Happy Halloween, y’all!Sometimes the All Hallows spirit moves you towards classic horror, sometimes, it moves you towards family-friendly fare, but sometimes, you just want to see some new that you’ve never watched before, and you want to watch it as easily as possible.
Fortunately, there’s a good selection of 2019 horror movies streaming right now that you can hit play on ASAP. FromNetflixtoHuluto the great horror streaming service Shudder, here are the best picks to give you all the chills and thrills you’re looking for on a Halloween night without the wait time of the theatrical experience or the added cost of a rental.
These movies are limited to the ones that you may get at no added cost on a streaming service, but in case you’re looking for more, here are my recommendations for movies you can rent on demand right now: you just can’t go wrong on a Halloween night with the creature featureSweetheart,Alexandre Aja’s breathless crocodile horrorCrawl, orJordan Peele’sUs. But if you just want to hit play on a streaming service, here are our picks for the best 2019 horror movies you can watch right now.
Streaming on:Amazon Prime
French filmmakerGaspar Noenever fails to earn his place as one of contemporary cinema’s great provocateurs and stylistic innovators. His latest, the dance horror spectacleClimaxcertainly doesn’t disappoint. Staged in the endless hallways and confined corners of a remote warehouse, the film follows an international dance troupe through a hellish winter night when their rehearsal turns into an LSD-fuelled descent straight to hell.
Sofia Boutellataps into her dance roots and gives yet another commanding physical performance as Selva, also delivering her most impressive and grueling emotional performance to date, the leader of the dance troupe and de facto audience stand-in, who desperately tries to maintain order and sanity as the laws of civilization break down into a violent, lusty free-for-all around her. Noe kicks off his film with a dazzling performative display from the individual members of the troupe, before bringing them all together in bacchanalian group choreography, his camera twirling and flipping around to match the impressive speed and agility of his performers. Then the drugs hit and everything rapidly devolves into chaos. Noe certainly hasn’t lost his knack for cruelty, andClimaxhas a withering sense of humor with deadly punchlines, but it’s also one of his most accessible and bizarrelyenjoyablefilms, a horror-performance art hybrid that keeps the blood pumping while the celebration sours, until you’re begging for the party to end. –Haleigh Foutch
The Hole in the Ground
Irish filmmakerLee Croninmakes a striking feature debut with A24’sThe Hole in the Ground, a slow burn chiller about a woman, Sarah (Seana Kerslake), and her young son, Chris (James Quinn Markey), who flee a personal trauma to the Irish countryside, only to find new terrors waiting there. Cronin digs into the paranoid parental horror of the “evil kid” subgenre when the family unit discovers a giant sinkhole near their new home and Chris startschanging, and not in nice ways. Solemn and slow-burn, with a flourish of eerie otherworldliness,The Hole in the Groundis a lowkey, pensive bit of folk horror that digs into emotional beats over tropes, which only makes it more satisfying. –Haleigh Foutch
Tigers Are Not Afraid
Streaming on:Shudder
Issa López’s dazzling dark fairy taleTigers Are Not Afraidwowed festival audiences for years before landing on Shudder, and I’m stoked to report that the hype is very,veryreal. Set on the streets of a Mexico ravaged by the human trafficking ring known as the Huascas,Tigersrevolves around two orphans, Estrella (Paola Lara) and Shine (Juan Ramón López), on the run from the Cartel that murdered their parents. Luckily, Estrella appears to possess three magic wishes, which usually arrive in this dark reality with bloody results. As beautiful as it is terrifying, López’s haunting story floats with the same kind of black magic you’ll find inGuillermo del Toro’s early films likeThe Devil’s BackboneandPan’s Labyrinth. But don’t just take my word for it. Del Toro himself calledTigers Are Not Afraidan “unsparing blend of fantasy and brutality, innocence and evil. Innovative, compassionate, and mesmerizing.”
