With exactly 11 days left until Halloween, there’s never been a better time to schedule a daily horror-film screening on your calendar. And with these 11 excellent films currently available on Netflix streaming, you can scream your way to the end of the month with a full gamut of scary fare: from humorous horror to grainy found-footage flicks, from gross-out gore to a nice case of the atmospheric creeps.
1. “Let the Right One In” (“Låt den Rätte Komma In”)
What it’s about: A lonely, bullied young boy is fascinated by his new neighbor, a tweenage girl who only comes out at night for reasons you can probably guess. An American version of this film was made starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloë Grace Moretz, but the Swedish original is decidedly creepier.
Watch it if: You ever fantasized about having your own personal, supernatural bodyguard to rip the throats out of those who tormented you.
2. “The Bay”
What it’s about: A bayside celebration devolves into deadly chaos, with documentary-style footage revealing that the town’s waters have been invaded by a mutant parasite.
Watch it if: You hate the ocean and everything in it.
3. “Dead End”
What it’s about: A family’s Christmas Eve roadtrip turns into an existentialist nightmare, as they become lost on an endless, exit-less back road, where each pit stop results in someone’s death.
Watch it if: You’re already freaking out about the horrors of holiday travel.
4. “Bad Milo!”
What it’s about: Two words: Butt demon.
Watch it if: You live in mortal terror of IBS.
5.”Contracted”
What it’s about: After being coerced into a non-consensual one-night stand by a stranger at a party, a young woman wakes up feeling a little bit (ahem) dead inside.
Watch it if: You have a teenager in the house who you want to scare into sexual abstinence.
6. “The Awakening”
What it’s about: A famous skeptic in post-war England sets out to debunk an alleged haunting at a boys’ boarding school. Bonus: There’s an appearance by “Games of Thrones” star Isaac Hempstead-Wright, making his feature film debut.
Watch it if: You love a good, gothic, lugubrious ghost story… or an itty-bitty Bran Stark.
7. “Grave Encounters”
What it’s about: A ghost-hunting team filming a TV show becomes trapped inside an asylum, in a found-footage horror flick that’s both scariest and less nauseating than “The Blair Witch Project.”
Watch it if: You have recurring nightmares of being trapped in a haunted M.C. Escher drawing.
8. “Candyman”
What it’s about: An urban ghost story centering on a murderous, mirror-haunting figure known as “the Candyman.”
Watch it if: The only thing you like better than a bloody horror flick is a haunting Philip Glass soundtrack to go with it.
9. “Dead Silence”
What it’s about: A haunted ventriloquist’s dummy terrorizes Ryan Kwanten in this film, which feels like a gorier throwback to the horror fare of Hollywood’s golden age.
Watch it if: You already shelled out to see “Annabelle” and need another creepy doll in your life.
10. “Absentia”
What it’s about: Seven years after her husband goes missing, a woman and her sister begin to suspect that a pedestrian tunnel near their home (and whatever lives inside it) is responsible for his disappearance. The first horror film from “Oculus” director Mike Flanagan, “Absentia” is similarly well-written and disturbingly layered.
Watch it if: You like to think while you scream.
11. “Ravenous”
What it’s about: In 1840s California, a man arrives at a remote Army outpost with a terrifying appetite.
Watch it if: You’re still reeling from that final scene on last night’s “The Walking Dead.”
Do you have a horror favorite currently on Netflix? Share your recs below!
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