The 31 best horror movies on HBO Max

The Brood (1979)

David Cronenberg’s spin on the rise of psychotherapy in the late-’70s is a body horror classic. Samantha Eggar plays Nola, a mentally disturbed woman who is undergoing a controversial form of therapy under Dr. Hal Raglan (Oliver Reed). Nola’s ex-husband is concerned with the doctor’s techniques, especially when their young daughter is harmed after a visit with her mother. What unfolds from there is a wild trip through Cronenberg’s imagination, with the writer-director penning the film following his own divorce.

The Brood was released the same year as the Oscar-winning divorce drama Kramer vs. Kramer, and while the former film plays within the world of science fiction, it may be even more illuminating about the discourse at the time surrounding the dissolution of marriage. —Kevin Jacobsen

Where to watch The Brood: HBO Max

Director: David Cronenberg

Cast: Oliver Reed, Samantha Eggar, Art Hindle Nuala Fitzgerald, Henry Beckman, Susan Hogan, Cindy Hinds

Carnival of Souls (1962)

After surviving a near-fatal car accident, a young church organist (Candace Hilligoss) tries to move on with her life, but remains haunted by visions of the undead. She also navigates an awkward romance, a strange employer, and an inconsistent but intense feeling that she doesn’t exist at all. In the years since its release, Carnival of Souls has become one of the most influential and beloved independent horror films ever made.

“Souls offers elegant black-and-white cinematography (by the director), a canny use of locations, a leading lady with an offbeat, saucer-eyed beauty, and a script that sustains its Twilight Zone-style mystery,” EW’s Steve Simels writes. “[It] ultimately benefits from its rough-hewn amateurism. The fact that it couldn’t look less Hollywood serves to make the supernatural elements that much more resonant. The picture finally draws you in; it’s like watching someone else’s nightmare.” —Wesley Stenzel

Where to watch Carnival of Souls: HBO Max

Director: Herk Harvey

Cast: Candace Hilligoss, Sidney Berger

Carrie (1976)

Shy outcast Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) is mercilessly mocked by her high-school peers in this horror classic, adapted from Stephen King’s first novel. Little do they know that she possesses telekinetic powers, and when she finally uses them to seek revenge on the bullies who wronged her, she makes their prom a night to remember, indeed. Featuring a sensitive turn from Spacek and a haunting Piper Laurie as Carrie’s dangerously religious mother, Carrie is timeless not only for its fiery prom scene and horror imagery but for its allegory of a girl growing up in small-town America. After all, discovering you have telekinetic powers is nothing compared to the terrors of high school — and those that await you at home. —K.J.

Where to watch Carrie: HBO Max

Director: Brian De Palma

Cast: Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, Betty Buckley, Nancy Allen, William Katt, John Travolta, P.J. Soles

Child’s Play (1988)

The film, which introduced the world to Chucky the killer doll with a plot that’s as delightfully asinine as its antagonist, stars Catherine Hicks as a desperate mother trying to convince a detective (Chris Sarandon) that her young son (Alex Vincent) was framed for murder by his inanimate playmate. Brad Dourif provides the voice of Chucky, and also briefly appears as the human serial killer who transfers his spirit into the doll. Child’s Play is as funny as it is scary, thanks to the ridiculous image of its fun-sized killer. “All the long-repressed fears from sleepless childhood nights in my stuffed-animal-packed bedroom (is there something sinister behind Raggedy Ann’s smile?) surge to the surface as Chucky morphs from cherubic toy to scowling sociopath and back again,” writes EW’s critic. —W.S.

Where to watch Child’s Play: HBO Max

Director: Tom Holland

Cast: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Brad Dourif

Companion (2025)

As artificial intelligence and automation become more and more prevalent, it’s inevitable that such tools will be used for truly nefarious purposes. This is demonstrated quite plainly in this twisty sci-fi horror thriller from producer Zach Cregger, who previously directed 2022’s Barbarian. Companion follows a young woman named Iris (Sophie Thatcher) who discovers she’s actually a robot designed to fulfill her boyfriend’s (Jack Quaid) every desire. After Iris kills a man at their weekend getaway with friends, all hell breaks loose as Iris escapes and we learn that her boyfriend isn’t the “nice guy” he purports himself to be. EW’s critic calls Companion “a hell of an invigorating revenge fantasy, made all the more satisfying by its own winking self-awareness.” —K.J.

