The Best Classic Horror Movies on Prime Video Right Now

There isn’t much coming to Prime Video in February outside the third season debuts of Reacher and Invincible, but there’s still a host of older content to peruse. What follows are the seven of the top titles currently on the streamer that are free for those with a Prime subscription. From a Sam Raimi scary comedy classic to two unique nightmares from horror master Clive Barker, there’s a nice diversity of classics for fans of the genre to either revisit or introduce themselves to for the first time. And, while they’re not listed here, be sure to give The Wicker Man (the original, not the Nicolas Cage reboot), The Monster Squad, and Phantasm a shot.

Here are the best horror movies currently free to stream on Prime Video that were released before the year 2000. As for the more modern scary movies, Abigail, Dog Soldiers and American Psycho a worth a watch too, if you haven’t already.

Evil Dead 2

The best Evil Dead movie isn’t the original, it’s the sequel: Evil Dead II. One part remake and one part sequel, Sam Raimi’s celebrated return to the bloody world of the Deadites is both riotously funny and consistently creepy.

As much a true star vehicle for Bruce Campbell as it is a display of Raimi’s overflowing creativity, it’s one of the most brilliant horror films ever made, from the ’80s or otherwise. The narrative follows Campbell’s Ash Williams as he vacations to a remote cabin in the woods with his girlfriend, the latter of whom is swiftly taken over by the mysterious demon in the woods, kicking off a cavalcade of insanity, a case of mistaken identity, and a hastily attached chainsaw limb.

Child’s Play

Child’s Play didn’t just introduce Chucky, one of slasher cinema’s best villains, it reinvented the subgenre wheel as much as A Nightmare on Elm Street did four years prior. When a mother buys an off-market Good Guy doll from an alleyway peddler, she is thrilled to have given her six-year-old the one gift he really wanted for his birthday. But this particular doll is far from what’s advertised as television, as it’s inhabited by the spirit of the recently deceased serial killer Charles Lee Ray.

The whole Karen and Andy Barclay plotline is the franchise’s best, due in part to Catherine Hicks and Alex Vincent’s performances but also the compelling nature of having a mother fight for her child’s life. Toss in equally solid work from The Princess Bride‘s Chris Sarandon, as the cop who took down Ray and is now struggling to believe Karen and Andy’s story, and Child’s Play is impressively short on dull moments. The main appeal, though, is Brad Dourif as Chucky. Few actors have been able to make their villain instantly iconic, but Dourif is right there next to the aforementioned Nightmare‘s Robert Englund.

Hellraiser

One of the most impressive directorial debuts of the 1980s, Clive Barker’s Hellraiser, based on his novella The Hellbound Heart, is one of the most inventive horror films out there. The plot centers on a particularly dangerous puzzle box. One that, when solved, unleashes a quartet of sadomasochistic demons called Cenobites that grant the puzzle-solver’s wish, as long as that wish is to experience extreme pain for a long, long time. The most recent person to solve the puzzle is Frank Cotton, who has now escaped the demons via a drop of his brother’s blood sinking into the floorboards of the house where he solved the puzzle.

Now, Frank has enlisted the help of his brother’s wife (with whom he’s slept) to bring him back to life. To do so, she must bring him warm bodies upon which to feed. Each time he does so, another organ is regained, more skin is patched up, and the more likely he is to stay on Earth exploring his hedonistic tendencies. It’s certainly not the type of movie that appeals to everyone with a Prime Video subscription, but those who can get on its wavelength will absolutely love it. Bolstered by very strong work from Clare Higgins as Julia, Ashley Laurence as protagonist Kirsty Cotton, and Doug Bradley as the iconic Pinhead, Hellraiser is a nightmarish masterpiece with a power that none of its many sequels have been able to match.

