The 20 Best Horror Movies on Hulu Right Now

December 04, 2024

How We Pick Our Films

Critic Brian Tallerico watches and writes about movies and TV every day. To curate this list, he dives into Hulu’s catalogue every month to surface terrifying horror titles — using his taste and a lifetime of cinema study as his guide, instead of whatever the algorithm happens to be pushing. After triple-checking to make sure they’re still available, he watches each and writes his recommendation. We highlight more than just the crowdpleasers: Filmmakers can use horror to craft spine-tingling moods, keep audiences on their toes, and comment on culture. Read on to find something to watch.

Appendage

Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Anna Zlokovic

You are not ready for how weird this movie is. In a good way. Hadley Robinson rocks as Hannah, a New York fashion designer who discovers a growth on her body that’s obviously upsetting, but much more so when it pops out and starts talking to her. When it literally leaps off her body and becomes its own sentient being that seems to be a version of Hannah’s anxiety come to life, Appendage goes truly off the rails. Again, in a good way.

Appendage watch on hulu

The Autopsy of Jane Doe

Year: 2016
Runtime: 1h 26m
Director: Andre Ovredal

There are very few horror movies with as perfect a set-up as this one. Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch star as a coroner and his son in a small town. They get a late-night delivery of a body that doesn’t make sense. Her exterior looks pristine but everything on the inside is a mess. As they’re trying to solve the mystery, things get very, very creepy.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe watch on hulu

The Babadook

Year: 2014
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Jennifer Kent

One of the best horror films of the 2010s has not been widely available for streaming subscribers so take the chance to watch it again while it’s on Hulu. Jennifer Kent’s directorial debut centers on a mother (Essie Davis) who struggles to raise her problem child alone after the death of her husband. Oh, and there’s also a real monster in the boy’s room.

The Babadook watch on hulu

*Black Swan

Year: 2010

Natalie Portman won her only Oscar for her fearless performance in Aronofsky’s study of commitment and madness. She plays a ballerina who will go to whatever lengths necessary to nail a new production of Swan Lake, even as she fends off the competition of a new dancer, played by Mila Kunis. Unforgettable and terrifying, it’s a true horror film that captures how dedication can be pushed far enough to tear apart reality.

Black Swan watch on hulu

Bone Tomahawk

Year: 2015
Runtime: 2h 12m
Director: S. Craig Zahler

S. Craig Zahler has become one of the most divisive filmmakers working today after three vicious, brutal movies — Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99, and Dragged Across Concrete. Bone Tomahawk is arguably the best, a slow-burn Western that stars Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, and Richard Jenkins as a posse of men who hunt a group of indigenous cannibals. The final act is terrifying and intense. (If you like it, check out Brawl too, also on Hulu.)

Bone Tomahawk watch on hulu

The Boogeyman

Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 38m
Director: Rob Savage

The director of the no-nonsense Host went blockbuster with this Summer 2023 release based on a story by Stephen King. Chris Messina and Sophie Thatcher star as a father and daughter first forced to deal with the grief of an unimaginable loss and then something scary in the shadows. Yes, it’s another one of those tales wherein things like trauma manifest into actual entities but Messina and Thatcher stay committed enough to keep it interesting.

The Boogeyman watch on hulu

The Empty Man

Year: 2020
Runtime: 2h 17m
Director: David Prior

20th Century Fox had absolutely no idea what to do with David Prior’s adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name, so they quietly shuttled it into theaters and then VOD. The funny thing is that this ambitious study of an ex-cop (James Badge Dale) who investigates a missing girl has already started to develop a cult following of its own. It’s a smart, unique piece of work that is only going to get more and more popular.

The Empty Man watch on hulu

Flatliners

Year: 1990
Runtime: 1h 54m
Director: Joel Schumacher

Joel Schumacher’s blockbuster was recently remade with Elliot Page. Ignore that one. Go back to the original from the days when Kiefer Sutherland could carry a movie. A lot of the love for Flatliners comes down to nostalgia, but it’s also consistently entertaining.

Flatliners watch on hulu

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters

Year: 2013
Runtime: 1h 28m
Director: Tommy Wirkola

Listen, no one, not even the people who made it, think Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is some sort of horror classic, but it’s got some B-movie campiness to it that sometimes is just the ticket. It can’t always be “elevated” horror, right? Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton star in this undeniably stupid but just fun-enough action/horror movie that reworks the classic fable into something violently new.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters watch on hulu

High-Rise

Year: 2015
Runtime: 1h 59m
Director: Ben Wheatley

The director of Kill List helmed an adaptation of the infamous novel of the same name by J.G. Ballard, a study of opulence and inequity that devolves into a gruesome nightmare. Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, and Elisabeth Moss star in a film that unfolds in a luxury high-rise in the ‘70s that gradually becomes cut off from the rest of the world, becoming its own crumbling society. It’s stylish and unforgettable.

