes decision paralysis this Halloween season, consider this a starter pack of horror movies to add to your watchlists, from hidden gems to favorites set around Halloween, and many of them only streaming on Prime Video.

Cat People

A remake that shares very little in common with the 1942 film it’s based (loosely) on, written by makeup artist turned writer/director Alan Ormsby (Shock Waves, Popcorn) and directed by Paul Schrader (First Reformed, Taxi Driver). It follows Irena (Nastassja Kinski), who has arrived in New Orleans to reconnect with her brother, Paul (Malcolm McDowell), after years apart in the foster system. Paul reveals that the siblings come from a line of cat people, doomed to transform into beasts if they dare give in to their sexual desires. Irena doesn’t believe him until she finds herself falling for a zookeeper, and Paul ends up on a murderous spree. This update puts heavy emphasis on creature effects to highlight the monstrous nature of lust.

Companion

In a mounting wave of killer AI features, writer/director Drew Hancock instead positions his sentient robot as a love-stricken protagonist in his feature debut. Sophie Thatcher (Heretic, “Yellowjackets”) charms and then mesmerizes as Iris, the doting, docile girlfriend to Jack Quaid’s Josh, who’s bringing her to meet his close friends for the very first time. But Iris’s presence shakes up the group dynamics in a way that sees skeletons violently ripped from the closet as violence ensues. Companion is a delightful breakup movie gone horrifically awry, with a charming cast and savage twists that blend humor and horror in genre-bending ways.

Fragile

Before Jaume Balagueró teamed up with Paco Plaza to unleash one of the most terrifying movies of the decade, [REC], he proved an aptitude for delivering chills with this underseen haunted hospital fairy tale, Fragile. Calista Flockhart stars as Amy, a nurse brought on to the night shift in the children’s ward at an old hospital in the process of closing down. The problem is that the hospital’s closing means a ghost is very, very unhappy about the children leaving, and Amy has to somehow find a way to keep the children safe from unseen attacks. Fragile is creepy and atmospheric with effective scares, but even better is that Balagueró gives this ghost story an emotional center that resonates.

Get Duked!

Ninian Doff’s feature debut defies easy classification, blending a coming-of-age comedy with a survival thriller. It’s violent, hallucinogenic, and downright hysterical. A bumbling foursome of delinquent teens, Dean (Rian Gordon), Duncan (Lewis Gribben), and DJ Beatroot (Viraj Juneja), and homeschooled loner Ian (Samuel Bottomley), embark on a trek across the Highlands for an award, yet find themselves dealing with the locals. Some want to party, making this a great pairing for Halloween gatherings, and others are determined to hunt them down for sport. This innovative little feature will worm its way into your heart and leave you grinning from ear to ear.

Last Night in Soho

The Running Man director Edgar Wright’s time-hopping psychological horror movie stars Thomasin McKenzie as a fashion designer who uncovers a murder plot from the past. One that has her connecting with Anya Taylor-Joy’s Sandie, an aspiring singer from London’s Soho district during the Swinging Sixties. While Wright’s horror movie opts for high style and fashion over seasonal theming, Halloween plays a prominent role in at least one significant scare sequence. Expect lavish production design and great performances by its leads, with a tonal shift once the ghostly second half arrives.

Night of the Demons

In this Halloween horror cult classic, Angela Franklin (Amelia Kinkade) and her best bud Suzanne (Linnea Quigley) decide to throw their Halloween party at Hull House, an abandoned mortuary with a dark past. A party séance reawakens a dormant evil, leaving the partygoers trapped inside Hull House while demonic spirits pick them off. Night of the Demons offers a cool animated title sequence, great demon effects and design, a memorable villainess, and a wide embrace of horror iconography- right down to a bookended trick-or-treating tale. It’s a holiday cult classic that embraces Halloween at every turn.

Scarecrows

Never mind the bizarre premise, in which a group of criminals hijack a plane and seek refuge on an abandoned farm. This creature feature begs the question, why aren’t there more horror movies about scarecrows? One by one, victims fall prey to terrifying scarecrows, rendered even more horrific by cool creature designs and effects by Norman Cabrera (Attack the Block, Drag Me to Hell). In a barebones story that doesn’t bother to explain its mythology, this one does the critical thing that matters most in a creature feature. It makes the monsters the centerpiece. It’s a creature feature that favors atmosphere and gory special effects, and that’s enough to ensure a good time.

Suspiria

Set in Berlin during the fall of 1977, a prominent dance company’s lead dancer disappears just in time for aspiring dancer Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson) to arrive in the hopes of claiming a coveted spot within the troupe. She quickly catches the eye of the artistic director, Madame Blanc (Tilda Swinton), and is brought under her wing. But the art of the dance is the perfect cover for spellcasting, and the faculty behind the dance company is a coven of witches. Luca Guadagnino’s methodical vision makes for a very different beast from Dario Argento’s 1970s horror movie classic, biding its time with witchy horror until a glorious bloodbath of a finale.

Tales of Halloween

This holiday-themed anthology assembles ten segments that celebrate various aspects of Halloween. Horror stalwarts like Neil Marshall, Darren Lynn Bousman, Mike Mendez, and more take on nasty trick-or-treaters, jack-o-lanterns run amok, yard decor wars, and more, all in bite-sized format. Those seeking horror movies that really embrace the atmosphere, iconography, and theming of Halloween will find it in spades here.

Tumbbad

A visually rich allegory for greed, Tumbbad hails from India and really delivers on the horror. A dark, gothic fairy tale, Tumbbad spans generations as it follows Vinayek Rao from childhood well into adulthood and the curse that surrounds his family. Opening with heavy exposition that explains the mythology at the center of the Vinayek family curse, it’s a story of the corruptive power greed can have and just how deeply it can take root. Although it plays out more as a very dark fairy tale, the horror elements are downright terrifying.  Early scenes were young Rao discovers his cursed grandma, locked away and demonic, is pure terror.