7 Best Horror Movies to Watch on Netflix in September

Nope

“Nope” is a science-fiction horror film from Jordan Peele that follows a man trying to keep his livelihood of providing horses for Hollywood movie and TV shoots afloat in a shrinking market. He learns that some sort of otherworldly entity seems to be stalking his farm, and rather than fight or run, he opts to try to catch the thing on film and cash in on the royalties. The film feels like classic Stephen King as a group of ordinary folks faces off against the extraordinary. “Get Out” might have earned Peele the majority of his acclaim, but “Nope” has my heart.

Ready or Not

“Ready or Not” follows a woman who seems to be hitting the jackpot in marriage – great guy, rich family of board game creators, what could be better? The family tradition of playing a game the night of the wedding takes a violent turn when the game Grace (Samara Weaving) lands on finds her being hunted by her whole in-law family.

While not a tradition jump scare horror film, “Ready or Not” plays a bit like a much more violent “Home Alone” as Grace uses whatever she can get her hands on to stay alive – all while decked out in her wedding dress and yellow Chucks.

Alien

“Alien” has been scaring horror fans and horror naysayers alike for decades. It has become a tentpole horror film and as the years add up it continues to hold up. Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley fights for survival against a brutal new organism aboard her spaceship as the rest of her crew is picked off one by one.

Few horror movies nail their sense of place and aesthetic like “Alien” did. It’s once futuristic look has become a now retro-futurist vibe that is currently being replicated gorgeously in FX’s franchise spinoff “Alien: Earth.” The film clearly has a lasting legacy and is always deserving of a watch or rewatch.

The Black Phone

If you’re looking for a horror film that can feel understated at times, “The Black Phone” should be your next stop. Ethan Hawke is horrific as The Grabber, a killer who kidnaps children and keeps them in his basement, tormenting them until he eventually ends their lives and starts the cycle over again. The story – an adaptation from Joe Hill’s short story – follows The Grabber’s latest victim, who discovers a disconnected phone in the killer’s basement is suddenly ringing with the calls of previous victims, ready to help the new boy survive.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

“The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” director Tobe Hooper was directly inspired by Ed Gein and his crimes. With a villain called Leatherface, some of that inspiration is pretty obvious. Gein made skin suits and masks from the bodies he exhumed from graveyards and Leatherface also wears the skin of his victims as masks. The film is brutal even for the time and does not hold the audience’s hand in the slightest. Go for this one if you want to feel hunted and haunted.

A Quiet Place: Day One

On paper, “A Quiet Place: Day One” feels like a move to further a horror franchise. In practice, the prequel film about the day the noise-sensitive aliens arrived on the planet is the most human story of the entire series. It follows a woman and man who meet as chaos consumes the city as they try to make it back to the woman’s apartment to save her cat. The film is just as brutal as you’d expect but Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn elevate everything else happening that makes this entry stand above the others.

Green Room

The 2015 sleeper hit “Green Room” stars the late Anton Yelchin as part of a punk band who finishes a show and finds that a bunch of white supremacists are trying to hide a grisly scene. What follows is a harrowing story of a group of people trapped at the venue as they try to work their way out from the nightmare scenario. You don’t know fear until you’ve seen Sir Patrick Stewart as the leader of the white supremacists – a performance that should have earned him and the film far more accolades than it got. Luckily, the film found a strong following and it’s just sitting on Netflix ready for a new binge obsession.