Top 30 Scariest Movies On Netflix Ranked: Must Watch

The horror genre on Netflix can boast of a large and varied collection of some of the scariest movies one has ever seen. With all kinds of horrors, jump scares, gore, and physiological thriller, this is a list of the top 30 horror movies on Netflix, ranked. Horror fans come in all forms and while some movies may be to liking and preference of some, here is our top 30!

1. The Witch (2016) 

Director: Robert Eggers

Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie

Rating: R

Runtime: 93 Minutes

Story Line: In the New England of the 17th century, a banished Puritan family sets up a farm by the edge of a huge, remote forest where no other family lives. But soon enough, sinister forces start haunting them.

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2. The Wicker Man (1973) 

Director: Robin Hardy

Stars: Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward, Britt Ekland, Ingrid Pitt, Diane Cilento

Rating: R

Runtime: 87 minutes

Story Line: Sergent Howie (Edward Woodward) arrives on the small Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate the report of a missing child. A conservative Christian, observes the residents’ frivolous sexual displays and strange pagan rituals, particularly the temptations of Willow (Britt Ekland), daughter of the island magistrate Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). The more Sergeant Howie learns about the strange practices of the islanders, the closer he gets to tracking down the missing child.

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3. Train To Busan (2016) 

Director: Yeon Sang-ho

Starring: Gong Yoo, Ma Dong-Seok, Jung Yu-mi, Kim Su-an, Kim Eui-Sung, Choi Woo-Shik, Ahn So-hee

Rating: NR

Runtime: 118 Minutes

Story Line: Seok Woo and his daughter are on a train to Busan on the latter’s birthday to see his wife. However, the journey turns into a nightmare when they are trapped amidst a zombie outbreak in South Korea.

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4. The Evil Dead (1982)

Director: Sam Raimi

Stars: Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Hal Delrich, Betsy Baker, Theresa Tilly

Rating: NC-17

Runtime: 85 minutes

Story Line: Five friends travel to a cabin in the woods where they play a tape with incantations. This releases the demons which possess each of them in succession until only one of them is left fighting for survival. Its vivid graphic imagery has got it banned in a few countries till date.

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5. Creep (2014) 

Director: Patrick Brice

Stars: Mark Duplass, Patrick Brice

Rating: R

Runtime: 77 minutes

Story Line: Though somewhat predictable, Creep is a cheerfully demented little indie horror film. It is a character study of two men- naive videographer and not-so-secretly psychotic recluse, the latter of which hires the former to come document his life out in a cabin in the woods. With excellent performances, this one stands high on the list and in the good books of the critics.

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6. The Endless (2017) 

Director: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead

Stars: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, Callie Hernandez, Tate Ellington

Rating: NR

Runtime: 111 minutes

Story Line: Two brothers receive a cryptic video message that inspires them to revisit the UFO death cult they escaped a decade earlier. Hoping to find the closure that they couldn’t as young men, their forced to reconsider the cult’s beliefs when confronted with unexplainable phenomena surrounding the camp. As the members prepare for the coming of a mysterious event, the brothers’ race to unravel the seemingly impossible truth before their lives become permanently entangled with the cult.

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7. The Invitation (2016) 

Director: Karyn Kusama

Stars: Logan Marshall-Green, Tammy Blanchard, Michiel Huisman, Emayatzy Corinealdi, John Carroll Lynch

Rating: N/A

Runtime: 100 minutes

Story Line: While attending a dinner party at his former house, a man (Logan Marshal-Green) starts to believe that his ex-wife (Tammy Blanchard) and her new husband (Michiel Huisman) have sinister plans for the guests.

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8. The Autopsy Of Jane Doe (2016)

Director: Andre Ovredal

Stars: Emile Hirsch, Brian Cox, Olwen Catherine Kelly

Rating: R

Runtime: 86 minutes

Story Line: When father and son coroners investigate the death of a beautiful ‘Jane Doe’, they find increasingly bizarre clues.

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9. Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (2010)

Director: Eli Craig

Stars: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss

Rating: R

Runtime: 89 minutes

Story Line: Tucker and Dale decide to go for a vacation to their cabin in the mountains. Their vacation takes a nasty turn when they are mistaken for chainsaw killers by a group of college students.