In the Tall Grass
Streaming on:Netflix
Netflix has tapped into the well that isStephen Kingin a big way. But with the adaptation ofIn the Tall Grass, they’ve also got a handle on the next generation of horror authors withJoe Hill. The premise is simple: Passersby are called into a vast field of tall grass by people pleading for help, only to be unable to find their way back out again. But since this is a King & Son joint, abject horror obviously waits for them among the greenery…
In her reviewof the new Netflix adaptation, our ownHaleigh Foutchcalled the feature film “ambitious, imaginative, and artfully presented, taking King and Hill’s contained short and transforming it to a more expansive, sometimes confounding universe of horrors.In the Tall Grassdoesn’t always work, but when it does, it’s compelling and gorgeous, and yet another film on the Netflix roster I wish more people had an opportunity to see in theaters.” That’s more than enough reason to add it to your watch-list today.- Dave Trumbore
Velvet Buzzsaw
Absolutely campy, ridiculous, and extravagant,Velvet Buzzsawtackles the art world through the lens of horror in the form of cursed art that comes for all who try to make a pretty penny off of it. The reunion ofNightcrawlerdirectorDan GilroyandJake Gyllenhall, the film stars Gyllenhaal as an art critic who gets pulled into an ultra-aesthetic nightmare when he works with a gallery to promote the work of a dead artist under a fake guise. Soon, the gallery’s art springs to life with a vengeance and comes to collect on all the profiteers. It’s pretty much an exceptionally silly horror movie, but there’s plenty to love about it, fromToni Collette’s teed up performance as an art world snob to the absurd incarnations of killer art. –Haleigh Foutch
Little Monsters
Streaming on:Hulu
Horror comedies don’t get much more delightful thanLittle Monsters, the new Hulu original starringLupita Nyong’oas the world’s most badass kindergarten teacher, who gets stuck in the zombie apocalypse with a gaggle of kids to protect. Alternately hilarious, heartfelt and gruesome, the film comes fromDown UnderdirectorAbe Forsytheand strikes the perfect tone between raunchy, gory horror comedy and a lighthearted tale of self-actualization that pitsJosh Gadas a drunken, self-pitying children’s TV star against the undead. What more could you want in a fun but fearsome horror watch?
A pretty good rule to follow on Halloween Night—or any night, really—is that when a giant neon sign directing you to a “haunted house” suddenly flares up on a dark backwood road, don’t follow that sign. But then again, without horror movie logic we wouldn’t get lean, mean terrors likeHaunt, a gruesome good time ideal for any get-together with horror-loving friends. When six friends find themselves inside an “extreme” haunted house attraction on Halloween, fun turns to terror when the scares get real and the masked employees reveal faces far worse than the ones they’re wearing.Scott BeckandBryan Woodsemploy the same sparse, tension-thrilled talent they used in their script forA Quiet Place, and the result here is an absolute bloody knockout.–Vinnie Mancuso
Braidis one of those weird as hell, often baffling, ultimately confounding horror movies that gets a lot of points for style, even if it never fully works.ImogenWaterhouseandSarah Haystar as two young women evading arrest when they return to the home of their unhinged childhood friend (Madeline Brewer, in a performance that rivals her frantic work inCam). With a fortune locked in the safe, the pair step back into a demented life-long game of make-believe, but they may have underestimated just how maniacal their old pal has become since they last saw her. Hallucinatory and unruly,Braidnever quite comes together in a way that takes it to the next level, but filmmakerMitzi Peironemakes such a daring, singular debut – with a trio of equally daring actresses who are willing to match crazy for crazy at every turn – that it’s well worth the confusion just to experience the wild ride. –Haleigh Foutch
Horror Noire
Ok, so isHorror Noirea horror movie? No. But could I make a list of the best genre achievements of the year and leave it off? Also no. Shudder’s first documentary digs into the history of black representation (or often, lack thereof) in the horror genre and how the relationship between popular cinema and black audiences has evolved over the decades. Directed byXavier Burgin,Horror Noirechronicles that cultural journey, fromD.W. Griffith’sBirth of a NationtoJordan Peele’sGet Out, tracking the progress and regression along the way, while analyzing the impact of iconic films likeNight of the Living Dead,Blacula, andCandyman. The result is a powerful, essential horror documentary that not only examines the sometimes sordid history of representation in the genre, but celebrates the potential for filmmakers to reclaim the space and rewrite the narrative for future generations. –Haleigh Foutch
The Perfection
Richard Shepard’s twisted horror-dramaThe Perfectionscored a huge amount of buzz and a Netflix deal coming out of Fantastic Fest last year, and there was one sentiment shared by everyone who saw it: “watch it knowing as little as possible.” Keeping that spirit alive, I’ll say only that it’s a wild and unpredictable story about two gifted cellists (played byAllison WilliamsandLogan Browning, both exceptional) locked in an impossibly complex rivalry and/or friendship that hides a lot of layers beneath the surface. That’s it. That’s all you’re getting from me. Building from their dynamic and the secrets they carry, Shepard and co-writersEric C. CharmeloandNicole Snydertook inspiration from the twisted mysteries ofPark Chan-wookand crafted a horror tale that leaps from genre to genre, including body horror, viral horror, psychological thrills, and some killer genre. Even better, it’s a film that rewards a rewatch, setting up a pair of fascinating character arcs that are even more rewarding the second time around. –Haleigh Foutch
