The 20 best horror movies on Tubi

From sorority sister slayings to underrated slashers and creepy dolls, here's EW's list of must-watch horror films on the free (with ads) streaming service.

Whether you're craving chainsaw-wielding cannibals, vengeful scarecrows, or cackling clowns, the titles on this list are likely to induce chills, nightmares, fever dreams, a tinge of sadness, or just linger in your psyche for a while. To help you indulge your horror fandom, here are EW's picks for the 20 best genre films currently streaming (for free with ads) on Tubi, as of May 2024.

Audition (1999)

From the same Japanese production company that made the 1998 film Ring and inspired the American remake, The Ring (2002), comes Audition. Released in 1999, just four years after dating apps started infiltrating the internet, Audition offers an alternative — but still terrifying — approach to meeting dating prospects. The film follows a widower who sets up a phony casting call in the hopes of meeting a new wife. But when the widower becomes infatuated with one of the women he auditions, he finds himself willing to overlook a number of red flags as he attempts to learn more about her. Directed by Takashi Miike, Audition is described as a "masterpiece" by filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. Clocking in at just under two hours, Audition uses barely-simmering tension to propel itself toward a finale that is torturous to watch (in the best way possible). —Declan Gallagher

Where to watch Audition: Tubi

Director: Takashi Miike

Cast: Ryo Ishibashi, Eihi Shiina

Related content: EW's horror quintessentials: The 5 best 'it could happen to you' films

Black Christmas (1974)

Imbued with the suburban paranoia of the '70s, Black Christmas is the ultimate feel-bad holiday movie — though it can certainly be enjoyed all year round. Taking place during the Christmas season, the film centers on a group of sorority sisters who are tormented by persistent, disturbing phone calls. After one of the sisters is murdered, they try to get the police to intervene as the mysterious killer brutally picks off the other young women. Haunting and influential, Black Christmas is all the more terrifying due to the plausibility of the fears expressed. —Kevin Jacobsen

Where to watch Black Christmas: Tubi

Director: Bob Clark

Cast: Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon

Related content: The 15 best Christmas horror movies

Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)

In a small southern town, a mob led by postman Otis Hazelrigg (Charles Durning) hunts down and murders Bubba (Larry Drake), who is developmentally disabled, after mistakenly believing he hurt a local girl who was in fact mauled by a dog. Not long after Bubba's funeral, the men who killed him begin to perish in a series of mysterious accidents. Frank De Felitta's made-for-TV chiller is a searing indictment of mob violence and personal prejudice that only gains relevance as the years go on. It also happens to be one of the most frightening films of the era. The Guest and You're Next scribe Simon Barrett describes it to EW as one of his "go-to, creepy, spooky Halloween movies." It's a film that seems to say, in the end, the most monstrous villains are not supernatural vengeance-seekers, but rather everyday men in pursuit of power. —D.G.

Where to watch Dark Night of the Scarecrow: Tubi

Director: Frank De Felitta

Cast: Larry Drake, Charles Durning, Tonya Crowe, Jocelyn Brando, Lane Smith

Related content: Why TV movie Dark Night of the Scarecrow is the perfect Halloween film

Dead Ringers (1988)

David Cronenberg further established himself as the master of body horror with this disturbing horror-thriller. Jeremy Irons plays twin gynecologists Elliot and Beverly Mantle, who own a fertility clinic that Elliot uses to woo his female patients. Taking advantage of their identical appearance, Elliot allows Beverly to take over with the women, who are none-the-wiser. Their routine is interrupted when Beverly falls in love with their latest patient, an actress played by Geneviève Bujold. What follows is shocking and disturbing in classic Cronenberg fashion, accurately described by EW's critic as "a slow, inexorable descent into madness, drugs, and death." —K.J.

