Best Horror Movies on Amazon Prime Video (December 2024)

Amazon has a gigantic selection of horror movies you can stream right now. As a Prime Video subscriber, you have a selection of close to 3,000 horror movies you can watch for free as part of your subscription. That’s more than ten times the number of horror movies available on Netflix (which a search shows is a little over 250). With that many movies to choose from, some guidance might be helpful. The following list is a selection of a few of the best horror movies you can watch with your Prime Video subscription in December of 2024. Also included below is a schedule of all of the new horror movies joining Prime Video in December.

For viewers who enjoy: zombies, societal collapse, movies based on novels

Why Watch It? If you enjoy zombie-apocalypse movies, then Apocalypse Z is going to give you everything you’re looking for. It has an interesting sympathetic lead, some nice action-horror sequences, and a setup that will hopefully lead to more movies in this world.

Synopsis: When a zombie virus spreads across Europe, Manel finds himself stranded in his home near the west coast of Spain after he chooses to ignore the government’s evacuation order. With the infected closing in and his food running out, Manel and his cat set out to reconnect with his sister and her family on the Canary Islands.

For viewers who enjoy: vampires, crime movies, single-location horror

Why Watch It? Abigail is a fun horror comedy with a strong cast including Melissa Barrera, Kathryn Newton, Kevin Durand, Dan Stevens, Will Catlett, Angus Cloud, and Alisha Weir as Abigail.

Synopsis: A group of criminals is hired to kidnap a twelve-year-old girl who is to be held for ransom. They are instructed to babysit the girl overnight inside a locked-down house, but it isn’t long before they realize that young Abigail isn’t trapped with them, they’re trapped with her.

For viewers who enjoy: horror comedies, Frankenstein monsters, the 1980s

Why Watch It? Lisa Frankenstein manages to keep the comedy light and fun even when the movie takes some surprisingly dark turns.

Synopsis: Lisa is an awkward and shy teenager with a gothically romantic side. After a particularly bad night, she makes a wish in a cemetery, but she doesn’t get exactly what she was asking for. Instead, Lisa is now best friends with a reanimated corpse, and she has ideas about how to fix him, piece by piece.

For viewers who enjoy: good acting, pitch-black dramas, supernatural spookiness

Why Watch It? Drama takes the forefront in Bag of Lies, while the scary stuff builds gradually and effectively throughout the movie.

Synopsis: Rather than confronting his sick wife’s inevitable death, a man chooses to perform an occult ritual using a creepy, mysterious bag. The ritual is meant to save his wife’s life, but what price will he have to pay to get what he wants?

For viewers who enjoy: video game adaptations, animatronics, gateway horror

Why Watch It? Five Nights at Freddy’s touches on the deeper lore of the video-game franchise, but it’s also accessible for people who don’t even know that the games exist.

Synopsis: Mike Schmidt has a new job guarding a closed-down pizzeria/family entertainment center during the night shift. However, the pizzeria and its sentient animatronic characters hold many secrets, some of which might actually be connected to Mike and his own personal issues.

For viewers who enjoy: slasher comedies, horror with sci-fi twists, whodunit slashers

Why Watch It? Totally Killer never takes itself seriously, making it a light and breezy slasher movie to watch.

Synopsis: Jamie’s mother survived a masked killer’s spree more than three decades ago. The killer is now back, and when Jamie is accidentally transported back to 1987 she has the opportunity to stop the killings at their source at the risk of being trapped in the past.

For viewers who enjoy: found footage, incredible atmosphere, experiences over plot

Why Watch It? The Outwaters puts viewers into the experience of the characters better than just about any other found footage ever made. It is an incredibly intense film if you let yourself be taken away by it.

Synopsis: Four people enter the Mojave Desert to shoot a music video, but they never return home. Memory cards containing video footage of the friends’ final moments were discovered. What is seen in that footage is inexplicable, and it is completely horrifying.

For viewers who enjoy: dark romances, cannibalism, drama

Why Watch It? For all of its blood and darkness, Bones and All is a beautiful movie that is unsettling, tragic, and powerful.

Synopsis: Maren is abandoned by her father when her cravings as an “Eater” (someone who craves human flesh) become too much for him. Now all alone, Maren sets off on a journey to find her mother, and along the way she meets another Eater, Lee, and a strange kind of romance blossoms.

For viewers who enjoy: immigrant stories, dark dramas, psychological horror

Why Watch It? Nanny crafts an unsettling story that is emotionally powerful.

Synopsis: Aisha (Anna Diop) is an immigrant from Senegal who is working as a nanny in New York City. Caring for someone else’s child while being separated from her own child contributes to a haunting presence that increasingly affects Aisha’s life.

For viewers who enjoy: witches, remakes that are different, dance

Why Watch It? This version of Suspiria is sufficiently different from the original, so direct comparisons won’t be constantly made as you’re watching. Which is good, because this version of Suspiria is excellent.

Synopsis: Susie Bannion (Dakota Johnson), an American from Ohio, is a new student at a prestigious dance academy in 1977 West Berlin, a dance academy that is home to a coven of witches.

For viewers who enjoy: survival movies, winter horror, natural horror movies

Why Watch It? Frozen is a simple story done well. It has good writing, good acting, and a scenario that feels realistic enough to get the viewer thinking about what they would do in the same situation.

