10 Scary Movies to Stream on Shudder for Halloween

Halloween is on a Saturday this year, which means you’re clear to spend hours sprawled on your couch eating fun-sized candy bars and watching horror movies. If the spirit moves you, here are 13 favorites available on Shudder that will inject some genuine cinematic frights into the ghastliest night of the year. 1. Late Night With the Devil (2023) David Dastmalchian, so often seen in memorable supporting roles, makes good on his main character energy by playing an oily 1970s talk-show host hiding an awful secret. Hoping to boost his ratings, he schedules a live occult-themed episode to entice viewers on Halloween, and things do not go as planned. Styled as a documentary examining what really happened that night, Late Night With the Devil has an eerie story that’s cleverly couched in a note-perfect rendering of a bygone broadcast era. 2. Ghostwatch (1992) © BBC Ghostwatch surely influenced Late Night With the Devil, as well as countless other found-footage tales—with the added cultural cachet that when it originally aired on the BBC, some viewers believed they were watching a real news special, not a scripted story. Some terrified viewers, that is, because Ghostwatch purports to investigate a haunted house that eventually breaks containment, sending evil spirits through the TV sets of anyone who happened to be watching. Even if you know it’s fictional, it still feels equal parts totally authentic and freaky as hell. 3. Oddity (2024) Hokum signaled Damian McCarthy’s Hollywood breakthrough, but his previous film—about a blind woman investigating her sister’s murder with the help of her psychic powers and some malevolently enchanted objects—is still his most shriek-inducing. If this was a Conjuring movie, the wooden man and the murderous bellhop would’ve gotten their own spinoffs by now; thankfully, as it is, they exist only in this movie and probably several of your nightmares. 4. And Soon the Darkness (1970) Not the 2010 American remake. The uber-creepy 1970 British film about two young women whose cycling trip through rural France goes sideways when they realize they’re not really suited to be traveling companions. Things then turn completely upside down when one of them vanishes—and the other turns detective, realizing too late how much malice lurks in this seemingly idyllic countryside. 5. Lake Mungo (2008) This Australian mockumentary following a missing teenage girl soon morphs into a supernatural mystery involving some of the most unsettling “ghost caught on tape” imagery seen across the entire found-footage genre. If you really want to go deep, Shudder also has Lake Mungo Revisited, a three-and-a-half-hour documentary exploring the original film’s lasting impact, featuring famous fans like David Dastmalchian and Mike Flanagan. 6. Possession (1981) Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani play an unhappy couple in Cold War-era West Berlin—you can literally see the Berlin Wall from their grim apartment, though the divide between husband and wife somehow feels even more substantial. He doesn’t want to split up, but she’s determined, and the resulting clash results in maybe the most viscerally disturbing divorce story ever put to film. An absolute must-see under any circumstances, but particularly encouraged now that a Hollywood reimagining is on the way. 7. Session 9 (2001) What if Jack Torrance wasn’t a caretaker but a construction worker? And what if the Overlook Hotel wasn’t an off-season resort but an abandoned psychiatric hospital? Brad Anderson’s ensemble tale (including Peter Mullan, David Caruso, and Josh Lucas) follows an asbestos removal crew pressed into completing a major job on a compressed timeline, which would be tough enough even without supernatural forces conspiring against them. Atmospheric heft comes courtesy of the filming location, the hulking, crumbling, and probably actually haunted Danvers State Hospital, which opened in the 1870s and was said to have inspired H.P. Lovecraft. 8. Speak No Evil (2022) Make sure it’s the truly shocking original European version, not the 2024 American remake that softens its brutal ending. Speak No Evil offers an excruciating lesson in why acting agreeable and polite when your gut is screaming at you that something is very, very wrong is not the way to go through life. That goes double if you impulsively decide a weekend getaway with those lovely people you met on vacation (but barely know) seems like a perfectly safe, nice thing to do. 9. The Descent (2005) All the elements are in place for high-tension drama as a group of adventure-seeking women—some of whom are harboring intense personal beef with others—decide to explore an unmapped cave deep in the wilderness. Those seething feelings don’t stay hidden for long, though the sensation of white-hot fear surges to the fore when the friends realize they’re not alone underground. 10. When Evil Lurks (2023) Demián Rugna’s outstandingly gory When Evil Lurks immediately vaulted into the possession movie hall of fame as soon as it hit screens. Somehow, the Argentine writer-director made a familiar story feel fresh again, serving up an uneasy mix of unpredictability and relentless bleakness. Want more io9 news? Check out the best movies and TV shows to stream this month and all the upcoming sci-fi, fantasy, and horror books that should be on your radar.