10 Best Horror Movies Streaming For Free This Halloween

Horror movies can and should be enjoyed year-round, but they become a lot more prevalent and relevant as we head into October. Halloween season means horror film marathons, rewatches of creepy classics, and first-time views of future favorites. Film lovers of all kinds are living in generous times as our access to movies has never been easier and more plentiful. From physical media to a myriad of streaming options, movies are everywhere and just waiting to be enjoyed.

Most of those options cost money, though, so what's someone on a budget or simply wary of spending money on a new-to-them movie supposed to do? Well, if you're not adverse to the occasional ad, the answer is so-called freemium streamers that offer film libraries without the need of rental/purchase fees or subscriptions. Several seem to come and go each year, but there are some mainstays that haven proven themselves and their business models to become destinations looking for free entertainment.

The heavy hitter in this arena is Tubi and its abundance of movies from every genre, but other ad-supported streamers like Fandango at Home, Plex, and Pluto TV also have a lot to offer. Film lovers with library cards — and that really should be all of you — can also enjoy the riches of the ad-free site Kanopy which features a deep library including many films from the Criterion Collection. Now keep reading for a look at the best horror movies available for free streaming this Halloween season.

A celebrated composer enjoying a drive through upstate New York with his wife and daughter is devastated when a traffic accident leaves both of them dead. His grief moves him across the country to settle in Seattle, but the old mansion he's renting soon starts exhibiting unsettling behaviors. It seems someone might have died in the house, and they're not very happy about it.

Peter Medak's "The Changeling" may not have a big pop culture footprint, but it's often counted among the scariest films for a reason. We highlighted one of its scariest scenes here, and even Martin Scorsese included it among his list of the 11 scariest movies of all time. Medak crafts some terrifically atmospheric scares as our protagonist, John (George C. Scott), begins to investigate the house's history only to discover the heartbreaking source behind it all. Pain, suffering, and a child crying out in distress all work to build a harrowing backstory and frightening present. Creepy recordings, a haunting music box tune, and objects that seem to move of their own accord give way to an angry spirit lashing out with violence and terror.

A big part of what makes the film work so well is Scott's presence and performance. While the actor is probably best-known for his more charged and easily agitated characters as seen in "Dr. Strangelove" and "Patton," he's playing a softer role here as a man in mourning. He still has his outbursts, to be sure, but he's a man whose rage has channeled towards compassion and justice. Seeing him move from scared to determined leads viewers on the same path.

Where to stream for free: Fandango at Home, Plex, Pluto, Tubi

Cory's grandparents passed away under strange and mysterious circumstances that have never quite made sense to him. Six decades later, Cory and some friends arrive at his grandparents' farm in the hopes of discovering the truth, but unfortunately for them, that truth involves demonic possession, magical daggers, and absolute carnage.

While the film above is deadly serious and focused on its scares, the folks behind 1990's "Demon Wind" want only to entertain — and they succeed pretty darn well with some wild sequences and fun visual effects. This is ultimately a siege film as Cory and his friends find themselves trapped in the farmhouse and under supernatural attack from outside. The possessed spurt yellow blood as they're shot, bludgeoned, and so on, and gooey practical makeup effects bring them all to life. Deaths are varied, and while it's never overtly gory, there's plenty of blood and ooze to enjoy.

It's all played relatively straight, but the filmmakers and cast know it's unfolding with a wink as some character interactions lean goofy at times. The highlight on that count is the arrival of magician duo Chuck and Stacy, two bros who love cheap magic tricks and firearms. Chuck's introduced with a brief display of his martial arts prowess — he kicks a soda can six ways to Sunday to prove how tough he is before pulling a dove from his jacket and saying, "Shazam!" It's undeniably magical, but if you need more convincing, here's a love letter we posted to the film several years ago.

Where to stream for free: Fandango at Home, Kanopy, Plex, Tubi

Ha-joon runs a semi-popular YouTube channel called Horror Times that explores haunted locations for clicks, and his latest target is a long-closed psychiatric hospital. Gonjiam has a tragic history, and combined with Ha-joon's staged scares, it's enough to keep viewers hooked. Things get a bit complicated when something real and deadly starts unfolding while he livestreams.

Found footage is a fickle mistress that too many filmmakers can't quite tame. Blame the typically low budgets or the universally standard structure — slow and chatty first hour before the third act goes out with a bang — but too few of them stand out from the crowd. "Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum" succeeds where too many fail as it delivers genuine scares and thrills within its familiar framework. The ghostly apparitions and strange happenings appear as both jump scares and more atmospheric terrors, and it all works to chill and thrill viewers.

