It’s that time of year when the biggest streaming services start cosplaying as Shudder and putting their horror selections in the front row. But Max is going above and beyond with “No Sleep October,” the scary-movie curation equivalent of handing out full-sized candy bars rather than dinky one-bite treats. With classics, cult classics, franchise entries, new releases, and more, the selection will surely please fans across multiple sub-genres—including these 10 titles that, as the streamer promises, may very well interfere with your beauty sleep.
Paranormal Activity
Found-footage horror existed before 2007’s Paranormal Activity—that ol’ Blair Witch certainly helped pave the way—but its impressive success sparked a whole wave of imitators, few of which were able to top its potent scares. An entire franchise and mythology followed in its wake, but even taken on its own, the original Paranormal Activity still more than delivers with its blend of low-fi technology and sky-high frights.
Pulse
It’s been nearly 25 years since Kiyoshi Kurosawa released Pulse, still the creepiest movie about internet ghosts along with being one of the scariest movies ever made. Its overwhelming mood of imminent doom—pointing the finger at what was then relatively new technology for causing people to feel lonely despair and existential dread—feels eerily prophetic now, and its imagery remains haunting as hell.
The Shining
The Overlook Hotel—a grand lodge infused with an evil that preys on already troubled minds—really starts to flex during the long, cold winter, as the Torrance family (Jack Nicholson, the late great Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd) unfortunately discovers. Like all cinematic masterpieces, Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 Stephen King adaptation has a way of revealing new details no matter how many times you watch it.
Sinister
Released in 2012, Scott Derrickson’s Sinister is still completely in step with pop culture’s abiding love of true crime, imagining that an author (Ethan Hawke) working in that unavoidably exploitative genre movies his unsuspecting family into a house where the previous occupants were brutally murdered. He soon discovers a trove of home movies suggesting there’s more to the story… demonically speaking.
The Sixth Sense
Max has an M. Night Shyamalan spotlight as part of its October programming, with his latest, Trap, joining the line-up October 25. His breakout film, 1999’s The Sixth Sense, is still his scariest—even if you know the twist, and who doesn’t by now? If that’s not enough, however, you can cue up that shriek-inducing birthday party scene from Signs, which Max also has available, to further enhance your daily quota of jump scares.
Poltergeist
So you didn’t have the cash to buy the Poltergeist house when it went on sale recently—alas, neither did we. Drown your sorrows with a re-watch of this 1982 Tobe Hooper-Steven Spielberg tale of a suburban family targeted by vengeful, static-dwelling spirits, and marvel at how well its eerie elements hold up. (The clown doll, always and forever.)
The Exorcist
No list of “scariest movies” can be trusted if The Exorcist is not part of the conversation—so thankfully Max has Pazuzu and company at your fingertips for streaming (and screaming) ease.
Scream
The Scream franchise has traveled a bumpy road recently, but there’s no diminishing the power of Wes Craven’s 1996 original, scripted by Kevin Williamson and delivering both a searing meta-take on slasher movies while being a terrifying slasher movie in its own right. Even now it’s as clever as it is scary, and offers a time capsule of 1996 pop culture that still somehow feels timeless.
The Craft
Extend your stay in 1996 with this perennial Halloween favorite, where the scares ostensibly spring from witchcraft—but the real source of dread is just how cruel teenagers can be to each other, including one of the most vivid depictions of “toxic friends” ever immortalized on the screen.
The Conjuring
James Wan’s 2013 chiller—a fictionalized spin on a haunted-house case from real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren—sets out to tell a genuinely eerie story, and more than succeeds. Subsequent entries in The Conjuring‘s extended cinematic universe have been of varying quality, but The Conjuring‘s recipe of jump scares, good old-fashioned high tension, excellent performances, and creatively creepy set pieces is still the gold standard.
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