It’s What’s Inside – Picture Credit: Netflix
Spooky season is upon us, and Netflix has you covered with a ton of excellent horror movies. In this list, we’re counting down the streamer’s 15 best original horror movies.
Netflix loves to license some of the biggest and best horror movies out there, but the streamer has also built up a steady supply of excellent original offerings. From paranormal movies to monster flicks and violent slashers, this list takes you through all corners of horror that Netflix Original movies have to offer.
A Classic Horror Story
In this gruesome suspense film, strangers traveling in southern Italy become stranded in the woods, where they must fight desperately to get out alive.
The title speaks for itself, really. This suspenseful Italian horror offers up plenty of scares and violence, but the story itself is a bit hollow and cliché. It follows five strangers who’re travelling across Southern Italy when their camper crashes into a tree, and they find themselves stranded in a creepy woods. What follows is a brutal and intense fight for survival.
In terms of reviews, A Classic Horror Story didn’t hit big heights, but if you’re seeking something scary this spooky season that you don’t have to think about too much, this is a solid option.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
While driving their van across rural Texas, five teenagers come across a chainsaw-wielding maniac who feasts on blood, guts and murder.
Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022), which is set almost 50 years after the original, cult classic film. Whether it falls into official canon is debatable — there’s plenty of continuity errors taking into account the other movies — so let’s call it a ‘legacy’ sequel. The movie follows a new group of teens, each terrorised by an older, but no less dangerous, Leatherface. It also marks the return of Marilyn Burns as Sally Hardesty, the sole survivor from the original film. Now, Sally’s out for revenge.
Netflix’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre film was panned by critics upon release. It’s not a great movie by any means, but if you’re seeking a fun slasher — especially if you’re a fan of the franchise — you might get something out of it.
Cam
Alice, an ambitious camgirl, wakes up one day to discover she's been replaced on her show with an exact replica of herself.
In 2018, Daniel Goldhaber made his directorial debut with Cam, an intense psychological horror, taking place in the digital world webcam pornography. This unique concept could have gone a lot of ways, but it ended up being a pretty triumphant start to Goldhaber’s career. Written by Isa Mazzei — who drew from her own experiences as a camgirl — the movie dives into issues with online identity, and the horrors that can come with it.
Note that this is your very last month to stream this movie on Netflix, as it’s due to leave the streamer globally in November.
There's Someone Inside Your House
Makani and her friends at Osborne High School try to identify and stop a masked killer who's targeting students and exposing their biggest secrets.
Most slasher movies feature a serial killer who hides their identity behind some sort of mask — look no further than Leatherface. But There’s Someone Inside Your Housedoes things a little differently. Rather than wearing a creepy mask, the killer wears the face of their victims.
Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Stephanie Perkins, the movie follows college student, Makani, who moves from Hawaii to a small town in Nebraska to live with her grandmother. However, before settling in, she and her newfound friends find themselves entangled in a web of murders. Makani herself quickly becomes the killer’s next target.
Created by a killer team of horror masters Shawn Levy (Stranger Things) and James Wan (The Conjuring), this movie is intense, savage, and filled with suspense.
Blood Red Sky
When a group of terrorists hijacks an overnight transatlantic flight, a mysteriously ill woman must unleash a monstrous secret to protect her young son.
A plane hijack. A vampire story set in the sky. That’s exactly what Blood Red Sky is all about. The movie does horror and suspense well, offering up a decent number of jump scares and lots of blood and gore.
Blood Red Sky was the most successful German Netflix Original film at the time of release. It might not be the best horror on Netflix, but it’s got a unique hook that sets it apart from everything else.
1922
A farmer pens a confession admitting to his wife's murder, but her death is just the beginning of a macabre tale. Based on Stephen King's novella.
Whenever something is based on a Stephen King novel, you know you’re in for a good time. This 2017 movie was the second Stephen King adaptation on the streamer, arriving shortly after Gerald’s Game. 1922 is extremely dark, disturbing and intense. It begins with a farmer, Wilfred James, who in the midst of a financial crisis, murders his wife for financial gain; convincing his son to help him. He pens a letter admitting to murdering his wife… and then his life spirals out of control.
Calibre
Two lifelong friends on a hunting trip in Scotland find their nerves -- and their morals -- ruthlessly tested after a harrowing turn of events.
Calibre is one of those films that quickly becomes stressful to watch (but in a good way, of course). The 2018 movie follows two friends, Marcus and Vaughn, who head to the secluded Scottish Highlands on a hunting trip. Out in the sticks, Vaughan attempts to shoot down a deer… but accidentally hits a child. Then things get out of control.
Calibre is not a traditional, pure horror movie, but it does psychological horror extremely well through the slow building of dread, the exploration of fear, and bleakness.
In the Tall Grass
After hearing a boy's cry for help, a pregnant woman and her brother wade into a vast field of grass, only to discover there may be no way out.
Written and directed by Vincenzo Natali, In the Tall Grass is based on the novel of the same name by legendary horror author Stephen King. It takes place when a brother and sister enter a large grass field to rescue a young boy. However, they soon realise that the field has engulfed them, and there’s no way out.
