It’s close to midnight, something’s lurking in the dark, and we’re well and truly in the mood to frighten ourselves silly. Forget all those films that rely on cheap jump scares, though; time is a precious commodity, and we’re only going to spend it on the horrors that critics loved.
Smart, unsettling and diverse in voice, each is guaranteed to linger like a nightmare you almost enjoy. Each, too, has achieved above and beyond that elusive 90% ‘fresh’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And, best of all, each is streaming on Netflix now, ready to ruin your sleep at a moment’s notice. Let’s dive on in…
Get Out (2017)
When Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) visits the family home of his white girlfriend (Allison Williams), he expects awkward small talk and meet the parents-style cringe comedy. Instead, he walks straight into a nightmare. Jordan Peele’s Oscar-winning debut rewires the entire genre, fusing horror, satire, and razor-sharp social commentary into something utterly original. It walks a perfect line between laugh-out-loud awkwardness and skin-crawling dread: nightmare fuel with brains, wit, and bite. And once it grabs you, trust us: it doesn’t let go.
Universal
His House (2020)
A haunted house story unlike any other, His House swaps creaking floorboards for something far more chilling: the psychological torment of refugee trauma. The horrors here aren’t just lurking in the walls; they’re embedded in memory, loss, and forced survival. Rooted in real-world fear and layered with supernatural menace, it’s as emotionally devastating as it is terrifying… and painfully relevant in light of today’s headlines.
Aidan Monaghan/NETFLIX
Creep (2014)
Proof that all you really need to induce pure panic is a cabin, a camera, and one deeply unsettling stranger, Creep is a masterclass in slow-burn tension. Inspired by real Craigslist encounters, it follows Aaron (Patrick Brice) as he answers a harmless-sounding ad to film a stranger for the day. At first, it’s just awkward. Then it’s odd. And before you know it, it’s wrong – so wrong you’ll want to scream at the screen. No ghosts. No demons. Just one smiling man, a suffocating sense of claustrophobia… and nowhere left to run.
Gerald’s Game (2017)
Leave it to The Haunting Of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan to take one of Stephen King’s so-called “unfilmable” novels and turn it into something utterly harrowing. Starring Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood, the film sees a married couple head out to a remote holiday home in the woods for a spot of sexual experimentation. When her husband aggressively handcuffs her to the bed without her consent, though, it all begins to go terribly, terribly wrong for Jessie. Trapped, helpless, and forced to confront buried trauma, it’s little wonder this is widely considered to be one of Netflix’s strongest originals.
Netflix
Monster (2024)
In this near-silent Indonesian horror, two best friends are hanging out after school, unaware that a man in a black sedan is stalking them from the shadows. They’re abducted, separated, and plunged into terror… until one manages to escape. But freedom comes with a question more agonizing than captivity: can she live with herself if she leaves her friend behind? And if she turns back, can she survive their captor twice?
1922 (2017)
Another Stephen King adaptation, but this one trades jump scares for something far more disturbing: a husband who decides the simplest solution to his financial problems is to murder his wife. What follows isn’t a whodunnit: instead, it’s the long, slow decay of a man eaten alive by guilt. Think The Shining, but with cornfields instead of corridors. Grim, macabre, and horrible in its inevitability, 1922 doesn’t just scare you; it seeps into your bones. By the end, every single creak in your house will have you trembling.
Netflix
The Old Ways (2020)
In the mood for folk horror with teeth? The Old Ways follows Cristina, a journalist battling heroin addiction, who returns to her Mexican hometown to chase a sensational story about the cursed ruins of La Boca. Instead, she ends up chained inside a remote hut, accused by locals of being possessed by a demon. What follows isn’t just an exorcism: it’s a brutal collision between scepticism, identity, and ancestral belief. From the moment the chanting starts, you’ll be wondering whether Cristina should escape… or submit.
Talk To Me (2023)
It’s always the same, isn’t it? You and your friends find an embalmed hand that lets you summon spirits, and at first it’s all party tricks and TikTok dares… until someone holds on too long and the dead stop playing nice. Talk to Me has well and truly earned its reputation as one of the decade’s most original possession stories, and like all the greats, it’s not really about ghosts. It’s about grief; the kind of grief that’s so unbearable you’ll do anything to feel something again. Anything.
Courtesy of A24
Barbarian (2022)
It starts with one of the worst Airbnb nightmares imaginable: a young woman arrives late at night to find her rental already occupied by a stranger. He seems polite. He might be trustworthy. And so, against every gut instinct, she decides to stay the night. Big mistake. Because in Barbarian, the scariest thing in the house isn’t the man she can see — it’s what’s hiding beneath the floorboards.
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