THE 20 BEST HORROR MOVIES ON HULU RIGHT NOW

This post is updated frequently as movies leave and enter Hulu. *New additions are indicated with an asterisk.

Isn’t the world scary enough nowadays? Of course not! Everyone needs a good break from reality now and then, and horror can be the best way to do that. And Hulu has a remarkably deep catalog of horror films, including massive hits, indie darlings, and even a few originals. These are the best chillers on Hulu right now, updated monthly.

,,,

28 Weeks Later

Year: 2007

Runtime: 1h 40m

Director: Danny Boyle

Danny Boyle handed off directorial duties on this sequel to his 28 Days Later to Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, and the result is an underrated action flick, a zombie movie that moves at lightning speed as it details the effort to establish a safe zone from the undead apocalypse in London. It has a phenomenal cast that includes Robert Carlyle, Rose Byrne, Jeremy Renner, Imogen Poots, and Idris Elba. There are reports that the long-delayed 28 Months Later may finally go into production soon — so catch up now.

Alien

Year: 1979

Runtime: 1h 57m

Director: Ridley Scott

The one that changed everything. Alien didn’t just launch a mega-franchise or create an iconic character in Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. It shifted the entire sci-fi/horror landscape forever. And what’s even more stunning about Alien over four decades later is how much it still rips. From beginning to end, this is one of the rare movies that could be called perfect.

Appendage

Year: 2023

Runtime: 1h 34m

Director: Anna Zlokovic

You are not ready for how weird this movie is. In a good way. Hadley Robinson rocks as Hannah, a New York fashion designer who discovers a growth on her body that’s obviously upsetting, but much more so when it pops out and starts talking to her. When it literally leaps off her body and becomes its own sentient being that seems to be a version of Hannah’s anxiety come to life, Appendage goes truly off the rails. Again, in a good way.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe

Year: 2016

Runtime: 1h 26m

Director: Andre Ovredal

There are very few horror movies with as perfect a set-up as this one. Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch star as a coroner and his son in a small town. They get a late-night delivery of a body that doesn’t make sense. Her exterior looks pristine but everything on the inside is a mess. As they’re trying to solve the mystery, things get very, very creepy.

The Babadook

Year: 2014

Runtime: 1h 34m

Director: Jennifer Kent

One of the best horror films of the 2010s has not been widely available for streaming subscribers so take the chance to watch it again while it’s on Hulu. Jennifer Kent’s directorial debut centers on a mother (Essie Davis) who struggles to raise her problem child alone after the death of her husband. Oh, and there’s also a real monster in the boy’s room.

Bone Tomahawk

Year: 2015

Runtime: 2h 12m

Director: S. Craig Zahler

S. Craig Zahler has become one of the most divisive filmmakers working today after three vicious, brutal movies — Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99, and Dragged Across Concrete. Bone Tomahawk is arguably the best, a slow-burn Western that stars Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, and Richard Jenkins as a posse of men who hunt a group of indigenous cannibals. The final act is terrifying and intense. (If you like it, check out Brawl too, also on Hulu.)

The Boogeyman

Year: 2023

Runtime: 1h 38m

Director: Rob Savage

The director of the no-nonsense Host went blockbuster with this Summer 2023 release based on a story by Stephen King. Chris Messina and Sophie Thatcher star as a father and daughter first forced to deal with the grief of an unimaginable loss and then something scary in the shadows. Yes, it’s another one of those tales wherein things like trauma manifest into actual entities but Messina and Thatcher stay committed enough to keep it interesting.

High-Rise

Year: 2015

Runtime: 1h 59m

Director: Ben Wheatley

The director of Kill List helmed an adaptation of the infamous novel of the same name by J.G. Ballard, a study of opulence and inequity that devolves into a gruesome nightmare. Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, and Elisabeth Moss star in a film that unfolds in a luxury high-rise in the ‘70s that gradually becomes cut off from the rest of the world, becoming its own crumbling society. It’s stylish and unforgettable.

The Host

Year: 2006

Runtime: 2h

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. It rules.

**I Saw the Devil*

Year: 2011

Runtime: 2h 22m

Director: Kim Jee-woon

The great Korean director Kim Jee-woon (The Age of Shadows) directed an intense thriller that gets so dark that it qualifies as horror. Lee Byung-hun plays an NIS agent whose fiancée is murdered by a serial killer, played by Choi Min-sik, and so he dedicates his life to tracking him down and bringing him to justice.

Infinity Pool

Year: 2023

Runtime: 1h 58m

Director: Brandon Cronenberg

The director of Possessor returned this year with a more twisted affair starring Alexander Skarsgard and Mia Goth. The True Blood vamp plays a wealthy novelist who accidentally kills a local man at a seaside resort and discovers there’s a way for rich people to avoid the law in this part of the world. Insanely constructed and unforgettable in its imagery, Infinity Pool is one of the best films of the first half of 2023.

