The Best Indie Horror Movies to Stream Right Now, from ‘X’ and ‘Terrifier’ to ‘The Strangers’ and ‘Fresh’

“The Outwaters” (Streaming on Tubi and Screambox)

A memorably nasty found footage experiment, Robbie Banfitch’s “The Outwaters” begins with a burst of energy through a panicked and chaotic 9-1-1 call that makes it pretty obvious something horrible is about to happen to its cast of four young dummies heading to the desert to shoot a music video. Presented as the combined footage of three memory cards from one of the crew member’s cameras, the film then goes into a slow build-up, keeping the danger in the periphery during the group’s camping trip. But even when things escalate suddenly in the film’s centerpiece scene, the danger remains out of sight and unexplained — in favor of a kaleidoscopic series of surreal terrors that reflect the protagonist’s increasingly delirious fear. The result is slippery and hard to define, which is part of what makes it so scary. —WC

“Skinamarink” (Streaming on Hulu)

A viral sensation that became a shock box office success, “Skinamarink” is a micro-budget title that looks more gorgeous than almost anything else in its genre. Kyle Edward Ball’s directorial debut focuses on two children who wake up in the night to discover their father has disappeared. Slowly, an entity controlling the house reveals itself, blocking them from receiving outside help and tormenting them as its playthings. The film’s languid pacing and faceless protagonists have drawn divided reactions, but “Skinamarink” hits for the people who get on its own particular wavelength. It’s a unique experiment that captures the singular fear and powerlessness that comes from childhood. —WC

“We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” (Streaming on Max)

It’s hard to properly depict the internet on film, but “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” is steeped in the language of niche forums and viral creepypastas. Jane Schoenbrun’s feature stars Anna Cobb as Casey, a lonely teenager taking part in a viral horror-themed internet challenge whose grasp on sanity is constantly in question. Reached out to by the adult “JLB” (Michael J. Rogers), Anna forms a slippery, confusing bond with their internet friend, but the true nature of that relationship remains in question. The film uses its horror trappings to explore the vulnerability and confusion of life on the internet, and how you never truly know the person behind the other screen. —WC

“It Follows” (Streaming on Netflix)

It’s an age-old trope that anyone who has sex in a slasher is doomed to die; “It Follows” makes that a bit more literal than most. David Robert Mitchell’s film stars Maika Monroe as Jay, a teenager who loses her virginity to her boyfriend and gets targeted by an entity that pursues young people who have sex. A divisive title thanks to its slow, psychological approach to its seemingly lurid premise, “It Follows” nonetheless holds together thanks to Monroe’s strong central performance and Mitchell’s controlled, powerful direction. —WC

“Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” (Streaming on Peacock)

Have you ever wondered what would happen if A. A. Milne’s beloved storybook bear Winnie the Pooh left the Hundred-Acre Woods and began a killing spree? That is the question Rhys Frake-Waterfield dared to ask with “Blood and Honey,” a violent take on the Pooh mythos that imagines a world where Christopher Robin abandoned his friend, killed (and ate) Eeyore, and became a vicious killing machine. Five years later, Pooh and Piglet are silent beasts, who stalk and murder a group of young college kids that make the fatal mistake of vacationing in the Woods. “Blood and Honey” is maybe not the highest-brow film on this list, but it’s good for a cheap thrill. And with a sequel in development, you might as well get on board for the newest big slasher franchise around. —WC

“Relic” (Stream it on AMC+ and Shudder)

When it comes to matters of monstrous kin, modern horror movies tend to turn on the “bad seed” angle, viewing demonic or killer children through the eyes of their feckless parents. But rarely do we see the opposite — an elder parent’s devolution into madness through the eyes of their adult brood. Enter “Relic,” the feature debut from Japanese-Australian filmmaker Natalie Erika James co-written by Christian White, which shows an 85-year-old matriarch’s descent into otherworldly insanity from the points of view of her daughter, Kay (Emily Mortimer), and granddaughter, Sam (Bella Heathcote). —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Hatching” (Stream it on Hulu)