The film's a lesser seen gem, and horror lovers are definitely missing out if they're avoiding it due to it not being in English. South Korean filmmakers are behind numerous modern horror classics, and this one sits comfortably among our ranking of the 25 best and scariest found footage horror movies. It's a quick watch at just ninety minutes, and there's a very good chance it'll leave you extremely creeped out next time you find yourself in a dimly lit hallway or a closed down asylum.

Where to stream for free: Plex, Tubi

Fifteen years after stabbing his older sister to death on Halloween night, Michael Myers escapes custody and heads back to the town where it all happened. He targets a teenager named Laurie, and as her friends start dying one by one, she wonders if she'll live to see the day after Halloween.

The odds are pretty good that you've already seen John Carpenter's slasher classic as it's been a horror mainstay for nearly half a century. "Halloween" is considered by many, alongside "Black Christmas" and "Friday the 13th," to be the film that kicked off the slasher trend throughout the 1980s. Like another stone-cold classic towards the end of this list, it's a rarity in the genre in that it relies far more on suspense, atmosphere, and direction that it does on bloodletting.

The film is filled with unforgettable moments and beats with the biggest one being Carpenter's iconic score, something made all the more impressive given the tight schedule he wrote it under. It ramps up the suspense and works to build dread as Michael moves from house to house cutting a murderous path through suburbia, and it's since become a staple of Halloween playlists. Add in smart direction, the emotionless killer in a Captain Kirk mask, and arguably the world's most recognizable final girl (Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie), and you see why it's a mainstay on lists of the best Halloween movies, best slashers, and now, the best horror movies to stream for free.

Where to stream for free: Plex

A man's brother goes missing, and things only grow stranger when he goes to investigate the brother's apartment. A neighbor suggests the brother had been behaving strangely, odd symbols are found on every door in the building, and Seong-soo begins to suspect that someone is watching him.

"Hide and Seek" is a terrifically terrifying and underseen chiller from South Korea that ignites a slow burn horror rich in mystery and atmosphere. His apartment building is an everyday building, one familiar to all of us, but writer/director Huh Jung squeezes every ounce of tension and unease from its outer walkways and compact apartments. The dull confines become home to uncomfortable, disturbing feelings, both for Seong-soo and viewers alike. His own discomfort is magnified by germophobia, but it's not the little things he needs to be worried about.

There's a lot going on here making the film somewhat deceptive in its marketing as a pure horror thriller. Like Pang Ho-cheung's "Dream Home," a masterful slasher from 2010, there's some devastating social commentary swirling around the scares and terror. There's an empathy lining the madness, one that adds weight to the violence and carnage, and it's played less as an excuse and more as a plea for understanding. Don't worry, though, these themes never get in the way of the horror and the genuine scares unfolding behind closed doors.

Where to stream for free: Plex, Tubi

Kylie is something of a screwup, and her latest mess has landed her under house arrest. Worse, it's back living with her mother. Still worse than that? It turns out the house might be haunted.

The only thing more difficult than making a great horror movie is making a great horror/comedy, but writer/director Gerard Johnstone does just that with "Housebound." Horror/comedies typically lean far heavier on the latter, sacrificing scares for silliness and good times, and while they can still be immensely entertaining, the end results are typically more fun than frightening. Johnstone wants it both ways, though, and boy, does he deliver with one of the best horror/comedies.

The film moves through a few different phases, and while you'll get no spoilers here, be prepared to be a step or two behind the increasingly spooky and ever evolving plot. Johnstone finds scares throughout the house and beyond, delivering both jumps and an eerie feeling that something terrible is about to go down, and all of that is couched in big laughs. Morgana O'Reilly and Rima Te Wiata are great fun as Kylie and her mom, respectively, showing strong comedic chops as things get weirder and weirder. Pound for pound, New Zealand filmmakers might just have the highest percentage of winners when it comes to horror/comedies with titles like "Bad Taste," "Dead Alive," "What We Do in the Shadows," "Black Sheep," and "Deathgasm" all bringing the creepy laughs.

Where to stream for free: Kanopy, Plex, Pluto, Tubi

Halloween is approaching and five friends decide it's a good time to make a documentary about haunted house attractions. They load into an RV and start traveling the country, hitting attractions along the way and interviewing attendees and cast members. Things take a turn when some of the creepier characters start following them back.

Director Bobby Roe remakes his own documentary from a few years earlier and turns it into a faux doc with a grim narrative twist, and the result is a fun, genuinely scary ride that sits high among films in the Haunt Season Horror subgenre. The group of friends are the usual found footage bunch — chatty, mildly obnoxious at times, etc. — but the friendships and curiosities feel genuine. The film also circumvents one of the format's big criticisms, namely, why are these people still filming when bad stuff is happening?! Here, some very convincing antagonists insist that they keep the camera rolling, or else.

There's fun here for haunted attraction fans as real locations are visited, highlighting a wide variety of scary thrills, but the film's at its best when the creepy characters make their presence known. One, a silent female wearing a porcelain mask, is endlessly upsetting as she watches from the periphery and even boards the RV to sit and stare at them. Roe builds some terrific set pieces around these folks as the friends are led to a legendary attraction known as the Blue Skeleton. Will it be another fun attraction, or will it be the end of the documentary?

Where to stream for free: Plex, Tubi

Arletty is hoping to reconnect with her father, but he's nowhere to be found when she arrives in the small California town of Point Dume. The town itself is nearly abandoned, and many of the people Arletty does see are acting strangely. Soon she will learn about the cult, the cannibalism, the blood moon, and the return of the messiah.

You'd have to search far and wide to find filmmakers with a broader disparity between their first and last features than writers/directors Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. The atmospheric, nightmarish "Messiah of Evil" was their directorial debut, and they went out on the much maligned "Howard the Duck." They also co-wrote "American Graffiti" and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." It's their debut we're here to talk about, though, as it's perfect Halloween viewing (whether you pay to see it or not).

The film captures an elusive dreamlike quality that few others can manage — think "Carnival of Souls" or Mickey Keating's "Off Season" as ones that succeed — that has viewers immediately on edge. A story with historical context is peeled back slowly, but it's the atmosphere and the events that carry the terror forward. Sequences set in a supermarket and a movie theater are all-timers when it comes to building unease and dread that explode in violence and horror. It's low budget and raw, but rather than feel cheap, it works instead to heighten the feeling of being trapped in a nightmare. Turn off the lights, wrap yourself in a blanket, and let the creepy coastal terror sweep over you.

Where to stream for free: Kanopy, Plex, Pluto, Tubi

Five friends hit the road in their van on a trip through Texas, but a compassionate mistake sets in motion a descent into hell. They pick up a hitchhiker who seems a bit, err, off, and soon find themselves in the grip of a twisted family fueled only by madness, cruelty, and a taste for human flesh.

From the title to the synopsis, "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" sounds like a film that's going to paint the screen red with gore and grue. Like "Halloween" above, though, its violence is mostly blood free leaving our brains to fill in the gaps. That, in turn, makes things all the more terrifying as we watch Leatherface stalk and attack characters, slap them with chainsaws, plop them onto meat hooks, and more. Director Tobe Hooper crafts it all with such a raw, filthy intensity that the violence seems to reach beyond the screen.

Later sequels (including Hooper's own) and prequels would succumb to the "need" for gore and bloodletting, but he delivers a visceral horror film here with nothing but skill and the dogged determination of youth. Equally important is the sound design that turns simple sounds into nightmare fuel. A metal door slamming shut reverberates in our mind, a buzzing chainsaw chills our bones, and wails and screams around the dinner table make your own family's Thanksgiving with politically opposite relatives seem quaint by comparison. The film also ends with the iconic image of a madman twirling and screaming in the middle of the road — as perfect of a metaphor for America as you're likely to find.

Where to stream for free: Plex, Pluto, Tubi

Six friends looking for some wild weekend fun head to a new wax museum for some historical lolz, but they find something monstrous instead. The displays showcase history and horror, but there's a special feature too — cross the velvet rope and you actually enter the real-life nightmare.

Madame Tussauds aside, wax museums aren't much of a thing these days as kids have moved on to animatronics at Disney World and Chuck E. Cheese (wait, is Chuck even still a thing?), but they were hot stuff for rowdy teens back in the late 1980s. That's not true, but the premise behind writer/director Anthony Hickox's "Waxwork" is still undeniably fun. The setup essentially delivers an anthology of sorts as our characters wander into displays and the worlds of vampires, werewolves, the Marquis de Sade, and more. Even better, these segments are genuinely cool horror riffs that feed back into the present.

Hickox, who also directed the terrifically fun "Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat" and underrated "Hellraiser: Hell on Earth," makes his debut here and goes the extra mile of pairing humor with some fantastic production design and makeup. The mummy, the alien, the snake creature, and more all look fantastic, but the standout is arguably the werewolf designed by Bob Keen and his team to somewhat resemble the one from Joe Dante's "The Howling." It looks amazing, and that's even before it tears a man in half from head to nether regions. It's safe to say that it would have made our list of the best werewolf movies had it been the focus of the film.

Where to stream for free: Fandango at Home, Plex, Tubi