The 20 Best Horror Movies on Amazon Prime Video

This list is regularly updated as movies rotate on and off of Prime Video. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.

Who wants to be scared tonight? While there are fantastic streaming services dedicated to horror nuts, there’s also a wealth of genre hits and indie darlings on Prime Video. In fact, they have one of the most diverse arrays of horror hits, including films by vets like David Cronenberg and Paul W.S. Anderson, alongside newer films from indie studios. This regularly updated list will keep Prime Video subscribers in the know on what are the best horror movies they can watch right now. Turn the lights off and lock the doors.

Year: 1999
Runtime: 1h 20m
Director: Daniel Myrick, Eduardo Sanchez

When this movie dropped at Sundance back in 1999, it felt like something entirely new. Two decades of found footage imitators has dulled some of its impact, but The Blair Witch Project remains the model for how to do this kind of DIY horror well. And it’s still pretty damn terrifying.

Year: 2021
Runtime: 1h 31m
Director: Nia DaCosta

Too many people easily dismissed the Nia DaCosta remake of the 1992 classic about a boogeyman who terrorizes a Chicago community. Yes, it’s imperfect in its messaging, but it’s a spectacularly well-made film, including some excellent sound design and chilling compositions. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II stars in this film that was co-written by the insanely talented Jordan Peele.

Year: 1962
Runtime: 1h 20m
Director: Herk Harvey

An independent filmmaker who had made his career doing industry safety videos just happened to direct one of the most essential horror flicks of all time in this absolute classic. Candace Hilligoss stars as Mary Henry, a woman who barely survives a car accident and starts seeing ghostly, zombie-like figures in the new city she’s trying to call home. As the figures draw her to an abandoned carnival, some of the best horror imagery of the 1960s surfaces in a film that didn’t get much attention on its release but has gone on to be recognized as a genre masterpiece.

Year: 1998
Runtime: 1h 30m
Director: Vincenzo Natali

A true cult hit, this horror classic didn’t really make a dent at all until it was successful on VHS first and then DVD and Blu-ray. It’s a film with an undeniable premise as a group of people wake up in a facility that contains multiple, connected cubes. As they travel the labyrinth, they discover some cubes are safer than others. It’s a sharp, clever piece of genre filmmaking.

Year: 1983
Runtime: 1h 43m
Director: David Cronenberg

David Cronenberg and Stephen King joined forces on one of the best adaptations of the master of literary horror. Christopher Walken stars as a normal guy who discovers he has psychic powers, which lead him to a senator who could destroy the world. It’s a smart, tight piece of genre filmmaking by one of the best horror directors of all time.

Year: 1997
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Paul W.S. Anderson’s 1997 sci-fi/horror movie didn’t exactly set the world on fire when it was released – it didn’t even make back half its budget – but it’s become a cult hit over the years with some very loyal defenders. Laurence Fishburne and Sam Neill star in the story of a crew of astronauts sent to figure what happened on a missing spaceship. It’s there that they discover, well, truly awful things. Merging the grandeur of space movies with something that’s more like a haunted house tale, this is Anderson’s best film, one that has influenced many imitators in the last two decades.

Year: 2017
Runtime: 1h 44m
Director: Jordan Peele

This is the one that really changed the current state of horror, reminding studios how acclaimed and popular it could be if treated with the right respect. It also won its creator an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, launching one of the most interesting careers of the current era. It’s held up remarkably well, and it’s hardly ever available on streaming services, so take this chance while you can to rewatch a movie whose influence is still shaking the industry.

Year: 2015
Runtime: 1h 23m
Director: Stephen Cognetti

We’re all tired of found footage movies but this flick can be one of the exceptions. So popular that it spawned a franchise (there have already been two sequels), this is the story of a documentary crew that captures the creation of a Halloween haunted house that becomes all too real, ultimately killing 15 ticket buyers and staff. Structured both in a “what happened that night” and in-the-moment found footage doc, this is a truly clever indie horror film.

Year: 1987
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Clive Barker

The horror author Clive Barker directed this adaptation of his own novella The Hellbound Heart and made genre movie history. Introducing the world to the iconic Pinhead, who would go on to appear in so many sequels, the original film here is still the best, the tale of a puzzle box that basically opens a portal to Hell. The sequels have kind of lost the thread, but the original is still incredibly powerful. It’s one of the few films from the ‘80s that would still shatter audiences if it were released today.

