The COVID-19 pandemic caused huge disruption across the entertainment industry in 2020, with theaters closed, movies delayed, and production halted. The only real success story was streaming, with record subscription numbers for both the huge established platforms and niche services. And if there’s one genre that has thrived on streaming over the past year, it’s horror.
Horror has a long history as a popular home entertainment format. In the ’80s, genre favorites such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Fly, Hellraiser, and Evil Dead II were big hits on VHS, and a whole generation of horror fans grew up watching scary movies at home. Even before the pandemic, many of the best horror movies went straight to streaming, but last year a lack of bigger films has meant that some smaller horror movies have reached audiences they might not have previously.
One of the biggest streaming successes has been AMC’s horror service Shudder. In the summer, it released the zoom-based found footage movie Host, which became one of the summer’s most talked about films, and since then has released a steady stream of new horror exclusives. And of course, Netflix continues to deliver original movies every week, and there have been some great scary releases over the past few months.
We’ve picked the best horror movies from the past few months on Netflix, Shudder, and video on demand. And once you’ve checked these out, here’s our list of the best horror originals that hit streaming earlier in 2020.
