Horror on HBO Max: the best movies
24 horror films available on HBO Max today, ranked by audience rating, most recommended first. Updated November 13, 2026
Coraline leads with 7,9 out of 10, ahead of Lee Cronin's The Mummy (7,8). Ratings range from 7,3 to 7,9. The oldest, Häxan, goes back to 1922. 5 films came out since 2021.
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Coraline
Wandering her rambling old house in her boring new town, 11-year-old Coraline discovers a hidden door to a strangely idealized version of her life. In order to stay in the fantasy, she must make a frighteningly real sacrifice.
Lee Cronin's The Mummy
The young daughter of a journalist disappears into the desert without a trace—eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she is returned to them, as what should be a joyful reunion turns into a living nightmare.
Freaks
A circus' beautiful trapeze artist agrees to marry the leader of side-show performers, but his deformed friends discover she is only marrying him for his inheritance.
Kwaidan
Taking its title from an archaic Japanese word meaning "ghost story," this anthology adapts four folk tales. A penniless samurai marries for money with tragic results. A man stranded in a blizzard is saved by Yuki the Snow Maiden, but his rescue comes at a cost. Blind musician Hoichi is forced to perform for an audience of ghosts. An author relates the story of a samurai who sees another warrior's reflection in his teacup.
Onibaba
While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can't steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.
Godzilla
Japan is thrown into a panic after several ships are sunk near Odo Island. An expedition to the island led by Dr. Kyohei Yamane soon discover something far more devastating than imagined in the form of a 50 meter tall monster whom the natives call Gojira. Now the monster begins a rampage that threatens to destroy not only Japan, but the rest of the world as well.
Häxan
Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen's legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the Middle Ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious-- instead it's a witches' brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous.
Night of the Living Dead
A ragtag group barricade themselves in an old Pennsylvania farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls ravaging the Northeast.
Eyes Without a Face
Dr. Génessier is riddled with guilt after an accident that he caused disfigures the face of his daughter, the once beautiful Christiane, who outsiders believe is dead. Dr. Génessier, along with accomplice and laboratory assistant Louise, kidnaps young women and brings them to the Génessier mansion. After rendering his victims unconscious, Dr. Génessier removes their faces and attempts to graft them on to Christiane's.
Evil Dead Burn
After her husband's abrupt death, Alice seeks solace with his remaining family — descendants of a leading researcher on demonic possession. As her in-laws transform one by one into creatures that feed on fear, she comes to discover that the vows she took in life survive even in death.
The Conjuring
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most terrifying case of their lives.
Evil Dead II
Ash Williams and his girlfriend Linda find a log cabin in the woods with a voice recording from an archeologist who had recorded himself reciting ancient chants from "The Book of the Dead." As they play the recording an evil power is unleashed taking over Linda's body.
Sinners
Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me
In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the more cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Laura Palmer hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate.
Scream
A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a masked killer who targets her and her friends by using scary movies as part of a deadly game.
Interview with the Vampire
A vampire relates his epic life story of love, betrayal, loneliness, and dark hunger to an over-curious reporter.
Carrie
Withdrawn and sensitive teenager Carrie White faces bullying from her classmates and abuse from her fanatically pious mother. When she begins to suspect that she has supernatural powers, things take a dark and violent turn.
Godzilla vs. Biollante
After the previous Godzilla attack, a miniature arms race ensues to collect his cells. Concerned over Godzilla's possible return, the Japanese government uses the cells to create a new bio-weapon, ANEB (Anti-Nuclear Energy Bacteria). They seeks the aid of geneticist Genshiro Shiragami, who's experiments result in a new mutation.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren encounter what would become one of the most sensational cases from their files. The fight for the soul of a young boy takes them beyond anything they'd ever seen before, to mark the first time in U.S. history that a murder suspect would claim demonic possession as a defense.
Eraserhead
First-time father Henry Spencer tries to survive his industrial environment, his angry girlfriend, and the unbearable screams of his newly born mutant child.
Bring Her Back
Following the death of their father, a brother and sister are sent to live with a foster mother, only to learn that she is hiding a terrifying secret.
House
Hoping to find a sense of connection to her late mother, Gorgeous takes a trip with her friends to visit her aunt's ancestral house in the countryside. The girls soon discover that there is more to the old house than meets the eye.
Funny Games
Two psychotic young men take a mother, father, and son hostage in their vacation cabin and force them to play sadistic "games" with one another for their own amusement.
The Conjuring 2
Lorraine and Ed Warren travel to north London to help a single mother raising four children alone in a house plagued by malicious spirits.
What to know before choosing
Horror is the worst-rated genre in the catalog, and that has almost nothing to do with its quality. Its films are seen by audiences who did not choose them — the dragged-along friend, the curious — and those rate low. A horror film at 6.8 out of 10 is already very good, which is why the rating floor is lowered here. Watch the year too: the genre reinvents itself in roughly ten-year waves, and two films a decade apart do not frighten in the same way.
HBO Max carries two catalogs with nothing in common: the Warner library, very wide and very old, and the in-house productions, few and much noticed. A by-genre list almost always leans to the Warner side, which gives an unusually spread-out distribution across decades. It is one of the rare catalogs where looking for a 1970s film genuinely makes sense.
Frequently asked questions
How were these 24 films chosen?
They come from the TMDB catalog, filtered on audience rating and on a minimum number of votes — without that second filter, a film rated 9 out of 10 by eleven people would outrank a classic. No place is for sale: no platform, distributor or studio can enter this list other than by being well rated.
Which film in this list is rated highest?
Coraline (2009), with 7,9 out of 10 from 9,761 audience votes.
Are these films really available on HBO Max in the US?
Yes, as of the day the page was built. Availability comes from TMDB and JustWatch for the catalog in the US, and the list is rebuilt daily. Streaming catalogs move constantly: a title can leave between two passes, which is why the page carries its date.
Are there any recent releases in this selection?
5 of the 24 films came out since 2021. The rest are older, which is expected: a film needs a few years to gather enough votes to be judged at all.
Do I need an account?
No. Taro eira is free, asks for no account and no subscription, and the two-or-three-question flow works without installing anything.
See also
- HBO Max
- Horror
- Horror on Netflix
- Horror on Prime Video
- Horror on Disney+
- Horror on Apple TV+
- Horror on Hulu
- Horror on Paramount+
- Horror on Peacock
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- Comedy
- Crime
- Documentary
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- Biopic
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How this list is built
Films come from the TMDB catalog, filtered on audience rating and vote count, then cross-checked against real availability in the country. No paid placement, no partnerships. How we choose the films.
Film data and posters: TMDB. This app uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.