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Netflix and Prime Video’s library of horror movies continues to expand and not all of the scariest films on the platform are necessarily horrific. Whether it’s a slow-burning ghost story or outright zombie carnage, the genre spans decades, countries and budgets. We’ve been combing through the catalogue to create this new ranking for the 2026 films most likely to truly displease you, whether gore, fear or something that just sticks with you long after the credits roll.
28 Years Later (2025)
After over 20 years, two men – writer Alex Garland and director Danny Boyle – relive the ravages of the Rage virus in Britain in their sequel. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes are at the helm of a tale of raw survival horror and real emotional resonance; and one Alpha zombie that really isn’t to be forgotten, savagely violent as it was.
Frankenstein (2025)
After years of gestation, Guillermo del Toro is finally making his passion project come to fruition with a lavish and faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley’s original novel. Oscar Isaac is very convincing as the obsessive doctor, and Jacob Elordi is a surprisingly emotional monster — making old gothic horror even stranger and sadder.
Heart Eyes (2025)
In this genre mashup from director Josh Ruben, famous for his Werewolves Within film, a masked killer prowls around Seattle on Valentine’s Day, targeting couples. The film’s mix of slasher tension and surprisingly effective rom-com charm is delightfully paired with Olivia Holt and Mason Gooding as unlikely collaborators for survival, playing as coworkers.
The Black Phone (2021)
In Scott Derrickson’s supernatural slasher, Ethan Hawke takes a turn for the sinister as the masked kid-killer known as the Grabber terrorizes Colorado in the seventies. In this franchise starter, old school slasher terror and ghostly elements come together as Mason Thames plays himself, while battling the one he’s supposed to be protecting.
His House (2020)
First-time director Remi Weekes’ haunted house story takes place in a decaying British housing estate, instead of suburban neighborhood. Wunmi Mosaku and Sope Dirisu are Sudanese asylum-seekers facing up to bureaucratic persecution and worse from the very people they have sought refuge from in their new home.
Veronica (2017)
The Spanish-language chiller from [Rec] director Paco Plaza is said to be based on a true story, after a group of friends have a bad ouija board session. It established itself as one of the scariest Netflix movies, and people have admitted they couldn’t watch it through.
Train to Busan (2016)
When director Yeon Sang-ho’s breakout film is set in a zombie outbreak in South Korea, a high-speed train turns into a deathtrap. With a cast that audiences really care about and a relentless pace that’s not so unlike the classic zombie films that came before it, Gong Yoo leads a tense, blood-soaked journey on par with the best of its zombie counterparts.
Under the Shadow (2016)
This Tehran-set chiller captures a mother and her daughter in their apartment, where an evil force resides as missiles rain outside during the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. Director Babak Anvari combines supernatural terror with sharp critique of Iran’s repressive regime, resulting in a terror that is as political as it is personal.
I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)
Longlegs turned him into a horror star, but director Osgood Perkins was already getting his hands dirty with slow-burning unease in this gothic ghost story years before. Instead of scares, Ruth Wilson’s live-in nurse starts to suspect her beloved old author patient’s most popular novel was actually not fiction.
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The iconic George A Romero black and white original is the genesis of the modern zombie movie and it withstands the passage of time remarkably well. As much a tense siege narrative as an incisive look at race and paranoia in America, Duane Jones’ film is the formula that everyone imitated, and still works best.
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