The Best Horror Movies To Stream This Halloween

How's it going, boils, ghouls, and non-binary werewolves? I certainly hope this year's Halloween season hasn't spooked ya to death! I kind of like taking a break from the real-world horrors currently ongoing and replacing them with generous amounts of red corn syrup and even cornier dialogue. I can't be the only one, right? To celebrate, I've complied a list of three stellar horror flicks from the Big Three streaming outlets (Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime) for your viewing pleasure. I picked some personal favorites that, if you're stuck endlessly scrolling or your significant other can't make a decision, could hopefully help put you into a happier, spookier place. And no, the original Halloween is not streaming anywhere. Believe me... NETFLIX 1) Train To Busan Starting off with a zombie movie? It's a bold strategy, I know, but hear me out: Train To Busan ain't your daddy's zombie romp. Instead of yet another hackneyed zomcom to throw onto the compost heap, this K-Cinema gem is sure to please both undead haters and lovers alike. Sure, you'll have to sit down and read some of those gosh dang subtitles, as it is 100% Korean, but it's so worth it. South Korean TV star Gong Yoo plays Seok-woo, a workaholic absentee father who, in a desperate bid to spend time with his daughter on her birthday, elects to take her on a train from Seoul to Busan. Then they pick up a sickly passenger, and things kinda go downhill from there. Featuring emotional performances that are simultaneously grounded in reality while allowing the absurdity of the situation to come to full fruition, every character feels dynamic, which makes their untimely demises all that more evocative. The writing is strong, the effects are top-notch, and the action is fun and incredibly tense. I really can't recommend Train to Busan enough. At least put it on your queue to sit and rot for years to come. 2) The Witch Have any of you ever come up with a theme song/creepy child chant for a goat? No, I am not talking about Tom Brady's pre-showering ritual. I'm talkin' about Black Philip, baby! While the whole of The Witch is memorable, from its striking cinematography to its nightmarish visions, I do think it's kind of funny that the part I remember the most is the twins singing their song about their family's black billy goat. First time writer-director Robert Eggers left nothing on the table in this balls-to-the-wall period horror, which showcases an exiled English colonial family trying to make it on their own in the woods of Massachusetts. Unfortunately for them, the titular witch stirs up some drama, which causes the family to tear itself apart. Anya Taylor-Joy anchors the film as Thomasin, the family's eldest daughter, especially in the last ten or so minutes. The Witch is one of the moodiest pieces on this list, so don't come in expecting to be happy, because we're not dealing with Glenda the Good Witch this time around. 3) Under the Skin I don't usually get freaked out or depressed by horror flicks. Like, ever. But Under the Skin destroyed me the first time I saw it, and, to be honest, I'm almost reluctant to revisit it. This is one of those rare movies that can just ruin your day. It's raw and powerful, which is some feat, considering how sparsely populated it is as a story. The fact that director Johnathan Glazer and co-writer Walter Campbell spent almost a decade turning this from a sci-fi spectacle into a small thriller is worth the watch alone. The unsettling imagery and Mica Levi's utterly haunting score are great bonuses, too. Scarlet Johansson plays against type as a white woman who seduces men and...well, to say anymore would give stuff away, which I absolutely do not want to do with this. Just keep in mind while watching that many of Scarlet's interactions are with non-actors, filmed on hidden cameras. This kind of guerrilla filmmaking guaranteed genuine performances, because people who don't know how to fake it literally can't. You won't soon forget a movie as sinister and sad as this one. HULU 1) Hellraiser "Oh, we have such sights to show you." Thanks Pinhead. Hey, I've got a sight, too: it's called Hellraiser! I actually half-watched this again over the weekend while some friends and I played a spooky board game and, as much as I love it, Hellraiser is not a party horror movie. It's a depraved, gory and insatiably, incredibly, just...stupid horny picture. It truly is the first BDSM-based horror film. No movie will ever make making out with a skinless ex more appealing, except for maybe the second Hellraiser. Horror writer Clive Barker adapted his own short story for his first time behind the camera, and despite admitting that he was reading "How To" books on movie-making while, uh, making a movie, the dude really pulled through. The cinematography is pretty darn good, as it plays with lighting quite a bit to create dynamic moods throughout. The best part, of course, are the amazing effects, which I think still hold up pretty well. Christopher Young's score, and a mixture of gothic horror, circus act, and torrid romance, give the film yet another signature feel, making it stand out among the 80's slasher crowd. 