Where to watch Dead Ringers: Tubi

Director: David Cronenberg

Cast: Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold

Related content: The 10 essential David Cronenberg films

Dolls (1987)

When Stuart Gordon (of Re-Animator glory) began production on his 1987 horror film Dolls, he had recently finished reading The Uses of Enchantment, whose thesis posits that fairy tales should be scary. It was through this lens that Gordon began building a horror film inspired, he told EW, by the classic story of Hansel and Gretel. Employing a thematic and moral framework that might prove familiar to fans of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dolls kicks off during a thunderstorm as a motley crew of unfortunate souls seek shelter in a nearby mansion. Owned by an older couple who work as toymakers, the building is filled with beautiful dolls — that turn feral when provoked. With an aesthetic borrowed from a terrifying encounter Gordon experienced while locked in Wisconsin's Historical Society with a collection of Victorian figurines, Dolls is a fairy tale packed with explosive death scenes — and only a few happily ever afters. —D.G.

Where to watch Dolls: Tubi

Director: Stuart Gordon

Cast: Stephen Lee, Guy Rolfe, Hilary Mason, Ian Patrick Williams, Carolyn Purdy-Gordon, Cassie Stuart, Bunty Bailey, Carrie Lorraine

Related content: 'They walk. They talk. They kill.' Auteur Stuart Gordon talks Dolls

Goodnight Mommy (2015)

A mother (Susanne Wuest) returns home after cosmetic facial surgery, leaving her twin sons (Elias and Lukas Schwarz) unnerved by her heavily bandaged appearance in this Austrian psychological horror film. When their mother starts to exhibit strange behavior, the twins conclude that she's not their real mother, but, in fact, an impostor. The boys begin testing this presumed interloper, going to extreme lengths to prove her wrong, despite her protestations. Featuring a wild twist ending, Goodnight Mommy gets under your skin while exploring themes of family trauma and fear of the unknown. EW's critic hailed the film as "brilliantly sinister," and, "a mad, malevolent adventure through the minds of its three characters and the house they inhabit." An American remake starring Naomi Watts was released in 2022, but, like with most horror films, you're better off sticking with the original. —K.J.

Where to watch Goodnight Mommy: Tubi

EW grade: A (read the review)

Director: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala

Cast: Susanne Wuest, Elias Schwarz, Lukas Schwarz

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Hellraiser (1987)

Hollywood has returned again and again to the Hellraiser well — with a whopping nine sequels and a 2022 reboot — but nothing beats the original. Clive Barker's adaptation of his own novella, The Hellbound Heart, introduced us to one of the scariest cinematic baddies, Pinhead, leader of a group of sadomasochistic demonic beings who are summoned by humans either accidentally or in pursuit of pleasures of their own. Frank Cotton (Sean Chapman) falls into the latter category in the original film, learning the hard way of Pinhead and the Cenobites' twisted sensibilities. After escaping their clutches, his sister-in-law — with whom he's also had an affair — learns of his unusual fate and takes extreme measures to revive him. Even after all these years, the film holds up in spectacle and substance, with EW's critic calling it "a nauseatingly gooey visual effects epic as well as a character drama with an unexpected emotional hook." —K.J.

Where to watch Hellraiser: Tubi

Director: Clive Barker

Cast: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence, Sean Chapman

Related content: What the hell is going on at the end of the new Hellraiser?

High Tension (2003)

Horror baron Alexandre Aja's divisive entry in the New French Extremism movement follows best friends Alex (Maïwenn) and Marie (Cécile de France) on a weekend getaway to the country. Before they can even unpack, a hefty creep (Philippe Nahon) turns up and slaughters nearly everyone before escaping with a bound-and-gagged Alex. Marie follows in an effort to rescue her friend, kicking off a breakneck chase across the French countryside. High Tension is unflinchingly violent and distressingly taut in a way few films dare to be. The nauseating practical effects come courtesy of Giannetto De Rossi, and it's clear that no expense was spared on the red stuff. Aja approaches sequences of mayhem — such as a concrete buzzsaw interacting with the sternum of an unfortunate motorist — with the procedural eye of a documentarian. The real power, though, lies in his breathlessly staged sequences of suspense woven between the more visceral set pieces. —D.G.