The Fog

Horror auteur John Carpenter followed up his masterpiece Halloween with a very different film: The Fog. A classic ghost story in a modern setting, the atmospheric film follows radio DJ Stevie Wayne, a resident of the coastal town Antonio Bay. It’s a town with a secret, and now that the centennial is right around the corner that secret is going to be revealed. A century ago, a wealthy man suffering from leprosy named Blake bought a ship with the hopes of sailing to California to establish a leper colony. Before he can do that, a few residents of the town got together and murdered him for his gold. Now, Blake and the other lepers have risen from the depths and seek to kill a descendant from each of the murderous conspirators’ bloodlines.

The Fog could have used an extra 15 minutes to flesh out the characters who aren’t Stevie Wayne, but there are worse crimes a horror movie can commit than being a fast-paced viewing experience. The glimmering fog is a brilliant visual flourish, Carpenter’s score is one of his best (which is really saying something), and Adrienne Barbeau is terrific in the lead role. Prince of Darkness is another Carpenter classic on Prime Video for those who want a bit more after The Fog.

Nightbreed

Clive Barker has directed three movies in his career, all of them based on his own works and all of them impressive. The first was the aforementioned Hellraiser and the second was Nightbreed (the third being Lord of Illusions). What’s odd is that, even though his debut was a critical and commercial success, distributor Morgan Creek essentially took his sophomore film away from him, trimmed most of the narrative heft out of it, and attempted to sell it as a slasher movie to poor results. Fortunately, Barker eventually was able to put together a director’s cut of the film, and that version is the one streaming on Prime Video, often called The Cabal Cut.

Nightbreed follows Craig Sheffer’s Aaron Boone, a young man consistently haunted by nightmares of a group of monsters living in a subterranean city called Midian. His psychiatrist, Dr. Decker (played very memorably by David Cronenberg), acts like he’s very interested in Boone, but in fact he’s far more interested in that mysterious subterranean city. Dr. Decker is also a serial killer, using details from Boone’s recurring nightmares to frame the young man for his own crimes. When Boone is shot down by the police, something Decker didn’t count on happens: the people of Midian, AKA the Nightbreed, resurrect Boone, who seeks to end the not-so-good doctor’s killing spree once and for all.

Alligator

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Mainstream “When Animals Attack” films have become less and less frequent as time has gone on. 1963’s The Birds is an early standout example as is 1975’s Jaws, but there are a few great examples from the ’80s and ’90s as well. On the latter front, there was Deep Blue Sea, Arachnophobia, and Anaconda. On the former? Cujo, Slugs, Razorback, and the surprisingly (but not entirely) serious Alligator.

This 1980 cult classic follows a Chicago police officer who teams up with a reptile expert to take down a gargantuan, bloodthirsty alligator making its way through the sewer after having been flushed down the toilet years ago. It sounds silly, and to an extent it is, but with a solid lead performance from Jackie Brown‘s Robert Forster, equally impressive work from Cujo director Lewis Teague, and an excellent script from Matewan and Lone Star‘s John Sayles, it’s a movie that’s a lot more competently crafted than the average creature feature. There’s also a set piece of the gator tearing through a wedding ceremony. If you want to make it a double creature feature night, Joe Dante’s Piranha is available to stream as well.

Day of the Dead

George A. Romero directed a total of six “Dead” films, yet only the first four are really worth watching. This includes the entirety of the original trilogy: Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, and the criminally underrated Day of the Dead. Each of the three points a lens at a certain societal inadequacy. In Night, there was a subtle yet devastating jab at racism. In Dawn, there was a less subtle look at consumerism. In Day, it’s all about how society is more likely to consume itself than actually band together to defeat something that’s literally threating to, well, consume it.

Set almost entirely underground, Day of the Dead focuses on two distinct groups. One is a team of scientists working under an eccentric doctor and the other is the handful of soldiers tasked with guarding them from the undead horde. Before long, the former group recognizes the doctor they’re working under is going far off his assigned task and, should the soldiers learn the same, all hell will break loose.