The 20 best horror movies on Amazon Prime Video

From arthouse fare to gory classics, Amazon Prime Video is rich in horror content.

Despite its grisly reputation, the horror genre is every bit as malleable as comedy or drama. What tickles the funny bone or bruises the heart is subjective; so, too, is what chills the spine. Our list of the best horror movies on Amazon Prime Video has something for everybody, from gory classics to found footage indies to slow-burning arthouse horror.

Here are the 20 scariest films currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

Black Box (2020)

The mind is a terrible thing to waste, and in the horror sci-fi film Black Box, mind games run rampant. Nolan Wright is a single father suffering from amnesia after surviving a car crash that killed his wife. Struggling to remember how to perform basic tasks both at work and in his personal life, Nolan reaches out to a neurologist who deems him a perfect candidate for her experimental black box treatment. Repeated journeys into his mind force Nolan to battle the monsters in his memories, but the deeper he delves, the more he suspects that his past is not what it seems. A Blumhouse Television production full of twists, turns, and traumas that push Nolan to horrifying realizations, Black Box questions how much control we have over our minds, and the lengths to which people will go to keep their loved ones alive. —Ilana Gordon

Where to watch Black Box: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr.

Cast: Mamoudou Athie, Phylicia Rashad, Amanda Christine, Tosin Morohunfola, Charmaine Bingwa

Related content: The 19 best Blumhouse horror movies

Bones and All (2022)

If you took Call Me by Your Name, set it in Ronald Reagan's America, and focused it on two young cannibals falling in love, you'd get Bones and All. A romantic horror film from Luca Guadagnino, Bones stars Taylor Russell and Timothée Chalamet as young adults living on the outskirts of society and trying to cope with their hunger for flesh and, eventually, each other. After the two join forces and travel across America in the late-1980s in search of Maren's (Russell) mother who abandoned her when she was small, these two "eaters" struggle to confront their pasts, their family ties, and their urges. An arthouse elegy to growing up and struggling to fit in, EW's critic describes the film as "two crazy kids with hope in their hearts and a femur bone, perhaps, in their throats, running as fast they can." —I.G.

Where to watch Bones and All: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Cast: Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, André Holland, Chloë Sevigny, David Gordon Green, Jessica Harper, Jake Horowitz, Mark Rylance

Related content: What Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell actually ate during the cannibal scenes in Bones and All

The Burning (1981)

"What happened one summer five years ago is about to happen again and again," warns the trailer for The Burning, an '80s slasher film set at an American summer camp. Five years earlier, several campers pulled a prank on Camp Backfoot's caretaker, Cropsy, that caused him to suffer horrific and disfiguring injuries. Released from the hospital and determined to seek vengeance, Cropsy begins terrorizing the campers at another summer camp — Camp Stonewater. Notable for serving as the film debut for young actors like Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter, and Fisher Stevens (all of whom appear in small roles), The Burning is violent, sadistic, and gives off strong Friday the 13th vibes. Genre snobs may feel shortchanged by the similarities between The Burning and the film's more popular predecessor, but if what you're after is watching American teenagers suffer at the hands of an unhinged maniac, then The Burning is sure to provide you with your fill of guts, gore, and garden shears. —I.G.

Where to watch The Burning: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Tony Maylam

Cast: Brian Matthews, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua, Lou David, Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter, Fisher Stevens

Related content: The 24 best horror movies of the '80s

Carnival of Souls (1962)

After an accident pushes their car off the road, Mary (Candace Hilligoss) awakens on the banks of a river in Kansas with no memory of how she got there or of what happened to her friends. Puzzled and shaken, Mary proceeds with her plans to move to Salt Lake City, where she’s been hired as the new organist at a local church. But no matter where Mary goes, mysterious events, creepy people (including one played by the film’s director, Herk Harvey), and sinister spirits seem to follow. And none of the oddities that pepper the movie’s 78-minute runtime will prepare you for the twist at the end.  Watching Carnival of Souls today feels like witnessing a slew of easter eggs before they’ve even happened, as many a genre filmmaker has been inspired by the haunting imagery, gothic music, and ending that continues to baffle even decades later. An EW critic writes, “More than just scary, it’s arrestingly odd, with a bats-in-the-belfry 3-a.m. loneliness that you plug into like a private dream.” —I.G.

