The 10 Best Horror Movies to Watch

Halloween is just around the corner and all the streamers are showing you their spookiest flicks, but which ones should you steam to? Sure, you want to be scared, but you also don’t want to become catatonic. Unsurprisingly, comedy-horror was a big favorite in Leafly’s X-Poll (Twitter), so we’ve definitely included a few films that mix laughs with jump scares. But there are also a few simple scary films here that will drive you crazy.

Army of Darkness (1992)

Listen up, you primitive screwheads! Ash is back and ready to kick undead ass with his 12-gauge Remington double-barreled boomstick. In this third installment of Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead trilogy, Bruce Campbell gains the full swagger he is known for today when Ash is teleported from the home goods department at S-Mart to a medieval kingdom plagued by Kandarian demons . Hilarity ensues as Ash battles an undead army led by his own demonic duplicate. But Raimi never lets the slapstick get in the way of the scares, so there’s something for everyone. Streaming on Prime. Straw Pairing: Strawberry Cough

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Six years before Walking Dead hit television screens, Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg delivered the ultimate zombie apocalypse satire. Like Ash in Army of Darkness, Shaun (Pegg) sells gadgets. Only he lives in England, so he has to find a way to kick flesh-eating undead ass without having access to firearms. Gulp! While AOD is a sprawling farce, Shaun delivers laughs through dry British humor and a mountain of pop culture references. The entrails continue to be eaten, only this time it’s fun. Streaming on Hulu, Peacock. Strain Pairing: Gelato

The Exorcist (1973)

If there was a consensus favorite (at least on Leafly’s social media channels), it would be this original demonic possession blockbuster shocker that gave your grandparents panic attacks in standalone theaters. Linda Blair plays a teenager possessed by the devil himself (or so they say); Max Von Sydow (Flash Gordon) and Jason Patrick play the priests who brave tirades and streams of green vomit to drive the evil spirit from their bodies. Trigger Warning: Mileage may vary on the famous crucifix masturbation scene. Streaming on Max. Pairing Strain: Devil Fruit

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

This illegitimate son of a thousand madmen, Freddy Krueger, has appeared in nine films, but this is the rockiest. Kristen Parker (Patricia Arquette) and a group of teenagers take on Freddy in his own dream realm. While this gives the teenagers superpowers thanks to an increased special effects budget, Freddy is also ready to excel in his dark realm. Robert Englund as Freddy is at his most sadistic in this third nightmare, which many consider to be the best film in the series. There is also a theme song from Dokken for those audience members who feel strong hair metal nostalgia. Streaming on Max. Mating Strain: Blue Dream

Jason X (2001)

In the ninth film, Friday the 13th, Jason went to hell, so in his tenth film appearance, there was really no way to go but up. In the distant year of 2455, a team of science students exploring a now uninhabitable Earth find a cryogenically frozen Jason in the ruins of the Camp Crystal Lake research facility. Of course, they take him into their spaceship and unfreeze him so he can start slashing through the students and a few Space Marines as if he were back on solid ground. Eventually, unwitting medical bots turn him into a cyborg and create the even more immortal Uber Jason. They never learn…even after 455 years! Streaming on AMC+. Pairing Strain: Donny Burger

The Babadook (2014)

Reading from a book is never a good idea when you’re in a horror movie. That’s true of the Necronomicon in the original Evil Dead films, and it’s even more true when it’s a creepy, rhyming pop-up book about a German expressionist nightmare called the Babadook that looks like something out of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” looks like. With its title character, this Australian horrorfest directed by Jessica Kent creates the first major movie monster since Freddy and Jason and ushers in a new, slow-burning era of horror. Streaming on Hulu. Pairing Variety: Mendo Breath

Barbarian (2022)

If you’ve smoked way too much indica and need to break free, this AirBnB nightmare is the movie for you. Tess (Georgina Campbell) is a documentary researcher who discovers that her short-term rental in an abandoned neighborhood on the outskirts of Detroit has been double booked. To make matters even more suspicious, her unwanted roommate is played by Pennywise the Clown himself, Bill Skarsgård (It). Additionally, a homeless man yells at Tess to leave. There are also tunnels under the house that lead God knows where. We all know Tess shouldn’t go there, but of course she does, which leads to so many crazy twists and shows that describing her further brings with it the dreaded spoilers. Streaming on Max, Hulu. Pairing Strain: Bubba Kush

Phantasm (1979)

If there’s ground zero for crazy horror, it’s this film, featuring an interdimensional slave trading ring that is driven out of a spooky morgue by the menacing Tall Man (Angus Scrimm). Then there are flying silver bullets that drill into people’s brains and an army of super-strong dwarves that really resemble pissed-off Jawas from Star Wars. It’s also a horror film in which all the protagonists look like they’ve consumed some serious Sinsemilla back in the day; most notably Reggie the Iceman (Reggie Bannister), who fights the Tall Man in four more Phantasm films. Streaming on Peacock, FreeVee. Pairing Variety: Phantom Cookies

Prince of Darkness (1987)

For many film fans, John Carpenter is the director most involved in horror, and this is his rockiest film. A desperate priest, played by Donald Pleasance (Halloween), and a team of quantum physics students discover that this strange canister found in an abandoned church contains the liquid essence of Satan. Soon they find themselves in a race against time to stop the liquid Satan from allowing his father, the all-powerful Anti-God, to rule our dimensional plane. Several of the postdocs become sticky zombies and shock rocker Alice Cooper shows up to impale a guy with a broken bike! Streaming on Peacock. Pairing Variety: Granddaddy Purple

Us (2019)

While “Get Out” transformed Jordan Peele from a sketch comedy star into the new master of horror, he really gets going with this follow-up shocker. Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o) and her family vacation in Santa Cruz, only to find themselves in a fight for survival with grotesque doppelgängers desperate to replace them. Peele weaves in plenty of references to Jaws, Jurassic Park, The Shining and many others to keep his shitty plot involving a mysterious government network of underground tunnels and cheesy 1980s charity events from getting too dark. Streaming on Netflix. Suitable flavor: Ice Cream Cake

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