The 25 Best Horror Movies on UK Netflix Right Now

best horror movies uk

Director: Jennifer Kent

Stars: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman

The break-out horror hit of last year, this Australian supernatural chiller went on to be one of the most acclaimed films of 2014 not just with genre fans, but with proper critics as well. It’s a simple, dark film that plays on childhood nightmares, and familiar elements—a small boy, a scary book, and monsters in the shadows. There are gorier films out there, there are more shocking horrors, but not many will leave you genuinely not wanting to switch off the bedroom lights, and reduce you to being a tiny little scared baby. 

Director: Wes Craven

Stars: Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Drew Barrymore

The horror film that defined the 90s. And forget about the multiple sequels, and parodies, and recent TV series, the late Wes Craven’s slasher satire still totally holds up. The set-up isn’t anything out of the ordinary—a small town is targeted by a mysterious killer. But Kevin Williamson’s razor sharp script perfectly skewers every horror cliché in the book. From Drew Barrymore’s opening-credits demise, to Jamie Kennedy reciting the rules of slasher movies, it’s the little moments that make this one so great.

Director: Rob Zombie

Stars: Sid Haig, Chris Hardwick, Rainn Wilson

No one was really expecting much when shock rocker Rob Zombie announced he was making a horror movie. But House Of 1000 Corpses turned out to be one of the most startling, striking horrors of the 2000s. It’s a deliberate throwback set-up, almost gleeful in it’s lack of originality. Set in the 70s, a group of four annoying kids are on a roadtrip of America’s weirdest roadside attractions. Eventually they end up at the home of the Fireflys, a family of psychos. There’s just an incredible gleeful bleakness to it—you know these kids are just going to go through hell. Plus the Firefly family, led by 70s cult actor Sid Haig as crazy clown Captain Spalding, are amongst the most entertaining horror antagonists of this century. 

Director: Rob Zombie

Stars: Sid Haig, Bill Moseley, Sherri Moon Zombie

How on earth do you top House Of 1000 Corpses? This is how. Like Terminator 2 or The Godfather Part II, the best sequels take the characters in different directions. Instead of following the victims, The Devil’s Rejects takes the genius approach of making the Firefly family, the villains of House Of 1000 Corpses, the main protagonists of the film (we would say they’re the ‘heroes’, but they’re still murdering psychopaths). The family go on the run across the US, chased by police, ending in one of the most incredible finales in horror film history.

Director: John Landis

Stars: David Naughton, Jenny Agutter

Proof, as if it be needed, that CGI will never be better than practical effects. Michael Jackson himself was so impress by the famous werewolf transformation scene in the film, all done with make-up and prosthetics, that he hired director John Landis and effects maestro Rick Baker to make the ‘Thriller’ video for him. The whole film is great though. The prefect blend of horror and comedy, it’s about an American backpacker who gets bitten by a werewolf in Yorkshire and then spends the next full moon stalking the London streets and the Underground.

Director: Tobe Hooper

Stars: Dennis Hooper, Bill Moseley

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre isn’t on UK Netflix, and we’re definitely not going to recommend any of the many modern day remakes and prequels. But what is on there is the little-seen 1986 sequel, and it’s secretly brilliant. It stars a slumming Dennis Hooper, who once claimed he was so coked up at the time that he can’t remember making it. That’s a good description of the film actually—it plays like a drug-fuelled insane parody of the dark, taunt original. Hopper plays a Texas Ranger on the tail of Leatherface and co, who is pretty much as mental as the cannibals. Taken as a satire of 80s excess, it’s pretty wonderful.

Director: Ron Underwood

Stars: Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward

Sometimes you just want to watch a dumb movie about giant killer worms, ok? Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward are two odd job guys who come across a small town in Nevada that’s being ravaged by man eating worms. They get chased by the worms, then try and blow them up. That’s about it. Bacon and Ward are hilarious, it’s one of the best monster movies ever made… and look, it’s about giant killer worms. Isn’t that enough?

