Wizarding Worldz
Every streaming service offers a plethora of watching alternatives, and Vulture is doing its lot to help you locate the signals among the noise. We want to compile a best-of-the-best list for other platforms just like we attempt to stay up with the top horror movie selections on Netflix. In this case, it’s Hulu. Here are the 40 Best Hulu Scary Movies Right Now and simple-jump-scare requirements.
Best Hulu Scary Movies: Bad Hair (2020)
In this ’80s-set drama about a lethal hair weave, Justin Simien startled viewers by following up his social satire Dear White People with a different sort of film. (You read that correctly.) Elle Lorraine, a newcomer, plays a young lady who works for an MTV-style music station and climbs to popularity after her fantastic new weave aids in the elimination of her rivals. It’s a one-of-a-kind, lively piece of filmmaking.
The Beta Test (2021)
Jim Cummings is without a doubt the finest. In 2021, the independent writer/director of Thunder Road and The Wolf of Snow Hollow released another masterpiece, a horror film about a guy who receives an offer for anonymous sex. He gets obsessed by the encounter, and Cummings and his co-writer PJ McCabe construct a compelling narrative of obsession and toxic masculinity that seems like a David Lynch update for the twenty-first century.
Best Hulu Scary Movies: Black Swan (2010)
Natalie Portman received an Oscar for her outstanding performance in Darren Aronofsky’s 2010 picture about an obsessive ballet dancer whose life breaks apart while working on a Swan Lake staging. Black Swan is a brave work of physical horror about pressure, competitiveness, and insanity that is both intense and unforgettable.
Censor (2021)
Piano Bailey-2021 Bond’s Sundance smash has already completed its theatrical run and is now available on Hulu for subscribers. For recent horror indie smashes, no one beats Hulu. This one is about a lady (Niamh Algar) whose job it is to take the worst parts out of genre movies so they may be released. To say she starts bringing her work home with her is an understatement.
Cheap Thrills (2013)
E.L. Katz’s indie darling is more pitch-black humor than outright horror, thanks to a quartet of outstanding performances by Pat Healy, Sara Paxton, Ethan Embry, and David Koechner. Healy portrays a regular guy who stumbles across an old friend, portrayed by Embry, in a pub after a particularly rough day. As the two reminisce and drink, they come across a wealthy couple searching for some fun in their lives. They keep pushing their new buddies to take bigger and bigger risks for money. What lengths would you go to?
Best Hulu Scary Movies: The Crazies (2010)
Horror remakes are nearly usually bad, but this 2010 remake of George A. Romero’s superb original is an exception. It’s dead simple: a virus transforms residents of a small Iowa hamlet into vicious maniacs. Given the status of the world in the 2020s, this may be the type of cautionary horror story that is even better now than it was a decade ago.
Cujo (1983)
Killer dog movies might be difficult to market, but this one comes from the maestro of horror, Stephen King. This 1983 hit, adapted from his 1981 novel, depicts the story of a mother and kid who were stranded in their automobile after being attacked by a rabid St. Bernard. It’s not flawless, but it might be the ’80s horror film that horrified you as a kid. Hulu allows you to relive your pain!
Culture Shock (2019)
This installment of Hulu’s Into the Dark anthology series is one of the best yet. Gigi Saul Guerrero, an upcoming film director, directed this narrative about a pregnant lady who becomes entangled in a devious US government operation while attempting to cross the border from Mexico to the US. In this immigration nightmare, horror legend Barbara Crampton co-stars as a malevolent ambassador of the American Dream.
Fire in the Sky (1993)
The film was released in 1993 and hardly made an impact at the box office, but it deserves a second chance. It’s a terrifying sci-fi/horror film based on the book The Walton Experience, which depicts a supposedly actual extraterrestrial abduction in 1975. Starring is D.B. Sweeney and Robert Patrick.
Friday the 13th (1980)
It’s difficult to stress how much this picture transformed the landscape, reinventing the slasher genre not just in this film but also in the countless sequels that followed. Any horror aficionado would tell you that the notorious Jason Voorhees wasn’t even the murderer in the first film! Who was he? Check it out to find out.
Gaia (2021)
Hulu still struggles with foreign flavor, so it’s encouraging to see them take up this South African horror picture, which will be released in the summer of 2021, following its South by Southwest premiere in March. It’s a type of ecological horror thriller set in South Africa’s forestry department, where two employees learn that the world is getting ready to fight back.