Where to watch Companion: HBO Max

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Drew Hancock

Cast: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén, Rupert Friend

The Conjuring (2013)

The first Conjuring film helped launch a billion-dollar franchise with a winning formula for modern-day horror, combining demonic spirits, jump scares, and a chilling based-on-a-true-story hook. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga play real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who are summoned to a seemingly haunted Rhode Island farmhouse to ward off a demon. While multiple sequels and spinoffs have spawned in the years since, nothing matches The Conjuring in providing genuine, classic horror for an era of jaded moviegoers. —K.J.

Where to watch The Conjuring: HBO Max

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: James Wan

Cast: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Ron Livingston, Lili Taylor

Cronos (1993)

The debut feature from Guillermo del Toro, Cronos tells the story of an older man (Federico Luppi) who discovers a mystical amulet that gives him a more energized, youthful demeanor — at a cost. The film explores mortality, addiction, and family with a story that fuses vampirism with Cronenbergian body horror. Cronos marries crowd-pleasing horror elements with highbrow filmmaking sensibilities into “an art-house flick that would be equally at home in the grind house,” as EW’s critic writes. “Part Hellraiser, part The Name of the Rose… Cronos’ shocks may be few, but its raw, bare-bones F/X and deliberate pacing make it a refreshing alternative to the typical Hollywood bloodsucker.” —W.S.

Where to watch Cronos: HBO Max

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Cast: Federico Luppi, Ron Perlman, Claudio Brook, Margarita Isabel, Tamara Shanath

Eraserhead (1977)

In David Lynch’s debut feature, a young man (Jack Nance) struggles to adapt to fatherhood as he cares for his unusual baby in a black-and-white, industrially dismaying world. The film is a harrowing, surreal dream of young adult anxiety, tensely contemplating marriage and parenting with off-kilter sets and swirling sound design that enhance the film’s discomfort. As Lynch’s career has evolved, his first film has gained a strong cult following, and many filmmakers cite it as a favorite, including Gretel & Hansel director Osgood Perkins. “Eraserhead is the most disturbing, beautiful, textural, silent nightmare that I think has ever been made,” Perkins told EW in an interview. “I don’t think that they will make another one like that any time soon.” —W.S.

Where to watch Eraserhead: HBO Max

Director: David Lynch

Cast: Jack Nance, Charlotte Stewart, Allen Joseph, Jeanne Bates, Judith Roberts

Evil Dead Rise (2023)

This fifth entry in the Evil Dead film series tested so well that Warner Bros. opted to release it in theaters rather than its intended streaming-only release. The jump-scare-laden film follows Beth (Lily Sullivan) as she visits her sister Ellie (Alyssa Sutherland) and Ellie’s kids, one of whom has inadvertently summoned the demonic Deadites. Ellie is soon possessed and attacks her family, leading to terrifying consequences.

Like some of the best horror films, Evil Dead Rise deals in themes of motherhood, drawing genuine scares from Ellie threatening the lives of her own children. It’s horrifying and gory in the grand tradition of the Evil Dead franchise, and you won’t get that “Mommy’s with the maggots now” line out of your head. —K.J.

Where to watch Evil Dead Rise: HBO Max

Director: Lee Cronin

Cast: Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols, Nell Fisher

Eyes Without a Face (1960)

As most fans of the genre know, critical reception for horror films doesn’t always get it right initially. Such is the case with Eyes Without a Face, which met a chilly response in its initial release in 1960 but has since earned a reputation as one of the best French horror films ever made. Pierre Brasseur plays Dr. Génessier, a physician racked with guilt over causing his daughter’s disfigurement in a car accident. His guilt manifests in kidnapping young women, removing their faces through surgery, and attempting to transplant them onto his daughter.

The haunting film may not have traditional jump scares but its disturbing plot is straight out of a Gothic fairy tale. No wonder Guillermo del Toro rates it as his favorite horror movie. —K.J.

Where to watch Eyes Without a Face: HBO Max

Director: Georges Franju

Cast: Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Juliette Mayniel, Alexandre Rignault, Béatrice Altariba, François Guérin, Édith Scob

Get Out (2017)

Few films in recent memory have had the kind of impact as Get Out, Jordan Peele’s 2017 feature directorial debut, on the horror movie landscape. The story of Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya), a Black man who goes on a trip to meet his white girlfriend’s parents, takes many twists and turns as he realizes they have sinister plans for him beneath their placid smiles. Blending trenchant social commentary with genuine thrills, the film explores terror on both a surface and subconscious level as Chris tries to escape his dreadful fate — one that is arguably worse than death. Peele won an Oscar for his screenplay, while the film itself was nominated for Best Picture, a rarity for the horror genre. —K.J.