Where to watch Carnival of Souls: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: Herk Harvey

Cast: Candace Hilligoss, Sidney Berger

Related content: Carnival of Souls: The movie that inspired Insidious is the spookiest, weirdest, and maybe greatest horror film you've never seen

Children of the Corn (1984)

What would you do to ensure a successful corn harvest? For the children of the rural (and fictional) town of Gatlin, Neb., the answer is murder. A slasher film adapted from Stephen King's 1977 short story, Children of the Corn tells the story of a supernatural entity known as "He Who Walks Behind the Rows," whose malevolent presence motivates Gatlin youth to ritually murder all the local adults — plus a few others for good measure — to make sure that year's corn harvest is a bountiful one. The first in a franchise that includes 10 films — including a 2023 remake directed by Kurt Wimmer — Children of the Corn is violent, tense, and only a little corny. —I.G.

Where to watch Children of the Corn: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Fritz Kiersch

Cast: Peter Horton, Linda Hamilton, John Franklin, Courtney Gains, Robby Kiger, Anne Marie McEvoy, Julie Maddalena, R. G. Armstrong

Related content: The creepiest kids in movies and TV

Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988)

One of the greatest contributions the '80s ever made to the horror canon was Elvira, a character created by comedian Cassandra Peterson, and whose work as the hostess of the local television show Elvira's Movie Macabre was so popular, that it earned her a movie of her own: the 1988 horror comedy Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. In the film, TV host Elvira quits her job after experiencing sexual harassment and decides to start a new life as a performer in Vegas. To fund her show, Elvira visits the East Coast to claim her inheritance from her great aunt Morgana, but quickly discovers that the puritanically-minded residents of Fallwell, Mass. have taken a disliking to her fashion choices, her tendency towards engaging in accidental witchcraft, and her overall vibe. Also featuring '80s treasure Edie McClurg (Ferris Bueller's Day Off), Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is a good, old-fashioned witch hunt — only this one features more slapstick than stonings. —I.G.

Where to watch Elvira: Mistress of the Dark: Amazon Prime Video

Director: James Signorelli

Cast: Cassandra Peterson, W. Morgan Sheppard, Daniel Greene, Jeff Conaway, Susan Kellermann, Edie McClurg

Related content: What's Halloween without Elvira?

Get Out (2017)

The film that introduced the world to Jordan Peele’s brilliant ability to blend social satire and cinematic tropes, Get Out is a thriller that took modern conversations about race out of the sunken place and into mainstream theaters. Daniel Kaluuya stars as Chris, a Black man who ventures into the racially homogeneous suburbs to meet the wealthy, liberal family of his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams). But the more time Chris spends with Rose’s parents (Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener) and brother (Caleb Landry Jones), the more he begins to question who these people are and what they want with him. The film is both funny and scary, but as EW's critic writes in the review, its “biggest jolts have nothing to do with blood or bodies, but rather with big ideas.” —I.G.

Where to watch Get Out: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Jordan Peele

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Catherine Keener, Bradley Whitford, LaKeith Stanfield

Related content: Get Out and M3GAN star Allison Williams talks about her life in horror

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018)

YouTubers will do a lot of questionable things for views, but in Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum, one channel's livestream ends with more of its participants dead than alive. A South Korean found footage horror film set in the Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital, the movie follows a web series creator and the six people he recruits to explore the abandoned building. Drawn to room 402, the former intensive care unit, the group encounters supernatural entities they can't explain and danger they can't escape. Based on the real-life Gonjiam Psychiatric Hospital — a South Korean asylum that was considered one of the country's most haunted buildings before it was demolished in 2018 — the film starts off slow, but will have you lunging for the lights by the time the ending arrives. —I.G.

