Streaming screams with Halloween’s scariest movies and series

Halloween isn’t just about kids in costumes eating too many sweets – it’s also about sleeping with all the lights on because you’re suddenly terrified of clowns all over again. Here are the most frightening things to watch online this year. 

Terrifying movies

Ma (2019)

Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures) kicks her Oscar-winning actress mould to the curb and stomps on it with her first starring role in this bonkers horror flick, with a little help from her best friend and former housemate, BAFTA-nominated writer/director Tate Taylor (The Help, The Girl on the Train), who hand-picked the stereotype-smashing role at her request.

The movie centres on a group of teens who luck out when middle-aged singleton Sue Ann (aka Ma) offers them her basement to hang out and party in. But just as it seems things couldn’t get sweeter, they begin to suspect there’s something a little off about Ma…

Produced by Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning producer Jason Blum (Get Out, Us, Blackkklansman), Ma grossed over $60m at the global box office, and scooped nominations at both the Teen Choice and Saturn Awards last year.

Really scary series 

American Horror Story S8

Who’d have thought it was possible for American Horror Story to get freakier with each passing season? Follow the trail of horror when you dare to binge eight seasons of AHS. If you have to pick one, try Hotel, the sixth instalment. It’s based on a real Chicago hotel built in 1893 by serial killer HH Holmes, which came to be known as Murder Castle. Lady Gaga won a Golden Globe as the Countess, the hotel’s vampire overseer who hosts a series of homicidal residents. If that weren’t enough, watch it to see Kathy Bates and Sarah Paulson, Angela Basset, Gabourey Sibide, Chloë Sevigny and more famous faces. Stream it on Showmax now »

What We Do In The Shadows S1-2

If you prefer your Halloween scares on the silly side, check out this cult favourite mockumentary series from New Zealand comedy geniuses Jemaine Clement (Legion, Flight of the Conchords) and Oscar nominee Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok). 

Based on the 2014 movie of the same name, the series follows a group of vampire roomies who’ve been living together for over a century in New York’s Staten Island – plenty of time to get on each other’s nerves. 

It made it on to Rotten Tomatoes’ list of the best TV shows of 2019, and it stars BAFTA winners Matt Berry (The IT Crowd, Toast of London) and Kayvan Novak (Facejacker) as Nandor the Relentless and Laszlo respectively, with Taika, Jemaine and Jonny Brugh as guest star, reprising their roles from the original film as Viago, Vladislav and Deacon. 

Look out for cameos from many of your favourite vampires, including Evan Rachel Wood (True Blood), Danny Trejo (From Dusk Till Dawn), Wesley Snipes (Blade), Paul Reubens (Buffy The Vampire Slayer) and Oscar winner Tilda Swinton (Only Lovers Left Alive). Stream it on Showmax now »

Also watch: HBO’s Los Espookys