Where to watch Get Out: HBO Max

EW grade: B (read the review)

Director: Jordan Peele

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, Catherine Keener

Häxan (1922)

This Swedish silent film examines the history of witchcraft through a combination of documentary-style explanation and dramatized segments. It’s partially inspired by director Benjamin Christensen’s research on the German text Malleus Maleficarum, a guide to witchcraft for inquisitors looking to persecute its perpetrators.

Häxan is so informative that it plays out like a brilliant college lecture, yet there’s also immense artistry in all of its narrative moments. Thanks largely to gorgeous costumes and set designs, the beautifully grotesque renderings of witches and demons during the film’s surreal moments are absolutely jaw-dropping, even if you think you’re averse to silent movies (or the occult). The whole project ties together as a powerful critique of modern mental health stigmas and sexism, as history’s witch hunts were byproducts of multiple layers of prejudice and misunderstanding. —W.S.

Where to watch Häxan: HBO Max

Director: Benjamin Christensen

Cast: Benjamin Christensen, Clara Pontoppidan, Oscar Stribolt, Astrid Holm, Maren Pedersen

Heretic (2024)

Some horror movies get their scares from supernatural boogeymen or masked murderers. Heretic features something even scarier: a smug know-it-all lecturing you about religion in a house you can’t leave. Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East star in this darkly comedic horror film as Mormon missionaries forced to endure the mind games of a man they’re hoping to convert, the enigmatic Mr. Reed (a scenery-chewing Hugh Grant). “Heretic keeps you guessing,” writes EW’s critic, “obscuring its plot twists and holding back Reed’s sinuous motives and master plan.” —K.J.

Where to watch Heretic: HBO Max

EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Directors: Scott Beck, Bryan Woods

Cast: Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, Chloe East

House (Hausu) (1977)

A group of schoolgirls try to escape a demonic haunted house in this cult classic from Japan. The film from Nobuhiko Obayashi is as much a comedy as it is a horror movie, as the supernatural scares are so ridiculous and unpredictable that you can’t help but laugh at the film’s over-the-top style. House experiments with tons of surreal techniques that make the film feel like a bizarre dream — there are wacky transitions, stylized backdrops, bursts of stop-motion and hand-drawn animation, wild color filters, jarring soundtrack choices, and dizzying camera movements.

Obayashi conceived of the film through conversations with his young daughter, who brought an unusual childlike perspective to his conception of a horror film. As a result, House is unlike any movie you’ve ever seen, and you’re not likely to forget some of its most daring imagery. —W.S.

Where to watch House: HBO Max

Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi

Cast: Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Ai Matubara, Kumiko Oba, Mieko Sato, Eriko Tanaka, Masayo Miyako, Yōko Minamida

I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

This critically acclaimed indie horror drama explores the existential fear of feeling alienated by one’s surroundings and not knowing what to do about it. Owen (Justice Smith) and his friend Maddy (Jack Haven) grow up watching a Buffy the Vampire Slayer-esque teen drama called The Pink Opaque, to which they are profoundly connected. Years later, Maddy reunites with Owen, reveals she’s been living inside The Pink Opaque, and urges Owen to consider joining her.

Writer-director Jane Schoenbrun’s surrealist yet empathetic vision is brilliantly realized through haunting imagery and a potent mixture of themes relating to our relationship to media, our increasing isolation, and the queer experience. —K.J.

Where to watch I Saw the TV Glow: HBO Max

Director: Jane Schoenbrun

Cast: Justice Smith, Jack Haven, Helena Howard, Lindsey Jordan, Conner O’Malley, Emma Portner, Ian Foreman, Fred Durst, Danielle Deadwyler

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

Being a bureaucrat is confounding enough, but when a San Francisco Health Department worker (Donald Sutherland) notices unusual changes in his peers’ behavior, things only get more puzzling as he sets out to learn the truth. As the title implies, all signs in Philip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers point to aliens, who have been systemically replacing the people of Earth with otherworldly doppelgängers.