Where to watch Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Jung Bum-shik

Cast: Wi Ha-joon, Park Ji-hyun, Oh Ah-yeon, Moon Ye-won, Park Sung-hoon, Yoo Je-yoon, Lee Seung-wook, Park Ji-a

Related content: The best horror movies of the 2010s

Goodnight Mommy (2015)

There are no shortage of creepy twins in horror (“Come play with us, Danny!”), and the most terrifying example in recent memory is Austria’s Goodnight Mommy, which premiered in 2014 at the Venice International Film Festival and was released theatrically a year later. A psychological horror story, Goodnight Mommy follows 9-year-old twin boys who begin to question their mother’s identity after she returns from intensive cosmetic surgery as a seemingly different person than the parent they once knew. The boys commit to ousting the imposter and finding the location of their real mother, but their investigation leads to truths too horrifying to process. In our 2015 review, we predicted an “inevitable remake” and in 2022, the film gods provided. Starring Naomi Watts alongside Cameron Crovetti (The Boys) and Nicholas Crovetti (Big Little Lies), the American rendition of the film is creepy, but purists agree it lacks the potency and poignancy of the original, both of which are attributed to the 2015’s film’s codirectors, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. Feel free to binge both versions, but definitely start with the original. —I.G.

Where to watch Goodnight Mommy: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: A (read the review)

Directors: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala

Cast: Susanne Wuest, Elias Schwarz, Lukas Schwarz

Related content: Big Little Lies twins will now be terrorizing Naomi Watts in the Goodnight Mommy remake

Hell House LLC (2015)

The subpar sequels have somewhat sullied the reputation of Stephen Cognetti's Hell House LLC, a low-budget mockumentary about a haunted house attraction where tragedy strikes. That's too bad. Hell House LLC is supremely creepy, centering on a group of friends who scoop up an old, abandoned hotel in the hopes of remaking it into a profitable haunt only to find out that something evil lurks in the basement. Hell House LLC is indie horror at its best, eliding fireworks and burdensome lore in favor of subtle, peripheral scares that encourage rewatches (or, at the very least, lots of rewinding). Even customary scares, like a mannequin's head that turns when the camera's not looking, are rendered fresh in a setting that's clearly as eerie in real life as it is on film. —R.C.

Where to watch Hell House LLC: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Stephen Cognetti

Cast: Ryan Jennifer Jones, Danny Bellini, Gore Abrams, Jared Hacker, Adam Schneider, Alice Bahlke

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Hellraiser (1987)

Pinhead, one of horror's most memorable — and memeable — icons, recently returned via Jamie Clayton in David Bruckner's 2022 Hellraiser reboot for Hulu. Before diving into that, though, you'd be wise to revisit the franchise's first 1987 film, which introduces the Cenobites, a cadre of inhuman, sadomasochistic weirdos who find pleasure in pain (thus the pins). Written and directed by horror author Clive Barker and based on his own story "The Hellbound Heart," Hellraiser gives us a lore that, by drawing upon the taboo iconography of kink and BDSM, emerges as both singular and compelling. There's also the gore, which evokes Italian genre masters like Lucio Fulci in its meaty, unblinking exploitativeness. —R.C.

Where to watch Hellraiser: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Clive Barker

Cast: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence

Related content: The Hellraiser movies, ranked

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Yeah, it’s a remake, but Philip Kaufman’s spin on Don Siegel’s 1956 film (and Jack Finney’s 1955 novel) trades Cold War anxiety for post-Vietnam paranoia in ways that strengthen and sharpen the source material. The plot is more or less the same: A Bay Area health inspector discovers humans are being replaced by alien duplicates that possess none of the pesky emotions that make life lovely and unbearable. A blessing, perhaps? It was hard not to live in a state of distrust following Vietnam, Watergate, Chappaquiddick, and the assassinations of JFK and RFK. The true horror of Kaufman’s Invasion, though, is that acquiescence gives way to McCarthyism; in conformity, old friends become new enemies. Also, what’s the deal with that Robert Duvall cameo? —R.C.  

