5 Must-Watch Horror Movies to Stream on Netflix This Week: October 6-12, 2025

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It’s officially spooky season! With Halloween near and the first cozy, dark autumn nights here, it’s the perfect time for scary movies. This time of year makes everyone want to watch something creepy, and horror fans are already planning their month-long marathon of frights. From masked villains to haunted locations and ghostly hauntings, there’s no better time to get comfortable with popcorn and a blanket – whether you’re snuggling up or hiding behind it!

Luckily, streaming services are now so easy to use, with platforms like Netflix providing a huge selection of scary movies and shows. They have everything from brand new originals to classic horror films, meaning there’s something for everyone, no matter what kind of horror you enjoy. And as Halloween approaches, even more titles are being added throughout the month. Whether you’re new to the genre or a long-time fan, you’ll find plenty of thrills and chills to enjoy every night in October.

Escape Room is a Spine-Chilling and Surreal Horror

When the trailer for Escape Room came out, it seemed like another violent, scary movie. The film centers around a group of people who don’t know each other and participate in an escape room, where each new room presents a more dangerous challenge that connects to their difficult pasts. However, it’s surprisingly not very graphic, showing just enough to let your imagination fill in the rest. Ultimately, Escape Room is a great movie to start with if you’re new to this type of film. It hints at disturbing possibilities without ever showing overly explicit or graphic violence.

Escape truly shines because of its compelling story, which is genuinely frightening. The film takes the time to develop each character’s background, making you care about whether they live or die – it goes beyond what you usually see in this genre. The challenges are smartly designed and fun to watch, and the idea of gamemasters controlling everything adds another intriguing element. Escape Room doesn’t cut corners on quality, with detailed and creative sets filled with dangerous traps that are truly scary. Ultimately, it’s a well-made and enjoyable example of ‘horrortainment.’

Smile is the Perfect Supernatural Story

Smile is a classic horror film – genuinely frightening and well-made, hitting all the key points of the genre. Sosie Bacon stars as a therapist who starts seeing terrifying, unexplainable things after a patient takes their own life. She quickly learns that a creepy being torments anyone who sees its disturbing smile, and that each person suffers for seven days before meeting a grim end. Although the plot gets a little confusing at times, with some characters appearing and disappearing without much explanation, the movie consistently delivers truly effective scares.

Inspired by director Parker Finn’s short film, Laura Can’t Sleep, Smile delivers plenty of startling moments, intense visuals, and inventive ideas. However, these scares aren’t overused, making them all the more impactful. In a horror subgenre that often feels repetitive, Smile breaks from familiar patterns, offering a gripping and surprising experience. Paired with its compelling story and thoughtful examination of family trauma and loss, it’s a genuinely original supernatural horror film that’s definitely worth seeing this season.

The Ritual is a Terrifying Folk Horror

David Bruckner’s The Ritual marked a new level in his career, being his first full-length movie after directing parts of The Signal, V/H/S, and Southbound. The film centers on four friends-Luke (Rafe Spall), Hutch (Rob James-Collier), Phil (Arsher Ali), and Dom (Sam Troughton)-who go on a hiking trip in a faraway Swedish forest. They’ve known each other since college, and these trips are a tradition they’ve kept up for years. But this trip is different, as they are all grieving the recent death of a friend who was killed during a robbery. Luke especially feels guilty, believing he could have prevented the death after leaving him alone in a store. The hike serves as both an escape and a way to honor their friend, while Luke struggles with his feelings of responsibility.

As you’d expect from this type of horror film, the scares in The Ritual build gradually. It starts with psychological tension as each character deals with their own fears and regrets, then escalates into a terrifying cult-related storyline, and ultimately delivers intense, full-blown horror. Bruckner skillfully connects all these elements, letting initial anxieties develop into later trauma, all while smoothly transitioning between different horror styles. The Swedish forest quickly feels like a confining and inescapable trap, and once the true horror begins, Bruckner’s use of atmosphere, rhythm, and suspense is outstanding. It’s a brilliant example of how to build suspense, making it the ideal movie for viewers who want both frightening creatures and a sense of psychological unease.

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is the Quintessential Slasher

Considered one of the most frightening films ever made, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is a must-see during this season. If you haven’t seen it yet, the story centers around a group of young people, including Sally (Marilyn Burns) and her brother Franklin (Paul A. Pertain), who find themselves stuck near a secluded farm in Texas. Soon after seeking assistance, they realize the farmhouse is inhabited by the cannibalistic Sawyer family, most notably Leatherface, who wields a chainsaw. Even now, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre remains as disturbing and terrifying as it was when it first came out, and its infamous dinner scene is still considered one of the most difficult scenes to sit through in horror cinema.

This film is definitely not for those who are easily scared. Although it doesn’t have much gore by today’s standards, the location, overall mood, and performances are deeply disturbing-it was even initially thought to be a real snuff film. Despite this, it’s essential viewing for horror enthusiasts. Hooper’s incredibly impactful film inspired many copycats, as numerous filmmakers saw horror as a cheap genre with the potential for big profits, but very few have matched the quality of the original. Since Netflix doesn’t have a large selection of classic horror films, when a gem like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre becomes available, it’s worth checking out.

The Strangers Reinvented the Home-Invasion Subgenre

Often, horror movie villains have a reason for what they do. For example, Leatherface acted because of how he was raised and harmed people to support his family, Freddy Krueger sought revenge on those who killed him, and Pamela Voorhees was motivated by her son’s tragic death. These backstories certainly create compelling narratives, but the truly frightening villains are the ones who attack without any apparent reason. The Strangers perfectly exemplifies this, delivering a relentlessly unsettling home-invasion story where anyone could be a victim, simply for the villains’ amusement.

I’m a big fan of The Strangers, and it really gets under your skin. It’s about James (Scott Speedman) and Kristen (Liv Tyler), a couple who rent this secluded vacation house, and things quickly go wrong when they’re terrorized by these masked strangers. It starts with creepy knocking, and then escalates to full-on physical and psychological torture. What’s really unsettling is that the movie doesn’t bother with a lot of backstory for anyone. It focuses on the idea of just… pure evil. We never find out *why* these people are doing what they’re doing – the explanation is just that they were home, and that’s enough. It’s the senselessness of the violence that makes it so terrifying, and honestly, it’s what made those masked intruders such memorable villains from the 2000s horror scene.

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2025-10-04 06:12