The Darkest Movies You'll Find On Netflix

Netflix's catalog of movies is one of the best among the streaming services vying for your hard-earned dollars. With around 4,000 movies to keep you entertained at any hour of the day, even if they've lost a few titles to new competition in the last few years, it's still the go-to streaming service for the discerning, sitting-on-the-sofa moviegoer. And among all the comedies and dramas and action flicks, you'll find a decent showing of some of the weirdest, disturbingly dark films ever produced. You know, for when you're in the mood for a good scare or just can't handle another episode of the Roseanne reboot.

There are titles on Netflix you're not going to find anywhere else thanks to their amped-up original productions, and a great mix of older movies you may have missed the first time around or forgotten about completely. So what are the darkest movies you'll find on Netflix that are actually still good? Let's get started.

If you've ever found yourself feeling anxious in social situations, then The Invitation just might be the film for you. With its setup of a simple dinner party invite that slowly degrades into something much more sinister, this is the perfect dark and twisted tale for everyone who'd rather stay home than deal with other people.

This critically hailed movie pushes the envelope on tension straight from the start, in which everything is just slightly off enough to give you that ominous sense of dread about what's yet to come. You know something's wrong, you're just not sure what it is yet. Then it continues until the payoff, which is just unbridled madness with a twist or two along the way. As ScreenCrush points out, the fun in the movie is found in the "increasingly bizarre and uncomfortable evening." A real claustrophobic vibe settles over the whole movie, mostly set in a single home from which escape isn't entirely an option. And hey, there's a creepy cult thing going on, too, so bonus.

Straight from Spain comes The Bar, with a dark comedy edge to a paranoid nightmare. The Bar puts you right alongside the confused patrons of a Spanish restaurant fearing for their lives and draws from some classics of the genre that keep you guessing. Is it a zombie apocalypse? A serial killer? The breakdown of society as we know it? Hard to say, but it's clear you don't want to go outside to find out.

There's a real intensity to The Bar, potentially due to the fact that director Álex de la Iglesia is a former comic book artist with an eye for packing each frame with a frenetic energy that draws you into the next. It also makes great use of limited space — the entire movie is split between basically three locations that are all cramped and uncomfortable, if not downright gross. That and a decent dose of random violence, intense paranoia, and the odd bloated corpse should be enough to keep you interested until the end of the movie.

A Netflix original based on a book by Stephen King and directed by Mike Flanagan, who brought us Oculus and Hush, Gerald's Game is an exercise in tension and total discomfort. Alongside It, Gerald's Game made 2017 a banner year for Stephen King adaptations, which have a pretty rocky history in terms of quality. Feel free to check out Maximum Overdrive for proof.

Gerald's Game jumps into an awkward, uncomfortable scenario almost from the beginning and then ramps into overdrive and stays there for the rest of the film. King's book seemed like the sort of thing that would nearly be impossible to film given the nature of the story, but Flanagan gives it hell right out of the gates and with some clever storytelling techniques puts you right alongside star Carla Gugino for a psychological kick to the head complete with one of the most hard-to-watch scenes ever filmed. You'll know it when you see it.

The Verge called Gerald's Game one of Stephen King's worst books but acknowledged it became one of his best movies at the same time, and critics quite enjoyed the movie, too.

Director Gareth Evans rose to cult fame thanks to his absolute slobberknocker of an entry into the field of martial arts films, 2011's The Raid, as well as its follow-up, 2014's The Raid 2. However, he caught the eye of horror fans with "Safe Haven," his entry for 2013's V/H/S/2, which many fans have hailed as the best segment in the entire three-film anthology series. The segment deals with a film crew caught inside the compound of an Indonesian cult when things start — so to speak — popping off.

2018 saw Evans return to both horror and religious cults in the Netflix original film Apostle, though in this one he moves away from his familiar Indonesian settings in favor of a utopian cult based on a Welsh island. Set in 1905, this movie features Dan Stevens (who, depending on who you are, you might know as Cousin Matthew from Downton Abbey, the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, or the guest from The Guest) as a former missionary who is sent to infiltrate a mysterious cult who has kidnapped his sister, presumably with dark designs on her life. The further he digs into the truth of the cult while trying to keep from himself being discovered, the darker, bloodier, and more eye-opening events become.

