Dying to stream some frightfully brilliant entertainment? Our guide lists the top 10 best horror movies and TV shows on HBO Max this Halloween.
It’s that delightfully gruesome time of the year again. Nights are drawing in, a goosebump-raising chill descends, and people gather in the dark, eerie glow of their TV to watch unknown terrors unfold in sleepy suburbs. Luckily there’s an abundance of creepy content available on HBO Max, with the streaming service providing a varied collection of films and TV series to appease your ghoulish appetite. Packed full of psychological thrillers and comedy horrors, iconic classics and modern remakes, ghost tales and terrifying art-house masterpieces, you’ll find something for everyone on HBO Max. Below you’ll find our top 10 horror movies and TV shows on HBO Max for your consideration this Halloween. Now all you need to do is lock the door, turn off the lights, and prepare to stream! Saw co-creator Leigh Whannell took the premise of the 1897 sci-fi novel by H.G. Wells and turned it into a brutally resonant, #MeToo-inspired masterpiece. It’s packed with chilly tension from the start as Cecilia (Elizabeth Moss) escapes from the clutches of her millionaire boyfriend – optics expert Adrian Griffin (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) – only to find herself, her family and friends being victimized by an invisible entity. Unlike the entertainingly camp original, this lean, muscular thriller is full of creeping paranoia in which threat lurks just out of sight – shockingly demonstrated during a crowded restaurant scene. It’s brilliantly executed, and superbly acted by Moss as a woman whose transformation from traumatised victim to vengeful femme fatale is thrilling to watch. Perhaps the most impressive aspect, though, is the repurposing of H.G. Wells tale into a timely commentary on coercive relationships and patriarchal power structures. Nothing screams “Halloween” like a loosely linked compendium of terrifying tales in the vein of Creepshow, and Trick ‘r Treat is a one of the best examples of the genre. This 2007 horror anthology movie from director Michael Dougherty tells four unique but interlinked tales, all taking take place in the town of Warren Valley, Ohio one Halloween night. In each segment appears the mysterious figure of Sam – his head shrouded in a burlap sack – who attacks those who break the sacred “rules” of All Hallows Eve. This jet-black horror comedy is bursting with seasonal ambience and features a modestly A-list cast. Dylan Baker (Happiness) is a principal with a dark secret buried in his backyard; Brian Cox (X2, The Ring) is bad-tempered old neighbour Mr Kreeg, who finds himself grappling with a demonic entity, while True Blood’s Anna Paquin gives a serial killer more than he bargained for. It’s gleefully ghoulish, entertainingly creepy, and full of subversive twists – a real Halloween treat! Diabolique follows the kind but frail Christina and the strict Nicole, two teachers at a run-down Paris school bonded by their hatred of the same man, the cruel headmaster Michel. Tired of his abuse, both wife and mistress plot his murder – drowning him in a bathtub and dumping his corpse in the school’s neglected pool. But when the body fails to surface, they’re haunted by the suspicion that he might not be dead after all. This moody black and white French shocker from acclaimed director Henri-Georges Clouzot was considered the most artful and frightening horror movie ever, until Psycho slashed its way into screening rooms in 1960. Fiendishly plotted with an atmosphere of dread, and featuring one of cinema’s most memorable endings, Diabolique proved to be hugely influential – particularly on the “Master of Suspense” himself, Alfred Hitchcock.
