If you need to get spooked now, NOW is a great option, with classic and contemporary horror hits aplenty. Rory Doherty has picked some of the very best.
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* Everything streaming on NOW
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Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Watch on NOWWhat if a whodunnit was filled with narcissists? Okay, there have been a couple already (Knives Out, any Agatha Christie adaptation…) but this gnawingly tense portrait of Gen Z narcissism takes a confident stab at cults of victimhood that toxic people protect themselves with, while also showing director Halina Reijn’s deftness at staging suspenseful setpieces. Rarely will you root so passionately for a cast to be killed off!
The Conjuring (2013)
Watch on NOWJames Wan was really onto a winner with this fictionalised series on Ed and Lorraine Warren, real-life demonologists who dealt with countless hauntings and possessions. A lot of fans love this entry the best; it introduces us to the winning duo of actors Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, as well as a certain spooky doll who’d take the horror world by storm. Finely crafted dread and scary setpieces made this haunting film something special.
The Conjuring 2 (2016)
Watch on NOWJames Wan was reportedly offered an insane amount of money to helm the next Fast & Furious film, but his hankering for horror drew him back to his Conjuring world. Now set in England and covering one of the most famous British hauntings, the Enfield poltergeist, Wan elected to bolster the characters as much as the spookiness, delivering an incredibly satisfying horror film that makes you think the Warrens would do their best to save you.
From Dusk till Dawn (1996)
Watch on NOWIs the best kind of horror movie one where the characters don’t realise they’re in one? With From Dusk till Dawn, there’s a strong case for the answer being “yes”. One of a few Tarantino-scripted 90s films that he didn’t direct, Robert Rodrigo’s blood-sucking romp offers something no other vampire movie is brave enough to do: make Danny Trejo a hissing, fanged incubus. It meshes as many visual styles as it does genres, delivering a pulpy and nasty ride.
Halloween Ends (2022)
Watch on NOWDirector David Gordon Green may have lost most of his goodwill with the cluttered, baffling Halloween Kills (below), but this (supposedly) final entry actually injects some novel ideas into not just a lopsided trilogy but an uneven, dormant franchise. With Michael Myers’ longevity in question, Green turns to the next generation of vengeful killers, exploring in lurching, brutal fashion how evil can infect and spread among the dispossessed.
Hellraiser (1987)
Watch on NOWWe have such sights to show you. Most of these sights, announced by Pinhead (Doug Bradley, here only credited as Lead Cenobite) involve a puddle of goop gradually retaking human shape in disgusting detail, with Pinhead’s masochistic interdimensional religious order making brief appearances. But Clive Barker’s directorial debut still packs a shocking and depraved punch. Never has a film set in America been more clearly filmed in Britain, but that just adds to the diseased vibe of everything.
Insidious (2011)
Watch on NOWBefore going toe-to-toe with Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man 3 and dinosaurs in Jurassic World, Ty Simpkins had to battle demons inside Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne’s house, as they realise their home isn’t haunted—but their kid is. It’s packed with fantastical weirdness and slick camerawork, as well as one memorable Darth Maul lookalike.
Krampus (2015)
Watch on NOWAn excellent gateway horror for younger fans, Krampus is the rare Christmas-set horror that’s actually about Christmas. Well, sort of. It’s about a European folklore anti-Santa demon who takes the concept of a naughty list a bit far. A difficult family Christmas gets invaded by waves of twisted Christmas creatures in a film that stays on the right side of goofy; despite the holly jolly appearance of all the monsters, they’re treated as legitimately terrifying threats. Humbug indeed.
Nope (2022)
Watch on NOWEver thought Close Encounters of the Third Kind wasn’t enough like Jaws? Thankfully, Jordan Peele was eager to subvert Spielbergian wonder, injecting enough social commentary to keep our brains buzzing once the thrills die down. The unknown, and how it sees us puny humans, is absolutely terrifying, and Nope enjoys its horror side-by-side with open-mouthed awe—an experience that’s too often missing from the dark corridors and shadowy killers that fill the genre.
