13 Must-Watch Horror Movies On Shudder

The Cycle is the latest film to hit Shudder and one of the biggest hits on the genre festival circuit this year. Given the release date, the film isn’t eligible for a Chainsaw Award until next year’s cycle, so get in now and check out Jordan Downey's fantastic blend of crime-procedural elements and creature-feature horror. The film stars Deborah Ann Woll as a forensic anthropologist whose long-missing father's body mysteriously surfaces at a crime scene, forcing her to confront his dark past. I won't say anything more because this movie benefits from being as spoiler-free as possible. Check it out this weekend and thank us for the recommendation on Monday.

One of the 2023 nominees for Best First Feature, Joseph and Vanessa Winter’s Deadstream is one of the few recent screen-horror movies to successfully incorporate livestreaming. The film centers on a disgraced internet personality who tries to win back his followers by livestreaming himself at an abandoned haunted house. When he accidentally unleashes a vengeful spirit, his comeback event becomes a fight for his life. Deadstream is a blast to watch with friends, especially if you're familiar with bozos livestreaming to massive audiences. It's no surprise the duo has been tapped to adapt one of the creepiest stories on the internet, and they also went on to direct a segment of V/H/S/99. So if you like this film, Shudder has even more to love from the Winters.

Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror is mandatory horror film history. Straight up. No stops. No excuses. Inspired by Robin R. Means Coleman’s crucial book Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films From the 1890s to the Present, the documentary interrogates a genre so many people love, but that doesn’t always love its fans back with the same respect or appreciation. Director Xavier Burgin delivers an informative, provocative deconstruction of how the horror genre has been used as an outlet for creative expression, showcasing representation, tackling themes of violence, inequality, and racism, celebrating Black joy, and exposing the implicit biases of white filmmakers. (Disclosure: FANGORIA editor-in-chief Phil Nobile Jr. co-produced Horror Noire in 2018.)

If you want to invest in the future of the horror genre, now is the time to back New Zealand director Toa Stappard. I caught his gothic Māori horror film, Mārama, at the Overlook Film Festival, and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. After receiving a letter from a mysterious stranger claiming to have information about her parents, orphan Mary Stevens (aka Mārama) arrives in Yorkshire, England, to learn more about her whakapapa. At Hawsker Manor, Nathanial Cole eagerly welcomes her and offers her a position as governess to his granddaughter, Anne, but the house doesn't feel right. Mārama is haunting, exhilarating, and deeply unsettling, and an absolute must-watch this season.

We at FANGORIA love films of The Adams Family — John Adams, Toby Poser, Zelda Adams, and Lulu Adams — and Shudder is home to many of their films, including Hellbender, Hell Hole, and, sometime next year, The Glorious Dead. However, for this list, we’re spotlighting 2025’s Mother of Flies, which earned a nomination at this year’s Chainsaw Awards for Best Streaming Premiere and Best Lead Performance for Toby Poser. The film centers on Mickey (Zelda Adams), a young cancer survivor who discovers an inoperable abdominal tumor giving her only six months to live. Unwilling to accept her fate, Mickey and her skeptical father, Jake (John Adams), seek out Solveig (Toby Poser), a mysterious woodland healer she connects with in dreams. It’s a breathtaking slice of folk horror made even more powerful by the personal connection the filmmakers have with a history of cancer. It’s a powerful piece of low-budget cinema and a perfect introduction to The Adams Family's films.

Damian McCarthy’s Hokum caught the world's attention this year, but before Adam Scott was terrorized by a donkey-man, there was the nightmare fuel known as Oddity. The winner of Best International Movie at the 2025 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards, Oddity boasts one of the most effective jump scares in recent history. The film follows Darcy Odello (Carolyn Bracken), a blind occultist, as she strives to find the person who brutally murdered her twin sister. When she visits the site of her sister’s murder, she uncovers a truth more horrific than anything she could have comprehended … and decides to go after those responsible using inherited haunted items as her tools of revenge. This movie rocks, and given Hokum's success with mainstream audiences, it’s further proof that Shudder is consistently ahead of the curve. PS: They’ve also got McCarthy’s Caveat, another movie sure to scare you out of your skin.

Most folks know Jay Baruchel as a comedic actor (or the voice of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III in the How to Train Your Dragon films), but you owe it to yourself to learn about his horror-film venture, Random Acts of Violence. Based on the graphic novel of the same name, the story follows a pair of comic book writers who notice scary similarities between a character they created and horrific real-life events. This is one of my favorite types of movies to stumble across on Shudder, because it’s so decidedly polarizing. It’s also a film that very much captured “a moment” in 2020, and the nihilistic streak throughout the film has only grown more relevant over time — one that was rejected by many viewers at the time who were practically frothing at the mouth in desperation for the kind of “hopecore” that would come a few months later through a show like Ted Lasso. If you want to settle in for a good Bad Time, check out this film (also nominated for Best Makeup FX at the 2021 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards).

