The best supernatural movies on Amazon Prime
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Death represents the final chapter — except when it doesn't. As Taylor Swift once said, "What died didn't stay dead," and in the supernatural films on this list, the undead are everywhere. The ghosts on this list live in asylums, Ivy League institutions, and sunny, suburban homes, but they all have one thing in common: They're ready to create chaos. Here to haunt you from beyond the grave is EW's list of the best supernatural movies streaming on Amazon Prime Video right now.
<i>Evil Eye</i> (2020)
Soulmates and reincarnation figure heavily into the supernatural vibes of Evil Eye, the third installment of the Welcome to the Blumhouse anthology of horror films on Amazon Prime Video. Sarita Choudhury stars as Usha, a woman who only wants the best for her daughter — a wealthy, handsome Indian suitor — but when Pallavi (Sunita Mani) begins dating Sandeep (Omar Maskati), attraction soon reveals itself to be an other-worldly obsession. What if someone's stalker was powered by the supernatural? That's the terrifying conceit at the core of Evil Eye, and worse, Usha sees Sandeep's true intentions, but no one, including her daughter, will believe her. Rule of thumb: If a guy like Sandeep seems too good to be true, he probably is. And when he's using out-of-this-world forces to fuel his obsessive, controlling behavior, a mother's love may be its only match. —Johnny Loftus
Where to watch Evil Eye: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Elan Dassani, Rajeev Dassani
Cast: Sarita Choudhury, Sunita Mani, Omar Maskati, Bernard White
Related content: The best Blumhouse horror movies
<i>Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum</i> (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. —Ilana Gordon
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
<i>Goodnight Mommy</i> (2014)
There is 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 two 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. 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 2014's film's co-directors, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. Feel free to enjoy a double feature with both films, but definitely start with the Austrian version. —I.G.
Where to watch Goodnight Mommy: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: A (read the review)
Director: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala
Cast: Susanne Wuest, Elias Schwarz, Lukas Schwarz
Related reading: The Big Little Lies twins say Goodnight Mommy to Naomi Watts in eerie new trailer for horror remake
<i>Hell House LLC</i> (2015)
What if you combined the verité grooves of documentary-style found footage, the inherent creepiness of a haunted house attraction, and the sense of uncertainty around a horrifying and mysterious incident of violence? Well, you'd have something like Hell House LLC. Amidst frantic local media coverage, interviews with inquisitive journalists, and even a cryptic YouTube video from a spectator, the death of 15 people in the basement of Hell House remains a mystery… that is until the lone survivor of the team behind the attraction comes forward with tapes documenting the terrors leading up to that fateful night. This 2015 indie horror hit has capitalized on its cult following with two ensuing sequels, but don't get ahead of yourself. There's enough going on in the first Hell House to occupy your supernatural curiosity, and that's before the rumors and suspicions of satanic cult activity come into play. —J.L.
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
Related content: The best horror movies of the 2010s
<i>Hellraiser</i> (1987)
With a new Hellraiser reboot available to stream on Hulu, this is your chance to glory over the gloom, gore, and arch world-building of the original 1987 British horror film. Written and directed by genre legend Clive Barker and based on his own novella The Hellbound Heart, this is our first introduction to the pierced, sadomasochistic dimensional beings known as the Cenobites, who are unleashed on Earth to conduct wholesale supernatural mayhem on pleasure-seeking humans. Who are the Cenobites? Lead by "Pinhead" and his legions, these Hell-dwellers can no longer distinguish between pleasure and pain, and serve as the antagonists in Hellraiser and its many sequels. In their ranking of all the Hellraiser films, an EW contributor writes that the original film "is as close to an absolutely perfect horror film as one could reasonably find." —J.L.
Where to watch Hellraiser: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Clive Barker
Cast: Andrew Robinson, Clare Higgins, Ashley Laurence
Related content: Clive Barker adaptations, ranked
<i>Lamb</i> (2021)
Dark doesn't even begin to describe the plot of Lamb, a supernatural horror story set in rural Iceland. Maria (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) are a couple living with loss — until one of their sheep gives birth. The couple adopts the lamb, intending to raise it as their own child, but the arrival of Ingvar's brother Pétur (Björn Hlynur Haraldsson) is quick to extinguish their familial bliss. Director Valdimar Jóhannsson skimps on dialogue, choosing instead to fan the flames of tension, filling in silence with ambiance and allowing that to warm the movie's Arctic nights. With its small cast, and vast, natural background, Lamb feels both intimate and infinite. In her 2021 review, EW's Leah Greenblatt writes, "the movie's stark Nordic mood and obscure mystery are as coolly immersive as nearly anything on screen this year." —I.G.