Where to watch High Tension: Tubi

EW grade: C– (read the review)

Director: Juan Piquer Simón

Cast: Cécile de France, Maïwenn, Philippe Nahon

Related content: Want to see something really scary? The First Purge director recommends French horror film High Tension

I Saw the Devil (2010)

This 2010 South Korean thriller blends action and horror elements into one unforgettable experience. Kim Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun), an agent from the National Intelligence Service, goes rogue to hunt for the serial killer who murdered his fiancée. Through his pursuit, Soo-hyun goes down a dark path as he stops at nothing to seek revenge. The film features a wild turn from Oldboy's Choi Min-sik, who plays the serial killer, Jang Kyung-chul. As EW's critic writes in her review, "Choi goes to town as the embodiment of murdering, torturing evil." This, plus some light cannibalism, the breaking of a jaw, and more make for a vivid movie-watching adventure. —K.J.

Where to watch I Saw the Devil: Tubi

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Kim Jee-woon

Cast: Lee Byung-hun, Choi Min-sik, Oh San-ha, Kim Yoon-seo, Jeon Gook-hwan, Chun Ho-jin

Related content: 28 great revenge movies

The Invitation (2016)

Have you ever been to a dinner party that feels a little...off? Such is the case in The Invitation, which stars Logan Marshall-Green as Will, who attends a soiree thrown by his ex-wife, with whom he has a shared trauma. Will becomes unsettled as he learns of his ex-wife and her new boyfriend's recent induction into a cultish group called the Invitation. To say much more would be to ruin the wild twists and turns that unfold as the night marches onward. The Invitation marked a welcome return to indie filmmaking for director Karyn Kusama, previously known for Girlfight (2000), Aeon Flux (2005), and the perpetually misunderstood Jennifer's Body (2009). Filled to the brim with slow-burn dread, The Invitation earned raves from critics, with EW's critic noting that the ending is "as chilling and as perfect as anything Twilight Zone impresario Rod Serling dreamed up in his sting-in-the-tail prime." —K.J.

Where to watch The Invitation: Tubi

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: Karyn Kusama

Cast: Logan Marshall-Green, Tammy Blanchard, Michiel Huisman, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Lindsay Burdge, Michelle Krusiec, Mike Doyle, Jay Larson, John Carroll Lynch

Related content: The Invitation movie exclusive clip

Lake Mungo (2008)

Given that everything natural on the continent is designed to kill you, Australia seems an ideal setting for a horror movie. But in the psychological horror film Lake Mungo, the fear isn't borne from external foes, but rather from the terror required to succumb to the depths of human feeling. Lake Mungo begins with the accidental drowning of 16-year-old Alice Palmer. Upon returning home, her brother Matthew believes he sees Alice's ghost, but further investigation from the Palmer family reveals that Alice was seeing premonitions of her death. Far from providing closure, the family begins to realize that the more they learn about Alice's personal life, the less they understand about what happened to her. Lake Mungo is, at its core, a horror movie about human behavior and navigating grief. Containing only one overtly scary scene, Lake Mungo is the perfect horror film for people who understand that the gore we internalize is often scarier. —D.G.

Where to watch Lake Mungo: Tubi

Director: Joel Anderson

Cast: Talia Zucker, Rosie Traynor, David Pledger

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The Midnight Meat Train (2008)

A pre-The Hangover Bradley Cooper headlines this adaptation of Clive Barker's short story of the same name. Cooper plays Leon, a photographer who snaps a picture of a young woman on the late train only to wake up the next morning to discover she has since gone missing. Leon becomes obsessed with a mysterious straphanger (Vinnie Jones) who he believes is behind the disappearances, launching him into a world of ritual murder and bodily horrors in subterranean Seattle. Despite a significant marketing campaign, Lionsgate dumped The Midnight Meat Train into just 100 second-run theaters in August '08. However, The Midnight Meat Train is ruthlessly fun and deviously clever, undoubtedly one of the better genre entries of the mid-aughts. Ryuhei Kitamura's direction is sleek and knowing, the plot at times genuinely unpredictable, and through it all, Cooper gives a sympathetically grounded performance the likes of which this genre does not often see. —D.G.

