These 23 Horror Movies on Amazon Will Force You To Leave the Lights On
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Amazon Prime Video may be the home of horror anthology series like Them and Lore, but the spookiness doesn't stop there. The 2023 slate of classic scary masterpieces and modern horror fright fests available for subscribers encompass an impressive collection of films designed to raise your heart rate. And we're talking about heavy hitters: Candyman, Carrie, Children of the Corn, and M3GAN—ever heard of her? We thought so. No one forgets M3GAN.
Whether you watch with your face hidden behind a pillow (and/or your entire couch) or with a group of friends at the witching hour, Prime Video currently offers up stories of haunted houses, zombie apocalypses, patented M. Night Shyamalan twists, and enough jump scares to send you hurtling toward the ceiling. Below, we've selected 23 of our favorite horror films on Prime Video for those who delight in being scared out of their wits.
Candyman
Some people are afraid of Freddy Kreuger. Others fear Jason and his creepy white mask. I fear Candyman! The folk legend turned horror flick tells the story of a scorned man who becomes a bloodthirsty spirit. Taking place in Chicago’s Cabrini Green Projects, Candyman follows a group of residents who are terrorized after uttering the ghost’s name one too many times.
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Smile
If you thought a smile was a person’s most flattering feature, think again. Smile follows Dr. Rose Cotter, a psychiatrist whose life falls to pieces after she witnesses a tragic incident. Afterward, she’s haunted by a creepy—yet familiar—grin.
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The Black Phone
Ethan Hawke’s The Black Phone takes stranger-danger to new heights. The movie follows Finney Shaw, a 13-year-old boy who is kidnapped by a vicious killer. His captor is a neighborhood legend whose identity is hidden by a creepy mask. In order to survive, Finney makes contact with past victims through a disconnected phone. One by one, they reveal their stories to him—and devise a plan to save him.
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M3GAN
A dancing doll with boundary issues. What more could you want in a horror film? If you haven’t seen or heard of M3GAN yet, all you need to know is that she’s like an American Girl Doll from hell. Do with that information what you will—but don't say we didn't warn you.
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Orphan: First Kill
Just in case the original Orphan wasn’t creepy enough, Orphan: First Kill is here to remind you that Esther is still scary as hell. Don’t let her pigtails fool you—she’s more than just a troubled little girl. In Oprhan: First Kill Esther escaped a psychiatric facility (of course), and moves to America. How does she get away with it? By impersonating a wealthy family's missing daughter, of course! Naturally, it doesn’t end well.
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Carrie
Directed by Brian De Palma and starring Sissy Spacek, Carrie explores a high school girl's eventual meltdown following years of bullying from her classmates and a troubled life at home. In the climactic scene at her school's prom, her psychic powers are activated before hell breaks loose. Over 45 years since its release in 1976, Carrie is still one the greatest Stephen King stories adapted to the big screen.
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The Evil Dead
Director Sam Raimi may be having a bit of a renaissance thanks to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but the supernatural horror specialist got his start back in 1981 on The Evil Dead. Produced on a small budget of $375,000, The Evil Dead brought inventive, gory horror to a story about demonic possession that became an independent classic.
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Saint Maud
A devout Roman Catholic nurse named Maud takes care of a terminally ill patient in this bloody film of religious obsession and direct revelation. Set in an English seaside town, Saint Maud is a mixture of First Reformed and Under the Skin, with a final scene that will be ingrained in your mind for years to come.
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Master
Master dramatizes the experience of a small American college's new headmaster, expertly played by Regina Hall, and a believed evil witch that is tormenting one of her female students. Though Master plays out as a typical supernatural horror story, it also explores themes of the university's racist history and the mistreatment of students of color on campus.
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Children of the Corn
If a town feels deserted, you should probably leave immediately. More likely than not, you will come to discover something like the seemingly deserted Nebraska town in Children of the Corn, which was overrun by children who murdered all the adults for a bizarre, religious cult based on the surrounding corn fields. In this cult, creepy-kid-filled film, an unsuspecting couple traveling through just happened to stick around long enough to find all of that out.
