My boyfriend and I have been watching a scary movie every night of October and have been trying to add to our watchlist by asking friends and reading through articles like this that list movie recommendations but they all seem to be the same, list movies we've seen a million times and already consider Halloween-time staples, or movies that just straight up aren't good.

I know it all comes down to opinions but I've compiled the list below, in no particular order, of movies with solid ratings that I'd recommend or have been recommended to me by someone I trust for ~spooky recommendations~ since I know a lot of you are participating in the same October-long movie marathon.

A lot of these happen to be available on Amazon Prime Video so, if you don't have it and are into horror movies and thrillers, I would definitely recommend it! It also has tons of old horrors movies available, dating all the way back to the 20's.

The Lodge

A family holiday vacation to an isolated winter cabin goes wrong (shocker) when a father is forced to go back home abruptly and his two kids are left to ultimately get snowed in with his new girlfriend. Between the uneasy feelings the kids have toward the girlfriend given their dead mother and the girlfriend's dark past, the time they spend together here is unsettling to say the least.

Stars: Riley Keough, Jaeden Martell, Lia McHugh. Watch on: Prime Video, Hulu.

We Are What We Are

A religious family finds their secret and violent family tradition threatened, as a massive storm moves through their area, disrupts their ritualistic patterns, and brings a lot of the secrets they've buried for centuries to the surface. This one has a twist at the end that I can't get out of my head.

Stars: Bill Sage, Ambyr Childers, Julia Garner. Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi.

Starry Eyes

This one gives me some Black Swan vibes. It focuses on and plays up the dark side of breaking into Hollywood's elite, as an aspiring starlet quite literally sells her soul for fame and fortune.

Stars: Alex Essoe, Amanda Fuller, Noah Segan. Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi.

The Taking of Deborah Logan

An elderly woman battling Alzheimer's agrees to allow a college film crew document her condition for educational purposes, but truly isn't too happy about them invading her space for reasons more than just the obvious. After a series of unsettling episodes and dark memories that start to return to the woman's consciousness, the crew and the old woman's daughter start to wonder if her behavior is entirely caused by Alzheimer's or if there is something more haunting going on.

Stars: Jill Larson, Anne Ramsay, Michelle Ang. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Relic

A similar plot but in this one the woman battling dementia vanishes with an explanation and returns with, not surprisingly, she provides no explanation for where she's been or why. As the woman's condition declines rapidly, she speaks about something or someone trying to get into the house and her family works to discover if it's her dementia talking or if there's some truth to what she's trying to communicate to them.

Stars: Emily Mortimer, Robyn Nevin, Bella Heathcote. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Host

This one is pretty timely so, if you're a Halloween-lover and happen to be planning a virtual medium appointment, Ouija board session, etc. for spooky season during the COVID-19 quarantine this year, you're right on track with this plot. A group of friends hires a medium to hold a séance over their usual Zoom group call and, to their surprise, it works a little too well and an evil being joins them.

Stars: Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb. Where to watch: Shudder.

Midnight Meat Train

This was a lot better than I expected after having seen the adorable rom-comy face of Bradley Cooper on the movie. A photographer is challenged by a successful gallery owner to get more up close and personal with the strangers he often shoots to capture moments that few people get to see. He decides late nights at the subway station are perfect for this and gets tangled up in suspiciously well covered up murders. This gave me slight Nightcrawler vibes and the ending had a great twist to the storyline that I didn't anticipate.

Stars: Bradley Cooper, Vinnie Jones, Leslie Bibb. Where to watch: Prime Video. Tubi.

The Witch

This film takes place in New England in 1630, when a family of puritan settlers move to a piece of land to start their own farm and live a devout Christian life without distraction. When one after another things start to go wrong, the family begins to turn on one another as many did during the times of witch hysteria and trails. This film does a great job of taking you back in time to when the fears of witchcraft and curses were common and real, as the family's suspicions are right and there really is a witch causing their issues.

Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie. Where to watch: Prime Video, Showtime.

The Howling

An 80's horror film, centered around a television newswoman who is sent to a remote mountain retreat after participating in dangerous sting investigation. Unfortunately, her retreat turns out to be no place of comfort and, after some creepy interactions and mysterious noises, she sets out to discover what is giving her the creeps - in true news reporter style. I don't think this is any spoiler but... this is werewolfy.

Stars: Where to watch:

Overlord

On the eve of D-Day, American troops explore behind enemy lines and realize there's a lot more going on in a Nazi-occupied village than normal military tactics. The discover and battle a monstrous army of undead experiments their enemies have been creating for war.

Stars: Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Mathilde Ollivier. Where to watch: Prime Video, Hulu.

Zombie (aka. Zombi 2)

This 70's classic is an Italian film, created to serve as a sequel to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead of 1978, which was released in Italy with the title 'Zombi'. Its story is centered around the search for a missing scientist, whose abandoned boat floats into NYC, and an island where dead residents rise as zombies to attack the living.

Stars: Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson. Where to watch: Showtime, Shudder, Horror TV, FullMoon.

The Village

One of my favorite movies, this M. Night Shyamalan film of a desolate, old-fashioned town where residents live by extremely restricting rules - one being that they are not allowed to venture outside their own village as they will be attacked by the monsters that live on the outskirts. After a heartbreaking attack puts a main character's life in danger, a blind woman who loves him petitions to put herself at risk by venturing outside their village and into civilization to find the help of modern medicine.

Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Bryce Dallas Howard, Adrien Brody. Where to watch: Prime Video.

The Witches of Eastwick

This 80's movie has comedy and magic, and is a witchy flick that won't keep you up at night while still giving you the Halloween feels. The story is of three single women who are told they have abilities within witchcraft by a mysterious, quirky, creepy man who promises to grant their desires... but not without something in return.

Stars: Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, Veronica Cartwright, Richard Jenkins. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Enemy

A thriller centered around a college professor living a very mundane life becomes obsessed with an actor that looks just like him, from their facial hair to a a matching scar. Their lives become intertwined as they both get far too involved in the other one's affairs, intruding on the other people in their lives and creating a dangerous sense of competition between the two of them.

Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Sarah Gadon. Where to watch: Prime Video, Showtime.

The Hallow

After moving into a new home in remote Ireland, a couple angers the magical creatures that local legends say live in their woods by trespassing without fear that these tales could be true.

Stars: Joseph Mawle, Bojana Novakovic, Michael McElhatton. Where to watch: Prime Video.

The Prophecy

Archangel Gabriel comes to Earth to collect the soul of a psychotic veteran but, when the angel Simon hides the veteran's soul in someone else to throw off Gabriel's manhunt, an unlikely bunch come to together to keep everyone safe.

Stars: Christopher Walken, Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen, Eric Stoltz, and Viggo Mortensen. Where to watch: Prime Video, IMDb TV.

The Wailing

A stranger suspiciously arrives to a small village as the villagers develop sudden urges to attack each other with seemingly no reason or warning. A policeman investigates in order to save his daughter, who has fallen under the trance. This is a Korean horror film with subtitles.

Stars: Jun Kunimura, Jung-min Hwang, Do-won Kwak. Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi, Crackle.

Phantasm (series)

In a town threatened by a steady amount of mysterious deaths, a boy and his friends battle an eerie grave robber known as the Tall Man, who keeps an army of magical, futuristic weapons with him to ward off anyone who tries to disrupt his evil experiments with dead bodies.

Stars: A. Michael Baldwin, Reggie Bannister, Angus Scrimm. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Pumpkinhead

In this 80's film, a man seeks revenge against the teenagers responsible for his son's death. He approaches a witch to help him in the process, who summons the creature Pumpkinhead to hunt down the teens. The man changes his mind and fights to end Pumpkinhead's murder mission.