Where to watch Lamb: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: B+ (read the review)
Director: Valdimar Jóhannsson
Cast: Noomi Rapace, Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson
Related content: Noomi Rapace on the 'disturbing and beautiful' Lamb and delivering baby sheep on set
<i>Malicious</i> (2018)
You can't compile a list of must-see supernatural movies without including Malicious, a film containing all of the genre's favorite tropes and greatest hits: a newly married couple, a pregnant woman left alone in an unfamiliar, new home, a mysterious box, a creepy doll, and, of course, ghosts cosplaying as cheerleaders. The film follows Adam (Josh Stewart) and Lisa (Bojana Novakovic) as they move into a new home provided by the University where Adam has accepted a job as a professor. But after Lisa opens a mysterious gift from her sister, her pregnancy takes a turn for the sinister, and she becomes convinced her unborn child has been transmuted into something malicious. Also starring the always terrific Delroy Lindo as Dr. Clark, a parapsychologist intent on getting to the bottom of whatever is causing Adam and Lisa's supernatural issues, Malicious delivers a terrifying cinematic interpretation of its tagline, "Children are a gift from hell." —I.G.
Where to watch Malicious: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Michael Winnick
Cast: Bojana Novakovic, Josh Stewart, Melissa Bolona, Delroy Lindo
Related content: The best horror movies on Max right now
<i>Master</i> (2022)
The rumor going around the halls of the fictional East Coast college, Ancaster, is that the elite, Ivy League institution has long been haunted by the ghost of a convicted witch. A supernatural, psychological thriller, Master stars Regina Hall as Gail, the first Black master — or head of the college. Gail's tenure at the school coincides with the arrival of freshman student named Jasmine (Zoe Renee, appearing in the upcoming Hunger Games film, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes), whose assigned room has its own beyond-the-grave history, and whose roommate is a separate horror story altogether. Representing writer-director Mariama Diallo's debut feature, Master is a smart, specific film set in a toxic environment that is poised to combust. EW's senior movies editor writes that the movie is a "never-less-than-memorable feature debut, both an indictment of racist institutions and a horror movie in the vein of Get Out and Candyman." —I.G.
Where to watch Master: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: A- (read the review)
Director: Mariama Diallo
Cast: Regina Hall, Zoe Renee, Amber Gray, Molly Bernard, Nike Kadri
Related content: Regina Hall on fame, endurance, and coming into her own in the acclaimed new thriller Master
<i>Nope</i> (2022)
The latest of three features directed by Jordan Peele and released within a five-year period, Nope is a supernatural horror film set on a horse ranch outside Los Angeles. Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer play OJ and Em Haywood, siblings who inherit their family's business of wrangling horses for Hollywood projects after their father Otis is killed by debris falling from a UFO. Determined to cash in and save their ranch, the Haywood siblings decide to take a photo of the otherworldly object to sell as proof of its existence. Written and executed in Peele's signature style, which straddles the line between social satire and genre love letter, Nope lassos the viewers' suspended disbelief while also interrogating the place where entertainment and exploitation intersect. —I.G.
Where to watch Nope: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: B+ (read the review)
Director: Jordan Peele
Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Steven Yeun, Michael Wincott, Brandon Perea, Keith David
Related content: Nope stars horse around in new blooper reel
<i>Paranormal Activity 2</i> (2010)
A low-budget horror film that spooked audiences (and provided Paramount/DreamWorks with an outsize return on investment), the success of Paranormal Activity was a happy surprise for all involved. Since the film's initial release in 2007, audiences have been treated (or cursed) with seven sequels, with an eighth (The Other Side) scheduled for release in 2023. Paranormal Activity 2, a prequel to the original film, is a carefully measured blend of shock and suspense, providing new context around the original story, while also reframing the ending. Katie Featherston and Micah Sloat return for round two, and new actors join the ensemble, filling the roles of Katie's sister Kristi, Kristi's husband, and his teenage daughter from a former marriage. Also returning — but received with far less enthusiasm — is the demon from the first film, whose supernatural antics suddenly make a lot more sense. —I.G.