Synopsis: A guy, his girlfriend, and his best friend become stranded on a ski lift high above the slopes. With no coming to save them, they must take definitive action if they hope to survive the elements.

For viewers who enjoy: survival horror, claustrophobia, monsters, psychological horror

Why Watch It? The Descent takes claustrophobic horror to extremes, and that’s just the start of the horror. There is also gritty action, tense group dynamics, and deep psychological horror wrapped up in a fun monster-movie package.

Synopsis: A group of friends go spelunking in an unexplored cave system. They become trapped, and while looking for a way out they discover that they’re not the first people to venture this deep into the caves. Also, they’re not alone.

For viewers who enjoy: horror westerns, supernatural horror, isolation

Why Watch It? Dead Birds aims high with a low budget, and it achieves something very entertaining (even if the special effects aren’t always of the highest quality). Also, the cast is really good, with the always-amazing Michael Shannon being a standout.

Synopsis: A gang of bank robbers hide out in an old plantation, but they discover that the spirits of the dead do not rest on this land.

For viewers who enjoy: backwoods horror, survival movies

Why Watch It? The plot might sound trite, but the execution is excellent. Wrong Turn is a standout horror film of the 2000s because of its commitment to telling a simple story very well.

Synopsis: A group of people stranded in the woods of West Virginia find themselves targeted by a family of deformed cannibals.

For viewers who enjoy: action horror, British horror, werewolves

Why Watch It? This is one of the best werewolf movies you’ll ever see. It’s straightforward, bloody, violent, and fantastic.

Synopsis: A squad of soldiers conducting a training exercise in the forests of Scotland come under siege by werewolves.

For viewers who enjoy: Japanese horror, strange films, eerie stories

Why Watch It? If you enjoy the creepy cosmic horror of Junji Ito, then you have to watch Uzumaki. If you’re not familiar with Junji Ito, but you do enjoy odd horror movies, Uzumaki is for you as well.

Synopsis: The residents of a small town in Japan are cursed by spirals, which leads to a series of bizarre and deadly events.

For viewers who enjoy: romantic horror, zombie movies, gore

Why Watch It? The first Return of the Living Dead is the best, but part three is excellent in its own ways. It’s more serious, the story is more focused, and Julie is one of the greatest zombies to ever appear in a film.

Synopsis: Curt (J. Trevor Edmond) and Julie (Melinda Clark) are young and in love, but when they decide to run away together, Julie is killed in a motorcycle accident. Curt decides to revive her using the substance he saw in the military base where his father works. Julie is revived, but will their love survive her new overwhelming hunger for brains?

For viewers who enjoy: vampires, high quality low-budget movies, picturesque settings

Why Watch It? Count Orlok is getting a lot of attention in December, but the sinister Radu of the Subspecies series deserves a share of the vampire spotlight. Radu is clearly influenced by the Orlok, but Anders Hove—the actor under Radu’s makeup and long fingers—imbues Radu with a unique personality that is as captivating as it is creepy.

Synopsis: Three female college students travel to Romania to study the culture, and they become entangled in a centuries-old struggle between vampire brothers Stefan and Radu.

For viewers who enjoy: underwater horror, monster movies

Why Watch It? Leviathan came out during the brief boom of underwater horror that began in the late 1980s, and it is one of the more memorable entries in that cycle of films. It’s no The Abyss, but Leviathan is great for fans of horror which is very clearly inspired by Alien and The Thing.

Synopsis: The crew of a deep-sea mining operation discover a shipwreck at the bottom of the ocean. They bring some of the contents of the ship to their underwater facility, but they also bring back an infection that turns anyone it infects into a mutated monster.

For viewers who enjoy: cosmic horror, body horror, Clive Barker

Why Watch It? Doug Bradley as Pinhead is one of horror’s great monsters. So, if you’ve never seen the original Hellraiser, you really should make the time for it.

Synopsis: Frank is trying to escape a dimension unlocked by a mysterious puzzle box and find a way back home. He discovers that he needs blood and the life-forces of many people to make his body whole once again after it was destroyed, and his sister-in-law Julia agrees to help. But when his niece discovers the secrets of the puzzle box, the beings that Frank escaped from begin to close in on him.

For viewers who enjoy: Dracula, remakes, gothic horror

Why Watch It? Nosferatu, The Vampire is arguably better than the 1922 movie it is inspired by. But even if you don’t agree with that assessment, the 1979 Nosferatu is fantastic. It’s also fascinating to see this version of the classic story with the names of the original characters from the novel being used (even if a couple of the names are switched around in a major way).

Synopsis: A Transylvanian nobleman by the name of Dracula purchases a house in Germany after becoming enchanted by Lucy Harker, the wife of real-estate agent Jonathan Harker. Death follows as Dracula arrives in his new home.

For viewers who enjoy: Christmas horror, sorority slashers

Why Watch It? This slasher classic is practically required viewing during the month of December. It’s scary and funny in equal amounts, and it is filled with wonderfully memorable characters from top to bottom.

Synopsis: During the holiday season, the women of the Pi Kappa Sigma sorority are harassed, stalked, and murdered by a mysterious man who we only know as “Billy.”