Which Streaming Service is Best for Horror? A Ranking (2024)
When you spend as much time as we do assessing and ranking the content available on all the major streaming services, it’s inevitable that you eventually come to know all of their libraries like the back of your hand. Even with the monthly influx of new content, and the loss of departing titles, the culture writers at Paste have developed a deep and abiding familiarity with exactly what is available on every major streamer—enough to tell at a glance what each one does well, and where each is weakest.
As we indulge in our annual celebration of the Halloween season, it occurred to me that I should use what has become an almost encyclopedic knowledge of streaming horror catalogs to conduct a ranking of the services themselves, in order to answer a question that many fans are surely asking right now: Which streamer is best for horror? Who has the biggest overall horror library? Which library has the most classic films? Who has the best originals? And if you’re only going to use a couple of streaming services for horror, which should they be?
So join us as we dive into the relative merits of Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Max and beyond when it comes to the horror genre. We’ll begin with the worst services for horror movies, and work our way back up to the top.
Here are the best streaming services for horror, ranked:
9. Disney+
Pros: Collection of family friendly Halloween classics.
Cons: It’s Disney’s streaming service. It now has legit horror films, but it’s a weird vibe.
When I first created this list, Disney+ was a no-brainer for the last place position, because it was the only major streaming service where it’s theme and philosophy more or less forbade graphic horror content, which means it could mostly boast just a small collection of family friendly streaming horror content.
In recent months, though, that has changed–after Disney began sharing content with Hulu (one of the better horror streamers), the service suddenly finds itself full of a significant number of legitimate horror films. Suffice to say, this makes for a very strange vibes shift: It feels deeply wrong to watch a guy get bisected by troglodytes in something like Bone Tomahawk on Disney+. As such, I kind of don’t want to give them too much credit for having the Hulu horror content–if I’m going to watch one of those films, I’ll watch it on Hulu.
With that said, there is a small array of classic, family friendly Halloween content to which Disney holds the exclusive rights, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus. Beyond those flagship titles, which form the crux of Disney’s Halloween marketing, you have an odd array of Disney Channel original movies such as Halloweentown, Mr. Boogedy and Don’t Look Under the Bed. And don’t sleep on the possibly unintentional frights of the famously weird Return to Oz, either. Here’s our ranking of the best Halloween content on Disney+.
8. Paramount+
Pros: Eclectic modern horror selection that favors newer releases.
Cons: Small scope of library, lack of many classic films.
The Paramount+ horror library used to be full of old, public domain films that had gone on to be episodes of MST3K, but it seems those days are no more. Currently, it’s propped up somewhat by a partnership with Showtime, which gives a fair smattering of mostly newer horror films from the last few years, such as Talk to Me, A Quiet Place or Smile. These are supplemented by other more recent movies like Bodies Bodies Bodies or the newer Scream sequels.
Overall, though, this library is limited by its small scope. It doesn’t have many classic films, though if you look close enough there are some random stand-outs, such as Rosemary’s Baby or Roman Polanski’s The Tenant. However, these are definitely the exception rather than the rule.
7. Netflix
Pros: Some solid original films, big selection of Indian horror.
Cons: Very static lineup, extremely dependent upon originals.
As recently as a couple years ago, Netflix wouldn’t have been near the bottom of this particular list. Once upon a time, Netflix was among the better streaming services for horror movies, with a fairly robust lineup of eclectic horror films in a variety of subgenres. Over time, however, those titles have slowly melted away, to be replaced with a steady stream of Netflix originals. And although many of those originals are quality horror films, the extreme reliance upon them has become a double-edged sword for Netflix, which has been edged out by their competitors in terms of being able to offer a novel experience as their lineup has stagnated.
I really don’t mean to slag the collection of original horror films that Netflix has assembled in recent years, because there’s some really good stuff there, from Apostle and His House to The Ritual, The Platform and even the Fear Street trilogy. The problem is that once you’ve seen Netflix’s original horror films, the pickings become very slim, and there are seemingly fewer quality titles on a monthly basis. This has the effect of making the Netflix horror library seem very stagnant indeed. It’s also very weighted by recency—as of this October, Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho is pretty much the only notable horror film from before the 1990s.
