The 23 Horror Movies on Netflix You Need to Watch Now

It's October, and we're just a few weeks away from the holiday where it's always acceptable to dress up as your favorite Star Wars character (Malakili), Halloween. You know what that means? Tons of horror films.

Chances are, you have a Netflix account, and you're probably looking for a few good scares for the spooky holiday season. We have a few recommendations for you, some buried deep within Netflix. You can watch all of these films right now.

We're kicking things off with a classic. Many of you know the 1986 remake of The Fly, starring Jeff Goldblum, which has the same plot as the original, with better special effects. It's the story of a scientist who creates a teleportation machine. While using the machine, a fly goes into the machine with him, and he starts to become a part-man, part-fly. The original has a great drive-in horror feel that was popular during the '50s. What makes this a must-see is that Vincent Price is in it.

Night Watch, which is part one of a two-part Russian series, is a pretty out-there film. It takes place in Moscow where there is a battle between the forces of light and dark. Night Watch includes vampires, witches, and other elements you'd be familiar with from horror lore. The film follows a man caught in the middle of this war, and while it's considered to be a horror film, there are a lot of fantasy and action elements. It's almost like a light horror version of The Matrix. Yes, there's a whole lot of CGI, but Night Watch is still a pretty brilliant and fun movie.

While Children of the Corn may have started a mediocre horror franchise, which is still going, the first film still offers a few scares. A couple gets stranded in a bizarre little town where everyone over the age of 18 is killed. It does sound a bit like Logan's Run, but there's this really cool cult element that's the whole background of the story.

Cujo is another classic horror film based on the work of author Stephen King. A friendly dog named "Cujo" contracts rabies and starts killing everyone in sight, in a small town. This movie was a bit of a phenomenon in its time, and there's a reason no one names their dog Cujo.

Event Horizon is still terrifying. It's 19 years old, and it still holds up. A rescue crew finds a stranded ship which travelled through a black hole. The crew finds the ship brought something back with them, something horrible. There are still moments in this movie that will send chills up your spine. This movie is right up there with Alien when it comes to sci-fi/horror.

From Dusk Till Dawn is a strange movie. The first half of the film revolves around two sociopathic men, played by Quentin Tarantino and George Clooney, who kidnapped a pastor and his two kids. The film quickly turns into a horror film about a group of people killing vampires in a strip club. There are a ton of memorable moments and lines from the movie, and while it leans more action than horror, it's still worth checking out.

Almost 30 years after its release, Hellraiser is still one bizarre and confusing movie. However, none of that matters because the visuals are incredibly disturbing. A woman's dead lover comes back from the dead. Demons from another world are after him because he escaped their S&M world. This was the movie that introduced the world to Pinhead and getting chained hooks through your back.

The Hole will make you nostalgic for '80s horror films--like The Gate: movies that seemed to be aimed at kids and teens that will leave them traumatized for the rest of their lives. This 2009 movie revolves around a family moving into a new home. In the basement, there is a boarded-up hole that seems bottomless. Two brothers and their next door neighbor start seeing their worst nightmares in the real world, which they believe are coming from the hole. The movie has some great, creepy moments, some jump scares, and a few scenes that are really reminiscent of Little Monsters.

When is the last time you saw a really good monster movie? Writer/director Joon-ho Bong (Snowpiercer) had his first international hit with The Host. In Seoul, Korea, a monster emerges from the Han River and attacks anyone in its sights. It takes a young girl, and her family sets off to get her back. When the film debuted in 2006, it had been quite some time since we had a good monster movie. This film mixes a few genres, including comedy, and it ended up breaking Korea's box office record, selling 10 million tickets in 21 days.

Coming from New Zealand is the 2014 horror/comedy Housebound. A young woman is put under house arrest at her childhood home. She quickly discovers that it's not what it seems: her house is haunted. It's a relatively straightforward film, featuring a story we've seen before, but what makes this a standout is the way humor is mixed into the film. If you're familiar with the horror/comedy Black Sheep, that's what you can expect from Housebound, tonally.

An author lives alone in a nice house, and aside from her next-door neighbors, she's secluded from the world and her family. She's also deaf and on the run in her own home from a sadistic killer. Hush is intense and is a new twist on a classic trope. It's also the only film on this list from 2016. Additionally, in the slew of new horror films Netflix has that you've never heard of, this is one of the only must-watch films from the past couple of years.

