The 12 Best Scary Movies on HBO Now
Halloween is coming! While you may be gearing up for a big costume party or filling the bowl with candy for trick or treat night, you may also be looking for a good scary movie to curl up with. HBO Now has a decent selection of frights to fill your horror fix. Here are all the horror movies available on HBO Go and Now services ranked from lowest to highest in order of critical consensus.
12. Fear Dot Com
Tomatometer: 3%
HBO Description: Stephen Dorff stars as a detective investigating a series of mysterious deaths that spark fears of an Ebola outbreak. He teams up with a Department of Health researcher (Natascha McElhone), and together they follow the grisly clues to www.feardotcom.com, a bondage site that is so realistic, it’s literally frightening its victims to death by bringing their nightmares to life.
11. Shocker
Tomatometer: 12%
HBO Description: A notorious serial killer continues his murderous ways from beyond the grave in Wes Craven’s electrifying horror film. Mitch Pileggi stars as the family-slaying maniac Horace Pinker, who lands himself in the electric chair. But while the high-voltage juice surges through his body, killing him physically, Pinker’s demonic spirit escapes…and begins another bloody crime spree.
10. Queen of the Damned
Tomatometer: 17%
HBO Description: The vampire Lestat reawakens as a blood-drinking rock star in this adaptation of the third volume in Anne Rice’s ‘Vampire Chronicles.’ Out of hibernation, Lestat plans a concert to bring prominence to the vampire ranks–much to their chagrin. But far more dangerously, he has awakened Queen Akasha, a vampire of royal descent whose powers go beyond anything Lestat has ever seen!
9. Long Time Dead
Tomatometer: 18%
It’s a game of Ouija gone horribly wrong. Something is summoned from the game and it starts claiming its victims one by one. It’s a fun and creepy scare.
8. The Devil’s Due
Tomatometer: 18%
HBO Description: A newlywed woman gets pregnant on her honeymoon, but her husband isn’t the father; it’s the Devil himself in this terrifying found-footage horror flick. Allison Miller and Zach Gilford star as the happy couple whose life takes a nightmarish turn to the dark side as the antichrist grows within the hapless housewife…and evil spreads its tendrils all around them.
7. The Rite
Tomatometer: 20%
HBO Description: Evil makes a believer out of a skeptical seminarian who is given a crash course in the rite of exorcism by a veteran priest in this chiller. Sent to Rome amid a crisis of faith, Father Michael Kovak gets a wake-up call in the person of Father Lucas Trevant (Anthony Hopkins), a wily Exorcist whose battles against demonic possession force Father Michael to reconsider his beliefs.
6. House on Haunted Hill
Tomatometer: 28%
In this remake of William Castle’s 1958 horror classic, five people stay overnight in a creepy abandoned mansion. If they can survive the night, the host will give them a million dollars.
5. Return to House on Haunted Hill
Tomatometer: 33%
HBO Description: The haunted insane asylum of ‘House on Haunted Hill’ reopens its doors to a new group of victims in this bloody sequel. In search of a valuable artifact inside its walls, the group–which includes the innocent sister of the first film’s survivor–must navigate it’s musty halls which happen to be packed with the hideous, bloodthirsty ghosts of tortured former patients.
4. The Skeleton Key
Tomatometer: 38%
HBO Description: ‘Hoodoo’ magic haunts a young nurse after she takes a job caring for a disabled man in his creepy bayou plantation house. Caroline Ellis has no idea what she’s in for when she accepts a job caring for an elderly stroke victim whose wife distrusts the nurse. Given a skeleton key to the vast mansion, Caroline begins to learn the dark truth behind the decaying old place.
3. Hannibal
Tomatometer: 39%
HBO Description: The cinema’s most notorious maniac, Hannibal ‘The Cannibal’ Lecter is back in this shocking follow-up to ‘The Silence of the Lambs.’ Anthony Hopkins reprises his Oscar(R)-winning role as Lecter, now on the loose in Europe and the target of a manhunt by FBI agent Clarice Starling (here played by Julianne Moore)–as well as by one of his mutilated former victims.
2. The Faculty
Tomatometer: 54%
HBO Description: As if high school wasn’t hard enough, the students at Herrington High have to deal with a staff whose bodies have been snatched by aliens in this riveting shocker. Director Robert Rodriguez unveils an impressive display of gruesome special effects as a group of students race for their lives from a faculty that has only one lesson: join or die!
1. Trick ‘R Treat
Tomatometer: 86%
HBO Description: Four intertwined tales of terror, all set in a town celebrating Halloween, form the basis of this scary treat. A serial killer…a young woman in search of a date for a very special party…a kids prank at the sight of a horrifying local legend…and a vile old curmudgeon who learns a holiday lesson are all brought together by the dark force behind this ancient celebration.
Honorable Mention: family friendly scary movies
The Haunted Mansion
It’s hair-raising hijinx for real-estate salesman Eddie Murphy and his family in this effects-filled horror-comedy inspired by the beloved Walt Disney theme park ride. Unable to pass on a possible listing, Murphy detours his family’s vacation for a visit to the ultra-creepy Gracey Manor–a crumbling, spook-infested palace that comes replete with its own graveyard!
Scooby-Doo 2 Monsters Unleashed
Monsters from the Mystery, Inc. gang’s past return to life to provide the groovy sleuths with a new investigation. Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo return to Coolsville when a museum opens a display of monstrous masks from their past conquests. When the ghastly ghouls begin making new appearances, it’s up to the ‘fraidy cats to get to the bottom of the mystery.