Where to watch The Midnight Meat Train: Tubi

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Leslie Bibb, Tony Curran, Brooke Shields, Roger Bart, Vinnie Jones

Related content: Clive Barker adaptations, ranked

Next of Kin (1982)

Linda (Jacki Kerin) returns to her Australian hometown in the wake of a family death to oversee her inheritance: Montclare, a creaky old mansion that functions as a retirement home for the community. Before long, bodies of residents begin turning up, and diary entries from Linda's mother expose dark secrets from the past. Next of Kin is a brilliantly constructed slow burn, an old-fashioned gothic spine-tingler of the highest caliber. Director Tony Williams masterfully curates a mood of oppressive dread from the opening minutes through the bloody climax and explosive final frames, making this one of the very best Australian horror films of all time. —D.G.

Where to watch Next of Kin: Tubi

Director: Tony Williams

Cast: Jackie Kerin, John Jarratt, Gerda Nicolson, Alex Scott

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

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Our modern understanding of zombies can be traced back to George A. Romero's landmark horror classic. While the undead walkers in Night of the Living Dead are never referred to as "zombies," they have all the trademarks of the horror movie staple. A group of humans, drawn together out of necessity, try to ward off a pack of ghouls who intend to feast on them — thus turning them into ghouls themselves. While the film remains an effective horror experience, its historical context makes it all the more fascinating. Analysts have cited Night of the Living Dead as a subversive commentary on the Vietnam War, which was raging at the time of the film's release. It also features a Black man as the central hero when race relations were being examined more than ever before in American society. Even without that context, though, Night of the Living Dead operates as an enthralling horror movie in and of itself. —K.J.

Where to watch Night of the Living Dead: Tubi

Director: George A. Romero

Cast: Judith O'Dea, Duane Jones, Marilyn Eastman, Karl Hardman, Judith Ridley, Keith Wayne

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Nosferatu (1922)

Horror wouldn't be what it is today without Nosferatu, which celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2022. F.W. Murnau's gothic silent film is essentially an unofficial take on Bram Stoker's Dracula, with the names changed. Max Schreck plays Count Orlok, the Dracula analog who preys upon Hutter, a visiting estate agent. Hutter eventually realizes his client is, in fact, a vampire, and Hutter's wife may be the key to saving him and their community. While the limitations of technology at the time naturally prevent the film from delivering the dread-inducing jump scares that modern audiences may crave, the atmosphere of Nosferatu is enough to get under your skin. A century later, there have been too many depictions of Dracula and other blood-sucking vampires to count, but as EW's critic notes, Schreck's remains "the creepiest of vampire turns." —K.J.

Where to watch Nosferatu: Tubi

Director: F.W. Murnau

Cast: Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder, Alexander Granach, Ruth Landshoff, Wolfgang Heinz

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Peeping Tom (1960)

Like many films on this list, Peeping Tom wasn't fully appreciated in its time but has since undergone a critics' reappraisal. Michael Powell's horror-thriller follows Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm), a voyeuristic serial killer who secretly records the women he murders and watches the footage later. He soon befriends his neighbor, Helen (Anna Massey), to whom he reveals the childhood trauma that led him to become the way he is — without telling her his disturbing pastime. "Released mere months before Psycho changed the game," EW's critic writes of Peeping Tom, "its British cousin is arguably even more provocative in the way it implicates the audience." —K.J.