One notable exception is actually horror cinema from India, where Netflix has a truly sprawling collection that absolutely dwarfs any other streamer. If that’s what you’re looking for, it’s one niche that Netflix has served very well. Check out our full list of the best horror streaming on Netflix here.
6. Peacock
Pros: Small but surprisingly high quality library, plenty of 1980s schlock.
Cons: Small library, very unwieldy UI.
The main knock on the Peacock film library is typically that it’s still pretty small in terms of size and scope. That holds true here, but the service manages to one-up Netflix this October by the fact that they’ve shelled out for some marquee content, including classic Universal Horror movies like Frankenstein. They can also now boast quite a bit of quality vintage horror from the 1980s (Day of the Dead, The Changeling, etc), and a smattering of indie films.
The downside, unfortunately, is that it’s difficult to ultimately tell exactly how robust the Peacock horror library is because the UI makes it very difficult to browse an entire genre from A-Z, especially if you’re not already a subscriber. The streamer’s UI is deeply confusing in general, seemingly obsessed with the concept of grouping its films together in themed collections rather than simply allowing the user to browse through a specific genre to gauge its depth. This ultimately holds it back from perhaps ranking even higher. Just let us see the movies!
5. Amazon Prime Video
Pros: Quite a large library, some obscure selections.
Cons: Library is smaller than before, consistent issues of UI and organization.
As recently as a couple of years ago, there’s a strong chance that Prime Video actually would have been right at the top of this list, but they’ve lost a few steps more recently when it comes to the depth of this horror library. Rest assured, it’s still quite a large library, but it’s been pared down greatly from the behemoth it once was, with titles shuttled over to other streaming services, or Amazon’s own ad-supported Freevee. In the last year, we saw a purge of the Amazon library in which many titles overnight went from “free with Prime” to available to rent, and the service is also hindered to some degree by its difficult UI, something we’ve written about in great detail.
With all that said, there’s still a good amount of quality horror content here, covering a number of bases from modern indie hits to historic classics. Highlights include films such as The Thing, Suspiria, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil, Hellraiser and House on Haunted Hill, along with a good amount of weird ‘80s cinema like House, C.H.U.D. and Edge of the Axe. Even in a somewhat reduced state, Amazon is one of the better streamers for horror, provided you can get past the UI. To check out our full list of Amazon Prime Video horror, click here.
4. Max
Pros: Highly curated horror library with particular eye for iconic classics of the genre.
Cons: Smaller overall than some of its competitors.
With so many of the major streamers focusing on volume, direct-to-VOD films, and public domain stuff in their horror libraries, it’s easy to appreciate Max’s (formerly HBO Max) relative focus on curation and higher quality titles—they have typically not stuffed their library with as much low-rent garbage as other services, and it makes Max one of the easier horror selections to find quality titles while browsing. Their horror library makes room for classics of the genre (Aliens, Poltergeist, Eraserhead, A Nightmare on Elm Street) and historic films (King Kong, Godzilla, Fritz Lang’s M) more than any of the other major streamers, while also being full of foreign language classics such as Japan’s Kwaidan and Onibaba. To that, you can add some modern indie horror like It Comes at Night or We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, and you have a pretty balanced lineup overall.
With that said, it’s becoming more clear in 2024 that the Max horror library’s trajectory over the last year has been overall negative rather than positive, as they’ve bled more quality films than they’ve added. They’ve also been adding more VOD-type garbage than the service previously relied on, and franchise entries that feel like an attempt to bolster a roster that is more thin than it used to be. Honestly, who is watching any Children of the Corn sequels? You wouldn’t have seen that on Max a couple years ago. That’s why they find themselves passed by the likes of Hulu now. To check out our full list of the best horror movies on Max, click here.
3. Hulu
Pros: Surprisingly eclectic library of films that continues to grow, with solid originals.
Cons: Still less robust than the very top tier.
