From fantastic monster movies and ghost stories, to modern takes on classic subgenres, Amazon Prime Video has a number of horror films that are well-worth a stream on movie night. In fact, it has so many that, were one to click on the Prime Video button then “Horror,” and stick with just that sequence, the subscriber is likely to miss out on some really solid scary stories. Those are the movies that follow, those that will leave an impact on anyone who chooses them. Some are well-known classics that maybe you haven’t seen or want to see again while others are, well, lesser known.
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We’re going for some deeper cuts here on the streamer’s list of horror movies, so nothing like Smile 2 or Speak No Evil, which is shown as being available as soon as you click “Horror.” Some of the titles you’ll find don’t even require a full Prime Video subscription, and can actually be watched totally free.
The Fog
John Carpenter’s The Fog is one of those movies where you’re far better off sticking with the original over the cheap and silly remake (Even if, surprisingly enough, Carpenter has endorsed that film). This 1980 classic, his follow-up film to Halloween, isn’t quite as solid as that Michael Myers masterpiece, but it is nonetheless a quickly paced and highly entertaining ghost story.
The Fog is the story of a coastal town that is suddenly coated in a glowing fog. Within that fog is a group of long-dead lepers who have returned to exact their revenge. It’s not exactly the centennial celebration the residents were hoping for.
The Fog can actually be watched for free (with ads) without a Prime subscription needed.
Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II
While Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth is fun, it’s not required viewing for horror aficionados. The directly connected Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II, however, are. Wildly inventive and ambitious in their world-building, they’re impressive adaptations of Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart. Also worth watching on Prime is Nightbreed, a similarly impressive adaptation of Barker’s work.
The first two Hellraiser films follow Kirsty Cotton, whose wicked stepmother Julia is assisting her once-dead uncle, Frank, in his quest to regain life. To do this, Julia must find human sacrifices. But Frank, a hedonistic monster, doesn’t just want to breathe, walk, and swim again…he wants to avoid a horde of demons known as Cenobites, led by the aptly named (though not in the film itself) Pinhead, played iconically by Doug Bradley. Hellbound follows Cotton as she grieves her deceased father, one of the sacrifices to bring Frank back. Things take a turn for the Hellish when a cruel doctor brings back Julia, who Frank killed towards the tail end of the previous film. Now the duo has taken a young girl into Hell itself, and Kirsty pursues to save the day.
Tourist Trap
While Tourist Trap isn’t high art, it’s incredibly spooky and features a standout unhinged performance by The Rifleman‘s Chuck Connors. It’s also an important entry in horror movie history given how it’s an early film from producer Charles Band, who would go on to found Full Moon Productions, the company behind the Puppet Master franchise. Not to mention, it has an early role for Tanya Roberts of A View to a Kill and That ’70s Show fame.
The plot follows, as one might expect, a group of teens and/or 20-somethings who are picked off one by one in an isolated, quiet location. It’s just, here, what they’re being picked off by is a psychokinetic killer with a penchant for mannequins.
Tourist Trap can actually be watched for free (with ads) without a Prime subscription needed.
Frogs
Jaws has a giant shark. Anaconda has a giant anaconda. Alligator has a giant alligator. Are we sensing a pattern? Well, Frogs came before all of those movies and manages to work even though the title animal is not super-sized. In fact, no one’s ever killed by a frog, they’re more their to ribbit for the soundtrack.
It’s amazing how well this “When Animals Attack” movie works. The key is that the characters it follows are rich U.S. Southerners who have travelled to the patriarch’s island to kiss his butt in hopes of his inheritance. Pretty much none of them are likable, so to see them picked off by snakes, birds, lizards, and an alligator (all of whom have been victimized by the patriarch’s animal-hating way of life) manages to be funny as well as occasionally frightening. Frogs is no masterpiece, but to this day it remains a highly underrated midnight movie.
Frogs can actually be watched for free (with ads) without a Prime subscription needed.
Legion
Legion seems to have been mostly forgotten since its release in 2010 which is a shame because, while flawed, it’s also a lot of fun. Furthermore, it’s one of the few movies where fan-favorite Paul Bettany actually plays the lead (and its certainly superior to the similarly religion-themed actioner Priest released the following year).
Bettany plays the Archangel Michael, who posts up in a diner to protect the residents of a small town from a horde of angels and demons. Particularly an unborn child, who is prophesized to be Earth’s savior.
Piranha
Before Joe Dante was directing Gremlins, he was helming the smaller-budgeted Jaws-like film, Piranha. Whether it’s the title or the fact it came from Roger Corman, one would be forgiven for thinking it’s a typical skippable B-movie. But they’d be wrong, as Piranha is without a doubt the best aquatic animal horror film not directed by Steven Spielberg.
The narrative takes place on a river that leads right to a currently packed children’s summer camp. Unfortunately for the kids (and anyone else unfortunate enough to have their toes poking into the water), thousands of genetically enhanced piranhas are present with hungry bellies.
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The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
One of the few movies that manages to frighten full-grown adults, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is one of the definitive horror films. It’s certainly arguable whether this masterpiece should have ever led to a franchise but, even 50 years later, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre holds a profound power, consistently buoyed by its realism (even without much blood, as the film’s preceding reputation for being gory is actually far off) and on-location production.
The narrative follows a group of five teenage friends who are taking a road trip across Texas. They intend to stop at the cemetery to see the gravestone of two of the group members’ (Sally and Franklin Hardesty) grandfather. After encountering a deranged hitchhiker and running out of gas with nowhere nearby to fill up, the group stops at a farmhouse owned by the Hardesty family. Unfortunately, it’s not members of the Hardesty clan they find, but rather the Sawyers, a family of sadistic cannibals (one of whom just happens to be the hitchhiker they booted from the van earlier).
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre can actually be watched for free (with ads) without a Prime subscription needed
Day of the Dead
While most horror fans put the conclusion of George A. Romero’s “Dead Trilogy,” Day of the Dead, far below Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, it’s actually a similarly effective work. Thought-provoking and gory in equal measure, it’s a classic of zombie cinema with a lot to say about humanity.
The narrative unfolds well into the apocalypse. After seven years, most of the Earth’s population has been reduced to either pools of blood and body parts or, of course, zombies. But some remain, like the group of scientists and soldiers in a subterranean facility hoping against hope to find a cure or anything to improve the situation above them. First, though, the two groups will have to survive each other.
Day of the Dead can actually be watched for free (with ads) without a Prime subscription needed.
Abigail
After injecting fresh, exciting life into the Ghostface legacy with Scream (2022) and Scream VI, Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin delivered an extremely love letter to classic vampire flicks with Abigail. Like Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, it manages to put a fresh spin on a well-worn subgenre.
Abigail follows a group of kidnappers as they take a gig in a mansion. The job? Hold a young girl hostage until her mysterious rich father pays up. The caveat to that job? The dad is a well-known, deadly criminal. Oh, and both he and his daughter are vampires.
There’s an argument to be made that The Menu is more thriller than horror, but it’s listed under horror on Prime and is utterly fantastic so we’re including it here. Bolstered by expectedly strong acting from Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy as well as a top-notch script by Will Tracy and Late Night with Seth Meyers‘ Seth Reiss, it’s a twisty and thought-provoking film and one of 2022’s best.
The narrative follows self-proclaimed foodie Tyler Ledford (Nicholas Hoult) and his date, Margot Mills, as they travel to a high-class restaurant on a private island. But what Mills doesn’t know (but Ledford does) is that everyone in attendance will be having their final meal tonight because each one, in their various ways, have stripped the joy away from cooking for the ultra-talented Chef Julian Slowik.