Director: John Fawcett

Stars: Emily Perkins, Katharine Isabelle

The best horror uses the supernatural and the scary as metaphors for real life issues, and the Canadian indie horror Ginger Snaps is one of the greatest examples of that. Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald are two small town teenage sisters who are going through changes. But not the kind of changes you’re thinking of—they’re changing in to werewolves. It’s an obvious metaphor for their changing bodies and burgeoning sexuality, but it works perfectly. Highly recommended for fans of early Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Director: Mitchell Lichtenstein

Stars: Jess Weixler, Hale Appleman, John Hensley

Did you not find Ginger Snaps’ take on female sexuality too much? Don’t worry, Teeth will get you. It’s a bitingly satirical (pun definitely intended) little horror about a teenage girl who suffers from the mythical condition of ‘vagina dentata’—which means basically, well, her genitals have teeth. It’s a great nasty movie featuring purity rings, dangerous sex and enough wince-inducing scenes to keep your legs crossed for days after seeing it

Director: Tom Six

Stars: Various actors not too proud to turn down a Human Centipede

Are the Human Centipede films actually any good? No, they really aren’t. But are you still going to watch them, just to see how gross they actually are? Yeah, don’t deny it. If somehow you’ve managed to never hear about the meme-inspiring, medically accurate premise, they’re about a series of mad doctors who sew people together, ass-to-mouth style. Yeah. They’re cheap and nasty and not very good, but they’re also a legit pop culture phenomenon, and therefore a must-see.

Director: Adam Wingard

Stars: Dan Stevens, Sheila Kelley, Maika Monroe, Lance Reddick

To be completely honest, the latest film  from new school horror master Adam Wingard (You’re Next) is more of thriller than a straight horror. But it has plenty of nods to classic slashers and a finale set in a Halloween haunted house, so it definitely counts. Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens stars as an Afghanistan vet who visits the family of an old army buddy who was killed in action alongside him. The grieving family welcome into their home with open arms—but not everything about him is as it seems. What follows is a sleek AF mash-up of Drive, Halloween and Universal Soldier, which constantly wrong-foots you and totally isn’t the movie you think it’s going to be.

Director: Stuart Gordon

Stars: Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, Jeffery Combs

Re-Animator is beloved by horror nerds, but isn’t really as well known in the mainstream as stuff like Evil Dead or Friday The 13th. But it’s one of the best splatter comedies ever made and you need it in your life. Loosely based on an H.P. Lovecraft story, it has plenty of gore, plenty of slapstick, a mad science student trying to bring people back to life, and a zombie cat. What more do you need?

Director: Paul W.S Anderson

Stars: Laurence Fishburn, Sam Niell, Joely Richardson

How do you give a load of horror clichés a shot in the arm? Blast them into space. Paul W.S. Anderson’s atmospheric AF intergalactic horror has a space crew responding to a distress signal, where they find a seemingly deserted ship, and begin to explore. But of course it’s not as deserted as it looks… It’s basically just a haunted house movie given sci-fi trappings, and the vastness of space just make the whole thing more overwhelming. Anderson even manages to mix in religious themes into the cheesy space horror.

Director: The Soska Sisters

Staring: WWE’s Kane(!), Danielle Harris

2006’s See No Evil was a WWE-produced slasher movie starring Kane, a guy basically put on this earth to star in shitty-but-amazing horror movies. See No Evil 2 is better than the original, by the virtue of it actually being quite good. That’s down to the fact it was directed by cult gore stars (and self-professed WWE fans) the Soska Sisters, who picked up fans with underground horrors Dead Hooker In A Trunk and American Mary, and bring that indie cred to this film. Plus, it’s a slasher movie starring Kane, FFS!

Director: Ti West

Stars:  Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Greta Gerwig

House Of The Devil is a film where not much happens. In the mid-80s, broke college student Samantha takes on a weird babysitting job to pay the bills. She gets to the creepy house, and it turns out she’s actually babysitting an unseen old woman, not a kid. She then spends most of the film getting creeped out by noises in the house, and running away from shadows. That’s it. Nothing more. Yet it’s totally riveting. Director Ti West ratchets up the tension with aplomb, and the 1980s period details, from the hair to the cassette Walkman are pitch perfect as well. Nothing happening has never been this scary.

Director: Ti West

Stars: Joe Swanberg, Amy Seimetz, Kate Lyn Sheil

Another Ti West movie, and this time he tries his hand at found footage. A Vice documentary crew go to investigate a mysterious cult in South America. Again, it’s a slow burn one, but you know there’s something sinister about the cult and its charismatic leader right from the get-go. And when shit hits the fan, it gets very messy. West also gets all the hipster details of 2010s internet journalism down as well.

