With Immaculate and Late Night With The Devil in cinemas and The First Omen right around the corner, we’re not short of horror releases.
But sometimes you just don’t want to leave your home for an eerie evening and would prefer the comfort of your own sofa for scares.
As luck would have it, Netflix has plenty of horror offerings from revered franchise blockbusters to indie hidden gems to haunt your nightmares.
Seventies classics Halloween and Jaws both lie among the thousands of choices, as well as modern chillers such as Insidious and Sinister.
If you’re looking to turn your relaxing evening terrifying, look no further than these 13 picks.
The Platform
Spanish sci-fi horror The Platform stunned fans when it came to Netflix, with many lauding its terrifying themes and rollercoaster ending.
The film is set in a vertical prison system called ‘the pit’ by its residents and follows Goreng (Iván Massagué) as he attempts to understand his new situation, in which the only source of food is dropped downwards between the endless floors each day.
Those living higher up have more chance of eating than those below, with greed often overcoming common sense and leaving little for those lower down the metaphorical and literal food chain.
Cargo
Martin Freeman is no stranger to horror following his acclaimed role in Ghost Stories, but he is equally impressive in zombie tearjerker Cargo.
It follows couple Andy and Kay (Freeman and Susie Porter) and their baby Rosie travelling in remote Australia amid a deadly disease outbreak.
Infected by a ravenous zombie who claims the life of his wife, Andy must now find safety for Rosie both from the outside world as well as his own changing nature.
His House
Remi Weekes’ feature debut His House often graces top horror lists among Netflix releases since 2020.
Starring Sope Dirisu, Wunmi Mosaku, Matt Smith, and Javier Botet, it tells the chilling story of a Sudanese refugee couple who make a harrowing escape from war.
Ready to start life afresh, they struggle to adjust to their new life in an English town, soon discovering it has an evil lurking beneath its unsuspecting surface.
Apostle
Dan Stevens is set to star in the eagerly-anticipated Neon horror release Cuckoo later this year, but before then, he terrified audiences as Thomas Richardson in Apostle.
Set in 1900s London, Richardson returns home to discover his sister Jennifer (Elen Rhys) is being held ransom by a religious cult.
He sets off on a mission to retrieve her, infiltrating the cult in their idyllic island home, and uncovers a secret far more terrible than he ever could have imagined.
Evil Dead
The Evil Dead is a franchise beloved by many, so naturally, fans were dubious when a remake was announced in 2013.
Thankfully, the gloriously gory film from Fede Alvarez – who is set to direct Alien: Romulus – delivered, following another group of friends to a cabin in the woods who foolishly read from the Naturom Demonto and unleash demons that turn them into violent Deadites one by one.
Once you’ve finished, you can also check out 2023’s Evil Dead Rise starring Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan, which is also available on Netflix.
Incantation
This found footage film on Netflix terrified TikTok users in 2023 and even inspired its own challenge where people try and watch the film without looking away or hitting pause.
Incantation is a Taiwanese horror that follows Li Ruo-nan (Hsuan-yen Tsai) who was cursed six years prior after breaking a religious taboo.
Now, she must protect her six-year-old daughter Dodo (Sin-Ting Huang) as the curse threatens to attach itself to her.
Malignant
This week, James Wan wrapped filming on his adaptation of Stephen King’s story The Monkey, much to the delight of horror fans.
In anticipation, you can watch his 2021 release Malignant on Netflix, which follows Madison (Annabelle Wallis) who is left paralysed by fear when confronted by visions of strangers being brutally murdered.
After a traumatic event that sees her husband Derek (Jake Abel) killed and the loss of her unborn baby, Madison endeavours to save one of the potential victims of her visions.
Run Rabbit Run
Sarah Snook dazzled fans during her time in hit drama Succession, but she is equally spell-binding in tense horror Run Rabbit Run.
In it, Sarah (Snook), a divorced fertility doctor, celebrates her daughter Mia’s (Lily LaTorre) seventh birthday alongside her ex-husband and Mia’s father Peter (Damon Herriman), Peter’s new partner Denise (Naomi Rukavina), and Denise’s son Toby (Hugo Soysa).
After they arrive, Sarah begins to notice Mia’s behaviour become strange and is determined to find out why.
Annihilation
Ex Machina and Men director Alex Garland is set to release the eagerly-anticipated horror thriller Civil War on April 12.
In the meantime, you can watch the hauntingly beautiful Annihilation starring Natalie Portman as Lena Double, a cellular biologist who joins a group of scientists in an expedition to an anomalous zone where a meteor hit Earth.
The deeper they venture into the zone, the laws of nature become unruly and they uncover more and more of the mysteries within.
In The Tall Grass
There’s no shortage of absolutely baffling horror mysteries on Netflix, and In The Tall Grass based on another hit King story is one of the most wild.
After hearing the cry of a small child named Tobin (Will Buie Jr.), siblings Becky and Cal (Laysla De Oliveira and Avery Whitted) venture into the tall grass field in which he appears to be lost.
Soon, however, they too become lost and realise they cannot exit the expansive field filled with twists and turns, and other souls who have become entangled in its web, including Tobin’s parents Natalie (Rachel Wilson) and Ross (Patrick Wilson).
The Wailing
South Korea has produced some of the world’s most iconic horror films, one of which being Na Hong-jin’s paranormal chiller The Wailing.
The film centres on police officer Jong-goo (Kwak Do-won) who is tasked to investigate the remote Korean village of Gokseong following a series of mysterious killings and illnesses.
They’re linked to an unknown man (Jun Kunimura) and his cane corso who arrived in the village, triggering a series of events that threaten its inhabitants, including Jong-goo’s daughter.
Creep
Inspired by director Patrick Brice’s experiences on Craigslist and the movies My Dinner with Andre, Misery, and Fatal Attraction, Creep sees Brice portray videographer Aaron assigned to record an eccentric client, Josef.
Josef, played by writer Mark Duplass, quickly reveals that his intentions may not be as innocent as they may seem, and Aaron quickly finds himself in the middle of a nightmare.
A sequel to the film, Creep 2, was released in 2017 and is also available to stream on Netflix.
The Lodge
Last on our list, we have 2019’s The Lodge starring Riley Keough, Jaeden Martell, Lia McHugh, Alicia Silverstone, and Richard Armitage.
The story follows Grace (Keough), the sole survivor of a cult’s mass suicide, as she goes to a family retreat in a remote winter cabin with her boyfriend Richard (Armitage) and his two children Aiden (Martell) and Mia (McHugh).
When Richard is forced to leave abruptly for work, Grace is left alone to care for the children when a blizzard traps them inside the lodge, and of course, terrifying supernatural events soon follow.
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