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10. It Comes At Night (2017) 

Director: Trey Edward Shults

Stars: Joel Edgerton, Christopher Abbott, Carmen Ejogo, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Riley Keough

Rating: R

Runtime: 91 minutes

Story Line: After a mysterious apocalypse leaves the world with a few survivors, two families are forced to share a home in an uneasy alliance to keep the outside evil at bay- only to learn that the true horror may come from within.

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11. Green Room (2015) 

Director: Jeremy Saulnier

Stars: Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Patrick Stewart, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, Callum Turner

Rating: R

Runtime: 95 minutes

Story Line: A punk rock band gets trapped in a secluded venue after finding a scene of violence. For what they saw, the band themselves become targets of violence from a gang of white power skinheads who want to eliminate all evidence of the crime.

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12. The Ring (2002) 

Director: Gore Verbinski

Stars: Naomi Watts, Martin Henderson, Brian Cox

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 115 minutes

Story Line: After her niece, Katie’s horrifying death, Rachel, a young journalist, investigates a mysterious videotape that kills its viewers within a week’s time from when they watch it.

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13. Mad Ron’s Prevues From Hell (1987) 

Director: Jim Monaco

Stars: Ron Roccia

Rating: N/A

Runtime: 83 minutes

Story Line: A deranged projectionist shows a theater full of zombies horror trailers from his collaboration. Its trailers like the likes of I Drink Your Blood and Blood Splattered Bride and I Dismember Mama, followed immediately by bad ventriloquist hi-jinks and zombie audience members pouring blood on their popcorn.

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14. Gerald’s Game (2017) 

Director: Mike Flanagan

Stars: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood

Rating: N/A

Runtime: 103 minutes

Story Line: A woman accidentally kills her husband during a kinky game that the two were playing. Handcuffed to her bed with no hope of rescue as they are in a secluded cabin, she begins hearing voices and seeing strange visions.

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15. Apostle (2018) 

Director: Gareth Evans

Stars: Dan  Stevens, Lucy Boynton, Mark Lewis Jones, Bill Milner, Michael Sheen

Rating: NR

Runtime: 129 minutes

Story Line: London, 1905. Prodigal son Thomas Richardson has returned home only to find that his sister is being held for ransom by a religious cult. Determined to get her back at any cost, Thomas travels to the idyllic island where the cult lives. As Thomas infiltrates the island’s community, he learns that the corruption of mainland society that they claim to reject has infested the cult’s ranks nonetheless- and uncovers a secret more evil than he could have imagined.

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16. Mohawk (2017)

Director: Ted Geoghegan

Stars: Kaniehtiio Horn, Eamon Farren, Justin Rain, Ezra Buzzington, Noah Seagan, Jonathan Huber

Rating: NR

Runtime: 91 minutes

Story Line: After one member of her tribe sets an American camp ablaze, a young Mohawk warrior finds herself pursued by a contingent of military renegades set on revenge. Fleeing deep into the woods they call home, Oak and Calvin, along with their British companion Joshua, must now fight against the bloodthirsty Col. Holt and his soldiers. They must use every resource that the forest can offer.

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17. Candyman (1992) 

Director: Bernard Rose

Stars: Virginia Madsen, Tony Todd, Xander Berkeley, Kasi Lemmons

Rating: R

Runtime: 10 minutes

Story Line: In the present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, Anthony and his girlfriend move into a loft in the now gentrified Cabrini. A chance encounter with an old-timer exposes Anthony to the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to use these macabre details in his studio as fresh gist for paintings, he unknowingly opens a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a terrifying wave of violence.

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18. The Platform (2019) 

Director: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia

Stars: Ivan Massague, Zorion Eguileor, Antonia San Juan, Emilio Buale Coka, Alexandra Masangkay

Rating: NR

Runtime: 94 minutes

Story Line: In the future, prisoners housed in vertical cells, watch as inmates in the upper cells are fed while those in the lower ones starve.

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19. Event Horizon (1997) 

Director: Paul W.S. Anderson

Stars: Sam Neill, Laurence Fishburne, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson

Rating: R

Runtime: 96 minutes

Story Line: A team of astronauts is sent to investigate a lost spacecraft that disappeared on its maiden voyage and has now returned.