Tjina (Siiri Solalinna) seems to like animals, but they don’t much take to her, from the squawky crow that crashes straight into her house to the chubby new French bulldog next door. Mostly, the rail-thin Finnish tween seems to be seeking connection outside the fraying bonds of her family, including her simpering father (Jani Volanen), annoying (but probably sanest of the bunch) little brother Matias (Oiva Ollila), and her morally empty mother (Sophia Heikkilä). The foursome are the stars of Tjina’s unnamed mother’s blog, hilariously titled “Lovely Everyday Life,” and as Hanna Bergholm’s clever, confounding “Hatching” opens, those lives are about to cease being lovely. —KE

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Terrifier” (Streaming on Amazon Prime, Peacock, Tubi, The Roku Channel)

Damien Leone conjured up the menacing Art the Clown for 2013’s anthology film “All Hallows’ Eve,” but the vicious jester wouldn’t fully shine until his standalone flick: “Terrifier.” The low-budget splatter fest sees a silent stalker (David Howard Thornton) seriously disrespect some restaurant workers before pursuing two women (Samantha Scaffidi, Catherine Corcoran) into the night for a truly torturous game of cat and mouse. Though it’s profoundly graphic, “Terrifier” is also full of camp: delivering giggles along with gags. Heroine Tara (Jenna Kanell) would be replaced by sequel star Sienna (Lauren LaVero) for a super-sized follow-up that practically pulled off miracles at the 2022 box office. —AF

“Fresh” (Stream it on Hulu)

About thirty minutes into “Fresh,” a deliciously jangly horror movie, the opening credits roll. Up until then, the movie, which premiered in the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival, unfolds like an edgy romantic comedy. In the opening scene, Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones, with a bite) shows up for an app date, which turns out to be a dud: A vain cheapskate who’s brusque with the waiter, the guy tells Noa between bites of their meal that her sweater looks shlumpy and a dress would suit her better. Reading the disagreeable signs, Noa bids him a polite goodbye, but not before Mr. Conceited Civility, upon rejection, can shout, “Good luck finding a guy, you stuck up bitch.” —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Barbarian” (Streaming on Max)

In writer/director Zach Creggers’ “Barbarian,” a creepy misunderstanding at a rental property leaves a young woman (Georgina Campbell) stranded with a man she doesn’t know (Bill Skarsgård). But what lurks behind the shuttered-windows of the dilapidated Detroit home is far more menacing than your average case of stranger danger. Overwrought with gruesome twists and turns, and featuring a laugh-out-loud satirical performance from scream king Justin Long, “Barbarian” not only builds an incredibly scary atmosphere, but manages to sneak in a genuinely funny comedic centerpiece that heightens the terror. —AF

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Watcher” (Stream it on Hulu, AMC+, Shudder)

Chloe Okuno could have= struck gold when production of “Watcher” was relocated from New York to Bucharest, Romania. The Eastern European city’s mix of bleak, brutalist architecture and baroque government buildings only add to the isolation that the film’s protagonist, Julia (Maika Monroe), feels as she tags along when her half-Romanian husband is transferred there for work. Add to that a stark language barrier and a neighbor who may or may not be spying on her from across the street, and you’ve got all the ingredients for a taut paranoid thriller. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Titane” (Streaming on Hulu)

Julia Ducournau’s “Titane” is a melancholy, but still jaw-dropping study of Agathe Rousselle’s dazzling Alexia: an alluring stripper-turned-vicious killer who has sex with cars. The 2021 shocker won the Palme d’Or in 2021, making Ducournau the second woman to receive the top prize at Cannes. Vincent Lindon delivers a heartbreaking performance as a firefighter grieving his missing son, who unknowingly accepts Alexia into his home as that missing child. Meanwhile, the fiery antiheroine tends a unique pregnancy that landed “Titane” on IndieWire’s list of the scariest body horror movies about women. —AF