I’m not certain if the Hulu horror library is actually much larger than the Peacock one, but what I can tell you is that they don’t make it difficult to browse in its entirety, which reveals that they have a really nice slate of quality films. The top in particular is anchored by some all-time great films such as Alien, The Fly and The Omen. Then you can add in some solid original titles such as Little Monsters, Prey and Run, along with indie films such as When Evil Lurks, Titane or The Empty Man, and overall you’re doing pretty well! In fact, the Hulu horror library may have more recent-ish indie horror entries from our year-end lists than any of the other major streamers.
The Hulu horror library also benefits from the fact that it’s seemingly been pretty steady in the last few years—unlike the Netflix or Max libraries, which have contracted or become so dependent upon originals, the Hulu one has actually grown a bit, which has allowed them to finally surpass Netflix in this regard. They’re not trouncing their competition, but they’re on a good trajectory and are now arguably the best of the mass-market streamers for horror. Check out our full list of the best horror on Hulu here.
2. Tubi
Pros: Incomparably vast library stuffed to the gills with obscure horror films of all description.
Cons: Ad supported; an almost complete lack of organization of any kind.
Until recently, I simply wasn’t aware of just how ridiculously vast the library at Tubi had become. This is the new Amazon Prime, folks, in terms of a library so big that it’s essentially an ocean without end—I tried to scroll to the bottom of the horror genre on Tubi, and it simply kept reloading ad infinitum. The sheer size of it seems to dwarf any other streamer’s horror library, with somewhere near 1,000 titles by my estimation.
The good news is that there’s lots of great movies buried among those titles: Everything from classics like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Return of the Living Dead, The Changeling and They Live to modern greats like The Invitation, Train to Busan and Ginger Snaps.
The bad news is that these movies are surrounded by so much straight-to-VOD garbage that it’s very, very difficult to find them, and Tubi suffers from a complete lack of organization when it comes to genres. There’s no way to reorder the list, in fact—no subgenres, no categories, no ability to reorder by year or by A-Z. It’s simply a few thousand films arranged in no particular order, which means you’ll have to search for what you want to find individually. And of course, the free (but ad supported) nature of the service is both a plus and minus as well. All in all, Tubi is great for the fact that it offers a lot of obscure horror that no other streamer has access to, but using it is a somewhat chaotic experience. To check out our full list of the best horror on Tubi, click here.
1. Shudder
Pros: Vast, well-curated library with a good mix of genres and titles, solid originals.
Cons: Size of the library varies occasionally.
It’s really only a sense of proportion that keeps our list of the best horror movies on Shudder at 50 entries—it could easily be a 100-item list, given the overall strength of the library here. It’s perhaps unsurprising if you’re familiar with Shudder; after all, shouldn’t a horror-focused streamer probably have the best overall horror library? But indeed they do, when all is said and done—it’s actually probably significantly smaller than the monstrous Tubi library, but the films here are much better organized and curated, and it likewise has an ever-expanding selection of original programming and produced films that is just getting better and better. As a service, Shudder delivers more or less what you would want it to deliver.
As for the content, access to John Carpenter’s Halloween (and a few of the sequels) is a nice feather in their cap, along with classics like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Changeling and Day of the Dead. There’s a wealth of modern indie horror, a la Watcher or A Dark Song, and I have to give Shudder props for its wonderful lineup of giallo films as well, including the likes of Deep Red and Blood and Black Lace. It’s also particularly rich in 1980s standouts, like Dead & Buried, Tourist Trap and Sleepaway Camp.
Moreover, Shudder’s originals are often highly touted films from up-and-coming horror directors, such as The Boy Behind the Door, or others like Revenge, Scare Me, Mad God or What Josiah Saw. And over on the TV side, you’ve got the Creepshow revival, and the return of Joe Bob Briggs adding commentary to films in the Shudder library via The Last Drive-In. All in all, it’s a very hard collection of assets to top. Perhaps the only knock on Shudder is that the library is always in flux like all streaming services, and it has grown substantially larger and smaller at different points in the last few years. But at this point, that’s a fairly minor nitpick—at the end of the day, it remains the premier streamer on the scene today when it comes to horror. To check out our full list of the best horror on Shudder, click here.
Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident horror geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more film writing.