Wanna build your own horror marathon? Peacock’s got you covered.
Believe it or not, April is actually a pretty important month in the horror fan calendar. Sure, everything outside says springtime, but just look at the calendar and you’ll realize that April is the halfway point between the last Halloween and the next Halloween, making it the hump we have to get over in order to move into another spooky season.
All that means that April has, in its own way, become a spooky season unto itself! If you want to celebrate, Peacock has you covered. From new releases to classic films, these are the 13 scariest horror movies on the streaming service for the month of April 2024.
Night Swim (2024)
The major horror release calendar of 2024 kicked off with this Universal Pictures release, the story of a family who moves into a new home with a backyard pool that’s practically drowning in supernatural secrets. With a great cast led by Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon, a scary concept that will make you think twice about even the brightest swimming pools, and a memorable internal mythology, Night Swim kicked the year off right for horror, and now you can watch it at home.
Terrifier 2 (2022)
The Host (2006)
The films of Bong Joon-ho have a genre-bending feel all their own, and his attempt at a monster movie is no different. The story of a group of people who must contend with the threat of a strange monster inhabiting South Korean’s Han River, The Host is satisfyingly scary, playing with a lot of the monster movie tropes we know and love to great effect. But there’s more fun to be had here than just the scares. Like all Bong films, The Host has layers, and they just keep revealing themselves the longer you watch.
Phantasm (1979)
The Tall Man of Phantasm, played unforgettably by Angus Scrimm, might not be the most famous horror monster fans encountered in the 1970s, but in the years since he’s definitely become one of the most unforgettable. The story of two brothers who discover something sinister going on at the local funeral home, Phantasm remains a delightfully strange sci-fi-horror odyssey, and Scrimm’s performance as a mortician with a dark secret remains a nightmare-inducing work for the ages.
We Are Still Here (2015)
Two grieving parents move to a secluded New England farmhouse in an attempt to start over, and find spirits unwilling to move on are lurking in the home’s old foundations. That’s the setup for Ted Geoghegan’s We Are Still Here, a blisteringly powerful indie horror gem that remains one of the best releases in the genre over the last decade. Featuring great performances from Barbara Crampton, Larry Fessenden, and others, it’s a haunting story that’ll stay in your brain for hours.
The Exorcist III (1990)
Nearly 20 years after The Exorcist arrived and quickly gained a reputation as quite possibly the scariest movie ever made, novelist and screenwriter William Peter Blatty returned to the world of the film with this adaptation of his follow-up novel, Legion. Perhaps due to the lackluster reception of the previous sequel, Exorcist II: The Heretic, The Exorcist III has been met over the years with a certain level of skepticism among horror fans, but trust me when I tell you this is very much a film worth watching. It doesn’t generate terror in the same way that The Exorcist does, but that leaves it free to create a dreadful atmosphere all its own as it tells the story of a possibly supernatural serial killer, a new possession, and George C. Scott as the cop caught in the middle of it all. Plus, keep an eye out for one of the best and most unexpected jump scares in horror history.
Sick (2023)
One of the first great horror films of 2023, Sick is simultaneously a great home invasion thriller, a solid high-concept slasher, and an incisive, often funny look at the dread that surrounded us all in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The setup is simple: Two friends head out to a secluded lake house to quarantine amid luxurious surroundings, then masked killers show up and try to murder them. Why are they trying to murder these specific people, and what does it have to do with other deaths back in the crowded city? That’s for you to find out, but along the way you’re definitely going to get plenty of tension-laden chase scenes, memorable injuries, and a truly wild third act.
Let The Right One In (2008)
A modern classic for a reason, Let The Right One In is one of those horror films that just digs its claws deep into your soul and won’t let go. The story of a lonely little boy who befriends a young girl who turns out to be a vampire, it’s a surprisingly tender exploration of friendship, loneliness, and the kind of desperate love you might only know when you’re young. But beyond that, it’s also a genuinely scary vampire movie, patient in its execution and expert in its atmosphere, that’ll leave you with more than a few nail-biting moments of pure terror.
The Beyond (1981)
The legendary Italian gore master Lucio Fulci made a lot of unforgettably gruesome horror films, but he arguably never got better than this classic entry in his thematic “Gates of Hell” trilogy. The premise of The Beyond is simple: A woman inherits an old house in Louisiana and finds it might have certain supernatural tendencies. That’s pretty well-trod territory, but it’s what Fulci and company do with that setup that makes The Beyond work as a dreamlike, unforgettably relentless descent into terror. Plus, it’s packed with practical effects that remind you why Fulci had such a reputation for bloody films.
Day of the Dead (1985)
The final film in George A. Romero’s original zombie trilogy (which he’d later build on with more stories), Day of the Dead is a flat-out brutal production in just about every sense. It’s essentially the story of internal strife and eventual zombie invasion at an underground military installation, so the visuals are stark and, when the gore arrives, it’s both relentless and stomach-churning. It’s arguably the least pleasant of the three original films, but when it’s firing on all horror cylinders, it’s also unforgettable.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
Shot over one sweltering Texas summer in 1973, Tobe Hooper’s chaotic horror masterpiece still ranks among the most unsettling things you can watch on any given day. The seat-of-your-pants production, coupled with the real sweat across the actors’ faces and a sense of lived-in funk that you can feel in your nostrils, adds an almost docudrama air to the whole piece. You feel like you’re in the van with this group of youths driving to their doom, like you’re in the house where Leatherface starts carving people up, and like you’ve got a seat for the most terrifying dinner party in history. Nearly 50 years after its release, Texas Chain Saw remains notorious not because it’s bloody, but because it still feels transgressive and horrifying.
The Changeling (1980)
Photo: Pan-Canadian Distributors
One of the all-time great haunted house movies, Peter Medak’s The Changeling begins with a very simple, yet effective, setup for a horror story. A composer (George C. Scott), still grieving the loss of his wife and child, moves across the country and settles into a historic, secluded mansion to begin work on some new music. It’s not long before he starts experiencing odd phenomena around the house, all connected to what seems to be the ghost of a dead boy. Rich with atmosphere and anchored by Scott’s wonderful central performance, The Changeling just keeps adding layers to its horrific narrative, right up until one of the most unforgettable climaxes in horror.
NOPE (2022)
Jordan Peele’s third feature film is, on the surface at least, less overtly horror-driven than his first two films. But spend a little time with NOPE, and you’ll find some of the scariest imagery and thematic explorations in the director’s output so far. The story of two siblings (Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer) who discover their secluded ranch is being stalked by a UFO, it’s a film rich with metaphorical density and loads of humor. But that doesn’t mean Peele forgets to pour the horror on. It comes in the least expected places, but when the horror hits in NOPE, it’ll leave you hiding behind your hands.
