The 8 Scariest Horror Movies on Netflix Right Now, Ranked
If you ever see Allison Williams on a bus in Shanghai, run.
updated on
Who says Netflix doesn’t have any good horror movies? These gems are hidden in plain sight in their horror catalog. Here are the scariest movies on Netflix ranked from least to most scary:
8. Shark Night (2011)
Shark Night feels like a combination shark attack and slasher movie. A group of attractive young people plan to spend a weekend at a lake house in Louisiana, but are attacked by attacked by sharks. Eventually, they learn there is a sinister reason for the sharks being present in freshwater.
7. Smile (2022)
A therapist treats a client who claims she is a victim of a curse that causes the infected to see a sinister smile in others before it causes them to take their own lives. After her client dies by a gruesome suicide, the therapist realizes she is the curse’s next victim. If you have Paramount+ you can do a double feature with 2024’s sequel, Smile 2.
6. 47 Meters Down (2017)
A survival horror movie about two sisters vacationing in Mexico who decide to go on a shark dive. Once underwater, the winch holding their cage breaks and the girls plummet to the ocean floor. Surrounded by great whites, they must choose to risk surfacing or run out of oxygen and drown.
5. The Perfection (2018)
This psychological horror movie follows two talented musicians who went to the same prestigious performing arts school. After meeting in Shanghai, the two decide to travel together. Aboard a bus in rural China, one woman has one of the most horrifying nightmare travel experiences imaginable. And the movie gets more terrifying from there.
4. The Ritual (2018)
One of the most underrated horror movies on Netflix, The Ritual follows four friends on a hiking trip in Sweden. After one of the men gets injured, the group takes a shortcut where they encounter mysterious symbols and supernatural events. Eventually admitting they are lost, the friends stumble into a strange settlement they discover deep in the woods.
3. Watcher (2022)
An American woman moves to Bucharest with her boyfriend. As she doesn’t know the language, she spends most of her time wandering the city aimlessly. In their apartment, she notices a neighbor who appears to be watching her, but her boyfriend is busy with work and doesn’t believe her. At the same time, a serial killer known as “The Spider” is loose in the city. This is Rear Window taken up about 80 notches.
2. Talk to Me (2022)
Mia is still mourning the loss of her mother when she is introduced to a party game that supposedly allows players to talk to the dead. By holding the embalmed hand of a psychic, the game works by inviting a spirit to possess your body for 90 seconds. When Mia realizes she can use the game to communicate with her mother, she goes to extreme lengths to continue. A sequel is on the way, but directors Danny and Michael Philippou took a break to make one of the best and scariest movies of 2025, Bring Her Back, first.
1. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is now streaming on Netflix. This is a scary and beautifully made horror movie about a group of teens who encounter a family of cannibals while on a road trip in Texas. Despite the gruesome title and topics in Texas Chainsaw Massacre there’s actually very little blood and gore in the movie itself. It doesn’t need it. The real terror comes from the psychology of the depraved characters.
Further reading:
