The time is upon us! Halloween is coming in fast, and October presents us with 31 days to fill with spine-chilling, blood-curdling, skin-pebbling horror movies. But why break the bank on your scares when there are so many great movies streaming for free across Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime?
Related: The 10 Most Disturbing Horror Movies of All Time
Whether you like to see movie monsters celebrated since the inception of the genre, demonic possessions that will make your head spin, or good old-fashioned human-based terrors, this month has a little bit of everything in store. From staples like Signs and Queen of the Damned to a whole plethora of original content like There's Someone Inside Your House and Black as Night, these flicks will deliver the perfect Halloween.
Without further ado, here are the best movies coming to streaming services this October.
Netflix
The Cave
Many years following the cave in of a church in communist Romania's Carpathians, a scientific team explores a vast and flooded cave system in order to investigate the corresponding Templar Knights monster fighting-legend. Brilliant diving brothers Jack (Cole Hauser) and Tyler McAllister (Eddie Cibrian) are hired to lead the expedition, but an explosion soon traps them within the system. Confined in the watery tunnels, they find a parasite which turns any species carnivorous. But that's not all they find, and they're not alone. Following them through the caves are an independently evolved predator species...
There's Someone Inside Your House
What spooky season is complete without a teen slasher? This new Netflix original tries to add something fresh to the classic genre.
The seniors of Nebraska's Osborne High are being stalked by a terrifying masked assailant—an assailant determined to reveal his victim's darkest secrets. But these teens aren't going down easy. A group of misfits led by new kid Makani Young (Sydney Park) set out to do what the police can't: find the killer. With her own mysterious past, Makani is ready to unveil the assailant's identity before she's the next one in the morgue.
Insidious: Chapter 2
Following the events of Insidious, the Lambert family goes to stay with Josh's (Patrick Wilson) mother, Lorraine (Barbara Hershey). But though they are trying to run from the terrors of the last film, the things on the other side are content to follow them. Renai (Rose Byrne) notices things awry first—the piano playing on its own and the baby chair moving with no help. The Victorian woman in the house wants their baby, and Josh has started acting strange.
Hypnotic
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- Photo Credit: The Long Game
A woman in search of self-improvement turns to an unusual source. Working with an acclaimed hypnotherapist, the first handful of sessions are incredibly intense. But soon she finds the consequences of their work together are not just unexpected, but deadly.
This film has a great cast, including Kate Siegel, Jason O'Mara, and Dulé Hill.
Army of Thieves
If you enjoyed Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead, then you won't want to miss this prequel to the gripping events. This film centers around German safecracker Ludwig Dieter (Matthias Schweighöfer). In the beginning days of the zombie apocalypse, he guides a group of newbie thieves through a daring heist. And though there may be less undead in this film, it's still rife with danger.
Related: 8 Zombie Horror Movies Every Horror Lover Needs to See
Hulu
Dead of Winter
This thriller from 1987 will chill you to the bone. Struggling actress Katie McGovern (Mary Steenburgen) impresses casting director Mr. Murray (Roddy McDowall) at an audition—and it gets her in a world of trouble. Murray explains that his production is looking to find someone who looks similar to an actress who walked off set last week, and Katie will be paid an impressive sum to show up at a remote mansion to film a taped audition for the director. When a snow storm rolls in, she soon discovers she's been pulled to the center of a deadly blackmail scheme.
Exorcist: The Beginning
If you love the horror classic The Exorcist, catch this 2004 prequel to learn how it all started. Archeologist Lankester Merrin (Stellan Skarsgård) travels to East Africa to excavate a church buried beneath the sand. An ordained Roman Catholic priest haunted by his actions during World War II, he now turns away from religion and belief. Yet the religious relics he finds from a time even before Christianity fascinate him. But as gloom and madness overtakes the worksite, Merrin must re-examine his own lack of faith as he stands off against the devil.
Related: 13 Possession Horror Movies That Will Get Under Your Skin
Resident Evil: Retribution
The fifth film in the Resident Evil franchise, sees Alice (Milla Jovovich) held captive within an Umbrella Corporation testing facility. When the computer system shuts down, she makes her break for it, teaming up with Ada Wong (Bingbing Li) to survive long enough to be rescued by the five-man team sent for them. However, survival is further complicated as they're also being hunted by Jill Valentine (Sienna Guillory) and Rain (Michelle Rodriguez).
Related: Every Resident Evil Game, Ranked by Most to Least Frightening
Queen of the Damned
A loose sequel to Interview with the Vampire, Lestat (Stuart Townsend) awakens after a long sleep to the sounds of punk rock music. This awakening fuels him to become the leader of an undead band, but his music awakens yet another vampire—Queen Akasha (Aaliyah), the first vampire. Akasha sets out to make Lestat her king, but her designs on dominating humankind send him to other vampire nobility for help.
Related: 19 Vampire Movies that will Make Your Blood Run Cold
Signs
A classic from M. Night Shyamalan, this movie follows the Hess family, tucked away together on a Pennsylvania farm. The father, preacher Graham Hess (Mel Gibson) has turned his back on religion after the death of his wife. His brother Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix), an ex-Minor League baseball player, lives with him to help look after the children. When crop circles begin to appear all over the world, the family bands together to survive what they believe to be alien activity.
Amazon Prime
Bingo Hell
One of the many original new movies coming to the streaming service this October, Bingo Hell brings horror and comedy together in one delightful romp. Lupita (Adriana Barraza) and her other elderly cohorts in the Barrio of Oak Springs refuse to see their home become gentrified. They have been brought together as a community in their beloved Bingo Hall, but their haven has been sold to a much more nefarious source than just capitalism...
Black as Night
This Amazon Prime Original centers around a teenage girl (Asjha Cooper) who struggles with low self-esteem. It's a fairly typical problem for girls, but this teen gains confidence in a not-so-typical way—by fighting vampires. Alongside her best friend, an odd rich girl, and the boy she's harbored a crush on for years, she helps to keep New Orlean's disenfranchised safe from a blood-thirsty threat.
The Last Exorcism
This skin-crawling 2010 flick is framed as a documentary. Evangelical Reverend Cotton Marcus of Baton Rouge, Louisiana—raised since birth to be a man of faith—agrees to let a film crew document his life. Cotton has been questioning his faith since the troublesome delivery of his son, and he admits to the filmmakers that he believes exorcisms to be scams, though they bring peace to those who believe in them. However, when a farmer asks him to perform an exorcism on his daughter, but the problems the girl faces are far beyond anything Cotton's tricks can aid.
Madres
Another Amazon Prime Original, Madres centers around a young Mexican-American couple in the 1970s. With their first child on the way, they relocate to a migrant farming community in California. The mother-to-be begins to experience symptoms far stranger than any other expectant mother has seen, including terrifying visions. Is the root of her troubles a legendary curse, or something far more sinister at work?
The Manor
Yet another Amazon Prime original, this last horror offering follows Judith Albright (Barbara Hershey), who has just suffered a stroke. As she's placed into an historic nursing home, she soon comes to the belief that the residents have been falling victim to a supernatural entity. In a bid for her survival, she sets about escaping by trying to convince everyone around her that she never belonged there in the first place.