2) Event Horizon I'll just say what we already know: Event Horizon is Paul W.S. Anderson's best film. Honestly, it edges close to his only good movie, and that depends on if you enjoy the schlock that is the Mortal Kombat flick. The major difference between these two, however, is overall competency and seriousness, which Event Horizon has in spades. We get a gross-out sci-fi space horror film that never loses track of what it is and, more importantly, what it can do with its setting. We also get Dr. Alan Grant turned into an eyeless evil ghost man, which is a fantastic sentence I got to write. In Event Horizon, we follow a crew dispatched to the titular ship, which has just resurfaced near Neptune after literally disappearing into thin air (er, space) many moons ago. Laurence Fishburne leads a ragtag rescue crew who, almost immediately, know something is off about the ship. What follows is almost two hours of advanced, almost X-rated gore effects, blood orgies, airlock shenanigans, and Sam Neill yelling "Miller!" over and over into the vacuum of space. It sounds ridiculous, and it is, but it's also foreboding, takes enough time to develop the dread, and lets it breath for a hot second before moving on. 3) Evil Dead & Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn Yes, yes, I know: this is two movies. But honestly, if you watched Evil Dead and its sequel back-to-back, you'd have one coherent storyline. Seriously! Evil Dead II starts just as Evil Dead ends, so just trust me on this one, alright? I've been known to heap praise and talk about this series a lot on this site already, so I would hope I know what I'm talking about. If you're a horror fan, you already know what's up here. Bruce Campbell stars as Ash, a poor twenty-something who has to battle Candarian demons and try to save his friends from possession, dismemberment or a combination of the two. This is one of the first "cabin in the woods" entries into the horror genre. While the first film hasn't aged as gracefully as the second, both are important to the horror and horror-comedy genres. Evil Dead II, especially, is a massive cult hit, which I actually watched with Campbell recently in Milwaukee. Come for the serious demon slaying, stay for the silly chainsaw hand. AMAZON PRIME 1) Hereditary I took my ex, who was a mother, to see Hereditary, and, after walking out, I'm kind of surprised she didn't break up with me then and there (that was a month later, tee hee). A movie hadn't gut punched me so hard in a mainstream cinema that I saw spots until I saw Ari Aster's debut. While the horror degree of this film can be argued, with some folks saying it's more of an emotional thriller than a horror, either way: a movie that makes you feel as weird and shitty and bad as Hereditary is worthy of the praise it's received, regardless of genre. Also, Toni Collette was robbed by not getting any nominations for her performance in this. Aster knows his dread, and dumps buckets of it into this film. Every camera shot seems like it's holding some menace somewhere in frame, and the tricky movement or transitions add to the feeling of unease. Things lurk in the shadows. Events happen that nobody can explain. Is Toni Collete just crazy? Maybe! Watch this spookiest of movies, please, but maybe not with your mom. 2) Annihilation Wow, 2018 was a good year for thoughtful horror-thrillers that dealt with more allegorical, existential threats, huh? That's my movie language, easily. After the emotionally-draining Ex Machina, I was excited to see what Alex Garland was gonna cook up for us next, and Annihilation satisfied my cravings for an early-winter spookfest. While certainly more "Hmm, ahh, that's creepy" kinda scary instead of "AHH BOO" kinda scary, it should still satisfy horror nerds, sci-fi geeks, and drama fans alike. Natalie Portman leads a strong female cast, featuring all familiar faces like Tessa Thompson and Jennifer Jason Leigh, of scientists who venture into a strange, alien zone that's slowly expanding and changing the earth within. Annihilation, while offering genre thrills and unsettling imagery, is also a film engrossed in grief and despair that shows off the human propensity for self-destruction, both through the characters of the actions and the more allegorical take-away from the pic as a whole. Yeah, it's an art film! Got you, normies! Get ready to get spooked both by monsters and the acknowledgement of your own faults as a human being! 3) Black Christmas I'm gonna end on one that not only didn't come out in 2018, but one that some people may not have even heard of: Black Christmas! This was, basically Halloween before Halloween existed. Black Christmas is one of the earliest slasher films and the most "controversial" movie on this list. It caused quite a stir upon its initial release, but has since gained a sizable cult following, in large part due to the fact that it blazed the trail for the deluge of horror we would start to get less than a decade later. This is one of the movies that really popularized a lot of myths about serial killers, downplayed its simplistic story with deft handling and direction, and showcased early slasher genre staples. We also have John Saxon, horror legend/Nancy's dad from A Nightmare on Elm Street here, too! Halloween was originally posited as "What if Black Christmas had a sequel?" And, since we're getting the second remake of Black Christmas in December of this year, now's a perfect time to check out this seminal horror flick, even if it's technically the wrong season.