Little Monsters

Year: 2019

Runtime: 1h 34m

Director: Abe Forsythe

Lupita Nyong’o can do absolutely anything. Just look at this horror-comedy about a group of schoolchildren who get attacked by waves of the undead. Lupita rules as the teacher and the only one who knows how to act heroic in the moment. And she’s joined by a fun supporting performance from Josh Gad, who is very from Olaf here.

Mandy

Year: 2018

Runtime: 2h 1m

Director: Panos Cosmatos

Panos Cosmatos gave Nicolas Cage one of the best roles of his career in this 2018 film that already feels like a cult classic. For about an hour, Mandy is a slow burn about a man who goes through a living hell when a cult kidnaps and murders his wife (Andrea Riseborough). And then for the second hour, it’s a crazy movie that’s just washed in blood and features a chainsaw fight. You can’t adequately describe it in words, so you just need to see it.

The Omen

Year: 1976

Runtime: 1h 51m

Director: Richard Donner

The wave of films about children with evil intent reached one of its peaks in this 1976 horror flick that cast the beloved Gregory Peck in a role in which most audiences weren’t accustomed to seeing him. He’s the father of Damien Thorn, a child who may actually be the spawn of the devil. Directed by Richard Donner, The Omen is a taut, smartly made supernatural thriller. (Note: The 2006 remake is also on Hulu, but best avoided.)

Only Lovers Left Alive

Year: 2013

Runtime: 2h 3m

Director: Jim Jarmusch

How does one possibly begin to describe one of the most wonderfully odd films of the 2010s? Jim Jarmusch wrote and directed this story of apathetic vampires, creatures who have lived so long and seen so much that the world mostly leaves them apathetic. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston are fantastic in the lead roles, and they’re matched by great supporting turns from Mia Wasikowska, Anton Yelchin, Jeffrey Wright, and John Hurt.

Personal Shopper

Year: 2016

Runtime: 1h 45m

Director: Olivier Assayas

Olivier Assayas’s ghost story is not your typical tale of the supernatural. The French filmmaker, working in perfect conjunction with star Kristen Stewart, who has never been better, crafts a film about loss, fear, and longing. It’s not an easy film to dissect or understand, but you won’t forget it.

Sea Fever

Year: 2019

Runtime: 1h 35m

Director: Neasa Hardiman

After premiering at TIFF in 2019, this film got kind of buried on release on VOD at the beginning of the pandemic. Search it out. You won’t regret it. Hermione Corfield plays a woman on a fishing boat when it’s overcome by…something. Echoes of classic horror like The Thing and Alien filter into this fun sci-fi/horror flick.

Skinamarink

Year: 2022

Runtime: 1h 40m

Director: Kyle Edward Ball

The little movie that could jumped from being a Shudder exclusive to Hulu after a brief stint in theaters that netted this five-figure movie over $1 million at the box office. Filming for almost nothing in his own childhood home, Ball taps into something primal — that feeling in the middle of the night when you wake up and can sense something is just wrong. Divisive in ways that always produce fascinating conversations, this is one of the essential horror movies of the 2020s.

Watcher

Year: 2022

Runtime: 1h 36m

Director: Chloe Okuno

One of the best films of 2022, this was a Shudder exclusive until recently. Inspired by ‘70s paranoia horror, Watcher stars Maika Monroe (It Follows) as a woman who has moved to Romania with her husband Francis (Karl Glusman). Without much to do and unable to speak the language, she starts to get paranoid that someone is watching her from across the courtyard. Stylish and riveting, it’s a must-see.

We Need to Do Something

Year: 2021

Runtime: 1h 37m

Director: Sean King O’Grady

With an energy that feels impacted by the pandemic, this is a great single-setting scare-fest. Sierra McCormick, Vinessa Shaw, John James Cronin, and the amazing Pat Healy play a family who get stuck in their own bathroom on the day world happens to end. It doesn’t go well. And, believe it or not, this film features a demon dog voiced by Ozzy Osbourne. You know you need to see that.

**When Evil Lurks*

Year: 2023

Runtime: 1h 40m

Director: Demian Rugna

When Evil Lurks is one of the most messed-up horror flicks you could watch on any streaming service. An Argentinian horror film that originally dropped on Shudder shortly after its Toronto Film Festival premiere and theatrical release, it’s the story of two brothers who discover that there’s a demonic entity living on the edge of their village. When it gets accidentally released, things get really bad. Gorey and strange in equal measure, this film takes no prisoners.

Wounds

Year: 2019

Runtime: 1h 36m

Director: Babak Anvari

The director of the excellent Under the Shadow followed that up with his first American film, a Sundance premiere that stars Dakota Johnson and Armie Hammer in a tale of surreal madness. Hulu picked up it up, where it lives exclusively, ready to break your brain. Undeniably Cronenberg-inspired, Wounds is the tale of a bartender who basically loses his mind.

,,,

2020-05-09T21:28:53Z dg43tfdfdgfd