Kaufman’s tense alien paranoia film is based on Jack Finney’s 1955 novel The Body Snatchers, which has proven to be popular source material. The book has spawned numerous cinematic adaptations, including a 1956 version by Don Siegel, though EW’s critic asserts that the 1978 film is the best of the bunch. “Kaufman’s remake is more specifically satiric, placing the pods in groovy San Francisco and implying that Me Generation self-absorption has created a race of zombies without any alien intervention.” —W.S.

Where to watch Invasion of the Body Snatchers: HBO Max

Director: Philip Kaufman

Cast: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright

It (2017)

The first of a two-part film adaptation of Stephen King’s iconic novel/doorstopper, It set the record as the highest-grossing horror film of all time at the domestic box office. It’s easy to see why, considering the enduring image of Pennywise that’s haunted readers for decades. Set in the fictional town of Derry, Maine, a group of outcast kids must survive the taunting sewer-dwelling clown, who forces them to confront their deepest fears.

EW’s critic made note of the great timing of It‘s release, following the success of a certain sci-fi/horror show, which had just premiered the previous year. “Just as there’s no denying that a series like Stranger Things wouldn’t exist without King’s It, there’s also no question that Stranger Things informs the way that It paints its band of nerdy young misfits and the fears they carry around inside them,” he writes. “The two are in a dialogue with each other.” —K.J.

Where to watch It: HBO Max

Director: Andy Muschietti

Cast: Jaeden Martell, Bill Skarsgård, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Sophia Lillis, Finn Wolfhard, Wyatt Oleff, Chosen Jacobs, Jack Dylan Grazer, Nicholas Hamilton, Jackson Robert Scott

It Follows (2015)

Horror movies have frequently used intimacy to explore primal fears, as this indie breakout does to a frightening effect. Jay (Maika Monroe) is a young woman who learns after having sex with her boyfriend that he has passed a curse onto her. She is soon stalked by an entity with murderous intentions taking a human form, which, as her boyfriend explains, will continue to do so until she has sex with another person. EW’s critic describes It Follows as a “dizzyingly tense and creepy workout,” one that taps into powerful feelings of dread. —K.J.

Where to watch It Follows: HBO Max

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: David Robert Mitchell

Cast: Maika Monroe, Keir Gilchrist, Jake Weary, Lili Sepe, Olivia Luccardi

Kwaidan (1964)

Masaki Kobayashi, director of Harakiri and The Human Condition trilogy, crafted this three-hour anthology film, which tells four unrelated ghost stories based on the collections of writer Lafcadio Hearn. They’re mysterious folktales that meditate on love, loyalty, and storytelling, where clear moral lessons are extracted from puzzling worlds. Kwaidan has a lot to offer besides its nightmarish atmosphere, delving into romantic tragedy, war narratives, and fantasy. It boasts incredible, hyper-stylized production design, with surreal backdrops and painterly attention to detail in every frame, and is scored by fantastic, disorienting music from composer Tōru Takemitsu, which, at its best moments, makes you feel as though you’re being hypnotized. —W.S.

Where to watch Kwaidan: HBO Max

Director: Masaki Kobayashi

Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Rentarō Mikuni, Tetsurō Tamba, Keiko Kishi, Michiyo Aratama, Misako Watanabe, Yoichi Hayashi, Katsuo Nakamura, Osamu Takizawa, Haruko Sugimura, Nakamura Kan’emon, Nakamura Ganjirō II

The Lighthouse (2019)

Robert Pattinson gradually loses his mind while working as a 19th-century lighthouse keeper. His supervisor, Willem Dafoe, may have already lost his. If this isn’t enough to sell you on The Lighthouse, Robert Eggers’ psychological horror fable shot in striking black and white, we don’t know what else will. Pattinson plays Ephraim Winslow, a young keeper withholding a dark secret from his past who comes to work at a coastal New England lighthouse under the guidance of Dafoe’s crusty veteran, Thomas Wake. After a nasty storm prevents them from leaving the lighthouse, Ephraim begins to unravel as he contemplates murder.

Eggers’ fully realized vision is executed with darkly entertaining glee, and Pattinson and Dafoe deliver some of their most committed performances to date. “With its pirate-y patois and meandering, bare-boned plot — is hardly the stuff of a Saturday cineplex,” EW’s critic notes. “But in its final galvanizing moments, Eggers finds something both stranger and better: pure, wild wonder.” —K.J.