Where to watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: A (read the review)

Director: Philip Kaufman 

Cast: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright

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Let the Right One In (2008)

Vampire movies don’t work without blood, but the Swedish vampire drama Let the Right One In offers up an equal helping of heart. Set in 1982, 12-year-old Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) lives in a suburb of Stockholm and struggles to stand up to the bullies at school. But when Eli (Lina Leandersson), a pale, mysterious girl moves in next door, Oskar finally has a friend. Eli and Oskar connect on a level neither has experienced before — but Oskar doesn’t know Eli is a vampire. Let the Right One In, the critic writes, “is like a Scandinavian Twilight minus the teen-steam schmaltz, packing in great gooey scares while tracing the friendship between a picked-on 12-year-old boy and a girl who hungers for the red stuff.” —I.G.

Where to watch Let the Right One In: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: A (read the review)

Director: Tomas Alfredson

Cast: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Ika Nord, Peter Carlberg

Related content: Demián Bichir explains how Let the Right One In character went from rock star chef to killing for his daughter

Master (2022)

Mariama Diallo's directorial debut hones in on the insidious world of academia, exposing the unsettling paradigm where colleges promote a faux sense of diversity to mask their racist underpinnings. At the elite New England university of Ancaster, longtime faculty member Gail Bishop (Regina Hall) ascends to the position of the campus' first Black master. In this newfound role, Gale makes it her mission to protect first-year student Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee) from anonymous bigoted pranks that seem to emanate from an otherworldly presence. Though the film is saturated with macabre visuals, the real horror of Master lies within the shameful reality that "things will just continue as before," according to EW's critic — who wrote, "Any tale set at a place like Ancaster, its hateful baubles still gathering dust on shelves, would need to resemble some kind of ghost story." —J.M.

Watch Master on Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: Mariama Diallo

Cast: Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, Amber Gray, Ella Hunt, Talia Ryder

Related content: Regina Hall on fame, endurance, and coming into her own in the acclaimed new thriller Master

M3GAN (2022)

It is a truth universally acknowledged — at least in horror movies — that dolls are terrifying. But forget Chucky and Annabelle, because M3GAN isn't your average genre villain. Designed by Gemma (Allison Williams), a professional toy roboticist, M3GAN is powered by generative AI, packaged in a childlike body, and designed to be a loyal companion to the kid formally paired with her. Unfortunately, the playmate takes her role as protector very seriously, and when Gemma becomes the caretaker for her recently orphaned niece Cady (Violet McGraw), M3GAN goes rogue. Now facing off against an uncontrollable robot with a penchant for murder (and viral dance moves), Gemma and her co-workers must find a way to power their creation down forever — or risk dying at her hands. A horror comedy that never takes itself too seriously, M3GAN is self-aware, murderous, and seriously entertaining. —I.G.

Where to watch M3GAN: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Gerard Johnstone

Cast: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Ronny Chieng, Jenna Davis, Amie Donald

Related content: Could M3GAN kick Annabelle's ass? An EW investigation

Saint Maud (2019)

Religious conversion often comes following a religious experience. A moment of ecstasy and understanding gives way to commitment which gives way to…what? The stark divide between before Christ and after is a source of terror for many a saint and writer-director Rose Glass' debut feature is one of the most effective genre pieces about the complexities of conversion. Morfydd Clark stars as the titular Maud, a shy nurse with a murky past who can't help but worm her newfound faith into her work with hospice patients. EW lauds Saint Maud as a "remarkable feature debut for Glass, who conjures an intimate mood of psychological horror before veering assuredly into a more extreme freakout." —R.C.