Where to watch Peeping Tom: Tubi

Director: Michael Powell

Cast: Carl Boehm, Moira Shearer, Anna Massey, Maxine Audley

Related content: Michael Powell: A crash course

Pieces (1982)

Genre stalwart Christopher George stars as a detective investigating a series of chainsaw murders at a Boston university in this gonzo gorefest. Joining George in his fight to stop the slasher are a particularly suspicious student (Ian Sera) and a famous tennis pro (Lynda Day George) who, bored with the celebrity touring circuit, decides to join up as an undercover detective. The unabashed silliness of the plot does little to dilute the entertainment value of director Juan Piquer Simón's sleazy, cheesy fever dream. Amongst moments of dubious dubbing and peculiar acting, the film delivers some genuinely suspenseful sequences, and Juan Mariné's cinematography is colorful and well-polished. Simón made the film in response to the Friday the 13th series, which he felt would often soft-peddle the gore. If you're in it strictly for the viscera, you will leave satisfied, and possibly even a bit exhausted, by the splattery shenanigans on display here. —D.G.

Where to watch Pieces: Tubi

Director: Juan Piquer Simón

Cast: Christopher George, Paul Smith, Edmund Purdom, Linda Day

Related content: All of the Friday the 13th movies, ranked

Ringu (1998)

Ringu is one of the most influential films in the horror genre, not only spawning a U.S. remake in the form of 2002's The Ring but also making "J-horror" such a hot, worldwide trend in film at the turn of the century. The Japanese psychological horror drama tells the story of Reiko (Nanako Matsushima), a journalist investigating the death of her niece, who watched a videotape featuring cryptic imagery and received an ominous phone call claiming she would die in seven days — which ended up coming true. After Reiko watches the tape for herself, she receives the same call and tries to get to the bottom of its origin and meaning. Unnervingly tense, Ringu still holds up today as a watch-between-your-fingers favorite. As EW's critic put it, "Ringu has proven to be a surprisingly durable concept...The elegant simplicity of that hook is supported by a disturbing internal mythology." —K.J.

Where to watch Ringu: Tubi

Director: Hideo Nakata

Cast: Nanako Matsushima, Hiroyuki Sanada, Rikiya Otaka, Miki Nakatani, Yuko Takeuchi, Hitomi Sato, Yutaka Matsushige

Related content: The 16 best Japanese horror movies

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

One of the true granddaddies of the horror genre is as terrifying now as it was to moviegoers in 1974. The film follows a group of unsuspecting young friends who travel through Texas and come across a depraved family of cannibals hellbent on making them their next victims. As the friends are taken out one by one, the dread amplifies all the way through the blood-soaked finale. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre not only spawned a franchise (with nine feature films, to date) but proved massively influential on horror in the decades to come. The low-budget slasher proved you didn't need big studio money or high-profile stars to make an impact. Director Julia Ducournau, who mastered the art of body horror with films like Raw and Titane, cited The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as the preeminent Halloween film. —K.J.

Where to watch The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: Tubi

Director: Tobe Hooper

Cast: Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, Gunnar Hansen

Related content: Gunnar Hansen dead: Friends and fans pay tribute to Texas Chain Saw Massacre villain

Train to Busan (2016)

Su-an (Kim Su-an) has one wish on her birthday: to spend it in Busan, with her mother, as opposed to staying in the city with her largely absent father Seok-woo (Gong Yoo). Seok-woo relents, in an effort to repair the relationship, but their weekend trip is derailed when an epidemic sweeps across the country and through their train car, turning those in its path into ravenous zombies. Yeon Sang-ho's first installment in his ongoing franchise (with an American remake on the way) uses the template of classic disaster films to create a haunted house thrill ride that EW's critic praises as "first-class throughout." It helps that the trip is topped off with a hefty dose of well-earned emotional stakes. Train to Busan is a full-throttle horror film, a kinetic action picture, and one of the only movies about the undead that may let you off with a lump in your throat. —D.G.

Where to watch Train to Busan: Tubi

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Yeon Sang-ho

Cast: Gong Yoo, Jung Yu-mi, Ma Dong-seok, Kim Su-an, Choi Woo-shik, Ahn So-hee, Kim Eui-sung

Related content: Train to Busan sequel Peninsula picks up the zombie action four years later

Related content:

• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, ranked

• The best horror movies on Hulu

• The 37 scariest movies of all time

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.