If you want to make the most of your Prime Video subscription during the Halloween season, there are plenty of great horror movies to enjoy. Whether you want comedy horror or some classics, the best streaming services have got you covered when it comes to all things spooky.
Prime Video, in particular, has a great selection of scares as you can already see from our picks of the best Prime Video movies and the best Prime Video shows but today I’d like to draw your attention to these four highly-rated horror movies.
Paranormal Activity
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RT Score: 83%
Length: 86 minutes
Director: Oren Peli
Main cast: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat
Paranormal Activity took the world by storm in 2007. On the surface, it’s a very simple found footage movie, featuring unknown actors in one location, but these were the ingredients for a truly terrifying cinematic experience. It was made on a small budget of $215,000 and raked in a huge $194 million at the box office, making it one of the most successful horror movies of all time. It holds up even 17 years after it was released, and it’s a must-watch for those needing a good scare.
The realism is, of course, what makes this movie as terrifying as it is. The actors mostly improvised, and we’re spending most of the movie watching footage in the middle of the night, just waiting for something to happen. It’s still just as great as the first time I watched it.
Shaun of the Dead
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RT Score: 92%
Length: 99 minutes
Director: Edgar Wright
Main cast: Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Nick Frost, Dylan Moran
As the best entry into Edgar Wright’s ‘Cornetto Trilogy’ (I said what I said), this zom-rom-com is perfect for any Halloween movie night. It’s funny, it’s creepy, it’s deeply sad in places, it’s got everything you could want from a zombie movie. Like much of Wright’s work it’s quotable, immaculately filmed, and manages to balance that classic British humor with the impending doom of the apocalypse. Hot Fuzz and The World’s End are both worth your time too, of course, Shaun of the Dead will always reign supreme to me.
Something about placing a very mediocre man in the middle of a zombie outbreak where he has to navigate his crumbling relationships as well as keeping everyone alive is hugely entertaining, especially when most of his plan boils down to grabbing a pint and waiting it out. I mean, what else do you do?
The Babadook
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RT Score: 98%
Length: 94 minutes
Director: Jennifer Kent
Main cast: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Hayley McElhinney, Daniel Henshall
The Babadook is a seriously impressive directorial debut. There’s a lot of pressure on a filmmaker when it comes to introducing their first work to the world, and Jennifer Kent stunned audiences with her portrayal of parenthood, grief, and madness. Using beautiful (and creepy) stop motion animation and practical effects, this movie is as haunting as it is poignant. Something about seeing disturbing scenes depicted in a children’s pop up book is sure to stick with you for a while.
Essie Davis is great as a struggling mother, trying to come to terms with the loss of her husband while struggling to connect with her young son, who is displaying signs of neurodivergence. It is a deeply touching horror and is really something special.
Totally Killer
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RT Score: 87%
Length: 106 minutes
Director: Nahnatchka Khan
Main cast: Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt, Charlie Gillespie, Lochlyn Munro, Troy L. Johnson
I do love a good slasher comedy. Scream is one of my favorite horrors of all time given its self-awareness and willingness to point fun at, let’s be honest, a sometimes silly genre. Totally Killer adopts a similar approach, starring the brilliant Kiernan Shipka who is best known for her leading role in Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
The horror genre just loves using numbers (you know 666, 13, etc) but here it’s all about 16. The antagonist in Totally Killer is dubbed the ‘Sweet 16 Killer’ where they stab their victims 16 times on the nights of their 16th birthdays. Is it kinda silly? Yes. Is it also massively entertaining? Also yes!
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