Where to watch The Lighthouse: HBO Max
EW grade: B+ (read the review)

Director: Robert Eggers

Cast: Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe

Night of the Living Dead (1968)

George Romero’s landmark independent horror classic established a new language for how moviegoers understood zombies as the slow-moving, flesh-eating undead creatures we know them to be. Night of the Living Dead centers all the action at a farmhouse, where seven people attempt to ward off the ghouls — without any prior knowledge of how to do so. Romero’s film can be enjoyed on multiple levels: as a potent allegory for the Vietnam War, which was raging at the time of its initial release, or as simply a gnarly zombie B-movie. —K.J.

Where to watch Night of the Living Dead: HBO Max

Director: George Romero

Cast: Judith O’Dea, Duane Jones, Marilyn Eastman, Karl Hardman, Judith Ridley, Keith Wayne

Pearl (2022)

Somewhere, over the rainbow, there’s a young woman with homicidal tendencies. Having previously introduced Pearl as an elderly killer in X (2022), Ti West gave us this origin story that combines grisly horror with Old Hollywood melodrama. Mia Goth reprised her role (this time without layers of makeup), playing a young, starry-eyed Pearl with dreams of becoming a movie star. Unfortunately, as much as she tries to escape her repressed life on the farm, her disturbed mental state gets in the way, setting her on a path of destruction and disappointment.

First and foremost, Pearl is a showcase for its fearless lead actress, and Goth dives deep into the damaged psyche of the title character. “Her babyish cheeks and slightly spaced delivery have never been put to better ends,” writes EW’s critic. —K.J.

Where to watch Pearl: HBO Max

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: Ti West

Cast: Mia Goth, Emma Jenkins, Tandi Wright, David Corenswet, Alistair Sewell

Scanners (1981)

This sci-fi horror cult classic from David Cronenberg contains one of the most famous demonstrations of practical effects in film history. That, er, explosive moment may be Scanners‘ most memorable scene, but the rest of the film is a fun ride about a select group of people with psychic powers, some of whom use them for bad. The film centers on Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack), who learns that the voices in his head are actually telepathic abilities and finds himself embroiled in a war between his fellow scanners. —K.J.

Where to watch Scanners: HBO Max

Director: David Cronenberg

Cast: Jennifer O’Neill, Stephen Lack, Patrick McGoohan, Lawrence Dane, Michael Ironside

Scream (1996)

“What’s your favorite scary movie?” For many horror fans, it’s this loving satire of the genre, which has since spawned various sequels in classic horror movie fashion. But it’s hard not to be nostalgic for the 1996 original, which centers on the inhabitants of the small town of Woodsboro as they contend with a Ghostface mask-wearing serial killer.

Featuring one of the most iconic openings in horror movie history, as well as the debut of ultimate “final girl” Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), the original Scream has cemented its place in the pop culture pantheon, but its brilliance also lies in just how rewatchable it is. From the garage incident with Tatum (Rose McGowan) to its killer reveal, it still doesn’t lose its punch, which is more than can be said for some horror movies that rely solely on jump scares without making you really care about the characters. —K.J.

Where to watch Scream: HBO Max

Director: Wes Craven

Cast: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, Drew Barrymore

Sinners (2025)

Ryan Coogler blended numerous influences in crafting this thought-provoking horror drama, from the monster movie thrills of The Thing (1982) to the Southern gothic atmospherics of Eve’s Bayou (1997). The film stars Michael B. Jordan as twin entrepreneurs Smoke and Stack, who start up a juke joint catering to Black clientele in 1932 Mississippi. On opening night, the place is interrupted by the arrival of three vampires, leading to a chaotic, blood-soaked series of events. The brilliance of Sinners is in how Coogler tackles weighty themes about racism and the resilience of a community while also providing crowd-pleasing thrills for his audience. —K.J.

Where to watch Sinners: HBO Max

Director: Ryan Coogler

Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, Delroy Lindo

Sisters (1972)

When a Staten Island journalist (Jennifer Salt) witnesses a murder next door, she unfurls a dizzying mystery involving conjoined twins, a mental hospital, and a corpse stuffed in a couch.

