The best horror movies to watch on Friday the 13th
The best horror movies to watch on Friday the 13th
Settle in for a scream, or chill out with a dark comedy you’ll love.
Last year, we had just one, but this year we get the pleasure of having three Fridays landing on the 13th. That means three more reasons (technically just two now) to find a great horror flick for your weekend movie night. Whether you’re a part-time horror fan or someone who plans their October around Halloween, this is the perfect excuse to fire up your favorite streaming service and dive into something scary.
Naturally, you’ll want to start with “Friday the 13th”. It’s iconic for a reason. But once that’s out of the way, there’s no shortage of horror classics (and newer favorites) to keep the adrenaline going all night long. I’ve rounded up the best of the best to bring you the ultimate horror watchlist for Friday the 13th, with plenty of horror classics to choose from. Just don’t blame me if you end up sleeping with the lights on!
The best horror movies to binge on Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th
Camp counselors are stalked and murdered by an unknown assailant while trying to reopen a summer camp that was the site of a child’s drowning.
Halloween
Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween Night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Five friends head out to rural Texas to visit the grave of a grandfather. On the way, they stumble across what appears to be a deserted house, only to discover something sinister within. Something armed with a chainsaw.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
Teenagers in a small town are dropping like flies, apparently in the grip of mass hysteria causing their suicides. A cop’s daughter, Nancy Thompson, traces the cause to child molester Fred Krueger, who was burned alive by angry parents many years before. Krueger has now come back in the dreams of his killers’ children, claiming their lives as his revenge. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen, must devise a plan to lure the monster out of the realm of nightmares and into the real world…
Scream
A killer known as “Ghostface” begins killing off teenagers and the body count is rising. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and her friends Gale (Courteney Cox) and Dewey (David Arquette) have made a discovery: Horror movies always follow a template. As they dissect the ‘rules’ of horror films, they find themselves entrenched in one that’s all too real. Drew Barrymore, Skeet Ulrich, Rose McGowan, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy, and Liev Schreiber round out this cast of 90s teen idols.
The Evil Dead
In 1979, a group of college students find a Sumerian Book of the Dead in an old wilderness cabin they’ve rented for a weekend getaway.
Hereditary
Following the death of the Leigh family matriarch, Annie and her children uncover disturbing secrets about their heritage. Their daily lives are not only impacted, but they also become entangled in a chilling fate from which they cannot escape, driving them to the brink of madness.
The Ring
Journalist Rachel Keller investigates a strange videotape that may be behind the untimely deaths of four teenagers. There is an urban legend about this tape: the viewer will die seven days after watching it. Rachel tracks down the video… and watches it. Now she has just seven days to unravel the mystery of the Ring in order to save herself and her son.
It Follows
A young woman is followed by an unknown supernatural force after a sexual encounter.
The Conjuring
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most terrifying case of their lives.
The Babadook
A grieving single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children’s book manifests in their home.
Psycho
When larcenous real estate clerk Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) goes on the lam with a wad of cash and hopes of starting a new life, she ends up at the notorious Bates Motel, where manager Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) cares for his housebound mother.
The impact of this Alfred Hitchcock classic cannot be understated. Psycho was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress (Leigh) and Best Director (Hitchcock). In 1992, the film was deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” by the United States Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Child’s Play
After being shot in a toy store, a serial killer transfers his soul into a Good Guy doll. A mother then gifts it to her six-year-old son Andy, which unleashes terror upon the city.
The Silence of the Lambs
Clarice Starling is a top student at the FBI’s training academy. Jack Crawford wants Clarice to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist who is also a violent psychopath, serving life behind bars for various acts of murder and cannibalism. Crawford believes that Lecter may have insight into a case and that Starling, as an attractive young woman, may be just the bait to draw him out.
Final Destination
After a teenager has a terrifying vision of him and his friends dying in a plane crash, he prevents the accident only to have Death hunt them down, one by one.
The Cabin in the Woods
It’s a horror movie! It’s a comedy! It’s a horror-comedy! Five college friends spend the weekend at a remote cabin in the woods, where they get more than they bargained for. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods in an adventure not for the faint of heart! This little-seen gem shows off Chris Hemsworth’s comedy chops, and it hit theaters just one month before he became Thor.
Happy Death Day
Caught in a bizarre and terrifying time warp, college student Tree finds herself repeatedly reliving the day of her murder, ultimately realizing that she must identify the killer and the reason for her death before her chances of survival run out.
Sinister
True-crime writer Ellison Oswalt is in a slump; he hasn’t had a best seller in more than 10 years and is becoming increasingly desperate for a hit. So, when he discovers the existence of a snuff film showing the deaths of a family, he vows to solve the mystery. He moves his own family into the victims’ home and gets to work. However, when old film footage and other clues hint at the presence of a supernatural force, Ellison learns that living in the house may be fatal.
Candyman
The Candyman, a murderous soul with a hook for a hand, is accidentally summoned to reality by a skeptic grad student researching the monster’s myth.
The Descent
After a personal tragedy, Sarah joins her friends on a caving expedition in the Appalachian Mountains. But when a rockfall traps them deep underground, their adventure turns into a nightmare. As they search for a way out, the group discovers they are not alone—lurking in the darkness are savage, cave-dwelling creatures. With rising tension and dwindling trust, the women must fight to survive against both the predators and each other.
Paranormal Activity
After a young, middle-class couple moves into what seems like a typical suburban house, they become increasingly disturbed by a presence that may or may not be demonic, but is certainly the most active in the middle of the night.
Hellraiser
A hedonistic man finds a mysterious puzzle box that summons a group of gruesome beings known as the Cenobites. These otherworldly entities open the doors to a dominion where pain and pleasure are indivisible.
Us
Husband and wife Gabe and Adelaide Wilson take their kids to their beach house expecting to unplug and unwind with friends. But as night descends, their serenity turns to tension and chaos when some shocking visitors arrive uninvited.
Midsommar
Several friends travel to Sweden to study as anthropologists a summer festival that is held every ninety years in the remote hometown of one of them. What begins as a dream vacation in a place where the sun never sets, gradually turns into a dark nightmare as the mysterious inhabitants invite them to participate in their disturbing festive activities.
The Blair Witch Project
In October of 1994 three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland, while shooting a documentary. A year later their footage was found.
Trick ‘r Treat
Four interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: an everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer; a college virgin might have just met the one guy for her; a group of teenagers pull a mean prank, and a bitter old recluse receives an uninvited guest.
