Now Stream This: The Best Movies To Stream For The Halloween Season

(Welcome to Now Stream This, a column dedicated to the best movies streaming on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and every other streaming service out there.) Hello, boils and ghouls! Welcome to a special spooktacular edition of Now Stream This! (Please imagine me saying all of this in the voice of the Crypt Keeper from Tales from the Crypt). It's October, which means it's Halloween season. That's right, if you thought Halloween was just one day you are 100% incorrect. Halloween lasts all month long, and in the spirit of the season, I've highlighted 10 frightastic films for you to stream this month. Unless you're too scared to watch them! There's a classic documentary about witchcraft, an excellent remake, a cannibal coming-of-age tale, and more!So put on your best Dracula cape and/or witch hat, light a Jack-O-Lantern candle, and join me as I highlight the best movies streaming right now. Let's get streaming.

Benjamin Christensen's 1922 silent-movie style documentary Häxan is all treat and no trick. Using gloriously artistic dramatic recreations and interpretations, Häxan feels like a dream wrapped in a nightmare wrapped in another dream as it chronicles the history of witchcraft as well as the hysteria that caused people to fully believe, and embrace, the supernatural. Equal parts funny and scary, Häxan is a black-and-white journey through hell and back, all without leaving the confines of your living room. Christensen likened the film to a "cultural history lecture in moving pictures" to "throw light on the psychological cause of witch trials." Practical effects recreate demons, Satan and other nefarious creatures, and it all looks incredible. If you want to class up your Halloween viewing, add this film to your queue at once.For fans of: The Witch, The Blair Witch Project, movies where witches give Satan a big ole bear hug.

Tobe Hooper followed-up his gruesome, gritty The Texas Chain Saw Massacre with this over-the-top 1986 schlock-fest. While the original film felt almost too real – like someone's terrible snuff film that happened to land a movie distribution deal – The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is a tongue-in-cheek horror-comedy that has Dennis Hopper wearing a big cowboy hat and wielding two gigantic chainsaws as he seeks revenge on Leatherface and the gang for killing his daughter. The shifting in tones from the serious first film to the goofy sequel may catch some off guard, but this film is an absolute hoot. "It's crazy as hell," Hooper said of the film. "It's a film that's just loony. But at least I got a chance to make a comedy — a very grim comedy — that is receiving an acknowledgement for its stylization. In the past four or five years, it's being seen for the first time."For fans of: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Devil's Rejects, Dennis Hopper saying stuff like "I'm the Lord of the Harvest!"

Speaking of crazy sequels, Sam Raimi's Evil Dead 2 is now streaming on Shudder in all its ridiculous glory. I'm going to get a bit controversial here and say I actually like the first Evil Dead much more than this sequel, while the sequel seems to be everyone's favorite. I just simply prefer the original because it's going for straight-up horror. This sequel, however, is swinging for the fences, with Raimi and company creating a blood-soaked Three Stooges homage. While I may appreciate the first film more, I can't deny how goddamn fun this movie is, filled with wall-to-wall lunacy as Bruce Campbell's hapless Ash battles supernatural forces beyond his control in a cabin in the woods. If you're looking for laughter to accompany your gross-out moments, this is the film for you.For fans of: Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Cabin in the Woods, people swallowing eyeballs.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers has been remade several times, but Philip Kaufman's 1978 take on the material is the best of the bunch. Kaufman juxtaposes the source material's early Cold War paranoia onto the '70s, with surprisingly effective results. Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams and more discover that people in their everyday lives – friends, neighbors, spouses – have been replaced by aliens with pod people who look, act and sound just like them. What makes this Body Snatchers so scary is how practical the aliens are about their plot of world domination. "We came here from a dying world," one of them says. "We drift through the universe, from planet to planet, pushed on by the solar winds. We adapt and we survive. The function of life is survival." The terror arises from the realization that if everyone around you has already been changed, there's literally no one you can turn to for help. Oh, also, there's a scene where a dog has a human face and it's fucking terrifying.For fans of: The Faculty, Alien, They Live, Donald Sutherland's mustache.