Apostle is a solid new example of folk horror, currently holding an 80 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus that it "resists easy scares in favor of a steady, slow-building descent into dread led by a commanding central performance from Dan Stevens."

If you want to traumatize yourself in the classiest way possible, 2016's The Eyes of My Mother might be the way to go. You could probably even convince a friend or loved one that this is just a straight-up art film thanks to its title and beautiful black and white photography until the murders and eyeball slicings start. (Your defense after they try to storm out is that Un Chien Andalou is one of the most famous art films of all time and definitely features eyeball slicing.) Hopefully everyone sticks around for this one, though, because it's a high-quality and beautiful if unremittingly bleak cinema experience.

The film centers on Francisca, a young woman who as a child saw her mother beaten to death in her home by a stranger, after which her father came home, knocked out the murderer, and kept him prisoner in his barn. The good news is that Francisca manages to process this trauma in a very healthy and productive way, and the rest of the movie is about her totally normal interpersonal relationships. No, that's a lie. This is a horror movie. Things get pretty dark, what with the killings, eviscerations, child abductions, and what have you.

The Eyes of My Mother has a score of 77 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with a consensus that it "uses a shocking trauma to fuel a hauntingly hypnotic odyssey whose nightmarish chill lingers long after the closing credits." Definitely give it a shot as long as you're not looking for a fun, carefree night of streaming or unhaunted dreams.

Found footage horror is a mixed bag. There are a million trash ones, and then there are a few that are so good, they make the whole genre worth it. As Above, So Below is one of those, though it being found footage doesn't really affect the story or anything, so if you just hate the entire idea of the genre, you can watch this one without worry. Other than being shot with handheld and head-mounted cameras, it's a straightforward scary movie, so you can just ignore that aspect and enjoy.

The movie, written and directed by John Erick and Drew Dowdle, is like Indiana Jones meets the devil in the Paris Catacombs. Scarlett, an explorer/archaeologist in the vein of Indy or Lara Croft, is looking for the Philosopher's Stone, a legendary alchemical artifact that can supposedly turn any material into gold. Her quest leads her into the Paris Catacombs with a small team, where increasingly weird things, inspired by Dante's Inferno, start happening.

If you're unfamiliar with the Paris Catacombs, they're a massive series of tunnels that run under Paris and are seriously full of human bones. In fact, many of the bones seen in this movie are real, because the filmmakers actually got permission to film down there, the first Hollywood production to ever do so. While the film only managed a 26 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, it has found a small cult following in the few years since. 

The Conjuring films, and their spin-offs, are based around the lives of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren. They're mostly based on true stories (not all of the spin-offs are) but the key part there is "based on" because uh, while the Warrens did go to these places, the movie takes liberties, and the Warrens' stories are maybe of questionable veracity themselves. But the movies are scary, and the original is on Netflix right now. Just a heads up before you hit play, though: The movie does have a lot of jump scares, so if that's not your thing, maybe skip this one. 

In the film, the Warrens help the Perron family with their little haunting problem. You know, normal stuff. But what makes the movie great isn't just the creepy stuff — it's the chemistry between Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine, and the Perron family. The characters feel like regular people caught in a bizarre situation, to the point where you actually care about them, as opposed to camp counselors in a slasher movie. When the characters are in danger, it feels more intense.

Upon release, The Conjuring broke box office records and scored an 85 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It also spawned a sequel and the popular Annabelle spin-off series. This is where it all began, though, and watching it on Netflix is a no-brainer, unless you're worried about how much sleep you'll lose.

One of Netflix's most intense movies is a Netflix Original — Hush, directed by Doctor Sleep and The Haunting of Hill House helmer Mike Flanagan and written by Flanagan and Kate Siegel (who also plays the protagonist), is a thriller in the rawest sense of the form. This movie is super tense, and while talking about the edges of seats is a bit cliche, Hush really will make you sit up and take notice.

