Top 10 horror movies you should watch this Halloween on Netflix

These horror movies should make your Halloween extra scary.

Ah, horror. It is weird that almost everybody loves this genre. What is so enjoyable in being scared, really? As the great Neil Gaiman says, “Fear is good in small doses.” When you watch a horror movie, you know the fear and thrill you are feeling will end once the movie is finished. That is why the fear we feel whilst watching a horror movie is sort of enjoyable.

This Halloween, we are spoiled for choice when it comes to what horror movies to watch. For those of us lucky enough to have a Netflix subscription, you have a multitude of options that are a few clicks away. But still, sorting through them can be tedious. And you actually do not know which movies are worth watching and which are best left alone. So what do you do? That is where we come in. We are here to present you a list of top 10 horror movies streaming on Netflix that you can and should watch this Halloween.

We are deliberately not including the movies that you likely have already seen such as The Conjuring. These are quality movies that should get you through the Halloween week.

1. Hush

As they say, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Ghosts are scary and all, but deranged murderers are scarier still, for they, in fact, exist. Hush is a thriller which borders on horror at times. A young deaf-and-dumb author, who lives alone in a remote house, faces a killer who wants to kill her just for fun apparently. This film is relentless and never lets up until the very end. This ‘thriller’ will be scarier than most horror films you have seen.

2. It Follows

This movie caused a bit of a flutter when it was released in 2015. An entity who can take the shape of anybody follows a particular person and can be avoided only when the said person has sex with another person, after which the entity would follow them. The entity walks with a languid pace but it will follow you to the end of the world and will not stop until it gets you, after which it will turn on the person who passed it to you. Funny? Wait till you actually sit down to watch the movie.

3. The Shining

One of the most iconic horror movies, The Shining is based on the equally brilliant book by Stephen King and tells the story of a couple and their son who stay in a particular Overlook Hotel. Things look swell until the husband (Jack Nicholson) begins to go absolutely mad and becomes a mindless murderous thug due to the proverbial ‘voices’. The acting is excellent, and the movie has aged really well.

4. Train to Busan

Your definitive zombie movie. In this South Korean film, zombies do not hobble, they run like Usain Bolt and possess the stamina of a racehorse. Cramped confines of a train do wonders and well-drawn characters are pretty relatable. The pacing is just right. Bottom line is, if you love zombie movies, you cannot really go wrong with this one.

5. Sinister

Scott Derrickson is a known name among horror fans. Sinister is arguably his best movie. It is about an obsessed true crime writer, played by Ethan Hawke, who moves to a new place with his family because a horrible crime was committed there. Of course, he hides this fact from his family. Things begin to happen, his son’s night terrors relapse, his daughter begins to befriend imaginary people who turn out to be not-so-imaginary, after all. Sinister is an innovated movie that does not rely on jump-scares and instead focuses on giving a solid story.

6. World War Z

While the zombies are nowhere near as interesting in this Brad Pitt starrer when compared to Train to Busan, World War Z was really the first film that gave a global sense to a zombie apocalypse. Sure, we knew that entire world is under the reign of mindless flesh-eaters, but we never really got the idea of the real global scale. World War Z does that and then some. It is a fine piece of filmmaking that should please the zombie fans.

7. Mirrors

Ever got scared of your own mirror image? This movie cashes on to that fear and is frighteningly successful in the attempt. It does not really tread any new path, but what it does, it does well.

8. Let Me In

Let Me In tells the story of an introverted, bullied boy and his new friend – an old vampire that appears in the form of a young girl. Simultaneously touching and disturbing, Let Me In explores many themes and is a worthy remake of the Swedish original, if quite not as good.

9. Oculus

Like Mirrors, Oculus is based on the genre I would call ‘mirror horror’. Directed by Mike Flanagan, the mind behind recent Netflix’s Stephen King adaptation Gerald’s Game, Oculus follows two chronological plotlines of two siblings dealing with the death of their parents and the destruction of their family by the hands of a malevolent entity that lives in, you guessed it, an antique mirror.

10. Deliver Us From Evil

The second Scott Derrickson movie in the list, Deliver Us From Evil is your classic run-of-the-mill exorcism film. Except for two things. One, the exorcism scene in the film may be the best you have seen, and second, it is purportedly based on a true story. Eric Bana stars as a cop who joins forces with a priest to solve a case that may be beyond his abilities.