“X” (Streaming on Paramount+ with Showtime)

The renegade intensity of Ti West’s “X,” another homage by the “House of the Devil” writer-director to independent cinema’s past, and his first horror film in over a decade, is his willingness to ask: What if a slasher, but with porn? That genre bending — in a rollicking, wicked dark horror comedy about intrepid filmmakers just barely scraping by, the fetishization of youth, and how the weight of aging into a sexless marriage can lead to mayhem — brings the spirit of the rule-breaking 1970s moviemaking back to modern audiences. While West isn’t always operating on the same levels as his influences, his signature flair for tension through simmering slow-burn pacing remains unparalleled. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Censor” (Streaming on Hulu)

Grainy VHS footage has become a popular trope in the horror genre for years, with its deteriorating quality often enhancing the impression of an ominous, otherworldly realm on the verge of collapse. Yet “Censor,” the engrossing and disturbing first feature from British director Prano Bailey-Bond, may be the first of its kind to put the VHS horror phenomenon in historical context. The story of a troubled British film censor circa 1985 eventually settles into the kind of subjective descent into lunacy the genre’s offered up many times before, but there’s a certain immersive thrill to the way this character’s unraveling takes place within the same dilapidated material she’s been forced to watch for her job. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Possessor” (Streaming on Hulu)

A queasy and intriguing horror-inflected techno-thriller that gets lost somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle between “Mandy,” “Inception,” and “Ghost in the Shell,” Brandon Cronenberg’s “Possessor” is drunk on its own sick potential in the best way possible. Behold 90 minutes of Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott engaging in ultra-gory psychic warfare over control of the latter’s body. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“In the Earth” (Streaming on Hulu)

“Ben Wheatley’s fun, gnarly, and resourceful micro-budget pandemic movie redefines what it means to commune with nature,” IndieWire’s David Ehrlich wrote in his review. Wheatley’s horror movie follows a scientist and a park scout who venture deep into the words for equipment during a pandemic and discover something mind-melting and disturbing. Ehrlich’s review continues: “The result is a micro-budget horror movie every bit as ancient and elemental as its title suggests; a gnarly and largely satisfying nightmare about someone who tries to leave the coronavirus behind, only to wander into the dark heart of an eternal struggle.” —RL

“The Eyes of My Mother” (Streaming on Amazon Prime, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Tubi)

Nicolas Pesce’s black-and-white stunner “The Eyes of My Mother” was named the big discovery of the 2016 Sundance Film Festival by IndieWire. Pesce’s minimalist script tells the story of a disturbed young woman (the revelatory Kika Magalhães) who, following a traumatizing encounter, keeps a murderer locked up in her barn and forges an unusual relationship with him. The movie’s crisp black-and-white photography and terrifying character dynamics create a chill that’s hard to forget. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Spree” (Streaming on Hulu)

Director Eugene Kotlyarenko’s “Spree,” co-written with Gene McHugh, centers on “Stranger Things” star Joe Keery as a Gen-Z wannabe influencer whose thirst for internet fame turns him into a serial killer who live-streams his murders while posing as a friendly-faced rideshare driver. “Spree” is a found-footage horror movie for the “Joker” age, mean-spirited and heartless. What’s the point, you might ask? The point is that there isn’t one. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“His House” (Streaming on Netflix)

Remi Weekes’ thrilling feature directorial debut “His House” filters the immigrant experience through a terrifying horror lens in a film that follows two Sudanese asylum-seekers who arrive in Britain with their demons in tow. A critical favorite upon release in October, “His House” boasts riveting performances from Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku that ground Weekes’ supernatural leanings in trauma and emotions that feel far too real. As David Ehrlich wrote in this B+ review, “‘His House’ is an urgent and spine-tingling ghost story about what it means to begin anew in a home that may not want you to live in it.” —RL

“The Alchemist Cookbook” (Streaming on Kanopy, Topic, Tubi)