Paranormal Activity (2007)
Watch on NOWFor today’s generation, it’s tough to ascertain how much of a grip films like The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity had on their audiences. They were both bolstered by online marketing campaigns that brewed incredible hype, and the extremely low-budget filmmaking fooled a lot of people into thinking their lo-fi horrors were real. If you buy into the character drama, there’s no doubt this found-footage haunting story will majorly freak you out.
The Purge (2013)
Watch on NOWA lot of people complained that The Purge didn’t meet its full potential straight out of the gate—if you invent a world where all crime is legal for one night, don’t set everything in one house!—but these detractors would get what they want in the four sequels. This film takes a hyper-focused look at an expansive concept—a wealthy home’s invasion—to dial up the class-based terror about how we profit off misery.
The Purge: Anarchy (2014)
Watch on NOWNow we’re finally getting into it. The class politics of The Purge-verse were never its strongest suit, but now it properly delivered on the all-out war promised by the premise. Frank Grillo, king of B-movie action, is a mercenary using his particular set of skills against the maddened purgers, and the film really sells you on the paralysing fear of having nowhere to run for 12 hours.
The Purge: Election Year (2016)
Watch on NOWAll horror movies are in some way political, but not many of them are audacious enough to put Election Year in their title—especially in 2016. The dynamics and workings of the Purge feel most confident here, as are the mask-wearing vigilante horror scenes. But if you’re invested in the world of the Purge, this film will prove the most rewarding: the characters feel more human and fleshed-out than ever before.
Resurrection (2022)
Watch on NOWHorror is filled with performances from actresses going completely nuts, and this delirious, maddening turn from Rebecca Hall as a mother who finds herself ensnared in the grip of a former abuser (Tim Roth) is one for the history books. Director Andrew Semans’ crisp camerawork shows every pulsing vein and drop of sweat as we watch someone be pulled apart before forging a new, sick way of taking back control.
Scream (1996)
Watch on NOWA bonafide masterpiece of comedy-horror, Wes Craven’s slasher pastiche represented the third consecutive decade in which he reinvented the scary genre. Its characters are compelling and the performances are faultless (whatever Matthew Lillard does in this film must be documented and studied), but most of all, the mystery is engaging and the horror sequences are well-made. It opens with an iconic set-piece that is still being ripped off today, and only goes up from there. A whale of a time!
Scream 2 (1997)
Watch on NOWLess than 12 months later, Craven et al gave us another entry in what was now a hit franchise. Relocating Sidney Prescott to a college campus where she is constantly harassed by the ghosts of her past, a new mystery demands to be unravelled, new zany characters appear to be suspects, and new chases from Ghostface had to be evaded. The masked killer was now a guise to be adopted by subsequent vengeful maniacs, and enough of the original’s spirit lasted to make this a fantastically fun ride.
Scream 3 (2000)
Watch on NOWThe most maligned entry into the slasher-send-up franchise is actually…not that bad? It takes advantage of the sequels’ greatest invention: that the events depicted in the Scream films get adapted for the screen via in-universe film series Stab, and this film takes place in Hollywood during production of the third film. There’s a great deal of Hollywood parodying (nice Carrie Fisher cameo), and even though its commentary on horror movies gets the most hazy (what even is a horror trilogy?) Wes Craven proved there’s no such thing as a bad Scream movie when he’s behind the camera.
Sinister (2012)
Watch on NOWIf you were about 14 when this film came out, the trailer alone was enough to scar you for life—and watching the film will reduce you to a terrified teen once more. Very much in the spirit of Stephen King’s writing (it features an alcoholic writer with family dysfunction written all over him), an attic discovery of scratchy celluloid reels of snuff films leads to a pagan demon coming after our protagonist’s kids. Some people have the worst luck.
The Woman in Black (2012)
Watch on NOWDaniel Radcliffe’s first film after Harry Potter, iconic British horror studio Hammer’s return to the screen, the first horror movie a generation of 12 year olds could see in the cinema—the adaptation of Susan Hill’s ghost story was a lot of firsts. Previously seen on stage and TV, the story was injected with new, flashy life to terrify audiences with some well-crafted jumpscares and a building sense of dread.
This guide is regularly updated to reflect changes in NOW‘s catalogue. For a list of capsule reviews that have been removed from this page because they are no longer available on the platform, visit here.
