10 Best Thriller & Horror Movies About Love on Netflix in February 2024

February is all about love. Valentine’s Day occurs on February 14th, but there are all sorts of ways to celebrate love throughout the month. One of the best ways to contemplate love is with a good movie. Specifically, a good thriller or horror movie.

Love is such a powerful emotion that is the perfect basis for any scary, thrilling, and emotional film. Love in these types of movies can be pure, but it can also be deceiving, manipulative, painful, and terrifying. Love can be twisted. Love can be broken. Love can lead to dark places, and the movies collected here, streaming throughout February on Netflix, use love in all of these unnerving ways.

Director: Sion Sono | Runtime: 151 minutes

For viewers who enjoy: Japanese films, director Sion Sono, movies inspired by true crime

The Forest of Love is an odd film from director Sion Sono (Tag, Suicide Club, Strange Circus). To say the movie is about love might be a stretch, but it is about a conman who uses, among other things, love as a way to manipulate people. The story is very loosely based on the horrific crimes of convicted killer Futoshi Matsunaga, but to try to explain the plot of The Forest of Love would be difficult. It’s a frenetic movie that takes viewers to some dark places with over-the-top performances, violence, and gore.

Director: Ti West | Runtime: 106 minutes

For viewers who enjoy: slashers, Mia Goth, A24 horror

On the surface, X is a (phenomenal) slasher movie about a bunch of porn filmmakers who make their movie at the wrong house and become the victims of a deranged killer. But when you cut down to the heart of it, X is a movie about love. The carefree love of Bobby-Lynn (Brittany Snow). The self love of Maxine (Mia Goth). The curious love of Lorraine (Jenna Ortega). The possessive love of RJ (Owen Campbell). The love of success of Wayne (Martin Henderson). The relatively fragile love of Jackson (Scott Mescudi). And Pearl’s need for reassurance of her husband’s love. Love is all around in X… and so are a lot of dead bodies.

Director: Shashant Shah | Runtime: 132 minutes

For viewers who enjoy: movies from India, revenge films, suspense

Operation Romeo begins by introducing viewers to sweethearts Aditya (Sidhant Gupta) and Neha (Vedika Pinto). It feels like a typical romance, but along the way we see some aggressive tendencies in Aditya. Then, while on a date, Aditya and Neha are approached and harassed by a pair of men who claim to be police officers. The event drives a wedge between the burgeoning couple, sending Aditya into a tailspin of ego and revenge.

Director: Dave Franco | Runtime: 88 minutes

For viewers who enjoy: relationship thrillers, voyeur movies, home invasion films

The Rental is a movie with shattered love as a foundation for its story. Two couples (one married, one not) rent a house for a short vacation. A drug-and-alcohol fueled night leads to intimate relations between a married man and his brother’s girlfriend. Though they want to just forget about the act and move on without telling their partners, the discovery of hidden cameras in the house is the first of a series of incidents that spin completely out of control. The Rental is a tense thriller that ramps up the tension very well, leading to a finale that perfectly fits the dark tone of the story.

Director: Cate Shortland | Runtime: 115 minutes

For viewers who enjoy: isolation movies, kidnapping films, psychological thrillers

To be clear, Berlin Syndrome is not about love. However, it does start out like it might be about love. Clare (Teresa Palmer) is a photographer in Berlin who meets a charming man by the name of Andi (Max Riemelt). What begins as a brief romantic fling turns into an extended nightmare when Clare discovers that Andi has locked her inside his apartment with no intention of letting her go. Tense and frightening, Berlin Syndrome is a great and uncomfortable thriller.

Director: Ben Wheatley | Runtime: 123 minutes

For viewers who enjoy: movies based on novels, modern takes on gothic romance

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940) is a classic, and this new interpretation can’t top Hitchcock’s vision of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel. But even if you’ve seen and love the 1940 Rebecca, director Ben Wheatley’s Rebecca is still completely worthwhile. Stars Lily James and Armie Hammer insist their movie isn’t a remake of the 1940 film, and they are both very good in this new adaptation. Rebecca (2020) is for fans of beautiful movies with dark romances and mysteries.

Director: Shirish Kunder | Runtime: 107 minutes

For viewers who enjoy: serial killer movies, campy movies, crime thrillers

How far would you go to save the person you love? If your spouse is arrested for murders that you don’t believe they did, would you commit a murder in the style of the killings just to convince the police that they got the wrong person? That’s the conundrum faced by Sona (Jacqueline Fernandez) in Mrs. Serial Killer. With its bright colors, ridiculous bursts of action, and repeated use of campy camerawork, the movie is presented in a style that is too bombastic to be taken seriously. But even so, it’s kind of fun.

Director: Harold Becker | Runtime: 112 minutes

For viewers who enjoy: neo-noir, movies about police investigations, moody crime thrillers

A killer is loose in New York City, murdering men who answer personal ads. Grumpy veteran police detective Frank Keller (Al Pacino) is assigned to the case, so he puts out his own personal ad to fish for a potential suspect. Keller makes things way too complicated when he begins to develop feelings for one of the women who answers his ad, Helen Cruger (Ellen Barkin). Is theirs a romance doomed for one of them to end up either dead or in prison?

Director: Rob Zombie | Runtime: 109 minutes

For viewers who enjoy: goofy movies, Rob Zombie, family movies with monsters

The Munsters is a movie born out of the love that writer/director Rob Zombie has for the characters. It is also a movie about love, serving as a prequel of sorts to the original TV series. In Rob Zombie’s The Munsters, we see how Herman and Lily first meet, fall in love, and get married. Wacky hijinks abound throughout this brightly-colored love story. Is it horror? No, it’s really more of a family comedy. But there are tons of monsters, and Rob Zombie is absolutely a horror director, so it qualifies enough to make it onto this list.

Director: Jessica M. Thompson | Runtime: 105 minutes

For viewers who enjoy: vampire movies, gothic horror, amazing set design

Evie (Nathalie Emmanuel) is whisked away to England on the trip of a lifetime after learning she has family there. While staying at a gorgeous mansion which serves as the location for an upcoming wedding for a member of her newly-discovered extended family, the lord of the manor, Walter de Ville (Thomas Doherty), romances her. Even though Evie picks up on some ominous signs, she is inevitably swept up in the romance. That is, until Walter’s true intentions become clear.