Julia Ducournau's Raw focuses on the awkward elements of starting a new college far from home. You know, loneliness, homesickness, regret-filled hookups, and of course, cannibalism. Not for the squeamish, Raw follows vegetarian Justine (Garance Marillier), who goes off to veterinarian school only to have the experience awaken something new inside her: an uncontrollable urge for human flesh. If you believe the hype for this film, audiences watching it on the festival circuit actually fainted from all the nastiness on display here. I don't know if I buy that, especially since the film really isn't that explicit in its cannibalism moments. Either way, this is a stunning film, and an incredible feature directorial debut from Ducournau, who should be given more money to make more movies ASAP.For fans of: Ravenous, We Are What We Are, Trouble Every Day, bite marks.

If you prefer your horror to be of the slow-burn variety, check out The Machinist, a moody guilt trip from Session 9 director Brad Anderson. This is the film that made Christian Bale lose a staggering amount of weight, resulting in an almost skeleton appearance. Bale is a loner suffering from insomnia slowly descending into paranoia as bad things seem to keep happening around him. This is an unnerving, creepy film, with Bale giving one of the best performances of his career. Be warned, though: if you're looking for something quick paced with a lot of jump scares, this ain't your film.For fans of: Session 9, Memento, Insomnia, Christian Bale's ribcage.

Suspiria may be one of Dario Argento's more renowned movies, but I actually prefer it's sort-of sequel, Inferno, more. Centered around an apartment building that may be a gateway to hell, Inferno is one of the most gorgeous looking horror movies ever made, rich in vibrant, stunning colors that will take your breath away. I fully contend that not everything here makes a lot of sense, but it almost doesn't matter. It's like a dream in that regard – things are extremely vivid yet don't make a lick of sense. All that matters, though, is that you go along for the ride. Haunting and strange, Inferno is a horror movie that lingers in your memory long after you've seen it.For fans of: Suspiria, Deep Red, Rosemary's Baby, the colors red and blue.

Indie horror legend Larry Fessenden helms this environmental horror flick which finds a team of oil workers (including Ron Perlman, James LeGros and Connie Britton) secluded in the Arctic suddenly dealing with potentially supernatural forces. Some may find the premise here to be a bit heavy-handed, but I think it works., At the very least, Fessenden has a knack for portraying surreal, unnerving situations that go off into directions you wouldn't expect. Think of The Last Winter as a global warming horror movie, but a very low-key one (in other words, this isn't Geostorm). Eerie and sometimes impenetrable, The Last Winter contains some genuinely scary moments that will work their way under your skin.For fans of: The Birds, The Thing, 30 Days of Night, Ron Perlman yelling at people.

If you need a break from straight-up horror but still want something disturbing, you can't go wrong with this underseen 2009 British thriller from director J Blakeson. Gemma Arterton is the daughter of a very wealthy man who finds herself kidnapped and held for ransom by two seemingly well-prepared men (Martin Compston and Eddie Marsan). What seems like a typical kidnapping drama becomes much, much more, as Blakeson's script reveals one shocking twist after another. Just when you think you have this film figured out, a brand new twist presents itself and pulls the rug out from under you. The Disappearance of Alice Creed is meticulously crafted and often incredibly intense, with three great performances. Why this film wasn't more of a hit, I'll never know.For fans of: Prisoners, Byzantium, Dead Man's Shoes, gorgeous and sad violin soundtracks.  

Long Shot is not a horror movie. In fact, it's a documentary, and a short one at that – only 40 minutes. But there's a truly scary premise at its heart: what if you found yourself arrested for a murder you didn't commit, with almost all the cards are stacked against you? That's exactly what happened to Juan Catalan, who found himself facing trial for the murder of a teenage girl. There was almost nothing that could exonerate Catalan, until the most unlikeliest of alibis presented itself: a taping of the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm. Long Shot breezes by, to the point where you'll find yourself wishing it was longer. This may seem like another Netflix true crime doc like Making A Murderer, but the story is more uplifting than that, with some genuinely emotional moments. On top of all that, an appearance from Curb star Larry David makes the entire film surreal.For fans of: Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Jinx, Larry David telling stories.