These are the staples of Halloween:
- stealing candy from your child’s/grandchild’s “trick or treat” bag
- pumpkin spice everything
- and watching your favorite horror movies no matter how many times you have seen them.
Netflix offers hundreds of movies for Halloween horror movie-binging, and we dug through them to find the seven scariest classic titles currently available on the streaming service.
Here are seven great horror movies available on Netflix that are all but guaranteed to make you want to leave the lights on when you’re watching.
1. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is a student at the FBI’s training academy. She’s at the top of her class, and Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) invites her to help interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins). Lecter is a known violent psychopath and psychiatrist living in prison. Crawford hopes to use Starling to get information from Lecter regarding an on-going case.
2. The Omen (1976)
Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) and his wife Katherine (Lee Remick) decide to adopt an adolescent boy named Damien (Harvey Stephens) after Katherine experiences a stillborn delivery. Father Brennan tries to warn Robert about Damien, after his first nanny hangs herself. Father Brennan dies shortly after and Damien pushes Katherine off a balcony, causing her to miscarry. The couple investigates Damien’s background and comes to the conclusion that he may actually be the Antichrist.
3. Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and her husband Guy (John Cassavetes) decide to relocate to New York City, moving into an apartment with a scary secret. Rosemary becomes pregnant, and she believes her child may not actually be a human baby.
4. Children of the Corn (1984)
Based on a novel by Stephen King, this movie takes place in Gatlin, Neb. A mysterious figure known as “He Who Walks Behind The Rows” convinces children of the town to murder the town’s adults in a ritual meant to guarantee a successful corn harvest. Directed by Fritz Kiersch, this film stars Peter Horton and Linda Hamilton.
5. The Brainiac (1962)
Spanish nobleman Baron Vitelius of Astara’s (Abel Salazar) spirit returns after he was burned alive in the 17th Century under charges of heresy and sorcery. He returns 300 years later to seek revenge as a brain-eating abomination.
6. The Fly (1958)
A scientist named Andre Delambre (David Hedison) finds himself obsessed with his work and invents a way to transport matter. He uses himself as a test subject and suffers terrible consequences when a fly ends up getting caught in the machine.
7. Re-Animator (1985)
An overly-ambitious medical student named Herbert West (Jeffrey Combs) manages to create a serum that revives, or rather re-animates, the dead.