Sisters is an excellent showcase for director Brian De Palma’s unmistakable filmmaking style, as he employs dazzling split-screen compositions, impressive long takes, and complex camerawork to maximize the precision and clarity of the on-screen action. Like many of De Palma’s other films, it feels heavily indebted to Alfred Hitchcock, drawing inspiration from Psycho, Rope, and Rear Window, while also featuring a score from Bernard Herrmann. Yet, its scariest scene — inspired by the unforgettable dream sequence in Rosemary’s Baby — is a surreal flashback/hallucination that’ll make your skin crawl. —W.S.

Where to watch Sisters: HBO Max

Director: Brian De Palma

Cast: Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, Charles Durning, William Finley, Lisle Wilson

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)

No one does dread quite like David Lynch, and this prequel film to Twin Peaks is a particularly haunting experience — even for him. The original series begins with the discovery of Laura Palmer’s body, wrapped in plastic, while Fire Walk With Me recounts the seven days leading up to her death. In a tour de force performance, Sheryl Lee reprises her role as Laura, whose homecoming queen popularity shields a tormented personal life, made further tragic by the men who abuse her — one of whom is her own father. It is undoubtedly a difficult watch, and while the film has its fair share of Lynchian dream logic, it is also one that speaks to the senseless tragedies of our world. —K.J.

Where to watch Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me: HBO Max

Director: David Lynch

Cast: Sheryl Lee, Moira Kelly, David Bowie, Chris Isaak, Harry Dean Stanton, Ray Wise, Kyle MacLachlan

Vampyr (1932)

Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer followed up his acclaimed The Passion of Joan of Arc with this transfixing early vampire film. Vampyr focuses on a young man and occultist (Nicolas de Gunzburg) who attempts to free a French village from the curse of a bloodthirsty fiend.

Though the project was produced during the sound era, Dreyer still employed many silent film techniques to make it more accessible. The film features very little dialogue and still uses title cards. This also isn’t a plot-heavy movie — instead, it elegantly builds a terrifying, dreamlike atmosphere through a series of hauntingly gorgeous images and surreal shots that’ll stick with you long after the film ends. It’s an exemplary mood piece that lulls you into a confounding trance as you try to make sense of its brooding imagery. —W.S.

Where to watch Vampyr: HBO Max

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer

Cast: Nicolas de Gunzburg, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel, Jan Hieronimko, Sybille Schmitz, Henriette Gerard

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2022)

While most of Max’s horror offerings contain old-school terrors, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is of a decidedly newer age. Anyone who’s spent too much time browsing the dark corners of the internet will recognize in this low-budget film the unique feeling of dread from which you can’t look away, telling the story of Casey (Anna Cobb), a teenage girl who takes the online World’s Fair Challenge. The challenge requires her to record herself reciting “I want to go to the World’s Fair” three times, smear blood on her computer screen, and wait to see the effect it will have on her in the days to come. As she starts to exhibit strange behavior, she posts videos online that get the attention of a concerned user.

Like the best online creepypasta, the line between fact and fiction is blurred, leaving it up to the viewer to decide what’s really going on with Casey. —K.J.

Where to watch We’re All Going to the World’s Fair: HBO Max

Director: Jane Schoenbrun

Cast: Anna Cobb, Michael J. Rogers

X (2022)

This grisly slasher film wears its ’70s influences on its sleeve. Evoking horror classics like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), X centers on a motley crew that sets out to make a pornographic film at an elderly couple’s guesthouse in rural Texas. Let’s just say the shoot doesn’t exactly go smoothly, as the couple begins to terrorize their new guests, brutally targeting them one by one. Described by EW’s critic as “unpinned, ominous, and potentially unforgettable,” X is a giddy good time with a resonant message related to aging that we won’t spoil here. —K.J.

Where to watch X: HBO Max

EW grade: A– (read the review)

Director: Ti West

Cast: Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Brittany Snow, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, Scott Mescudi

Your Monster (2024)

Part monster movie, part quirky rom-com, this underseen horror comedy allows Melissa Barrera to continue to flex her scream-queen muscles. The Scream alum stars as Laura, an actress still reeling from breaking up with her boyfriend as well as her recent cancer diagnosis. After returning to her childhood home, she discovers a beastly monster in her closet, of whom she’s initially terrified but soon develops a strange relationship. And just when you think the film is verging too much outside the horror realm, then comes the ending to reinforce its place on this list. —K.J.

Where to watch Your Monster: HBO Max

Director: Caroline Lindy

Cast: Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, Edmund Donovan, Kayla Foster, Meghann Fahy