From ghosts and demons to regular ol’ nasty human beings, this list of the most frightful films on Netflix UK surely has something to send shivers down your spine.
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* All new movies & series on Netflix UK
* All new streaming movies & series
1922 (2017)
Watch on NetflixThomas Jane (star of The Mist and 2004’s The Punisher) is no stranger to horrible violence in his work, but for some reason the one act of violence his character commits in this film is more upsetting than the bloodbaths in the rest of his career. Here, he’s a farmer who murders his wife to keep hold of their farm, and is a gnarly, grisly look at violence infecting your soul. Not recommended for anyone with a phobia of rats!.
#Alive (2020)
Watch on NetflixZombie movies are distinguished largely on one key difference: are they set in one location, or are the characters running for safety? This Korean zombie film has its protagonist the only living survivor of an apartment complex, forcing him to engineer all the tricks and traps one needs when holed up in an undead apocalypse. It’s slick and charming, with enough to add to the saturated genre.
Becky (2020)
Watch on NetflixKevin James playing a Neo-Nazi? Anything’s better than Paul Blart, I guess! This gnarly home-invasion thriller has a mean-spirited edge to it, as a young girl must protect her step-family when fascist thugs raid their forest lodge. James hands in a surprisingly measured and assured performance as an evil goon, matched only by Lulu Wilson’s lead turn as Becky—who’s refreshingly keen to dispatch her Nazi attackers in violent ways.
Cam (2018)
Watch on NetflixDirector Daniel Goldhaber’s latest film, How to Blow Up A Pipeline, was nothing less than explosive, and it’s great to see his talent for packing challenging social ideas into fiery, entertaining genre stories in this earlier feature. A camgirl (written with refreshing authenticity) loses control over her own life when she finds her doppelganger streaming impossible sex shows, confronting her with a version of herself that lives only on cam sites. A chilling, subversive perspective on modern, online sex work.
Cargo (2017)
Watch on NetflixMartin Freeman has largely stayed away from horror throughout his career (unless you count the horrific CGI lows of Battle of the Five Armies), but this outback zombie film carries over enough his dependably relatable everyman status. He wanders an infected landscape carrying his infant child while fighting off a rabid infection from a bite himself, and Cargo stands out in the zombie genre for showcasing an authentic Aboriginal perspective.
Creep (2014)
Watch on NetflixIt’s rare for a found footage film to not belong to the horror genre, and Creep shakes up the microbudget, handheld tradition with a definitively indie slant. When a videographer is hired via Craigslist to record the last messages of a terminally ill man, the unnerving performance from Mark Duplass tells you things aren’t exactly what they seem. Genuine creepiness is always welcome in a tired format.
Creep 2 (2017)
Watch on NetflixMark Duplass made waves with his Craigslist serial killer in Creep (well, micro-waves for a micro-budget film), so perhaps a sequel was inevitable. What wasn’t guaranteed was that Creep 2 would be a thoughtful, thorny descent into living with psychopathy and the morbid but human fascination with the perverse side of morality. Added to that are some brilliant low-budget, found-footage scares, making this follow-up a disturbing and welcome entry into what hopefully becomes a landmark horror series.
Fear Street: 1994 (2021)
Watch on NetflixThe first throwback horror that was meant to be theatrically released in 2021, this trilogy was released weekly on Netflix and proved a crowd-pleasing hit. Inspired by Goosebumps mastermind R.L Stine’s more grown-up young adult horror series, 1994 starts us off with a suitably convoluted slasher mystery romp that shows its authentic horror roots at all times. The kills are gnarly and the cast are likeable—it’s going to be a fun ride.
Fear Street: 1978 (2021)
Watch on NetflixUnsatisfied with the first entry’s 90s throwback? Let’s get even more retro! If you didn’t pick up how 70s this middle chapter was, there’s a good two dozen needle drops to remind you. Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink leads a bratty bunch of campers and counsellors in the best summer camp slasher since the 80s, one that reminds us how fun slashers can be when they embrace an operatic, overblown style and tone.
Fear Street: 1666 (2021)
Watch on NetflixPuritan times?! While certainly not as commonly nostalgised as the previous two time settings, the final entry in the Fear Street trilogy gets a lot of points for inventiveness, as previous cast members reappear in ye olden times to help break the centuries-old curse. The somewhat ropey set-up in earlier instalments pays off in a tremendously fun fashion, as twists and shocks help land the trilogy as great gateway horror fare.
Gerald’s Game (2017)
Watch on NetflixThe only thing worse than being left handcuffed to your bed when your husband has a heart attack on a remote, romantic getaway, is when the thirst and isolation makes you remember your unprocessed trauma—not to mention a hallucinated monster standing at the edge of your bed. Mike Flanagan’s one-location horror is a terrific star vehicle for his regular Carla Gugino, and the climax’s paralysing tension is sure to tighten your stomach.
Insidious (2011)
Watch on NetflixLow-budget, wildly stylised, and with a healthy amount of goofiness, Insidious certainly makes no attempt to hide that it’s a James Wan film. More fantastical in its scares than Wan’s other franchise horrors, this film subverts haunted house expectations with the much creepier concept of a haunted child. The biggest reason to recommend this is Patrick Wilson’s performance as an average dad really sick and tired of having to deal with demon shenanigans.
In the Tall Grass (2019)
Watch on NetflixNetflix went through a spree of adapting B-tier Stephen King titles, even branching into son Joe Hill’s work with Locke and Key. This film, adapted from a novel co-written by father and son, is a twisty game of survival in a murderous, claustrophobic field, not dissimilar from director Vincenzo Natali’s 90s film Cube. The kills are pretty memorable, and the film captures the feeling that you’re really lost out in the hot expanse of nighttime rural America.
The Perfection (2018)
Watch on NetflixA polished slice of schlock about musical obsession, this cellist revenge film is twisted and hare-brained enough to turn your stomach. Allison Williams from Get Out knows how to dial up the single-minded determination to get what she wants, and this prodigy rivalry gets shaken up with hypnosis, bodily harm, and some nasty secrets coming out of the woodwork. It’ll take a while for the classical music elite to bounce back from this!
Run (2020)
Watch on NetflixAneesh Chagantry’s follow-up to the inventive screen-grab mystery Searching, Run takes on the more low-tech topic of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Sarah Paulson plays a suitably off-kilter mother caring for her disabled, wheelchair-bound daughter, as suspicions arise over what secrets are being kept from her. With its tense explorations of hidden rooms and claustrophobic camera work, it’s undeniably B-movie fodder, but slick and relentlessly entertaining nonetheless.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)
Watch on NetflixCan you make a decades-old franchise innovative? It’s not a question Texas Chainsaw Massacre is overly concerned with—never once in its long, complicated lifetime has it ever matched the sleaze and thrills of the 70s original. Here, terminally online startuppers try to gentrify Leatherface’s abandoned town, and despite struggling to inject real world politics into a franchise that began as an upsetting treatise on post-Vietnam America, the gore really ups the ante on a series considered dead and buried.
Under the Shadow (2016)
Watch on NetflixA haunted house in an uncommon setting: an apartment building in wartorn Tehran, right in the firing line after the Iranian Revolution. A mother and daughter struggle to physically and psychologically survive as they’re subjected to the terror of a Djinn spirit, Under the Shadow is tremendously effective and thematically rich descent into the hidden trauma of war, getting under your skin as the walls close in.
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