Stars: Lance Henriksen, Jeff East, John D'Aquino. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Stake Land

A modern day vampire and vampire hunter story. After a plague has America rampant with vampires, a man travels cross-country with an unlikely companion he's taken under his wing along the way, hunting vampires and searching for safety.

Stars: Connor Paolo, Nick Damici, Kelly McGillis. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Apostle

I thought this was one of the more stand-out horror movies I'd seen from recent years. It takes place in the early 1900s, when a drifter plots to rescue his kidnapped sister from a sinister religious cult on an isolated island.

Stars: Dan Stevens, Richard Elfyn, Paul Higgins. Where to watch: Netflix.

Body Bags

This one is different from all the rest and even involves a bit of comedy. Body Bags consists of three short stories: a serial killer, a hair transplant gone wrong, and a baseball player. Released in 1993, this one has old-school horror movie vibes rather than new more realistic, suspenseful thrillers.

Stars: John Carpenter, Tom Arnold, Tobe Hooper. Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi.

High Tension

Two girls decide to spend a quiet weekend at a family farmhouse but, almost immediately, their relaxing getaway turns into anything but that when an uninvited man ambushes the family and kidnaps one of the girls - and the other becomes trapped in close quarters with her attacker as an attempted rescue mission for her friend has her hiding in the back of his truck.

Stars: Cécile de France, Maïwenn, Philippe Nahon. Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi.

From Hell

Whether you know the stories of Jack the Ripper or not, this is a good one (plus Johnny Depp is in it so...). A clairvoyant, addict detective is determined to track down Jack the Ripper in Victorian London. When he begins to fall for a possible future victim, his investigation gains an intense sense of urgency.

Stars: Johnny Depp, Heather Graham, Ian Holm. Where to watch: Prime Video, STARZ.

Goodnight Mommy

Twin boys are uneasy after their mother undergoes intense cosmetic surgery, drastically altering her face and, ultimately the boys decide, a suspicious amount of other things about her. They are left isolated with her in their countryside home to decide whether they're getting inside their own heads or if something really is terribly wrong.

FYI - The film is in German with subtitles but I think there may be an English version out there.

Stars: Susanne Wuest, Lukas Schwarz, Elias Schwarz. Where to watch: Hulu, Tubi.

Jacob's Ladder

In this 90's mystery, a war veteran suffers from a severe case of dissociation as he mourns the loss of his child, and has a terrible time deciphering reality from his dark delusions.

Stars: Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, Danny Aiello. Where to watch: Prime Video, Cinemax.

Hour of the Wolf

This is a black and white horror film from the 60's that tells the story of a pregnant couple vacationing on a remote Scandinavian island when the husband suffers an emotional breakdown, confronting his repressed desires.

Stars: Max von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Gertrud Fridh. Where to watch: VUDU.

A Cure for Wellness

This one is pretty out there... which I personally love. Put your imagination caps on for the story of a young Wall Street executive sent to pick up his company's CEO from a bizarre "wellness center," isolate in the Swiss Alps with treatments that are not what the public believes them to be.

Stars: Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs, Mia Goth. Where to watch: Prime Video.

The Descent

A woman and her friends go climbing inside a dark cave and end up trapped after one member of the group fails to reveal an important piece of information. They struggle to survive as they begin to run out of supplies and realize they're not alone in the cave - there are predators who have been waiting for them.

Stars: Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid. Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi, IMDb TV.

Frailty

A man confesses the story of his childhood to an FBI agent upon a potential connection to unsolved murder cases. As a kid, his father had explained that an angel appeared to him and passed along knowledge of demons who walk the Earth disguised as regular people that he was instructed to put an end to.

Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe. Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi.

As Above So Below

An archaeologist in search of an artifact said to bring eternal life and riches assembles a team to help her search the dark, mysterious Catacombs of Paris, where she believes the artifact to be.

Stars: Perdita Weeks, Ben Feldman, Edwin Hodge. Where to watch: Netflix, Prime Video.

Intruders

A woman suffers from agoraphobia so crippling that when a trio of criminals break into her house, she cannot bring herself to flee.