This movie isn’t your traditional horror; it’s not monsters or ghosts. Instead, the setting itself — a field of tall grass — offers an unnerving and eerie atmosphere. It might not be the best King adaptation (there’s so many!) but In the Tall Grass certainly delivers a unique chill.
Gerald's Game
When her husband's sex game goes wrong, Jessie -- handcuffed to a bed in a remote lake house -- faces warped visions, dark secrets and a dire choice.
Sticking with Stephen King adaptations, next up is Gerald’s Game. This movie brought together the genius of King with visionary horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass). The result? An excellently crafted, psychological horror.
Gerald’s Game is a pretty bizarre movie. It follows a couple, Gerald and Jessie, who head to a secluded spot to rekindle their relationship. While sleeping together in a remote cabin, during foreplay, Gerald dies and Jessie is left handcuffed to the bed with her dead husband on top of him. As time passes, she grows delirious, and the plot takes terrifying twists and turns.
It's What's Inside
A pre-wedding reunion descends into a psychological nightmare for a group of college friends when a surprise guest arrives with a mysterious suitcase.
It’s What’s Inside blends horror and science fiction, all wrapped up in one wildly mind-bending and suspenseful ride. The 2024 movie follows a group of friends who gather for a wedding weekend. However, one gift plunges the night into chaos. The movie plays with themes of time distortion and psychological horror.
With disturbing moments, surreal events, and tons of twists, this movie will undoubtedly stick with you. Sadly, this movie did terribly in the Netflix charts, but don’t let that put you off.
Apostle
As he faces execution, apostle Paul preaches the word of Christ as his companion, Luke, pens a revolutionary book that leads to the birth of the church.
Gareth Evans is perhaps best known for his gritty action thrillers, much like his 2025 Netflix movie Havoc, or action thriller The Raid. When he dipped his feet in horror for Apostle (2018), he delivered an excellent flick. Written, directed, and edited entirely by Evans, Apostle takes place early twentieth century, where Thomas Richardson (Dan Stevens) embarks on a journey to rescue his kidnapped sister, who’s stuck on an island run by a religious cult.
Think of it as a little like horror classic The Wicker Man (1973), with a more fantastical twist.
The Babysitter
Two years after Cole survived a satanic blood cult, he's living another nightmare: high school. And the demons from his past? Still making his life hell.
2017’s The Babysitter blends comedy, thriller, horror, and slasher elements. Starring Samara Weaving as the titular babysitter. Sent to look after 12-year-old Cole, who has an obvious crush on her, he must put aside his juvenile feelings when he learns that she’s a member of a murderous satanic cult of teenagers.
Cole soon learns that he’s to be her first blood sacrifice, and so the film becomes a fight for him to survive the night. After high ratings, The Babysitter merited a sequel movie, The Babysitter: Killer Queen, in 2020.
His House
As a young couple from war-torn South Sudan seeks asylum and a fresh start in England, they're tormented by a sinister force living in their new home.
The perfect 100% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes speaks for itself. His House follows a refugee couple who escape a war-torn South Sudan and try to establish a new life in England. However, as they adjust to their new surroundings, they soon learn there’s something evil and inherently sinister lurking beneath the surface.
Reviews regard His House as one of the finest and most emotional horrors of recent years. It twists the genre into a story that’s deeply emotional and meaningful, while also retaining levels of extreme horror.
Bird Box
One of Netflix's biggest movies of all time, Bird Box sees the world ravaged by a mysterious force and we follow a group of survivors.
Released back in 2018, Bird Box quickly became one of Netflix’s most popular movies of all time (and still ranks there today). Based on the best-selling novel, Bird Box sets the scene in a post-apocalyptic world, where an unseen entity compels people to commit suicide. This forces people to mask their faces. The story follows Malorie, who’s determined to protect two children. While completely blindfolded, they traverse the post-apocalyptic lands, attaching themselves to a ragtag group of survivors. It’s a story of survival, hope, and determination.
Thanks to its success, Bird Box also merited a later spinoff, Bird Box Barcelona, which was decent but didn’t quite reach the heights of its predecessor.
Fear Street
Welcome back to Shadyside. In this next installment of the blood-soaked Fear Street franchise, prom season at Shadyside High is underway and the school’s wolfpack of It Girls is busy with its usual sweet and vicious campaigns for the crown. But when a gutsy outsider puts herself in the running, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of ’88 is suddenly in for one hell of a prom night.
In 2021, Netflix went all-in on Fear Street. The streamer released 3 movies (each respectively subtitled 1994, 1978, 1966) in the same month. The movies are based on the novels by seminal horror writer R.L. Stine, and set in the fictional town of Shadyside — better known as the murder capital of the United States. The setting and tone of the films are inspired by movies from the era they cover, while still having the feel of a modern, contemporary horror.
Moreover, if the trilogy isn’t enough for you, Netflix also released Fear Street: Prom Queen in 2025. Prom Queen revisits fictional town of Shadyside for the high school class of ‘88, where the election for Prom Queen gets bloody.
If you want to immerse yourself in a movie series of horror and slasher, it doesn’t get much better than Fear Street!
What’s your favorite horror movie on Netflix? Tell us in the comments down below!