Joel Potrykus’s “The Alchemist Cookbook” follows young outcast Sean (Ty Hickson) who has isolated himself in the woods in order to pursue his alchemist pursuits without distractions. Though his experiments start out innocent enough, they soon turn to black magic in order to crack the secrets of nature. Naturally things go awry, awakening something far more sinister and dangerous. —RL

“Baskin” (Streaming on AMC+, Tubi)

Turkish horror movie “Baskin” starts off like a buddy cop film before plunging viewers into a nightmarish world filled with brutal, unflinching violence and bloody horrors. The movie follows a five-man cop unit that enters an abandoned building and are slowly killed by the terrors awaiting them. The movie earned comparisons to “The Human Centipede” when it debuted at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. —RL

“The Blackcoat’s Daughter” (Streaming on Max)

“The Blackcoat’s Daughter” is the directorial debut of Osgood Perkins, son of Anthony Perkins (yes, Norman Bates), so it’s a safe bet the filmmaker knows a thing or two about scaring the crap out of audiences. Perkins’ debut is a stirring exercise in style dripping with tidbits of Gothic horror. The movie pairs Emma Roberts and Kiernan Shipka as two Catholic schoolgirls who get left behind at their boarding school over winter break, only to discover the nuns are rumored to be satanists. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Body at Brighton Rock” (Streaming on Amazon Prime, Tubi, Pluto TV)

Roxanne Benjamin’s feature directorial debut “Body at Brighton Rock” feels like a throwback to a time when horror movies weren’t afraid to bop around and have fun. The film, which centers on a state park employee who must confront horrors after getting lost in the woods, feels ready-made for a Friday night on your couch. It’s a total slumber party of a movie, told with plenty of skill, even more potential, and an utter lack of preciousness from its delightful opening moments to its enjoyable last-minute twist. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Creep” (Streaming on Netflix)

Patrick Brice and Mark Duplass were a match made in indie horror heaven with “Creep,” a found footage nightmare in which Duplass’ madness goes to a rattling extreme. Part of the film’s success is how it subverts the found footage horror genre. Almost always, found footage movies are used to investigate alleged paranormal phenomena or superstitious entities (see “Blair Witch” and “Paranormal Activity”). “Creep,” however, is all about the terror of one man. The way Duplass uses the found footage style to charm and terrify is impressive. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“1922” (Streaming on Netflix)

Thomas Jane gives his best performance in ages in this poetic take on the Stephen King novella of the same name. In “1922,” a guy kills his wife and feels guilty about it. That’s the gist of its premise, and while nothing groundbreaking, the story mines a degree of profundity out of the traditional supernatural thriller tropes at its core. As directed by Zak Hilditch (whose 2013 debut “These Final Hours” was an expressionistic apocalyptic tale), “1922” has the merits of a solid “Tales From the Crypt” or “Masters of Horror” episode, with a straightforward story that folds the delicate visual language of a rural Terrence Malick drama into the mold of existential horror. The result suggests what might happen if Malick took at stab at “The Tell-Tale Heart,” with a mentally disturbed male protagonist straight out of King’s “The Shining.” So while not the most original or surprising King story, it hits a lot of the right notes. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Climax” (Streaming on Cinemax)

Gaspar Noé’s “Climax” stars Sofia Boutella as the leader of a dance troupe that finds itself thrown into madness after one of its members spikes the water cooler with a hallucinogenic drug. The boldness of Noé’s set pieces are dazzling to behold (the movie opens with an astonishing one take that soars through the dance troupe’s rehearsal), and his camera takes on a frenetic quality that matches the delusion of his characters. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“The Ritual” (Streaming on Netflix)

Horror favorites like Guillermo del Toro and Mike Flanagan took to social media in 2018 to champion David Bruckner’s lost-in-the-woods chiller “The Ritual.” The film stars Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier, and Sam Troughton as four friends who get together to honor the memory of one of their late pals by setting out on a hiking trip through Sarek National Park in northern Sweden. The forest, however, is hiding some dark secrets, and it doesn’t take long for the group to be put in jeopardy after they discovery something terrifying is lurking about. Del Toro “highly recommended” the movie to his followers and called it “amazing and scary.” Flanagan, meanwhile, said the film was “seriously great” and “dripping with tension.” —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Emelie” (Streaming on Peacock, Amazon Freevee, Tubi)