We can't talk about horror movies without talking about the film that traumatized a generation of potential swimmers. To this day, Jaws continues to make people frightened of the water. In this film, a local town is terrorized by a great white shark, and it's up to a couple people and a small boat to stop the threat. If you've never seen this film, this should be at the top of your must-watch list.

New Nightmare breathed some life into the stagnant Nightmare on Elm Street series. Heather Langenkamp, who played Nancy in the first Elm Street film, is being haunted by a demonic entity that has taken the form of Freddy Krueger. The film features Wes Craven, Robert Englund, and others from the film franchise in a very meta movie.

If you've seen Nightbreed before, you need to watch it on Netflix because it's the director's cut of the film. 18 minutes were added to the Clive Barker film which is about a man who is drawn to a place called Midian, where monsters hide from the world. The character design is extremely cool and overall, it's a great 80s/90s horror film.

Annie's mother dies, and her sister disappears. She stays at her childhood home and quickly realizes there's something horrifying in the home as well. It's formulaic but entertaining. Annie uncovers a mystery dealing with her family, and she thinks the ghost of her mother is causing all the problems. So what's the answer? Watch The Pact for yourself and find out.

The [REC] series, which Hollywood remade as Quarantine, breathed a bit of new life into the found footage horror genre. The fourth installment in this series follows a television reporter who is rescued at sea by a large ship. Very quickly, the deadly virus that's turned the world into feral animals gets loose, and the reporter tries her best to survive. While [REC] 4 isn't the best in the series, the film does a good job at conveying a claustrophobic setting, which creates some intense moments.

Scream really changed the horror game in 1996, but sadly, it's not on Netflix. However, its 1997 sequel is. The gang is all back, and this time, they're in college. Everything seems to be going well until a new Ghostface emerges, killing anyone close to the main character, Sidney. Scream 2 is a solid and fun sequel, featuring a ton of jump scares and gruesome, inventive murders.

In 2014, The Babadook was the most talked-about horror film. If you missed it because of its limited release or because you just forgot to check it out, you can watch it currently on Netflix. A widowed mother tries hard to take care of her unruly son (seriously, he's the worst). A sinister force, which comes from a children's book, terrorizes the two throughout this terrifying film. Is the Babadook real or is everyone going crazy?

One of the most brilliant horror films is right at your fingertips. While it is often imitated, nothing has lived up to The Exorcist. A young girl's body is taken over by a demonic force, and her mother calls in two priests to help. This movie has some truly iconic moments and a whole lot of pea soup vomit. Although it's over 40 years old, it's still terrifying and doesn't rely on jump scares to raise the horror bar.

Troll Hunter is a found footage horror film from Norway about a group of kids who stumble upon a secret about their country: it's infested with trolls. The documentary team follows Hans, a troll hunter working for the government, and along the way, they see some truly amazing sites as the kids find out that trolls are leaving their habitats. Why is this happening? It's a unique film, and how many good horror films about trolls do we have? The answer is not enough.

As we've already seen a couple times on this list, comedy and horror mix together perfectly. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, a film you've probably seen recommended to you on Netflix but consciously avoided, flips the script as the movie follows two hillbillies (Tucker & Dale) who just purchased a cabin in the woods. A few young, good-looking college kids move in across the lake and think the hillbillies are out to kill them. Tucker & Dale are nice guys, but watching college kids freak out and accidentally die throughout the film provides some great laughs.

In 2012, V/H/S, the found footage anthology, was released. The main story focuses around a group of thieves who were sent into a home to find a rare VHS tape. What they find inside is terrifying. They watch six tapes while looking around, and each tape is weirder and more horrifying than the last. While this is the third found footage film on the list, each one of these films brings something special to the table. V/H/S will remind you of the days when tape trading was a thing, and the individual stories within the film are each brilliant and haunting in their own way.

Finally, we wrap up this list with the most unintentionally hilarious horror film on Netflix. The Wicker Man is the story of a cop who goes way out of his jurisdiction to an island where a young girl has gone missing. This remake stars Nicolas Cage as he stomps his way through the film all while dressing up in a bear suit, punching women, and screaming about bees being in his eyes. It is not a great movie by any means, but The Wicker Man has some great, memorable moments and lines.