Where to watch Paranormal Activity 2: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: B+ (read the review)
Director: Tod Williams
Cast: Sprague Grayden, Brian Boland, Molly Ephraim, Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
Related content: Paranormal Activity 2: An EW Exclusive Q & A with the movie's Katie Featherston
<i>Paranormal Activity 3</i> (2011)
The Paranormal Activity universe continues to flesh itself out in the third installment of the series. A prequel to the first two films, Paranormal Activity 3 travels back to the late '80s to establish how Katie and Kristi's family first became affiliated with the spirit world that has haunted them ever since. Joined by their mother, her boyfriend Dennis, and Kristi's imaginary friend Toby, whose presence in the family's life seems usher in a number of supernatural occurrences, Paranormal Activity 3 continues the franchise's tradition of fixed camera setups — in this case, home video camcorders that Dennis has spread around the house in the hopes of identifying the source of the strange incidents. A film that EW's critic watched "in a state of high anxiety," Paranormal Activity 3 continues to employ the fear-based formula utilized by the first two films, but finds new ways to raise the stakes and subvert viewer expectations. —I.G.
Where to watch Paranormal Activity 3: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: A- (read the review)
Director: Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman
Cast: Lauren Bittner, Chris Smith, Chloe Csengery, Jessica Tyler Brown, Dustin Ingram, Hallie Foote, Sprague Grayden, Katie Featherston
Related reading: Paranormal Activity 3: 'Creepy woman' Maria Olsen speaks out
<i>Smile</i> (2022)
Frowning gives you lines, but grinning can be deadly. Enter Smile, a supernatural horror 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 a supernatural entity that takes control of people and forces them to complete horrifying acts while smiling like maniacs. 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 Leah Greenblatt warns "you might need a bucket of bleach (and several hours of TikTok kitten videos) to cleanse your brainpan afterward." —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: Smile director wanted horror film to feel like 'sustained panic attack'
<i>Suspiria</i> (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 Chris Nashawaty 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'
<i>The Black Phone</i> (2022)
The '70s were the heyday of serial killers, and the villain from The Black Phone would fit right in with the John Wayne Gacys and Ted Bundys of the world. Set in 1978, The Black Phone focuses on a Denver suburb that is being targeted by "The Grabber" (Ethan Hawke), a serial child abductor and murderer. After 13-year-old Finney Blake is abducted, his sister Gwen starts having psychic dreams about his abduction and location. Meanwhile, Finney finds himself locked in a room with only a broken pay phone that keeps ringing with calls from The Grabber's former victims who hope to help him escape. A horror film distinguished by its supernatural elements, The Black Phone is a terrifying return to horror for Hawke (following his tantalizing turns in Sinister and The Purge), made even more nightmarish by his masked face and frequent giggling. —I.G.
Where to watch The Black Phone: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: B (read the review)
Director: Scott Derrickson
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, James Ransone
Related content: From Sinister to The Black Phone: Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson's life in horror
<i>The Golem</i> (2018)
Set in 17th century Lithuania, The Golem is an Israeli supernatural horror film based on a monster from Jewish folklore. Benjamin (Ishai Golan) and Hanna (Hani Furstenberg) are a young couple living in a small Jewish village, struggling to conceive seven years after the death of their son. When the Jews in their area are accused of cursing their fellow peasants with the Black Death, Hanna summons a Golem to protect the village from its enemies. But even though the Golem Hanna creates looks strangely like her dead son, she soon learns the creature has no allegiance to her — or the people she intends for it to protect. Directed by the Paz brothers (JeruZalem) and filmed outside of Kyiv, Ukraine, The Golem is the rare horror project that feels both historical and modern, juxtaposing unique details and themes from Jewish mythology atop familiar genre tropes, and ending up with a singular vision that speaks to grief, gender roles, and the thin line between victim and aggressor. —I.G.