Stars: Rory Culkin, Leticia Jimenez, Jack Kesy, Beth Riesgraf. Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi.

Bone Tomahawk

Taking place in the Old West, a sheriff, his deputy, and two other determined citizens take off on a dangerous mission to rescue three people from a indigenous cannibal group.

Stars: Kurt Russell, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Fox, Richard Jenkins, Lili Simmons. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Night of the Demons

This wacky film from the 80's shows a risqué Halloween party at an abandoned funeral parlor gone horribly wrong (shocker) when the guests start to turn into demons and, thus, turn on each other, possessed by an evil otherworldly spirit in the house. It's funny, inappropriate, spooky, and very very 80's.

Stars: Hal Havins, Cathy Podewell, Linnea Quigley, Billy Gallo, Amelia Kinkade. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Don't Breathe

Three friends attempt the not-so-moral robbery of a blind veteran who is said to have a good amount of money stashed in his home. Turns out, he isn't as easy of a target as they thought and that he's got a lot more to hide than his money.

Stars: Jane Levy, Stephen Lang, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Terrifier

This movie's plot isn't the most detailed or well done for lack of better words BUT its murderous clown monster, gore, and setting on Halloween night are sure to give you the spooky season scenes you want in your movie marathon.

Stars: Jenna Kanell, Samantha Scaffidi, David Howard Thornton. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Session 9

An asbestos cleaning crew works a job in an abandoned mental hospital with a horrific past that seems to be coming back when a crew member plays the tape recordings of a former patient with multiple personalities.

Stars: David Caruso, Stephen Gevedon, Josh Lucas, Paul Guilfoyle. Where to watch: Netflix, Prime Video.

Constantine

As a suicide survivor with a connection to the other side and the ability to see angels and demons on earth, a man hunts demons to seek salvation from an eternal sentence in hell, knowing that he's got a one-way ticket there upon his death unless he can do enough good in his lifetime to overshadow his sin.

Stars: Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Djimon Hounsou, Tilda Swinton. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Train To Busan

A man and his estranged daughter are trapped on a train along with its other passengers during a zombie outbreak in South Korea.

Stars: Yoo Gong, Yu-mi Jung, Dong-seok Ma. Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi.

Tales That Witness Madness

This 70's film shows a psychiatrist from a mental asylum telling the stories of four disturbing patient cases to a colleague, from a boy with a tiger for an imaginary "friend" to a cannibal dinner party.

Stars: Jack Hawkins, Donald Pleasence, Georgia Brown. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Anna

A "memory detective", with the ability to enter people's memories often for the purpose of resolving psychological conflicts, takes on the case of a troubled sixteen-year-old girl to determine whether she is a dangerous sociopath a victim, responding to unresolved trauma.

Stars: Mark Strong, Taissa Farmiga. Where to watch: Prime Video, Tubi.

1408

Based on Stephen King's 1999 short story, this film tells the tale of a skeptical paranormal activity specialist who checks into a room with a haunted reputation to investigate, and is met with psychological nightmares.

Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, John Cusack, Tony Shalhoub, Mary McCormack. Where to watch: Prime Video.

The House of the Devil

Set in the 80's the same spooky night of a lunar eclipse, a struggling college student takes a babysitting job for a stranger and, while she will be babysitting, it turns out she won't be babysitting kids like she expected. She comes to realize the family she's working for is hiding a terrifying secret (shocker)!

Stars: Jocelin Donahue, Tom Noonan, Mary Woronov. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Suspiria

Set in the 70's, a young dancer works her way up at a world-renowned dance company in Berlin and a woman she knocks down in ranks becomes irate and exposes the directors for practicing black magic.

Stars: Dakota Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Tilda Swinton, Elena Fokina, Mia Goth. Where to watch: Prime Video.

Please comment or message me with any other recommendations! As for a TV series, I'd recommend Channel Zero, Castle Rock, True Detective, and Salem.