Get ready to meet the worst babysitter imaginable. As played by Sarah Bolger in “Emelie,” the character’s end goal seems to be to destroy the innocence of the children she’s babysitting, or to just destroy them altogether. Playing around with “the call is coming from inside the house” horror motif, director Michael Thelin has a field day manipulating the psychological disturbances of his leading lady. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Evolution” (Streaming on Pluto, Youtube)

What would happen if you mixed art house cinema with the kind of body horror every David Cronenberg fan loves? The result would look something like “Evolution.” The second feature from French director Lucile Hadžihalilovic is a mesmerizing and maddening coming-of-age horror movie that has the look of a beautiful nightmare. The story centers around 10-year-old Nicolas (Max Brebant), a young boy living in a remote seaside hospital where he and several other children are subjected to an alarming medical process. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Be My Cat: A Film for Anne” (Streaming on YouTube, Tubi, The Roku Channel)

Filmmaker Adrian Tofei crafts something uniquely sinister in the found footage outing “Be My Cat: A Film for Anne.” Playing a fictional version of himself, Tofei puts out a call for amateur actresses who look like Anne Hathaway: the real star he wants to convince to work with him through the proof of concept project. But what follows isn’t a sizzle reel; it’s a nonstop nightmare that feels not only deeply real, but like a threatening artifact from a sick mind. You can watch the film for free on YouTube. —AF

Read IndieWire’s guide to the best found footage movies.

“Ghost Stories” (Streaming on AMC+, IFC Films Unlimited, Tubi, Pluto TV)

Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman’s anthology horror film “Ghost Stories” stars Nyman as the host of a television program that applies rational explanations for ghostly encounters and exposes modern day charlatans. The movie tells three ghost stories, one of which stars Martin Freeman as a man whose house is haunted by a poltergeist with a chilling message to relay about his pregnant, hospitalized wife. The three stories weave together and expertly build tension toward a shocking finale that that pays off in spades. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Goodnight Mommy” (Streaming on Amazon Prime, Pluto TV, Tubi)

The expertly crafted Austrian horror film “Goodnight Mommy” is a visceral nightmare about a twisted cat-and-mouse game that forms between a mother and her children. The story follows a pair of identical twin brothers (Lukas and Elias Schwartz) whose mother (Susanne Wuest) has just undergone facial reconstructive surgery. But the mother who returns to their isolated countryside home is not the same as the mother who left in the first place. Her face is obscured with a haunting bandage, and her personality seems to have changed for the worse. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Green Room” (Streaming on Max)

Jeremy Saulnier’s “Green Room” pits a young punk rock band against a gang of white power skinheads who’ve trapped them in a secluded venue after the rockers witness a horrific act of violence, and all witnesses must go. Saulnier’s script might fit more into the thriller genre, but his unnervingly alive performance from the late Alton Yelchin proudly carries on the tradition of horror teenagers who fight to the death to survive a night from hell. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Hellions” (Streaming on Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Tubi)

Bruce McDonald’s hallucinatory horror movie “Hellions” is a visual and auditory nightmare. Chloe Rose gives a memorable performance as a 17-year-old girl who discovers she’s pregnant on Halloween night, only for a group of killers to show up on her doorstep with the goal of taking her unborn child. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Hereditary” (Streaming on Max)

Before it becomes an ultra-creepy haunted house movie, Ari Aster’s “Hereditary” is an almost-unbearable study of the grieving process. A family copes with traumatizing loss, screaming, crying, and growing apart as the scariest aspect of their lives becomes the actual hardships of each passing day. Then something far more terrifying happens. Despite some occasionally clichéd jump scares, “Hereditary” excels at evoking a convincing environment of despair along with first-rate horror. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“High Tension” (Streaming on Amazon Prime, Tubi, Pluto TV)