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Hellraiser
Hellraiser's alien entities, pain-loving freaks called Cenobites, torture a family for their past sins as they move into a new, scary house. Full of complex puzzle boxes, nasty bugs, and a famous horror monster named "Pinhead," Hellraiser is just the first entry in a ten-film series about creatures who find pleasure in physical pain.
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Hellbound: Hellraiser II
The sequel to Hellraiser takes audiences to Hell itself, the home of Pinhead and his freakish Cenobite crew. The sequel delves more into how Pinhead came to be, the fate of the family from the first film, and even more examples of nightmarish torture that gave the original entry such a strong cult following.
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Chopping Mall
One of the silliest films on the list, Chopping Mall is a comedy horror flick from the 1980s about eight teenagers trapped in a shopping mall after hours. The small-budget slasher featuring killer security robots and an amazing title found success after becoming a VHS favorite for fans of campy horror.
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Signs
One of the most divisive M. Night Shyamalan films, Signs explores how a small family reacts once massive crop circles start appearing in their farm's corn fields. Farmhand Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) discovers whether the alien rumors are true in the most terrifying trip to the kitchen pantry of all time.
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The Lighthouse
More of a dramatic thriller than a typical jump-scare horror fest, The Lighthouse features just two lighthouse keepers (Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe) as they slowly descend into madness during a dangerous storm.
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A Quiet Place Part II
In the sequel to the modern blockbuster horror success, the magic of the first film is recaptured as the Abbott family ventures out into a world filled with terrifying monsters. By incorporating interesting world-building, the family must fight the creatures by exploiting their lack of sight and moving in silence.
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House on Haunted Hill
A 1959 spooktacular starring Vincent Price, House on Haunted Hill is a horror classic that utilizes props, carnival techniques, and the best special effects makeup of the time to create an impressive set of terrors.
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Uzumaki
Based off the Japanese horror manga of the same name by Junji Ito, Uzumaki takes place in a town where all the residents become obsessed with the idea of spirals. The fixation manifests in various disturbing scenes as the town sinks into madness over the hypnotizing curve.
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Night of the Living Dead
The classic zombie tale to spurn them all, Night of the Living Dead was a massive independent success. Director George A. Romero was dubbed the "Father of the Zombie Film" for his movie about the beginning of the zombie apocalypse, and the movement of the film's ghouls went on to inspire modern stories such as 28 Days Later and The Walking Dead.
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Piranha
Capitalizing on the success of Jaws, Gremlins director Joe Dante made Piranha--a parody of the Spielberg classic with the tagline: "sharks come alone, piranha come in thousands." The campy, 1970s imitator became an instant cult classic, and Steven Spielberg himself eventually praised Dante's work.
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The Sixth Sense
The Sixth Sense, the M. Night Shyamalan film that made the director a household name, has an ending so famous that it has probably been spoiled for you before you even see it. A young boy (Haley Joel Osment) having the ability to "see dead people" walking around on Earth is only an early reveal in this Bruce Willis-starring supernatural thriller that dubbed M. Night the "Master of Twists."
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Suspiria (2018)
Call Me by Your Name director Luca Guadagnino followed his romantic coming-of-age drama with a remake of Dario Argento's horror masterpiece Suspiria--one of the few examples of a film's legacy not becoming tarnished by its modern remake. Starring Dakota Johnson, Suspiria follows a world-renowned dance academy and the students tortured by the school's secret coven of witches.
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Train to Busan
South Korea's zombie flick Train to Busan became a global hit back in 2016, launching the careers of Gong Yoo (The Silent Sea), Choi Woo-shik (Parasite), and Ma Dong-seok (Eternals). Focusing on the conceit of zombies infiltrating a moving train of trapped passengers, Train to Busan's simplicity, inventive makeup, and entertaining undead acting made for one of the best horror films of the past decade.
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