Where to watch The Golem: Amazon Prime Video
Cast: Hani Furstenberg, Ishai Golan, Brynie Furstenberg, Adi Kvetner, Lenny Ravich, Lex Tritenko
Related content: JeruZalem: EW review
<i>The Manor</i> (2021)
Fans of FX's long-running series American Horror Story may recognize the gothic artistry of The Manor's Axelle Carolyn (who also helmed episodes of the horror franchise). Boasting similar vibes to AHS, The Manor stars Barbara Hershey as Judith, a former dancer in her youth, who becomes the newest resident of a creaky old nursing home after she suffers a stroke. The other residents of Golden Sun Manor seem to be dying at an alarming rate, and Judith soon discovers how supernatural forces keep other people alive even longer. The Manor is another addition to the Welcome to the Blumhouse series, and returns Hershey to horror after her terrific turn in the Insidious franchise. In The Manor, evil forces and her own fractured mind are working against Judith. "Even her devoted grandson Josh (Nicholas Alexander) thinks her fears are the result of dementia, not demons," writes Clark Collis for EW. —J.L.
Where to watch The Manor: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Axelle Carolyn
Cast: Barbara Hershey, Bruce Davison, Stacey Travis, Ciera Payton, Jill Larson, Mark Steger
Related content: Barbara Hershey is haunted by a sinister presence in new Blumhouse horror movie The Manor
<i>The Taking of Deborah Logan</i> (2014)
Speaking of found footage, the technique still had legs in 2014 when filmmaker Adam Robitel utilized it to a terrifically unsettling effect in his directorial debut, The Taking of Deborah Logan. This time, film students set out to document one aging woman's bout with Alzheimer's, but instead discover something much more sinister lurking in her mental cavities. The fear and mystery of a chronically debilitating disease, the brutal legacy of infamous past slayings, and talk of rituals and reincarnation are all at work in this oft-overlooked gem of 2010s supernatural horror. While the film eventually established a steady following, that wasn't clear at first. "It was devastating," Robitel tells EW about its underwhelming release. "I had gone into serious debt making the movie so I was like, oh, I failed, I'm a failure. But, that weekend, on Netflix, a million people saw and shared it. It was so vindicating, without any sort of marketing might or anything, for people to have discovered it." —J.L.
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: From The Taking of Deborah Logan to Escape Room 2: Director Adam Robitel's life in horror
<i>The Wailing</i> (2016)
We knew this list would be incomplete without Na Hong-jin's 2016 folk horror feat, but the problem is, there's nothing quite like it on Amazon (or elsewhere, for that matter). At a whopping 156 minutes, The Wailing is a horror film of epic proportions that still manages to never overstay its welcome, instead enticing us with a mysterious disease that causes residents of a small South Korean village to slaughter those they love most. As infections spread, violence — and paranoia — grows more rampant, but a policeman's investigation soon becomes personal when his only daughter begins to harbor symptoms. Unfolding with expert precision unlike any other opus in recent memory, The Wailing is a seismic balancing act of Eastern folklore, occult imagery, and unwavering dread wrapped into a single, somehow swallowable story, as "Na slathers his tale with generous supplies of atmosphere and awfulness," according to EW's critic. —J.L.
Where to watch The Wailing: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: B+ (read the review)
Director: Na Hong-jin
Cast: Kwak Do-won, Hwang Jung-min, Woo-hee Chun, Jun Kunimura
Related content: The Wailing: Korean horror movie clip has bodies and boils
<i>We Are Still Here</i> (2015)
We Are Still Here is a 2015 period indie horror from writer-director Ted Geoghegan, and a film that proves that when it comes to the supernatural, the horrific, and things proverbially going bump in the night, there's no better setting than a proper haunted house. Here, genre legend Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator, Chopping Mall, You're Next) and Andrew Sensenig star as a couple inspired to move into a mysterious new home after the traumatic loss of their young son. But despite seeking a fresh start, all they get is meddling townspeople, longstanding secrets, and a home with its own blood to spill. Taking a cue (or two or three) from early-'80s chillers like The Fog and The House by the Cemetery, EW's Chris Nashawaty writes of We Are Still Here, "Ted Geoghegan's directorial debut has enough decent scares to push it past pastiche." —J.L.
Where to watch We Are Still Here: Amazon Prime Video
EW grade: N/A (read the review)
Director: Ted Geoghegan
Cast: Barbara Crampton, Andrew Sensenig, Larry Fessenden, Lisa Marie, Monte Markham
Related content: We Are Still Here: How they created the year's creepiest ghosts