Author Maddie Young, who is deaf and mute, is working on a novel in her remote cabin. And it has all the problems everyone in Hollywood has with remote cabins — a deranged murderer shows up and cuts the power, phone, and internet lines. In the world of movies, the realtor probably makes you sign a waiver for that when buying a remote cabin. Since Maddie is deaf, the murderer also has a distinct advantage over her, but she's no victim. A cat-and-mouse game ensues with Maddie locked inside and the killer roaming around outside the house. He doesn't have a motive or endgame, he's just a murderer stalking a remote cabin.

The movie is a bit violent, but not overly so, and it's free from jump scares. It's a classic home invasion movie, just with an additional layer of fear. It's such a simple premise, but it plays so well. And you don't need to take our word for it. Hush is 92 percent fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

There's nothing like some black comedy to go with your horror, and Murder Party has plenty of both. Written and directed by Jeremy Saulnier, the creator of Green Room (which also appears in this list), Murder Party is the story of Christopher, a regular guy who lives alone with his cat. Christopher finds a flyer for a Halloween party and decides to just show up in a cardboard box knight costume rather than spending the evening at home.

What Christopher doesn't know is the Halloween party isn't an actual get-together. The art students throwing it have an ulterior motive, and the flyers were bait. They plan to murder anyone who shows up (Christopher is the only one who does so, though) and stage it as an art piece to impress a wealthy patron, Alexander, and possibly get a big fat grant out of him. But things don't go as planned and get chaotic fast. No spoilers, but it turns equal parts ridiculous and horrific from there.

While the gore and thrills are worth it on their own, this movie also ups the ante with some hilarious dialogue and a really great plot that never slows down. The characters are surprisingly deep, too, especially considering the genre. The film has a 100 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and while that is only out of five reviews, it's a seriously good and campy horror film that's worth your time.

Sometimes the best horror is subtle and needs time to unfold all of its creepy tendrils. Okay, that sentence started to get creepy, too. Anyway, some of the greatest classic horror is about a handful of characters in a single place. Like a bottle episode in TV, the limitations can lead to incredible storytelling and plot development. It's like independent theater, where limited budgets mean few sets or effects, and the story has to take center stage (pun slightly intended).

The Similars is cut from the same cloth. Like classic Twilight Zone episodes, the film takes place with just a handful of characters trapped in an isolated space — in this case, a bus station with a hurricane raging outside. Ulises, an expectant father, becomes stranded there while his wife gives birth in a hospital nearby. After he arrives at the bus station, though, things start getting strange — everyone's faces start changing to look just like Ulises. Yeah, it's that kind of strange. The group has to unravel the mystery before they all turn into Ulises.

The film also has a unique visual look due to its desaturated color scheme, which makes it look almost, but not quite, black and white. There's no gore or jump scares, but it's a creepy, weird little movie with a 95 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It is in Spanish, so you'll need to freshen up your subtitle reading skills, but it's absolutely worth your time to watch.

Maybe you think witches aren't scary anymore now that you're grown up. It's true, witches are largely more for cartoony Halloween decorations than for serious horror movies these days, but The Witch is definitely an exception to that. A small, quiet movie with no real violence or jump scares, it works purely on psychological horror to deliver its scares. You might want to turn on subtitles, though, because the thick early American accents and dialogue can be hard to parse on the first (or second or tenth) watch. 

In 17th-century New England, a family of Puritans, who were kicked out of a colony of other Puritans for literally being too uptight and religious, settles into the remote wilderness with a small cabin and some livestock. Things go horribly wrong, though, when their newborn son, Samuel, mysteriously disappears under the watch of Thomasin, their oldest daughter. From there, it turns into a family drama from hell, with wild accusations of witchcraft, a creepy illness, and strange happenings. 

The tension is at an 11 for the entire movie. Writer and director Robert Eggers, also responsible for 2019's The Lighthouse, knows how to keep the story going with amazing dialogue and great performances. The Witch is certified fresh with a score of 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and should be required watching for the discerning modern horror fan.