So you’ve seen Halloween, The Exorcist and The Shining and most probably The Others and The Ring too. You’ll know your vintage offerings from Dracula to Psycho. And they are all bona-fide brilliant horror chestnuts, but for Halloween week how about some you may not have seen?
There are, of course, dozens of such hidden gems that one could recommend — from old classics to English folk chillers to obscure cult oddities. Yet most of those are hard to find, let alone available to stream.
So this is a list based purely on horrors that are available to stream on the big platforms without any rental charge. Any of these will give you a frisson of fear — perhaps even a bit of bone-chilling terror — in the late-October gloam.
• Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews
10. Creep (15, 2014)
Mark Duplass in Creep
IMDB
You’ll probably know The Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity, so for some “found-footage” nastiness you could try this two-hander where, as is the way with these kinds of films, it takes about 40 minutes before things start getting weird. A videographer is hired by the cheerful oddball Josef (Mark Duplass) who says he has terminal cancer and wants to make a film of himself for his unborn son. They are alone in the woods, and you don’t need to wait for Josef’s creepy wolf mask to arrive to know this won’t end well. Netflix
9. Talk to Me (15, 2022)
There’s no end of bog-standard jump-scare horrors aimed at teenagers and, at first, this Australian creep-fest feels like it could be another: there’s a violent opening scene, then the premise of loud Adelaide teens filming, on their phones, their secret party game in which one of them clasps an embalmed hand for 90 seconds. This goes wrong, of course. The 90-second rule is breached, one of them starts communing with her dead mother and the crassness turns to something more original — and genuinely horrible. Netflix
8. Barbarian (18, 2022)
Georgina Campbell in Barbarian
ALAMY
Inadvisable viewing for anyone who ever uses Airbnb alone, this tale is terrific for putting your nerves on tenterhooks until it rather unravels with a silly final act. A young woman, Tess, arrives at her Airbnb house to find a young man already staying there — it’s double-booked, but they decide to split the cost. Can she trust this stranger? And for heaven’s sake, Tess, don’t go in the cellar! Oh dear, she does just that … Netflix
7. The Babadook (15, 2014)
Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman in The Babadook
Sleep deprivation is a terrible thing, particularly if you’re a widowed single mum whose problem child is obsessed by a monster in his wardrobe; a fearful presence that might just be real. This nervous breakdown of a horror — a clever psychodrama as much as it is an unnerving chiller — is only slightly let down by its Shining-meets-Home Alone climax. ITVX
• The best films to watch at home this week
6. His House (15, 2020)
The kind of contemporary “intelligent horror” that frames its scares within broader social commentary, this one is just as much about the refugee experience in modern Britain. A couple arrive on a boat from war-torn South Sudan, their child has died en route and their shabby flat on an estate is deeply unsettling. How so? A “night witch” has followed them from Africa and is terrorising them. As horrors go, this couldn’t feel more sharply relevant. BBC iPlayer
5. The Haunting (12, 1963)
The cast of The Haunting
ALAMY
For something more classic, there is Robert Wise’s original haunted house movie, one that set the template for so many to come — not least the 1973 film The Legend of Hell House, which is even scarier if you can find it. Four investigators visit a lonely old mansion where bumps in the night keep getting louder and more violent, climaxing in the eerie scene where Julie Harris and Claire Bloom watch in terror at an old oak door as it expands and contracts. BBC iPlayer
4. Relic (15, 2020)
Emily Mortimer in Relic
ALAMY
Little in the way of scares at first in this slow-burn portrait of an Australian lady succumbing to dementia in her old countryside house. But gradually the black mould on the walls, the marks on her body and some deeply disorientating architecture become a terrifying metaphor for mental deterioration and of the guilt of her conflicted daughter (Emily Mortimer). Queasy unease breaks out into full-blown terror, but ultimately it’s something rare: a heartbreaking horror. BBC iPlayer
3. The Changeling (15, 1980)
Trish Van Devere in The Changeling
ALAMY
George C Scott was a wonderful actor and his craggy, sombre looks were ideal for this classy ghost story, a favourite among connoisseurs. He plays a grieving New York composer who moves to a Seattle mansion where windows suddenly shatter and a wheelchair can take on a life of its own. The story is by a playwright, Russell Hunter, who said it was based on his own supernatural experiences at a Denver mansion, which adds an extra frisson. Prime Video
2. Sinister (15, 2012)
Ethan Hawke plays an author of In Cold Blood-style books who, not very thoughtfully, moves his family into a serial killer’s former abode. After he finds an old box of Super8 footage in the attic, the paranormal bumps in the night veer between hokey and highly disturbing. The reasons for this turn out to be particularly nasty, and there are moments where you might find yourself shutting your eyes despite your rational good sense. Now/Lionsgate (via Prime Video)
1. Ghost Stories (15, 2017)
The “portmanteau” horror films of the 1970s — where a quartet of stories would be framed by, say, an insane asylum — were great fun. None seem to be available to stream free, but no matter because Ghost Stories, which revived the idea, is the best of the lot: a trio of tales (Paul Whitehouse is particularly good as a night security guard in a lonely warehouse) investigated by an increasingly troubled sceptic. Sometimes you just want classic British eeriness and Ghost Stories delivers this by the coffinload. BBC iPlayer
Two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman
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