There is still time left to get in a properly spooky Halloween binge.
With October coming to a close, the season for horror movie binges is coming to a close (unless you’re a year round spooky season person) but we aren’t there yet. And luckily Paramount+ offers a handful of truly creepy movies that are worth your time this month.
From “Paranormal Activity” to “Drag Me to Hell,” these are the horror movies on the streamer to check out this Halloween.
A Quiet Place: Day One
“A Quiet Place: Day One” is the rare kind of prequel film — this one charting the day that noise-sensitive aliens first arrived on the planet — that stands with its predecessors and ultimately becomes the most human story of the entire John Krasinski-helmed series. It follows a terminally ill woman (Lupita Nyong’o) and man (Joseph Quinn) who meet as chaos and death consume their city. Together, they try to make it back to the woman’s apartment to save her cat. The film is just as brutal as you’d expect, but Nyong’o and Quinn elevate the creature-feature horrors with unmatched dramatic performances.
Doctor Sleep
“Doctor Sleep” deserved more love than it got. “The Shining” is one of Stephen King’s most iconic novels, and the Stanley Kubrick adaptation is equally revered — by everyone but King himself. So when the time came to adapt the horror writer’s “Shining” sequel, Mike Flanagan (“The Haunting of Hill House”) found a way to tell the story of a grown Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) that felt like a continuation of both the book and the elements Kubrick changed for his adaptation.
The film is long, but moves at such a brisk pace that it is rarely felt. And for the ever-growing number of Rebecca Ferguson fans out there, revel in how the “Dune” breakout plays the villainous Rose the Hat with sick glee.
Pet Sematary
One of King’s most famous lines is: “Sometimes dead is better” — and it has never sounded better than when it was delivered by Fred Gwynne playing Jud Crandall in the 1989 adaptation of “Pet Sematary.” He hits it with the perfect Maine twang, morphing it into, “Sometimes dead is bettah.” Anyone who thinks of that line hears Gwynne’s delivery.
On the horror front, Mary Lambert’s adaptation is the cause for many sleepless nights. The story follows a grieving man who learns that the titular Pet Sematary behind his home can bring the dead back to life – certainly with consequences. Between undead kids and a scene depicting spinal meningitis, the movie has had its hooks in people for decades.
The Ring
One of the OG “scariest movies ever” for a certain age, “The Ring” ruined the minds of tons of millennials, adapting the Japanese horror movie “Ringu,” which follows a journalist looking into the urban myth of a haunted video tape that kills anyone seven days after they watch. It is considered a modern horror classic for a reason – from iconic shots like Samara climbing out of the TV to its blend of classic scares and slow-burn dread. “The Ring” is an easy pick if you’re looking to have your night ruined in the best way possible.
Friday the 13th (Franchise)
If you really want to roll up your sleeves with the classics, its better to just go the full measure with a franchise binge. “Friday the 13th” is one of the all-time slasher films and the camp settings for many of the entries adds a fun element that spawned its own sub-genre. The hockey masked killer Jason Voorhees is another slow-moving, everywhere-at-once villain that makes the slasher genre such a fun watch or rewatch. And where the stories might stumble in the “Friday the 13th” movies, trust that the kills always deliver.
It Follows
“It Follows” captures one of the great human fears – being relentlessly pursued. The film follows (zing) a woman who contracts a horrific STD that manifests a monster that slow walks toward you at all times and if it catches you, it kills you. The only way to get rid of it is by passing it on to another. The constant slow-walking and the dread of knowing the entity was getting closer to you creates a real slow-burn dread that permeates through the film’s runtime. It’s a tense 100 minutes and prime for a rewatch. (And don’t even get us started on the A+ score the film is set to.)
Drag Me to Hell
“Drag Me to Hell” is dripping with everything that makes Sam Raimi such a fun director. If you checked out his return to horror in 2026 with “Send Help” and yearn for more from him that isn’t “Evil Dead” or his more commercial “Spider-Man” films, then “Drag Me To Hell” is your guaranteed fix. It’s funny, it’s disgusting, it’s tense and pulse-pounding. To be short: it’s a Sam Raimi movie.
It’s the director’s grim morality tale and everyone in front of the camera is on board to meet Raimi’s vision. While it has been celebrated in the years since release, there are always more people who should be watching this movie.
Paranormal Activity (Franchise)
The found footage franchise sensation may not have had a runaway hit in a few years, but it’s hard to argue with a multi-film phenomenon. Each entry in the series follows a different house – some in different decades – that find themselves harassed by a demon or ghost or both. Jump scares are all well and good, but the slow moving terror of a camera panning across a room to reveal things having moved or people standing and staring at others without their knowing hits just as hard. Chase the high of the late 2000s and early 2010s for this quick horror binge.
Smile 2
“Smile 2” – and the franchise as a whole – has been a pleasant and creepy surprise to the genre. The sequel far exceeds the original as it explores fame and addiction as a rising global pop star is the latest to be infected by the terrifying and demonic Smile curse. Naomi Scott is astounding in the lead as she fights for her life as the curse continues to feed on her trauma. If you want an elevated take on your classic slasher film, “Smile 2” will leave you … well … smiling, for better or worse.
