5 of the Best Spooky Movies to Watch This Halloween

It’s officially spooky season, and in Australia that means making popcorn, turning off the lights and watching scary movies. Whether you want to scare yourself silly or revisit a comforting classic, there’s nothing quite like a scary movie night! It’s a good thing, then, that some of the best horror movies are streaming right now on Prime Video. Here’s your guide for what to watch this Halloween.

X

Director Ti West’s return to horror has been a smashing success with 2022s X, a movie about a group of filmmakers who travel to a remote farm in Texas to make a pornographic movie. When their reclusive hosts, including an elderly woman named Pearl, catch them in the act, the cast find themselves fighting for their lives. X is a refreshing take on the slasher formula and has all the slick style and ‘70s-style cinematography to make it an instant classic, especially with a cast that includes Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow and Scott Mescudi.

Lizzie

Based on the true story of Lizzie Borden, who was accused and acquitted of the axe murders of her father and stepmother in 1892, Lizzie pitches the story as one of desperation and forbidden, queer romance. Lizzie (played by Chloë Sevigny) and the Borden family’s housemaid Maggie (Kristen Stewart) are terrorized by the patriarch of the house and begin taking revenge in increasingly violent ways. The horror of Lizzie seeps out throughout the movie in these small acts of violence and emotional manipulation and culminates in a dizzying finale that shows how the infamous murders are pulled off.

Apartment 1BR

Apartment 1BR preys on the familiar feeling of having shitty neighbours and landlords but takes it much further than the usual inconveniences renters have to deal with. Sarah (Nicole Brydon Bloom) moves to LA to pursue a career in fashion and scores a picture-perfect Hollywood apartment. But what starts as a dream come true quickly turns into a nightmare, as she’s tormented by strange noises in the night and threatening notes. You’d be forgiven for thinking Apartment 1BR is another boilerplate slasher or haunted house movie, but it cleverly subverts your expectations and dives down a bottomless rabbit hole of horror.

The Witch

If you loved The Northman or The Lighthouse, you can’t skip director Robert Eggers’ first movie The Witch. Set in New England at the start of the witch hysteria, the movie stars a young Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin after her family is cast out of their devout colony over religious differences. With the family’s crops failing and the youngest child missing, Thomasin’s mother begins to suspect her of witchcraft and black magic. The Witch doles out horror by way of religious fanaticism, and as the family turns on each other, it poses a simple question: is witchcraft evil, or does the family’s fear of the devil drive them to do evil?

Train to Busan

One of the best South Korean horror films, Train to Busan is set on a high-speed train during a zombie apocalypse. Seok-woo (played by Squid Game’s Gong Yoo) is travelling across the country with his daughter during the outbreak. The pair must work with the other passengers to steer the train to Busan, where a quarantine zone is being set up, but along the way must contend with zombies, natural disasters and more human threats.

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