High-Rise watch on hulu

Infinity Pool

Year: 2023
Runtime: 1h 58m
Director: Brandon Cronenberg

The director of Possessor returned this year with a more twisted affair starring Alexander Skarsgard and Mia Goth. The True Blood vamp plays a wealthy novelist who accidentally kills a local man at a seaside resort and discovers there’s a way for rich people to avoid the law in this part of the world. Insanely constructed and unforgettable in its imagery, Infinity Pool is one of the best films of the first half of 2023.

Infinity Pool watch on hulu

Little Monsters

Year: 2019
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Abe Forsythe

Lupita Nyong’o can do absolutely anything. Just look at this horror-comedy about a group of schoolchildren who get attacked by waves of the undead. Lupita rules as the teacher and the only one who knows how to act heroic in the moment. And she’s joined by a fun supporting performance from Josh Gad, who is very from Olaf here.

Little Monsters watch on hulu

Monsters

Year: 2010
Runtime: 1h 34m
Director: Gareth Edwards

Can you make an effective giant monster movie in which you never really see the giant monster? Gareth Edwards did just that in his sci-fi thriller about two lost souls—Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy (Halt and Catch Fire)—who travel a landscape in which man is no longer the top of the food chain. It’s an effective indie action movie with a unique point of view.

Monsters watch on hulu

The Omen

Year: 1976
Runtime: 1h 51m
Director: Richard Donner

The wave of films about children with evil intent reached one of its peaks in this 1976 horror flick that cast the beloved Gregory Peck in a role in which most audiences weren’t accustomed to seeing him. He’s the father of Damien Thorn, a child who may actually be the spawn of the devil. Directed by Richard Donner, The Omen is a taut, smartly made supernatural thriller. (Note: The 2006 remake is also on Hulu, but best avoided.)

The Omen watch on hulu

Only Lovers Left Alive

Year: 2013
Runtime: 2h 3m
Director: Jim Jarmusch

How does one possibly begin to describe one of the most wonderfully odd films of the 2010s? Jim Jarmusch wrote and directed this story of apathetic vampires, creatures who have lived so long and seen so much that the world mostly leaves them apathetic. Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston are fantastic in the lead roles, and they’re matched by great supporting turns from Mia Wasikowska, Anton Yelchin, Jeffrey Wright, and John Hurt.

Only Lovers Left Alive watch on hulu

Personal Shopper

Year: 2016
Runtime: 1h 45m
Director: Olivier Assayas

Olivier Assayas’s ghost story is not your typical tale of the supernatural. The French filmmaker, working in perfect conjunction with star Kristen Stewart, who has never been better, crafts a film about loss, fear, and longing. It’s not an easy film to dissect or understand, but you won’t forget it.

Personal Shopper watch on hulu

Possessor

Year: 2020
Runtime: 1h 43m
Director: Brandon Cronenberg

It turns out that the creative apple didn’t fall too far from the tree in the case of the Cronenberg family. David’s son Brandon helmed this shocking piece of body horror about a future wherein people possess others to commit crimes. That’s just the beginning in a fearless film that stars Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Sean Bean, and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Possessor watch on hulu

Sea Fever

Year: 2019
Runtime: 1h 35m
Director: Neasa Hardiman

After premiering at TIFF in 2019, this film got kind of buried on release on VOD at the beginning of the pandemic. Search it out. You won’t regret it. Hermione Corfield plays a woman on a fishing boat when it’s overcome by…something. Echoes of classic horror like The Thing and Alien filter into this fun sci-fi/horror flick.

Sea Fever watch on hulu

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

Year: 2010
Runtime: 1h 29m
Director: Eli Craig

This horror/comedy hardly made an impact when it was released in 2010 but has become a true cult hit in the decade since on DVD and streaming services. The main reason is that Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk have perfect comic timing as a pair of lovable hillbillies who get caught up in a crazy horror movie situation that leads to a lot of laughs and buckets of blood. Now give us a sequel!

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil watch on hulu

Watcher

Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: Chloe Okuno

One of the best films of 2022, this was a Shudder exclusive until recently. Inspired by ‘70s paranoia horror, Watcher stars Maika Monroe (It Follows) as a woman who has moved to Romania with her husband Francis (Karl Glusman). Without much to do and unable to speak the language, she starts to get paranoid that someone is watching her from across the courtyard. Stylish and riveting, it’s a must-see.

Watcher watch on hulu

We Need to Do Something

Year: 2021
Runtime: 1h 37m
Director: Sean King O’Grady

With an energy that feels impacted by the pandemic, this is a great single-setting scare-fest. Sierra McCormick, Vinessa Shaw, John James Cronin, and the amazing Pat Healy play a family who get stuck in their own bathroom on the day world happens to end. It doesn’t go well. And, believe it or not, this film features a demon dog voiced by Ozzy Osbourne. You know you need to see that.

We Need to Do Something watch on hulu

Wounds

Year: 2019
Runtime: 1h 36m
Director: Babak Anvari

The director of the excellent Under the Shadow followed that up with his first American film, a Sundance premiere that stars Dakota Johnson and Armie Hammer in a tale of surreal madness. Hulu picked up it up, where it lives exclusively, ready to break your brain. Undeniably Cronenberg-inspired, Wounds is the tale of a bartender who basically loses his mind.

Wounds watch on hulu

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