Top horror movies on Netflix UK (2021)
James R | On 29, Oct 2021
We round up the scariest, the silliest and all-round best horror movies available to stream on Netflix UK.
Fear Street
Netflix serves up its own thrilling, crafty subversion of the classic slasher formula with this entertaining trilogy.
Blood Red Sky
This surprising airborne thriller is a gripping and unexpectedly moving ride.
Midsommar
Surreal, scary, funny and freaky, Ari Aster’s operatic folk horror is a trip that’s worth taking.
Hereditary
This haunting study of family grief and inherited fear is a heart-wrenching, heart-racing horror.
His House
Remi Weekes’ directorial debut is a chilling, timely tale of a house haunted by more than ghosts.
She Dies Tomorrow
Amy Seimetz’s low-key memento mori delivers a panicky relay race of existential dread.
Shaun of the Dead
“You’ve got red on you…”
Dawn of the Dead (2004)
Zack Snyder’s debut feature reimagines Romero as a visceral, amped-up apocalypse in the shadow of 9/11.
Sinister
Haunted house, check. Freaky children, check. Sinister is a classic American horror movie – and all the better for it.
Insidious
Insidious will make you howl with laughter as much as fear. Either way, it’s a hoot.
The Conjuring
This familiar, old-fashioned horror still scares enough to keep your lights on late at night.
Gerald’s Game
A woman (Carla Gugino) accidentally kills her husband during a kinky game that leaves her handcuffed to the bed. Stephen King’s unfilmable novel is filmed with panache, confidence and gripping intensity by Oculus and The Haunting of Hill House director Mike Flanagan.
Creep
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” says Josef, after leaping out at Aaron in the middle of the woods. It’s the kind of prank that friends often play, an act that comfortably crosses the boundary between silly and sinister. But Aaron and Josef are not friends. In fact, they don’t even know each other. That’s the central conceit behind Creep, a no-budget horror movie that delivers more scares than films with 10 times more money. Essentially a two-hander, it follows Aaron (director Patrick Brice), a videographer who responds to a Craigslist ad to film a guy for a single day. Subtle and smart, Creep repeatedly crosses the boundary between silly and sinister. It means to scare you. And it’s not sorry.
Creep 2
The return of Peachfuzz makes up for a lack of scares with fascinating drama, as Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice cement him as one of the most interesting horror villains in recent memory.
Veronica
REC director Paco Plaza conjures up fresh terror in familiar tropes with this fast, slick ouija horror.
Under the Shadow
One of 2016’s best horror movies, this superb debut for Iranian-born director Babak Anvari about a mother and daughter fighting to cope with the fallout of the Iran-Iraq war is an instant modern classic.
The Cabin in the Woods
Drew Goddard’s witty horror flick is a superbly self-aware comedy that is better the less you know about it.
Hush
Hot on the heels of Oculus, Mike Flanagan’s home invasion thriller sees a deaf writer in the woods try to protect herself from a masked killer. The fight for survival is gripping, Kate Siegel’s performance as a deaf and mute woman overcoming physical limitations is stirring, and the inventive sound design is hugely effective.
Extinction
Everything is not what it seems in Netflix’s surprising, thought-provoking sci-fi actioner, starring Michael Peña and Lizzy Caplan.
Before I Wake
Mike Flanagan’s wonderfully involving and melancholic horror is a cousin to JA Bayona’s heartbreaking A Monster Calls or Hereditary, which has similar themes of children and parents trying to understand each other’s feelings when dealing with an overwhelming sense of loss.
Annihilation
Natalie Portman leads Alex Garland’s sci-fi horror, which sees a group of scientists and soldiers enter Area X, – a sinister and mysterious phenomenon that is expanding across the American coastline and contains a world of mutated landscape and creatures. The result is a study of humanity’s fear of mortality and change, served up with dizzying, shimmering visuals.
1922
“I believe there’s another man inside every man – a stranger.” Netflix’s latest Stephen King adaptation is a first-rate scary story – claustrophobic, tense and creepy as all hell.
Apostle
The Raid director Gareth Evans combines the ultra-violence of his action thrillers with folk horror in this surprising, slow-burn horror movie about a priest determined to rescue his sister from a mysterious religious cult on a secluded island.
Hold the Dark
Jeremy Saulnier doesn’t hit the heights of Green Room with this psychological drama about a wolf expert venturing into the Alaskan wilderness to find a local boy and the animals that may have killed him, but there’s meat to chew over in this atmospheric, moody tale, with excellent turns from Jeffrey Wright, Alexander Skarsgard and Riley Keough.
Cargo
Martin Freeman is magnificent in this moving, low-key zombie drama about a dad trying to keep his daughter safe as they search for a safe haven before it’s too late.
Calibre
This nerve-shredding thriller, about two friends – Vaughn (Jack Lowden) and Marcus (Martin McCann) – on a weekend hunting trip in the Scottish Highlands, is a terrific calling card for writer-director Matt Palmer.
The Perfection
Despite some dubious twists and turns, this trashy genre flick is enjoyably unpredictable.
CAM
After a lookalike steals her account, a cam girl with a growing fan base sets out to identify the culprit and reclaim her identity in this thought-provoking, forward-thinking horror.
Vampires vs the Bronx
Three gutsy kids from a rapidly gentrifying Bronx neighbourhood stumble upon a sinister plot to suck all the life from their beloved community in this entertaining vampire comedy.
The Woman in Black
Daniel Radcliffe impresses in this enjoyably creepy ride through haunted house conventions.
The Blair Witch Project
A trio of filmmakers go on what should have been a simple walk in the woods in this hugely influential, definitive found footage horror.
Jaws
Steven Spielberg’s classic thriller about a shark terrorising a beach village may not be thought of as a classic horror, but this stripped down creature-feature is swimming with suspense.
Halloween (1978)
John Carpenter’s 1978 classic is the grandaddy of the slasher genre, as we follow Michael Myers, a murderer who escapes 15 years after his disturbing homicide to start seeking his next victims. From the music to the cast (led by Jamie Lee Curtis), this is a definitive frightfest that has little time for character and more time for pure tension.
Candyman
Don’t say his name – but do take the chance to go back to the original, classic horror after this year’s remake.
Shutter Island
Martin Scorsese’s entertaining B-movie is so steeped in gothic horror cliches it almost steps right off the cliff.
Tremors (1990)
Tremors is a consistently entertaining time that still impresses today. Available until 15th November 2021
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