It’s the season of the witch – and the serial killer, and the stalker, and the factor lurking within the basement. If you happen to’re internet hosting this Halloween, or when you’re staying in to useful out mini chocolate bars to hordes of tiny Wednesday Addams and Minecraft Steves, you received’t need to 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 mates, 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 get together or get-together, all movies within the sequence are on ITVX, providing you with round 20 hours of gory viewing assured.
The movies’ total plot considerations John Kramer, terminal most cancers affected person and provoking life coach, whose chosen type of remedy is to connect individuals to varied killing machines and encourage them to combat their approach out. What a man. The Jigsaw lure scenes are interspersed all through the movies, so individuals received’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 recreation”, somebody in a pig masks lurks behind 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 films, Escape Room is an easy-to-watch horror with creative 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 remedy puzzles to progress via a sequence of themed rooms fitted with demise 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 mates.
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 films. 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 mates are being stalked by Ghostface, a killer (or killers) whose schtick includes a rubber masks, a looking knife and a propensity for phoning his victims-to-be and asking: “Do you want scary films?”
Scream 2 and three provide diminishing returns on the identical method however are enjoyable sufficient to maintain the Halloween environment 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 shall be acquainted to anybody who’s ever performed Amongst Us. An alien life kind invades an Antarctic analysis base however it could actually tackle the type of any individual or animal it infects. So, who among the many dwindling bunch of survivors will be trusted?
Halloween – free to stream on BBC iPlayer
This 1978 movie is the essence of Halloween and also you’re not doing spooky night time proper when you don’t not less than have it on within the background. Carpenter’s theme tune is the most effective factor about it (combat me) however the opening, shot from the POV of 6-year-old Michael Myers, who stabs his sister to demise whereas carrying 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 current years: when you’ve inherited it, this monster will slowly stalk you till it catches you and mashes you up into a little bit ball of crushed limbs. You may’t escape it, you possibly can’t cease it – however you may have the ability to move it on. It additionally stars low-key scream queen Maika Monroe (The Visitor, Longlegs).
And the opposite stuff? Look out for the vehicles, 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 outdated, which is considerably stretching the definition of recent. Plus, many individuals argue that its repute rests on the truth that its early audiences believed they had been watching a documentary. Nevertheless, I believe it stands up properly, all these years later. Keep in mind, nevertheless, 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 scholar 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 data will do you completely no good in guessing what’s going to occur after Barbarian’s preliminary, compelling set-up. This might not be 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 night time 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 environment, not one of the gore
However when you’ve got children or don’t take pleasure in watching your movies from behind a cushion, there are gentler choices obtainable.
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 targets.)
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, the truth is, 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 offers a glimpse into life in a vampire house-share. Plus, werewolves (not swearwolves).