Before Alexandre Aja found success with American horror films such as “The Hills Have Eyes” and this summer’s “Crawl,” he made a name for himself in the genre with his grisly French horror offering “High Tension.” The movie centers around two best friends who must fight for survival after a serial killer shows up at the doorstep of one of their parents’ homes. “High Tension” is so graphically terrifying that it was released internationally with an NC-17 rating. —RL

“The Hole in the Ground” (Streaming on Max)

Horror lovers kill for a good demonic child narrative, from “The Omen” to “Hereditary,” and A24’s “The Hole in The Ground” is a worthy addition to the long-running subgenre. Directed by Irish filmmaker Lee Cronin, who wrote the script with Stephen Shields, “The Hole in the Ground” follows a mother who is slowly driven to the brink of sanity as she suspects her son isn’t himself. —RL

“Hounds of Love” (Streaming on AMC+ and Shudder)

Ben Young’s twisted kidnapping thriller “Hounds of Love” stars Ashleigh Cummings as cool ’80s teen Vicki Maloney, who is seemingly abducted at random by secret suburban serial killers John and Evelyn White (Emma Booth and Stephen Curry). Set in Perth during the middle of a predictably steamy summer, the Whites have been waging their own private war with the city’s women, and no one seems to realize that they’ve got a pair of serial killers in their midst. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“The Invitation” (Streaming on Peacock, Tubi, AMC+, Shudder, Pluto TV)

While technically a thriller that dovetails into slasher territory for its third act, “The Invitation” maintains a unique horror intrigue that constantly defies expectations. Set in the confines of a Hollywood Hills house where a dinner party reunion takes a series of ghoulish turns, the movie finds bearded Will (Logan Marshall-Green) reuniting with his ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard) along with assorted friends and their partners several years after a traumatic event. As the horror escalates, “The Invitation” becomes the definitive statement of director Karyn Kusama’s career as it lands on the suggestion that surviving one tumultuous experience only leads to more of the same. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“The Love Witch” (Streaming on Mubi, Pluto TV, Peacock, Shudder)

Anna Biller’s “The Love Witch” is a spellbinding homage to old pulp paperbacks and the Technicolor melodramas of the 1960s — a throwback that’s told with a degree of perverse conviction and studied expertise that would make Quentin Tarantino blush. Shot in velvety 35mm and seen through the lens of a playfully violent female gaze, the film follows a beautiful, narcissistic young sorceress named Elaine (Samantha Robinson, unforgettable in a demented breakthrough performance) as she blows into a coastal California town in desperate search of a replacement for her recently murdered husband. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Southbound” (Streaming on Tubi)

“The Twilight Zone” for more deranged sensibilities, the anthology movie “Southbound” takes place in an eerie purgatorial desert in which various characters wind up trapped and face bizarre supernatural threats. Each macabre installment expertly segues into the next one: “Siren,” Roxanne Benjamin’s portrait of a touring band whose car breaks down, finds the group seeking refuge with an eerie couple in the wasteland, one of whom winds up at the center of David Bruckner’s brilliantly wacky “The Accident,” in which an emergency phone call following an accident on the road turns out to be a devious prank. Unlike other horror anthologies, “Southbound” creates a consistent world defined by sheer dread and unpredictability. —RL

“The Strangers” (Streaming on Netflix) and “The Strangers: Prey at Night” (Streaming on Starz)

It took a decade for writer-director Bryan Bertino to release a sequel to his cult favorite “The Strangers,” but the follow-up movie “The Strangers: Prey at Night” was surely worth the wait. Helmed by “47 Meters Down” director Johannes Roberts, “Prey at Night” plays out as both a clever followup to the first film and an homage to classic John Carpenter joints like “Christine” and “Halloween.” —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Suspiria” (Streaming on Amazon Prime)

Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria” is a grim and severe reworking of Dario Argento’s horror classic, offering a thematically richer and more explicit interpretation of that old nightmare. Dakota Johnson stars as an aspiring dancer who discovers her international dance company is being run by a coven of witches. Guadagnino’s slow-burn approach to the storyline builds tension to a final 30 minutes that explode in an orgy of restless editing and visceral gore. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Train to Busan” (Streaming on Prime Video, Peacock, Pluto TV, and The Roku Channel)

Yeon Sang-ho’s 2016 South Korean zombie film “Train to Busan” exploded into a box office phenomenon in its home country with a gross of over $10 million alone in South Korea. Mashing the wildest elements of “Snowpiercer” (passengers stuck on a train) and “World War Z” (rabid zombies that want to eat you alive), the apocalyptic horror sensation has a momentum like few other horror films this decade. Thanks to some virtuoso camerawork and adrenaline-fueled set pieces, “Train To Busan” will have you covering your eyes one moment and standing on your feet out of anxiety the next. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“Trespassers” (Streaming on AMC+, IFC Films Unlimited, Tubi)

Orson Oblowitz’s “Trespassers” has a classic horror set up: Two couples plagued by relationship issues rent a gorgeous house in the desert to escape their issues. The night turns drug and party-fueled, escalating tensions that explode when a woman claiming to be their neighbor shows up uninvited to wreak havoc on their lives. Oblowitz’s stylish direction and neon-soaked imagery recall the hypnotic menace of Nicolas Winding Refn. —RL

“Under the Shadow” (Streaming on Netflix)

Set during the War of Cities in 1980s Tehran, Babak Anvari’s chilling “Under The Shadow” is part supernatural horror film, part mother-daughter drama, and the power of the film is how it uses one genre to effectively subvert the other. Narges Rashidi gives a bold lead performance as Shideh, a mother who refuses to abandon her home despite her husband’s protest and the increasingly violent missile strikes taking place all over the city. As tenants leave one by one, Shideh and her daughter find themselves isolated alone, forced to confront a presence that refuses to leave. —RL

Read IndieWire’s full review.

“The Woman in Black” (Streaming on Paramount+)

Daniel Radcliffe’s supernatural horror movie “The Woman in Black” was a box office hit for CBS Films in 2012 (the film grossed $127 million worldwide on a $15 million production budget), but it has never become appointment viewing during the Halloween season. Directed by James Watkins, the underrated horror gem is a successful Gothic chiller set in 20th century England where a widowed lawyer must figure out how to stop vengeful spirits from haunting a remote town. —RL

“We Are What We Are” (Streaming on Pluto TV and Tubi)

Jim Mickle’s “We Are What We Are” is a cannibal movie done right. Mickle’s loose remake of Jorge Michel Grau’s 2009 Mexican cannibal tale brings the filmmaker’s distinct blend of the elegant and the macabre to its ultimate realization. Outdoing the original by a long shot, Mickle’s slow-burn take on the story is poetic, creepy and, finally, satisfyingly gross. —RL

“The Witch” (Streaming on Max)

Robert Eggers’ 2015 feature directorial debut “The Witch” was the breakout horror sensation of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. With a meticulous commitment to period authenticity, Eggers grounds the viewer in the dark and dreary world of a New England family come undone in the 1630s. The cast is led by the breakthrough Anya Taylor-Joy, whose journey from naive daughter to the dark side taps a nerve that’s impossible to forget. With “The Witch,” Eggers creates a haunting narrative of otherworldly forces made especially scary due to the realism surrounding them. —RL

“Saint Maud” (Streaming on Amazon Prime and MGM+)

Writer/director Rose Glass marries supernatural and religious terror in this two-hander starring Morfydd Clark and Jennifer Ehle. When a pious home nurse is assigned to the house of a wickedly cynical dying woman, the pair embark on a tense exchange of philosophies doomed for disaster. “Saint Maud” also boasts one of the most memorable final shots in horror history. —AF

Read IndieWire’s full review of Saint Maud.