Year: 2005
Runtime: 1h 29m
Director: Alexandre Aja

This movie is bonkers. Directed by Alexandre Aja (and sometimes called Switchblade Romance) it stars Cecile de France and Maiwenn as two young woman who go to a secluded farmhouse, where they’re attached by a serial killer. The twist ending to this brutal film will likely either make it or break it for you. Note: Shudder also added a few other French Horror Wave films, including Inside and Martyrs — both essential for horror fans, neither for the faint of heart.

Year: 2007
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: Bong Joon-ho

The success of Parasite brought an entirely new, larger audience to the work of Bong Joon-ho, and they probably loved this riveting genre piece about a giant monster living in the Han River. Parasite star Song Kang-ho plays the patriarch of a family that’s forced into action when the creature kidnaps his daughter. When it was released, it became the highest-grossing South Korean film of all time.

Year: 1978
Runtime: 1h 55m
Director: Philip Kaufman

There’s a reason that Hollywood keeps returning to Jack Finney’s novel The Body Snatchers—it strikes at a common fear that our neighbors and loved ones aren’t who they were yesterday. The best film version of Finney’s tale is the ‘70s one with Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum, and Leonard Nimoy. A riveting unpacking of ‘70s paranoia, this is a truly terrifying movie.

Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: M. Night Shyamalan

One of the most inventive directors of his era adapted a screenplay for the first time when he tackled Paul Tremblay’s stunning 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World. Shyalaman does some bad things to the final act, but this is still worth a look for its incredible craft and an excellent performance from Dave Bautista as the leader of a group of people who believe that a sacrifice must be made to stop a pending apocalypse.

Year: 1979
Runtime: 1h 29m
Director: Don Coscarelli

Another low-budget flick that produced an empire, Don Coscarelli’s totally bonkers 1979 film isn’t as much an influential genre classic as it is kind of unlike anything before or since. Who can forget the first time they saw Angus Scrimm as The Tall Man, one of the best horror characters of his era? The crazy plot here is secondary to the unforgettable imagery and style. There’s a reason it spawned four sequels and has a very loyal cult following 40 years later.

Year: 2005
Runtime: 1h 25m
Director: Wes Craven

With one of his last great movies, the master of horror Wes Craven proved he could also do thrills without supernatural monsters. Red Eye is a film that Alfred Hitchcock would have loved, the story of an average woman (Rachel McAdams) terrorized by the guy in the seat next to her on a red-eye flight to Miami. Cillian Murphy is chilling in this memorable, tight little genre movie.

Year: 2004
Runtime: 1h 43m
Director: James Wan

It’s hard to believe but Saw X was actually the most acclaimed film in this influential franchise. That’s right – ten movies in! Go back to where it all began in the first-and-still-best horror movie about two people who wake up in the middle of a dirty room with only one way to escape: a saw. Almost all of the Saw films are on Prime right now, actually, so you can have yourself a truly twisted marathon.

Year: 1999
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Tim Burton

Tim Burton ended a phenomenally creative run in the ‘80s and ‘90s with his take on the classic Washington Irving story about a headless horseman. Burton’s muse, Johnny Depp, plays Ichabod Crane, a New Yorker sent to the titular town to investigate a series of murders reportedly committed by the supernatural villain. Dripping with style, it’s arguably Burton’s last great movie.

Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 55m
Director: Parker Finn

Paramount has been regularly funneling some of their biggest theatrical hits to their streaming service for a small window of time before they roll over to Prime too. That was the case with Parker Finn’s debut feature film that was in theaters just last summer and made a fortune worldwide (over $200 million). One of the biggest commercial and critical horror hits of 2022, Smile is about a therapist who discovers something supernatural stalking her patients. It will get under your skin.

Year: 1986
Runtime: 1h 40m
Director: Tobe Hooper

No one had any idea what to do with Tobe Hooper’s sequel to his breakthrough film when it was released. Why? Because it’s insane. More black comedy than horror, it’s almost a parody of the first film, featuring truly wild performances from Dennis Hopper, Bill Johnson, Bill Moseley, and more. Audiences were confused in the ‘80s but they’ve come around to view this as a cult classic.

Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Nahnatchka Khan

What if Scream and Back to the Future had a baby? It would look a lot like this Prime Original thriller about a young woman (a fun Kiernan Shipka) who travels back in time and joins forces with the teenage version of her mother to stop a serial killer. Quirky and clever, it works as a mystery, slasher film, and an ‘80s comedy.

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