The Host (2006)
One of the nicest things about Bong Joon Ho winning numerous Oscars for his magnificent Parasite (now available on Hulu) is that it likely led to more people discovering his previous works, including this amazing masterpiece, one of the best monster movies ever created. The leading character from Parasite, the brilliant Song Kang-ho, appears in this narrative about a beast in the Han River. It’s a stunning piece of work that has put Bong on the map all across the world.
The House That Jack Built (2018)
With this 2018 movie about a serial murderer, Lars von Trier wrote and directed one of the most controversial films of his career. Matt Dillon plays the role unforgettably. Using motifs from Dante’s Inferno, Von Trier transports us inside the mind of a maniac with such ferocity that the picture was just recently released throughout the majority of the world. See what the fuss was all about.
I Trapped the Devil (2019)
This gripping thriller revolves around a deranged guy whose estranged brother comes up at his residence in the hopes of reuniting them. But the man is currently preoccupied with the fact that he believes he has Satan himself confined in his basement. As the imprisoned basement dweller begs to be let free, what appears to be a delusion becomes a terrifyingly real prospect. Would you open the door if you were even somewhat concerned that the devil was waiting on the other side?
In the Earth (2021)
Ben Wheatley (Free Fire) created one of the finest COVID films to date, a bizarre horror film that debuted at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival and is now available on Hulu. Two researchers venture deep into the woods in pursuit of a colleague who may have gone insane. It’s a captivating, dramatic piece of cinema that’s half Apocalypse Now and part acid trip.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
There’s a reason why this narrative about pod people has been rewritten for nearly every generation. It touches on a perennial theme: the dread of mistrusting our fellow man (and seems pretty ready for a 2021 update). The 1970s version, directed by Philip Kaufman, is undoubtedly the greatest, with one of Donald Sutherland’s best performances and a terrifying sense that the sense of community built by the late 1960s was being undermined from the inside.
Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
Adrian Lyne’s 1990 horror picture has gained a devoted following in the three decades since its premiere (helped in part by a horrible remake in 2020 that reminded everyone how much better the original was). Tim Robbins plays Jacob, a guy who begins to have progressively frightening images and hallucinations, many of which are tied to his experience in Vietnam. It’s a breathtaking excursion into Hell, but it’s also an anti-war picture, which is bolstered by Robbins’ honest, in-the-moment portrayal.
Let the Right One In (2008)
Tomas Alfredson’s Swedish vampire film is one of the finest horror films of the new century, a picture that feels like it impacted the current trend of personal, “elevated” horror films. In the 1980s, a 12-year-old boy makes friends with a little girl in a Stockholm suburb and discovers she is not what she appears to be. Unforgettable and haunting.
Little Monsters (2019)
Abe Forsythe, the writer, and director of Little Monsters took a chance on Lupita Nyong’o for this zombie comedy set in a children’s theme park, and it paid off. Nyong’o plays a kindergarten teacher who must deal with the ne’er-do-well uncle of one of her students as well as a sociopathic children’s show star played by Josh Gad. They’re all attempting to escape out of Playland alive while shielding the children from the gruesome reality of what’s going on around them.
The Lodge (2019)
Riley Keough stars in this disturbing Sundance smash, which makes a swift transition from cinemas to Hulu in early 2020. Keough portrays the fiancée of a man who has two children and isn’t searching for a stepmother. At a freezing lodge retreat, a new mom’s prior encounter with a death cult is revealed, and things become quite frightening. Don’t pass up this opportunity.
The Machinist (2004)
Even those who haven’t watched the film are aware of the tale of how Christian Bale nearly killed himself due to weight loss, which adds to the suspense. Bale plays Trevor Reznik, an insomniac who descends into insanity. Brad Anderson is the finest filmmaker you probably don’t know by name, and The Machinist is one of his best pictures, anchored by its starring man’s full devotion.
Maggie (2015)
In this 2015 horror/drama, Arnold Schwarzenegger provides his greatest late-career performance. The former governor portrays a father attempting to save his daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) from a zombie apocalypse. The surprise is that he is too late and must now decide what to do with his undead daughter. It’s a hidden treasure on this list, moving and surprising.
Nightmare Alley (2021)
Guillermo del Toro adapted the renowned Tyrone Power noir in his bold way, and it’s currently available on Hulu! Take advantage of the opportunity to see one of the Best Picture nominees for 2021 while you can. In Del Toro’s sleek and captivating journey into lunacy, Bradley Cooper plays a carny who transforms into a different kind of swindler.
The Other Lamb (2019)
The Other Lamb, a 2019 festival success from IFC Midnight, has a horrific aspect to it. It may convey a very common narrative of cult life, but it does it with the visual language of a dream, supported by <