Director: Frank Darabont

Stars: Tom Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Toby Jones

Frank Darabont is best known for making The Shawshank Redemption, but in 2007 he adapted another Steven King story, and it’s as bleak as Shawshank  was uplifting. When (mostly unseen) Lovecraft-style tentacle monsters start appearing, a group of shoppers are trapped in a supermarket, and slowly start to turn on each other (thematic spoiler: maybe man is the real monster). It’s dark, claustrophobic, and the ending is possibly the most powerful gut-punch in the entire history of cinema.

Director: Jeff Baena

Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, John C Reily

Every time it seems like zombies are finally played out, someone comes up with an original spin on the concept. Dane DeHaan is devastated when his girlfriend Beth (Parks and Rec’s Aubrey Plaza) dies. But then it turns out she isn’t dead; she’s merely undead. That shouldn’t been that they shouldn’t be together, right? It’s icky, funny and sweet, and it’s a great starring role for the always excellent Aubrey Plaza.

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Stars: George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino, Juliette Lewis

If somehow you don’t know what the plot of From Dusk Till Dawn, stop reading now and just go watch it. Scripted by and co-starring Quentin Tarantino (in a shockingly not-terrible acting performance), it starts out like a typical sick QT crime movie about two brothers (Tarantino and George Clooney) on the run. Then they escape to Mexico, and there’s suddenly vampires everywhere. It’s literally two movies jammed together, but in the best possible way.

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Stars: Rose McGowan, Michel Biehn, Josh Brolin

Robert Rodriguez and Tarantino teamed up again a decade after From Dusk Till Dawn for the ill-fated double bill project Grindhouse. Tarantino’s section Death Proof was probably the worst thing he’s ever done, but Rodriguez knocked it out of the park with Planet Terror. A gonzo homage to dinghy VHS zombie movies, it’s simple mutant virus plot is really just there to hang all the cool moments on, including surprise cameos, cool synth music, missing reels, crazy gore, and Rose McGowan as a stripper with a machine gun for a leg.

Director: Ryuhei Kitamura

Stars: Bradley Cooper, Vinnie Jones, Leslie Bibb

Before he was a respectable, Oscar-nominated actor, Bradley Cooper starred in this very stupid, but very enjoyable slasher. He plays a New York photographer who accidently snaps what he thinks is a serial killer on the subway. The serial killer is, by the way, played by Vinnie Jones in an expensive suit and carrying a big hammer. It’s based on a story by Hellraiser author Clive Barker, and directed by mad Japanese genius Ryuhei Kitamura, so it’s crazy violent. And completely nuts. But it’s a lot of fun, as long as you don’t take it seriously.

Director: Rodman Flender

Stars: Devon Sawa, Seth Green, Jessica Alba, Vivica A. Fox

The 90s was a great time for teen horror. We all remember Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, but Idle Hands is a bit forgotten, which is a shame as it’s a great horror with a unique plot. Devon Sawa (who played the title character in the video for ‘Stan’) is an ordinary teenage stoner—apart form that his right hand has become possessed, and starts going on a killing spree.

Director: Joseph Kahn

Stars: Josh Hutcherson, Shanley Caswell, Dane Cook

Joseph Kahn is a director best known for making that crazy Power Rangers fan film, and also Taylor Swift’s star-studded video for ‘Bad Blood’. And over a full 90 minutes, he creates something completely and utterly insane. Shot in his typical ADHD, music video style, it starts out like Scream on fast-forward, with a killer ploughing his way through a high-school—but then it goes completely off the rails, ending up actually being about time-travel. Or something. Seriously, you’ve not seen anything like this.

Director: James Wan

Stars: Rose Byrne, Patrick Wilson

There’s been a revival in ghost stories in mainstream horror in the last few years, with films like The Pact and The Conjuring raking it in at the box office. Insidious is one of the key films that kicked this off, but more importantly, it’s a damn scary supernatural movie. Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne are couple who move into a new home and start to think it might be haunted. But little do they know it’s not the house that’s possessed, it’s their young son…

Director: Tom Holland

Stars: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Brad Dourif

Chucky, the loveable doll brought to life and possessed by the soul of a serial killer, is easily as big an 80s horror icon as Freddy or Jason (despite him only being about one foot tall). All the Child’s Play movies are actually pretty decent, which is more that you can say for most long running horror franchises. Yet first one is still one of the best, with Brad Dourif’s voice acting perfectly bringing Chucky to life.