We dug into Shudder’s increasingly impressive catalogue to find the best horror films worth your time
The original Halloween, available to stream on Shudder. Photo: Aquarius Releasing This article is regularly updated as titles leave and enter Shudder. New titles are indicated with an asterisk.
The Amusement Park George A. Romero shot this short film for the Lutheran Service Society of Western Pennsylvania when they hired him to produce something about ageism. The result shocked them to such a degree that it was basically buried for a half-century, now available exclusively on Shudder. It’s a stunning chapter in Romero’s filmography, featuring his incredible skill with framing and undeniable social conscience.
Behind the Mask Scott Glosserman co-wrote and directed this mockumentary that kind of plays like Behind the Music but for the greatest movie slasher that you’ve never heard of, Leslie Vernon. After playing at SXSW in 2006, the film barely got released, but it built a loyal following at home because it’s so wickedly smart. The only tragedy is that we have yet to get a sequel.
Carnival of Souls One of the best horror movies ever made, Herk Harvey’s 1962 film is an early cult classic, a film made for almost no money that became an influential masterpiece. Candace Hilligoss plays a woman who starts having terrifying visions after surviving a car accident. These visions lead her to an abandoned carnival. You can see this film’s DNA in hundreds of horror movies to follow, but it’s still wonderfully creepy when judged on its own terms.
Color Out of Space Richard Stanley co-wrote and directed this adaptation of the H.P. Lovecraft short story of the same name, marking his first time behind the camera since the disastrous 1996 production of The Island of Dr. Moreau. This one went much better. Nicolas Cage plays the patriarch of a family that moves to a remote farm, at which a glowing meteor seems to crash in the front yard. And then things get really weird in a way that only a Lovecraft movie can.
The Deeper You Dig Billed as an Adams Family Production, this is a real labor of DIY indie filmmaking love for a husband/wife writing/directing team, who also star alongside their daughter. It’s the tale of a single mother whose daughter is killed one night in a roadside accident. The driver covers up the accidental death, leading to a tear in the fabric of supernatural happenings. It’s creepy and effective.
*The Endless The brilliant Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead directed and star in a fantastic sci-fi thriller about two brother who return to a cult from which they escaped years earlier. They learn that there’s more to this group than they remember or understand. It’s a riveting film about cycles and trauma, embedded in a truly thrilling story.
Halloween Maybe you’ve heard of it? It seems unlikely that anyone subscribing to a service called Shudder hasn’t seen John Carpenter’s game-changing masterpiece, but maybe it’s been a few years for you and you’re considering a revisit. You really should go back to Haddonfield and see where the saga of Michael Myers began. It’s the rare horror movie that can send chills up your spine every time you see it.
The Hills Have Eyes Forget the awful remake, stick with the Wes Craven classic, a low-budget movie that changed the horror landscape when it was released in 1977. Following Craven’s debut in The Last House on the Left, a true horror master developed with this story of cannibals living in the Nevada desert. It still has gruesome power.
Inferno The midsection of what is sometimes referred to as Dario Argento’s Three Mothers Trilogy, this 1980 giallo often gets ignored when people discuss the career of one of Italy’s best directors. It may not be Suspiria, the first film in the trilogy, but there’s still so much flair and craftsmanship on display here that you owe it to yourself to take a look, especially if you like Argento’s more popular films.
Lucky Brea Grant, who broke through on HBO’s Heroes, has quietly become one of the most interesting voices in horror, appearing in After Midnight and Lucky just last year, while also directing 12 Hour Shift. Lucky might be her best work yet, playing a writer who is stalked every single night, but is basically gaslighted by everyone around her when things don’t start adding up. Grant feels right on the cusp of major things in this industry, and this film is the best proof of that yet.
Mayhem In just the short time since this Joe Lynch film premiered at South by Southwest in 2017, its stars have become significantly more popular, which should spark interest in this dark comedy–horror flick. Those stars are Steven Yeun and Samara Weaving , who play two people in an office — he works there and she’s a client — when an inhibition-destroying virus unleashes total havoc. It’s like Office Space meets Fury Road.
One Cut of the Dead This Japanese indie is a great example of a true word-of-mouth phenomenon, a movie made for almost nothing that has made over $30 million worldwide, largely through recommendations. The less you know the better, so try and avoid spoilers. All we’ll say is that what you think this movie is for the first half-hour is not exactly right, and it takes a turn that results in one of the smartest, most heartfelt zombie flicks in years.
Re-Animator A lot of filmmakers have tried to incorporate H.P. Lovecraft into their work either as an influence or direct adaptation, but Stuart Gordon’s 1985 cult hit arguably remains the best. Adapting Lovecraft’s Herbert West — Reanimator into a feature film, Gordon is fearless, making a movie that contains some of the most memorably twisted images and ideas of its era.
Still/Born Brandon Christensen co-wrote and directed this shocking film, a twisted tale that envisions a woman’s postpartum grief turning into something much darker. Christie Burke is phenomenal as a woman who gives birth to twins but loses one in the process. The natural depression combines with the unimaginable grief to convince her that something is coming for her other child.
Tigers Are Not Afraid There aren’t enough films on Shudder that aren’t from the United States or Asia. This Mexican offering from Issa Lopez is an exception, and it’s a good one — a tender, empathetic tale of the orphans of the Mexican Drug War with stylistic echoes of one of its biggest fans, Guillermo del Toro.
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