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20. Hush (2016) 

Director: Mike Flanagan

Stars: John Gallagher Jr., Michael Trucco, Kate Siegel

Rating: R

Runtime: 81 minutes

Story Line: A deaf writer who retreated into the woods to live a solitary life must fight for her life in silence when a masked killer appears at her window.

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21. Cloverfield (2008) 

Director: Matt Reeves

Stars: Lizzy Caplan, Jessica Lucas, T.J. Miller, Michael Stahl-David, Mike Vogel, Odette Yustman

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 90 minutes

Story Line: After a giant monster attacks New York City, Rob, Hud, Lily and Marlena form a group and desperately try to rescue their friend Beth who is trapped in her apartment.

Trailer: 

22. Cargo (2018) 

Director: Yolanda Ramke, Ben Howling

Stars: Martin Freeman, Simone Landers, Anthony Hayes, David Gulpili, Susie Porter, Caren Pistorius

Rating: NR

Runtime: 105 minutes

Story Line: Stranded in rural Australia in the aftermath of a violent pandemic, an infected father desperately searches for a new home for his infant child and a means to protect her from his own changing nature.

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23. Under The Shadow (2016) 

Director: Babak Anvari

Stars: Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi, Ray Haratian, Arash Marandi

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 84 minutes

Story Line: After Shideh’s building is hit by a missile during the Iran-Iraq war, a superstitious neighbor suggests that the missile was cursed and might be carrying malevolent Middle-Eastern spirits. She becomes convinced that a supernatural force within the building is attempting to possess her daughter Dorsa, and she has no choice but to confront these forces if she is to save herself and her daughter.

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24. Cam (2018) 

Director: Daniel Goldhaber

Stars: Madeline Brewer, Patch Darragh, Melora Walters, Devin Druid, Imani Hakim, Michael Dempsey

Rating: NR

Runtime: 95 minutes

Story Line: A cam girl has her principles, that is until, a mysterious girl who looks exactly like her, takes over her channel.

Trailer: 

25. The Ritual (2017) 

Director: David Bruckner

Stars: Rafe Spall, Arsher Ali, Robert James-Collier, Sam Troughton

Rating: NR

Runtime: 94 minutes

Story Line: Reuniting after the tragic death of their friend, four college friends set out to hike through the Scandinavian wilderness. A wrong turn leads them into the mysterious forest of Norse legend, where an ancient evil exists and stalks them at every turn.

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26. Ravenous (2017) 

Director: Robin Aubert

Stars: Marc- Andre Grondin, Monia Chokri, Brigitte Poupart, Luc Proulx, Charlotte St-Martin

Rating: NR

Runtime: 96 minutes

Story Line: A small village in upstate Quebec is terrorized by a flesh eating plague breaking down residents’ bodies and turning them against their loved ones, while survivors flee for the woods.

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27. Insidious (2010)

Director: James Wan

Stars: Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, Barbara Hershey, Lin Shaye

Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 103 minutes

Story Line: Josh and Renai move to a new house, seeking a fresh start. However, when their son, Dalton, mysteriously falls into a coma, paranormal events start occurring in the house.

Trailer: 

28. The Babysitter (2017)

Director: McG

Stars: Samara Weaving, Judah Lewis, Hana Mae Lee, Robbie Amell, Bella Thorne

Rating: NR

Runtime: 85 minutes

Story Line: When Cole stays up past bedtime, he discovers that his hot babysitter is part of a secret satanic cult that will stop at nothing to keep him quiet.

Trailer: 

29. Veronica (2017) 

Director: Paco Plaza

Stars: Sandra Escacena

Rating: NR

Runtime: 105 minutes

Story Line: During a solar eclipse, young Veronica and her friend want to summon the spirit of Veronica’s father using an Ouija Boar. However, during the session she loses consciousness and soon it becomes clear that the demons have arrived.

Trailer: 

30. Child’s Play (1988)

Director: Tom Holland

Stars: Brad Dourif, Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon

Rating: R

Runtime: 87 minutes

Story Line: Karen buys her son Andy a sought after doll for his birthday and Andy names it Chucky. Things take a turn for the worse when Andy discovers that Chucky is possessed by the spirit of a serial killer.

Trailer: 

So here we have it, from aliens to paranormal activity, from serial killers to religious cults and all forms of torture and gore one can imagine, to world-ending pandemics, this list has it all! We hope this list resonates with you horror fans as much as it did with us!