It’s the season of the witch – and the serial killer, and the stalker, and the factor lurking within the basement. Should you’re internet hosting this Halloween, or when you’re staying in to helpful out mini chocolate bars to hordes of tiny Wednesday Addams and Minecraft Steves, you gained’t should spend a penny by yourself leisure, as we’ve rounded up the most effective free horror movies to stream this Halloween within the UK.
We’ve picked choices to look at with your loved ones, with a bunch of buddies, and located scary choices for solo watching too.
Keep in mind that when you watch on ITVX or Channel 4, the movies could have advert breaks. Solely BBC iPlayer doesn’t.
And when you’re going to be away for Halloween, right here’s find out how to watch BBC iPlayer from overseas.
Finest horror movies for events
SAW I-X – free to stream on ITVX
If we’re being actual, solely the primary Noticed movie (directed by James Wan) is an important watch, however when you’re on the lookout for a horror sequence to marathon for a Halloween social gathering or get-together, all movies within the sequence are on ITVX, supplying you with round 20 hours of gory viewing assured.
The movies’ general plot considerations John Kramer, terminal most cancers affected person and provoking life coach, whose chosen type of remedy is to connect folks to numerous killing machines and encourage them to battle their means out. What a man. The Jigsaw entice scenes are interspersed all through the movies, so folks gained’t have to pay attention an excessive amount of to get a gory thrill.
These movies are additionally superb for ingesting video games. Take a shot each time Kramer says “I wish to play a sport”, somebody in a pig masks lurks at the back of a body, a creepy tricycle seems, or one other supporting character seems to be a Jigsaw acolyte.
Lionsgate
Escape Room and Escape Room: Match of Champions – free to stream on BBC iPlayer
Just like the Noticed motion pictures, Escape Room is an easy-to-watch horror with ingenious deaths aplenty.
Within the first movie, a bunch of persons are invited to resolve an escape room, however as you may guess by the truth that it’s a horror movie, they don’t wind up going out for a cheeky Nando’s afterwards. As an alternative, the gamers should clear up puzzles to progress by means of a sequence of themed rooms fitted with dying traps. The rooms are compellingly imagined and the stakes suitably excessive.
Issues go awry considerably within the second movie, nevertheless it’s nonetheless entertaining sufficient when you watch with buddies.
Scream 1-3 – free to stream on BBC iPlayer
The fantastic thing about the Scream movies is that they’re not too scary or intense for individuals who aren’t followers of horror. Plus, they don’t have the off-putting meat locker/camcorder vibe of the Noticed motion pictures. As an alternative, they’re glossily styled like a teen TV sequence. However there are sufficient horror movie references (particularly to Carpenter’s Halloween) and in-jokes to make them watchable for horror aficionados.
Sidney Prescott and buddies are being stalked by Ghostface, a killer (or killers) whose schtick entails a rubber masks, a looking knife and a propensity for phoning his victims-to-be and asking: “Do you want scary motion pictures?”
Scream 2 and three supply diminishing returns on the identical formulation however are enjoyable sufficient to maintain the Halloween ambiance going.
Carpenter classics
The Factor – free to stream on ITVX
The 1982 John Carpenter thriller is a masterful mix of paranoia and grotesque sensible creature results. To my thoughts, it’s the most effective Carpenter horror of all time. The plot set-up might be acquainted to anybody who’s ever performed Amongst Us. An alien life type invades an Antarctic analysis base however it may possibly tackle the type of any individual or animal it infects. So, who among the many dwindling bunch of survivors could be trusted?
Halloween – free to stream on BBC iPlayer
This 1978 movie is the essence of Halloween and also you’re not doing spooky evening proper when you don’t at the least have it on within the background. Carpenter’s theme tune is the most effective factor about it (battle me) however the opening, shot from the POV of 6-year-old Michael Myers, who stabs his sister to dying whereas sporting an lovely clown costume (aww), can also be fairly epic. Fifteen years later, MM escapes from the asylum and begins terrorising the babysitters of Haddonfield, together with Jamie Lee Curtis’ Laurie.
Halloween II can also be free to stream on ITV X – nevertheless it fails to recapture the magic of the unique. I’d give it a miss.
Fashionable monsters
It Follows – free to stream on ITVX
Northern Lights Movies
There’s a lot extra to this movie than initially meets the attention. However the first look stuff is fairly compelling. For a begin, it has the most effective horror idea of latest years: when you’ve inherited it, this monster will slowly stalk you till it catches you and mashes you up into a bit ball of crushed limbs. You may’t escape it, you possibly can’t cease it – however you may be capable of cross it on. It additionally stars low-key scream queen Maika Monroe (The Visitor, Longlegs).
And the opposite stuff? Look out for the automobiles, tech and trend and ask your self when the movie is about. And what’s up with Jay and Kelly’s mom?
The Blair Witch Mission – free to stream on BBC iPlayer
This found-footage movie could also be a divisive selection: for a begin it’s 25 years previous, which is considerably stretching the definition of contemporary. Plus, many individuals argue that its fame rests on the truth that its early audiences believed they had been watching a documentary. Nonetheless, I feel it stands up properly, all these years later. Keep in mind, nonetheless, that it’s gradual and atmospheric, so it’s not a movie that may maintain the eye of a rowdy group. However when you flip off the lights and watch it alone, it’ll scare the bejesus out of you.
Plot-wise, it’s a easy affair: three pupil filmmakers head out into the woods of Burkittsville, Maryland, to make a documentary on the legendary Blair Witch. Some regrets are had.
Barbarian – free to stream on Channel 4
As he confirmed once more in his 2025 follow-up horror Weapons, Zach Cregger is a author/director who likes to wrong-foot his viewers. Don’t fear – this isn’t a spoiler, as a result of this info will do you completely no good in guessing what’s going to occur after Barbarian’s preliminary, compelling set-up. This is probably not horror at its most subtle, however you’ll be hooked all through.
twentieth Century Studios
Tess (Georgina Campbell) arrives at her Airbnb in a tough neighbourhood late at evening to find that it’s been double-booked and Keith (Invoice Skarsgård) is already occupying the area. Ought to she keep or ought to she go?
All of the ambiance, not one of the gore
However you probably have youngsters or don’t take pleasure in watching your movies from behind a cushion, there are gentler choices accessible.
Household-friendly Halloween movies:
This gothic-themed stop-motion animation options romance and musical numbers.
Warner Bros.
Can little Wednesday followers settle for that Christina Ricci was the OG? And that Raoul Julia and Angelica Huston are the definitive Gomez and Morticia? (And for the remainder of us: couple objectives.)
Anne Hathaway heads up the coven within the newest adaptation of the Roald Dahl kids’s novel (which can be a bit too scary for little ones).
The goth boy from the fortress involves reside within the suburbs on this comedy starring Johnny Depp, Winona Ryder and Dianne Wiest.
Comedy horror:
You may, in reality, watch all three movies in Edgar Wright’s Cornetto Trilogy on ITVX, however the rom-zom-com that began all of it is the one to go for on Halloween.
Earlier than the sequence got here Taika Waititi’s comedian movie, which supplies a glimpse into life in a vampire house-share. Plus, werewolves (not swearwolves).
