Amazon Prime Video is one of the best streaming platforms for pretty much any cinema genre you can think of, and that includes a trove of horror films. Encompassing every niche and era, Prime Video’s collection of chilling flicks is in constant rotation, and with new movies coming to Amazon all the time, it’s always growing too. Don’t worry about keeping up with what’s arriving and leaving, though — that’s our job.
As fans of horror cinema and Prime Video experts, we put together this roundup of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime Video right now.
If you don’t see anything of note on Amazon Prime, we’ve also rounded up the best horror movies on Netflix and the best horror movies on Hulu.
- Beast2022
- The Black Phone2022
A cult classic for the ages, Killer Klowns from Outer Space is a masterful campfest that follows the townies and local law enforcement of a community besieged by extraterrestrials who look a whole lot like circus clowns. Even their “mothership” is a gigantic circus tent. As the community begins getting harvested by the otherworldly fiends, the citizens must band together to fight back against the invaders and their perilous hijinks. Written and directed by the Chiodo Brothers, who also designed the practical effects for the film, Killer Klowns isn’t a film to be taken seriously, but if you go into it expecting a cheesy amalgamation of gags and big-top slaughter, you won’t be disappointed.
If you’re in the mood for an extra-painful kind of horror (you’ll never look at your Achille’s heel the same way again), Pet Sematary is a powerful adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name. The 1989 version of the film stars Dale Midkiff as Louis Creed, a doctor who has been transferred to a rural town in Maine. Moving into a new home with his wife (Denise Crosby) and two children (Blaze Berdahl and Miko Hughes), Louis is warned by his neighbor Jud (Fred Gwynne) to be mindful of the speeding 18-wheelers that barrel down the road. When an unexpected tragedy strikes the Creeds, Jud tells Louis of a place where the dead can be brought back to life, which sets into a motion a horrific chain of events that should remind us all to stay away from ancient burial grounds.
Tales from the Darkside: The Movie is the cinematic offspring of the 1980s TV show of the same name, a program created by George Romero in the wake of his Creepshow success. Bookended by a prologue and epilogue that involves a young boy getting kidnapped by a witch, the child distracts her by reading three stories from a tome called Tales from the Darkside. Subsequently, we see each of these tales played out through three separate short films, and they’re all pretty gripping and gruesome. If you’re a fan of modern flicks like the V/H/S series, Southbound, and The ABCs of Death, these current genre hits owe some of their success to the days of Darkside.
Based on the Peter Genoway play of the same name, director Cody Calahan’s The Oak Room stars Breaking Bad alum RJ Mitte and Peter Outerbridge as Steve and Paul. Hoping to settle a long-ago score, a homecoming Steve (Mitte) returns to a bar he once frequented, where he decides to trade harrowing stories with the miserly barkeep. It’s these chilling words that possess a greater part of the film, with the various vignettes delivering countless twists and turns throughout the runtime.
If monster movies are your bag, The Relic is a solid bit of genre filmmaking that doesn’t pretend to be serious for one second, but it’s the jovial B-movie approach that cements the flick as one with at least some replay value. Starring Tom Sizemore and Penelope Ann Miller as a detective and biologist trying to hunt down a giant beast that’s wreaking havoc at a museum in Chicago, it may not be the most intellectual film you’ve watched (or revisited) all year, but The Relic is pure popcorn fun from start to finish.
Nocturne stars Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria, White Lotus) and Madison Iseman (I Know What You Did Last Summer) as twin sisters Juliet and Vivian. Accomplished pianists attending a prestigious music school, Vivian’s abilities are near-virtuoso and always a step above Juliet’s hands. That is until Juliet comes into the possession of a music theory book from a student that had jumped to her death. As the tome begins granting Juliet newfound confidence and dedication to the piano, her inflated ego meshes with a series of supernatural events that threaten her own life and the safety of those around her.
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