One of the most unsettling films in recent years is Christian Tafdrup’s Danish horror thriller Speak No Evil, which Clayface director James Watkins recently remade for Blumhouse. The original 2022 film was one of the most talked-about of the year, with horror fans evangelizing how bleak and fucked-up Speak No Evil was and practically begging others to check it out. The film centers on a Danish family vacationing in Tuscany who quickly become friends with a Dutch family they meet also on holiday. Months later, the Dutch family invites the Danish family to visit them at their home, and the reunion is anything but joyous. An exercise in politeness, Speak No Evil forces the viewer to question how many red flags they’d ignore in the name of assumed friendship, and how badly things would have to escalate before we’re willing to accept we’re in real danger. The film also won Best International Movie at the 2023 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards.

The story you know, this perspective… you definitely do not. The winner of the 2025 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards for Best First Feature, The Ugly Stepsister is a personal favorite of much of the Fango staff. Directed by Emilie Blichfeldt, it retells the Cinderella fairy tale from the satirical, body horror perspective of Elvira (Lea Myren), one of the so-called “ugly” stepsisters. Don’t let the fairy-tale connection fool you; this is a film not for the faint of stomach.  As exquisite as it is grotesque, it features unbelievable special-effects makeup by Thomas Foldberg and Anne Cathrine Sauerberg, who earned a Best Makeup and Hairstyling nomination at the 98th Academy Awards. An honor well-deserved, to put it lightly. Shudder’s international catalog is among the best of the best, and the fact that they saw the value in The Ugly Stepsister and knew to get it on their platform is a testament to the incredible curation they’ve got going on over there.

One of Shudder’s greatest assets is its willingness to host films other platforms might be too chickenshit to highlight, and Addison Heimann’s Touch Me is a perfect example. The psychosexual horror comedy centers on two codependent friends: Joey (Olivia Taylor Dudley), a woman with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and Craig (Jordan Gavaris), her gay, vape-obsessed bestie. After they lose their apartment, Joey’s ex-boyfriend Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci) tries to win her back. But there’s a catch — Brian is an alien whose sex can make all of your mental stressors disappear… but also has tentacles that can rip your body apart. Joey and Craig both become addicted to the heroin-like touch of this alien narcissist, and it’s up to these millennial disasters to stop him from taking over the world. Touch Me is nominated for Best Limited Release at the 2026 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards.

Okay, so this is admittedly a little cheating by naming only 13 films, but asking someone to choose between V/H/S/ films is like asking them to choose between their children. Shudder is home to the six most recent films in the V/H/S/ franchise: V/H/S/94, V/H/S/99, V/H/S/85, V/H/S/Beyond, V/H/S/Halloween, and the recently released V/H/S/Mixtape. (Shudder also has the spin-off film Kids vs. Aliens.) I love anthology horror films because there’s always something for everyone, and part of the fun is figuring out which segment feels made just for you. For that reason, it’s impossible to pick just one V/H/S/ film to highlight, because your favorite segment might be hiding in any of these installments. Make a movie marathon out of this series of Chainsaw Award nominees and winners!

Without a shadow of a doubt, When Evil Lurks is one of the scariest and most intense films on Shudder. Demián Rugna exploded in international popularity after the release of Terrified (also on Shudder), but nothing could have prepared the world for the curses, contaminants, and canines of When Evil Lurks. The story follows the residents of a small rural town as they discover that a demon is about to be born among them; they desperately try to escape, but it may be too late. The film won Best International Movie at the 2024 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards, and it was well deserved. 

Full disclosure: I am one of the titular “1000 Women In Horror” featured in Alexandra Heller-Nicholas’ book, which the Shudder documentary of the same name is based on, but the documentary’s structure, chronicling girlhood through the lens of horror movies, makes it truly special. Heller-Nicholas teams up with director Donna Davies to debunk the misconception that “women don’t like horror,” using talking heads and the filmographies of women horror directors to support the thesis. This isn’t meant to be the end-all, be-all discussion of women in horror, but a fundamental introduction to larger, more complex conversations. It’s also a great way to add more horror movies directed by women to your watch list, many of which you can find on Shudder. The film is nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2026 FANGORIA Chainsaw Awards.

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