A tasty treat any time of year, Eli Roth’s 2023 make-good on his screamingly fun fake movie trailer from 2007's Grindhouse combines classic slasher holiday antics with “did that just happen?” splatter. Stream on Netflix.
Little did we know, when Ti West’s X hit theaters in 2022, that a new horror franchise was being born—and Mia Goth was becoming a new kind of scream queen. Trilogy-capper Maxxxine hits theaters July 5, so there’s no better moment to remember where (deep in the heart of Texas, circa 1979) the character’s Hollywood dreams got their sticky beginnings. Stream on Netflix.
Some of the most creatively wild horror-movie kills in years come in this 2023 Swedish film about a group of co-workers whose wilderness team-building retreat goes outrageously awry. Stream on Netflix.
In 2016, before Mike Flanagan’s name was synonymous with must-see horror, he made what’s easily the greatest “sequel to a movie based on a board game” movie ever. It also features several familiar faces from what’s now his go-to company of actors, including Elizabeth Reaser, Kate Siegel, and Henry Thomas. Stream on Netflix.
Amandla Stenberg is currently dazzling in her dual role on new Star Wars series The Acolyte—but she’s equally great starring in this cheeky, satirical 2022 whodunnit set at a Gen-Z mansion party that goes way off the rails. Stream on Netflix.
We haven’t yet seen Russell Crowe’s current exorcist-themed movie, The Exorcism, which hit theaters earlier in June. But it’s hard to imagine anything topping this 2023 release, in which his performance as a kooky priest who scooters around Europe troubleshooting for the Vatican elevates a decent yet familiar possession tale. Stream on Netflix.
Do we really need to explain why Anaconda is here? It’s up there in the pantheon of silly B-movie creature classsssssssics. Stream on Netflix.
Horror fans know Samara Weaving’s appeal thanks to movies like Mayhem, Ready or Not, Scream VI, and The Babysitter (and its sequel; she’s also great in non-horror stuff including Bill & Ted Face the Music). In this 2017 release directed by McG, she plays the title character... who, unfortunately for the kid in her care, also has “secretly a Satanic cult leader” attached to that wholesome job description. Stream on Netflix.
Much has been made since A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 was released—it came out in 1985, a year after the original—about its not-so-subtle queer themes. (There’s an entire documentary about it: Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street, which you can and should watch on Tubi.) Whether or not you keep that context in mind, Mark Patton makes for an appealing lead—bringing emotional depth (and some goofy dance moves) to a sequel that tried to do something different, both with its story and its Freddy Krueger lore. Stream on Netflix.
Nearly a decade before she faced down a bizarre killer in Longlegs—the horror movie of the summer is out July 12—Maika Monroe confronted a monster as terrifying as it is perplexing in this 2015 indie. Stream on Netflix.