Top Horror Movies Streaming This Week

The YouTube web series version of Kane Parsons' Backrooms, based on the popular creepypasta, was presented as found footage, for the most part. The film, which was written by Will Soodik, is a narrative feature film with some found-footage elements. Will Soodik, also known as Will Bromell, is a second-generation screenwriter whose father, Henry Bromell, was the son of a man employed by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Lukita Maxwell star in the film, which premiered at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica and was co-presented by the American Cinematheque and Beyond Fest. It has done exceedingly well with critics and audiences, as the second-highest-grossing horror film of 2026.

Backrooms is now streaming on HBO Max.

Not sure it was on any of our scary bingo cards, but 2026's most romantic and surrealist slasher movie has moved into the second spot this week. A slasher film that is romantic is a rare bird, and one with candy and dipping sauces as a key element of the romance and seduction is even rarer. But make no mistake, there are plenty of gory, bloody deaths courtesy of Little Death's completely phallic spear.

Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson star, with great romantic chemistry, alongside Jack Haven,  Dylan Baker, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Kevin McDonald,  Louise Weard, and Patrick Fischler. It's about the love of horror, slasher films, sex, and romance, and has a great needle drop that occurs during a camp massacre sequence. It's got everything.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is now streaming on Mubi.

This highly successful scary movie, which already has Oscar buzz, is still one of the most popular horror streaming titles of the week. The character of Nikki was added to Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights as a character that you can meet on the street after the film was released in theaters in May 2025. Obsession joins such new horror classics as Sinners as part of Universal's annual horror event. That is one indicator of exactly how much Obsession has influenced events outside of the movie theater.

Curry Barker wrote and directed the film that stars Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette, with supporting performances by Cooper Tomlinson, who co-created the YouTube channel that's a bad idea with Barker, Megan Lawless, and Andy Richter.

Obsession is now streaming on Peacock.

French director Sébastien Vaniček, who co-wrote the script for Evil Dead Burn with Florent Bernard, crafted the sixth film in the Evil Dead series, which has a consensus from film critics on Rotten Tomatoes calling it the “meanest, nastiest, and ickiest chapter” of the franchise, which is saying a lot for any movie with the title Evil Dead.  Vaniček got the nod from Sam Raimi to direct the next film in the series on the strength of his first feature film, Infested. 

The movie, about a young widow who tries to find peace with her in-laws after her abusive husband's death and only finds hungry deadites, stars Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Erroll Shand, and Maude Davey.

Evil Dead Burn is now streaming on HBO Max.

As the scariest day of the year, no, not Tax Day, approaches, horror fans and people who love Halloween, who are usually the same people, are getting in the mood for their favorite holiday by revisiting their favorite tales of terror. It stands to reason that some of the best-loved classics in the genre would be the most-watched movies on streaming services. Halloween withstands the test of time and trends in the horror genre as a classic.

Film number five is one of the most perfect films for October: John Carpenter's Halloween. Not only is it a foundational classic of the slasher genre,  set during Halloween itself, but it also has one of the most iconic killers and the final girl combinations ever put on film. Because it is a film that is so familiar to genre fans, the artful shots in the film don't get the recognition that they deserve. The talents of Carpenter and Dean Cundey, the cinematographer, make the film even more frightening and a pleasure to watch by giving us visuals that are unique and haunting. 

Halloween (1978) is now streaming on AMC+ and Shudder.

Speaking of art in horror, the sixth film on the list of top horror movies streaming this week is an art film as well as one of the most terrifying films in horror. The director, Tobe Hooper, and co-writer Kim Henkel also snuck in grim humor that surfaced even more in the film's sequel. It is also another foundational film in the slasher genre that is less openly gory than you think it is, and it lets your mind do a lot of the heavy lifting. We all know our imaginations are frequently more potent than anything that could be shown on the screen.

As you can see in the photo accompanying this entry, cinematographer Daniel Pearl gave the film celebrated and memorable imagery that never quite leaves your mind once you've seen it. Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, and Gunnar Hansen star in the film, which was low-budget but certainly looks like several million bucks on the screen, including the performances of the actors. They might not be Hollywood stars in the classic sense, but they gave the film their all.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is now streaming on  Netflix, Peacock, and Shudder.

Beautiful, artful, and bloody are some of the same words that can be used to describe Brian De Palma's brilliant adaptation of Stephen King's first novel, Carrie.  De Palma had already made the horror films Sisters and The Phantom of the Paradise, but broke through into mainstream success with the thoughtful movie that seemed to make the book come alive.

The stellar cast includes Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, Amy Irving, Nancy Allen, William Katt, P. J. Soles, Betty Buckley, and John Travolta, and Spacek and Laurie were nominated for Academy Awards for their work. It was also a low-budget project that didn't initially have hopes of being a critical success or box office hit, but still managed to capture the zeitgeist and become one of the few horror movies to garner Oscar nominations in the 1970s.

Carrie (1978) is now streaming on HBO Max and Prime.

Coralie Fargeat's Academy Award-winning second film won Best Makeup and Hairstyling, out of the five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Actress, which is not bad for a film that contains grotesque body horror elements and literally 5,500 gallons of blood for the theater scene.  It is one of the most popular films in horror streaming history, staying in the top ten for a full year.

Hulu added the film to its site on October 2 and gave the film the opportunity to be seen by many more eyes after it returned to streaming only on Mubi since late last year, resulting in a top ten spot. Performances by Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, and Dennis Quaid were acclaimed, with Moore winning a Golden Globe for her performance. Fargeat is the first woman to be nominated as the director of a horror film in the Academy's history.

The Substance is now streaming on Hulu and Mubi.

Lily Sullivan, David Rysdahl, and Claudia Doumit star in Soulm8te, the Blumhouse and Atomic Monster co-production of this third film in the M3GAN franchise. This time, it is the story of a widowed and grieving computer programmer who connects with a chatbot and finally a robot companion he names Sara, who becomes much more connected to the programmer, David, than he ever imagined a robot to be capable of.

The director, Kate Dolan, has previously directed the psychological horror film You Are Not My Mother, in her native country, Ireland. She co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Rafael Jordan, who co-authored the story with James Wan and Ingrid Bisu.

Soulm8te is now streaming on Hulu.

Another one of the horror genre's classics has gone into scary season rotation and hit the top ten. The fourth classic on this week's list is the original Friday the 13th, directed by Sean S. Cunningham. Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Laurie Bartram, Mark Nelson, Jeannine Taylor, Robbi Morgan, and Kevin Bacon. The role was Kevin Bacon's fourth film role and very early in his long and acclaimed career.

It is the template for a lot of slasher films that came after it, with its isolated summer camp setting and horny camp counselors. The film is so influential that new films and TV shows are still being made using the lore of Friday the 13th. The most recent examples are from another film in the top ten, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, and a prequel series, Crystal Lake, which tells the story of Pamela Voorhees, both of which were released in 2026.

Friday the 13th (1980) is now streaming on AMC+, Kanopy, Netflix, and Peacock.