The Best Modern Horror Movies on HBO Max Right Now

Availability last updated October 12, 2026. Streaming libraries change monthly, so this list gets updated regularly.

In the mood for something other than horror? Here are the best movies on HBO Max right now, all hand-picked from my reviews.

If you only keep one streaming service for horror, HBO Max makes a strong case. It’s home to two of my top three horror movies of the decade so far. These are the best modern horror movies on HBO Max right now, all released from 2010 on and pulled straight from my rankings of the best horror movies of the 2020s and the best horror movies of the 2010s. You’ll find favorites like Weapons, Sinners and Hereditary, plus a handful of deeper cuts worth adding to your watchlist. Every pick is streaming in the U.S. right now, and I’ll keep the list updated as titles come and go.

WEAPONS (2025)

Seventeen children in one class walk out of their homes at 2:17am, arms back, and never come home, told through the people left behind. A clear step up in craft, and Cregger may just be the horror prince the 2020s were promised.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

SINNERS (2025)

Twin brothers open a juke joint in Jim Crow Mississippi and the music they make there calls something older than the Klan outside. The real thrill is how it makes its deeper ideas textual rather than ornamental.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

HEREDITARY (2018)

The death of a controlling matriarch sparks the implosion of a family unit in this horrifying study of grief amidst supernatural angst. Toni Collette was robbed. Heads should roll.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE CONJURING (2013)

The possession subgenre is terrifying again in James Wan’s haunted house-exorcism hybrid. Rated R by virtue of being deemed “too scary” and for good reason. Good luck sleeping after this one.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

PEARL (2022)

A farm girl in 1918 auditions for a dance troupe as her escape and murders her way toward it. She thinks she can hide her budding psychopathy behind a Hollywood-worthy performance. The trouble is she’s not all that great an actor.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

TALK TO ME (2022)

Teens pass around an embalmed hand that lets a spirit ride you for ninety seconds, and film each other doing it. Shakes itself into your conscious and roots deeply. Without a doubt the horror movie of its year.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

EVIL DEAD RISE (2023)

The Book of the Dead turns up in an LA apartment building’s parking garage and a mother of three opens it. Not only is there an elevator full of blood, characters come flooding out with it. I could watch one of these every decade.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (2011)

Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard deconstruct the horror genre in goofy style and changed the game in doing so. Partially responsible for the arthouse horror resurgence. Merman kill FTW.▶ Watch on HBO Max

UNDERTONE (2025)

Ian Tuason’s debut builds an all-encompassing nightmare out of what you can hear coming and can’t see. As immersive as it is bone chilling, with truly elite sound design.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

MIDSOMMAR (2019)

Ari Aster returns with this sun-drenched nightmare epic about a dysfunctional couple who become entangled with a sunny Swedish murder-cult. Florence Pugh is terrific in the lead role.▶ Watch on HBO Max

US (2019)

Jordan Peele’s sophomore feature offered more social-horrors in this chilling bizarro-world fable about dangerous doppelgängers. Lupita N’yongo went tragically ignored around the awards circuit for her outstanding dual role here.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES (2025)

Death works backward through a family tree from a tower-restaurant premonition two generations old.▶ Watch on HBO Max

EVIL DEAD (2013)

Bloodlets the humor from Sam Raimi’s game changing original and replaces with vicious spells of blood, guts, and mutilation. A gooey doozy of a coming out party for Fede Alvarez.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

BRING HER BACK (2025)

Unrelentingly bleak in its exploration of grief’s demolishing power, this deeply feel-bad genre excursion is a challenging watch. But for unfazed genre fans, there’s real dramatic purpose roiling beneath its horrific surface. Evil Sally Hawkins is a gift.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE LIGHTHOUSE (2019)

Hark! Two stinky seamen (Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattison) find themselves trapped with each other’s unwelcome company on a far-flung Maine island in this mythological mirage of madness.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

X (2022)

A porn crew rents a Texas farmhouse in 1979, and the elderly couple who own it want something the crew has.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

EVIL DEAD BURN (2026)

Vaniček takes the Book of the Dead somewhere new and keeps the franchise’s nothing-is-sacred mentality intact, spiking the screen with viscera. Nasty, simple, brutally effective, and carrying the demented baton.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

BACKROOMS (2026)

A kid noclips out of reality into endless yellow office corridors, expanded from Kane Parsons’ web series with an A24 budget and no restraints. Frustrating if you want tidy mythology, and uniquely distressing if you submit to its wavelength.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

IT COMES AT NIGHT (2017)

A devastating virus has forced survivors to make do on the fringes in this cold, mythological character study that asks if the interests of two families can align – or must be pitted against one another. A searingly intelligent psychological slow-burn.▶ Watch on HBO Max

THE CONJURING 2 (2016)

The second outing with the Warrens didn’t quite reach the same heights but spines tingled nonetheless, especially when little Janet Hodgson contorted herself into crawl spaces. *Shudders*▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

IT (2017)

Pennywise hits the big screens in the most bankable horror movie ever made in this monstrously popular adaptation of the Steven King novel. It works best when focused on the relationships between its young cast, though the dancing clown bit is sure to provide apt nightmare fuel. 53. UPGRADE (2018) American fight choreography takes a bold step forward in this low-budget sci-fi actioner that wastes no time getting into the gritty, grimy beatdowns. A side dish spies the horrifying implications of nano-tech merging with Homo sapiens is also on full display.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THE LONG WALK (2025)

An adaptation of the first novel Stephen King ever wrote, The Long Walk has a simple premise: walk or die. But it’s populated by mostly interesting characters and a captivating turn from David Jonsson.▶ Watch on HBO Max

STOKER (2013)

The stately English-language gothic melodrama from Korean guru Park Chan-Wook circles the psychosexual tension between an uncle and niece who never knew each other existed. It gets…weird.▶ Watch on HBO Max · Read the full review

THEY WILL KILL YOU (2026)

A night shift in a corner store turns into a siege by people who want what’s in the back room. Bodega Kill Bill with a twist of Ready or Not, and the production design is straight up Scooby Doo meets Wes Anderson.▶ Watch on HBO Max

Want more? See the full ranking of the best horror movies of the 2020s.