Where to watch Saint Maud: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Rose Glass

Cast: Morfydd Clark, Jennifer Ehle

Related content: How star Morfydd Clark and writer-director Rose Glass crafted the unholy horror of Saint Maud

Smile (2022)

Frowning gives you lines, but grinning can be deadly. Enter Smile, a supernatural horror film starring Sosie Bacon as a clinical psychiatrist named Rose Cotter who works in a public hospital and witnesses a patient's baffling suicide. Soon after, Rose finds herself haunted by an entity that takes control of people and forces them to complete horrifying acts while demonically smiling. Concerned she has been cursed, Rose attempts to track down the origin of this deadly pattern, hoping to free herself from its clutches, and avoid passing it on. Scaredy cats need not apply: Smile offers up "sadistic jump scares" and a story so freaky, EW's critic warns "you might need a bucket of bleach (and several hours of TikTok kitten videos) to cleanse your brainpan afterward." Directed by Parker Finn with the intention of making audiences feel like they're experiencing a "sustained panic attack," and featuring some of the most effective movie marketing in recent history, Smile will not put a grin on your face, but it will strike fear in your heart. —I.G.

Where to watch Smile: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Parker Finn

Cast: Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher, Kyle Gallner, Kal Penn, Rob Morgan

Related content: A restroom offers no rest from terror in Smile deleted scene

Suspiria (2018)

In a creative pivot, director Luca Guadagnino followed up his hit Call Me by Your Name with Suspiria, a period retelling of Dario Argento's 1977 horror classic that features the incomparable Tilda Swinton playing three different characters (one of whom is male), Dakota Johnson, and new-era scream queen Mia Goth. When a sheltered young woman named Susie (Johnson) travels to Germany and joins an exclusive dance company, she encounters a whole different kind of company in the coven of witches who run the place. EW's critic highlights some of "the incredibly effective sequences in the film, including one showstopper in which Susie auditions for the lead part in a piece while, in a nearby studio, one of her fellow dancers is violently whipped around like a rag doll, her joints contorting like a possessed Swiss Army knife." —I.G.

Where to watch Suspiria: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: N/A (read the review)

Director: Luca Guadagnino

Cast: Dakota Johnson, Tilda Swinton, Mia Goth, Angela Winkler, Chloë Grace Moretz

Related content: Dakota Johnson explains why she needed therapy after Suspiria: 'I was not psychoanalyzed'

The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014)

Before helming horrors such as Insidious: The Last Key (2018) and Escape Room (2019), Adam Robitel poured his heart into his directorial debut, a film that quietly first dropped on Netflix sans any marketing or hype, yet swiftly attracted a million viewers in its opening weekend. The top half of this found-footage horror forces you to confront your own mortality when meeting Deborah Logan (Jill Larson)  — worn down by Alzheimer's disease and unable to care for herself  — and her attentive daughter (Anne Ramsey) through the investigative lens of aspiring documentarians. However, as the film sinks its teeth into the second act, the filmmakers uncover something far more sinister lurking beyond Deborah's condition. Marked by a heart-rending yet horrifying performance from Larson, The Taking of Deborah Logan crafts a story where characters and their struggles feel achingly real while generating a fraught atmosphere that doesn't rely on over-the-top special effects or ominous music to scare the living hell out of you. —J.M.

Where to watch The Taking of Deborah Logan: Amazon Prime Video

Director: Adam Robitel

Cast: Jill Larson, Anne Ramsay, Michelle Ang, Ryan Cutrona

Related content: The best found-footage horror movies to watch right now

We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

Parenting is the ultimate horror story, and in the thriller We Need to Talk About Kevin, a writer named Eva (Tilda Swinton) reflects on how raising her psychopathic son Kevin (Ezra Miller) ruined her life. Kevin and Eva’s relationship is fraught from birth, but as Eva struggles to get her husband (John C. Reilly) to recognize their child’s emotional issues, Kevin’s urges become increasingly more violent. Miller’s performance as the manipulative, destructive Kevin is, as EW’s critic writes, “the best thing in the movie,” and in a conversation with EW, Swinton says the film “has as much to do with the business of bringing up children as Rosemary’s Baby had with the practical business with being pregnant.” —I.G.

Where to watch We Need to Talk About Kevin: Amazon Prime Video

EW grade: B– (read the review)

Director: Lynne Ramsay

Cast: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller 

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.