Home Stream Max Best Horror Movies on HBO Max in 2023| with ratings!

Best Horror Movies on HBO Max in 2023| with ratings!

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Best Horror Movies on HBO Max in 2023

Explore the amazing collection of horror movies on HBO Max and make it a fear-tastic evening with your friends and family. Our definitive list of top horror flicks on HBO Max will have you enjoying terror to the fullest.

HBO Max offers a substantial catalog of horror titles, both modern and classic, with a mixed blend of psychological thrillers, action, humor, fantasy, drama, mystery, and much more. The nerve-racking storytelling and terrifying characters will surely make your hair stand on end.

Below we present our selection of the best horror titles to watch on HBO Max. Take a look, and dive into horror with one of the best streaming platforms – HBO Max.

1. The Conjuring (2013)

  • Release Date: July 19, 2013
  • IMDB Rating: 7.5/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86%
  • Letterboxd: 3.6/5
  • Directed By: James Wan
  • Leading Stars: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ron Livingston

When Carolyn and Roger Perron relocate their family to a run-down farmhouse in Rhode Island in 1971, weird occurrences quickly begin to happen there, intensifying in increasingly terrifying nightmares. Carolyn requests help from renowned paranormal researchers Ed and Lorraine Warren to investigate the house out of desperation. What the Warrens find is a region rife with a demonic poltergeist that is now following the Perron family around wherever they go. Now Warrens must use all of their abilities and spiritual fortitude to battle this ethereal threat that threatens to obliterate everyone involved.

2. Doctor Sleep (2019)

  • Release Date: November 8, 2019
  • IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 78%
  • Letterboxd: 3.4/5
  • Directed By: Mike Flanagan
  • Leading Stars: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran

Dan Torrance, who battles alcoholism, was scarred as a child by the dark events that took place at the Overlook Hotel. His dreams of a tranquil life are quickly dashed when he meets Abra, a young woman who also possesses the “shine,” an extrasensory ability. Together, they forge an improbable alliance to combat the True Knot, a sect whose members seek immortality by feeding off the shine of innocent people.

3. It (2017)

  • Release Date: September 8, 2017
  • IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86%
  • Vudu: 4.4/5
  • Directed By: Andrés Muschietti
  • Leading Stars: Bill Skarsgård, Jaeden Martell, Finn Wolfhard

Set in the small town of Derry, Maine, It follows the story of a group of seven mistreated youngsters who are threatened by an ancient, trans-dimensional evil entity known as Pennywise. He emerges from the sewer every 27 years to prey upon the children of Derry. Penny is about to confront seven teenage outcasts. Now, these bullied kids must overcome their own personal fear and unite to battle the terrifying, violent, and sadistic clown- Pennywise.

4. Constantine: City of Demons – The Movie (2018)

  • Release Date: 2018
  • IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
  • Letterboxd: 3.4/5
  • Blu-ray.com: 7.2/10
  • Directed By: Doug Murphy
  • Leading Stars: Matt Ryan(voice), Laura Bailey(voice), Robin Atkin Downes(voice)

Chas Chandler and occult detective John Constantine set out to recover Chas’s daughter Trish from a demonically induced coma. They may have a chance to defeat the demon Beroul and save Trish’s soul if they get assistance from the enigmatic Nightmare Nurse, the powerful Queen of Angels, and the vicious Aztec God, Mictlantecuhtli.

5. The Conjuring 2 (2016)

  • Release Date: June 10, 2016
  • IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 80%
  • Letterboxd: 3.4/5
  • Directed By: James Wan
  • Leading Stars: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Madison Wolfe

Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren, two paranormal investigators, leave their self-imposed hiatus in 1977 to visit the north London borough of Enfield. They encounter Peggy Hodgson, a frazzled single mother of four who informs them about something strange happening in her home. The youngest daughter begins to exhibit symptoms of demonic possession, which leads Ed and Lorraine to believe her claim. The Warrens become the evil spirit’s next victims as they attempt to help the besieged girl.

6. Batman: The Long Halloween Part 1 (2021)

  • Release Date: June 22, 2021  
  • IMDB Rating: 7.2/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 100%
  • Best Buy: 4.8/5
  • Directed By: Chris Palmer
  • Leading Stars: Jensen Ackles(voice), Josh Duhamel(voice), Naya Rivera(voice)

In Gotham City, things are really gloomy. The city is overrun with crime and corruption because it is being held hostage by the powerful Falcone crime family. The enigmatic Holiday killer, who has been terrorizing the underworld and leaving a trail of corpse bags, is adding to the mayhem. Batman, Lieutenant Gordon, and D.A. Harvey Dent race against time as the next unfortunate holiday approaches. Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One, based on the highly acclaimed comic novel, sets off a bizarre series of events that will alter the Dark Knight for all time.

7. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)

  • Release Date: April 11, 2014
  • IMDB Rating: 7.2/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86%
  • Letterboxd: 3.8/5
  • Directed By: Jim Jarmusch
  • Leading Stars: Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska

An underground musician severely depressed by the state of human affairs reunites with his tenacious and enigmatic lover amid the magical desolation of Tangiers and Detroit. At least several decades have passed since the beginning of their love tale, but her wild and untamed younger sister suddenly ends their hedonistic idyll. As modern society collapse around these centuries-old vampire lovers, how will they manage to survive?

8. Last Night in Soho (2021)

  • Release Date: October 22, 2021
  • IMDB Rating: 7.1/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 76%
  • Letterboxd: 3.5/5 
  • Directed By: Edgar Wright
  • Leading Stars: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith

Eloise, a budding fashion designer, inexplicably travels back in time to the 1960s in the famous psychological thriller directed by Edgar Wright, where she meets Sandie, a stunning want to be a singer. However, the glamour is not all that it seems to be, and the old dreams begin to crumble and fragment into something far darker.

9. Nightmare Alley (2021)

  • Release Date: December 17, 2021  
  • IMDB Rating: 7/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 80%
  • Letterboxd: 3.5/5
  • Directed By: Guillermo del Toro
  • Leading Stars: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette

At a traveling circus in 1940s New York, a down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle charms a clairvoyant and her mentalist husband. Carlisle uses his newly gained expertise to con the rich and powerful in order to create a golden ticket to prosperity. In search of a large payday, he quickly devises a plan to defraud a perilous tycoon with the assistance of a mystifying psychologist who may be his most deadly foe yet.

10. The Witch (2015)

  • Release Date: October 18, 2015
  • IMDB Rating: 6.9/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 90%
  • Letterboxd: 3.9/5 
  • Directed By: Robert Eggers
  • Leading Stars: Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie

A farmer, his wife, and their children in New England experience dread and sorrow when their youngest son Samuel mysteriously disappears. The oldest daughter, Thomasin, who was minding the boy at the time of his abduction, is held responsible by the family. Twins Mercy and Jonas suspect Thomasin of practicing witchcraft as their suspicions and paranoia grow, putting the family’s faith, devotion, and love for one another to the test.

11. The Night House (2021)

  • Release Date: August 20, 2021  
  • IMDB Rating: 6.5/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 87%
  • Vudu: 3.7/5
  • Directed By: David Bruckner
  • Leading Stars: Rebecca Hall, Sarah Goldberg, Vondie Curtis-Hall

High school teacher Beth goes to the vast, eerily empty lake house her late husband built for her in the middle of a dark forest. But as distressed Beth struggles to put the pieces back together, eerie shadows and chilling window reflections soon begin to torment her, and soon she opens boxes and searches through the deceased’s possessions. And gradually, Beth’s vivid late-night nightmares grow more acute, straining her already brittle sanity. Will Beth ever learn the night house’s mystery?

12. It: Chapter Two (2019)

  • Release Date: September 6, 2019
  • IMDB Rating: 6.5/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 62%
  • Letterboxd: 3/5
  • Directed By: Andrés Muschietti
  • Leading Stars: Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader

The malevolent clown Pennywise, who was vanquished by members of the Losers’ Club, comes back 27 years later to threaten Derry, Maine, once again. The childhood pals have long ago drifted apart as adults. But when people begin to vanish, Mike Hanlon summons the others to his house for the last stand. In order to defeat the shape-shifting Pennywise, who is now more powerful than ever, the united Losers must overcome their innermost fears.

13. Annabelle: Creation (2017)

  • Release Date: August 11, 2017
  • IMDB Rating: 6.5/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 70%
  • Letterboxd: 3/5
  • Directed By: David F. Sandberg
  • Leading Stars: Anthony LaPaglia, Samara Lee, Miranda Otto

Samuel Mullins, a maker of dolls, enjoyed spending time with his wife Esther and daughter Bee before her daughter’s death. A nun and six orphaned girls are welcomed into Samuel and Esther’s home twelve years later. Janice, a girl with a disability, enters Bee’s forbidden room in the middle of the night and discovers an innocent doll hidden in a closet. The doll that seems to be pretty actually has a life of its own.

14. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021)

  • Release Date:  June 4, 2021
  • IMDB Rating: 6.3/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 56%
  • Letterboxd: 2.8/5 
  • Directed By: Michael Chaves
  • Leading Stars: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Ruairi O’Connor

Ed and Lorraine Warren embark on one of the most spectacular cases of their careers after a police officer comes across a young guy walking down the road while confused and bloodied. The Warrens are forced to conduct an investigation into the supernatural, unlike anything they’ve ever seen after the suspect, who is accused of murder, claims demonic possession as his defense.

15. Under the Skin (2013)

  • Release Date: April 4, 2014
  • IMDB Rating: 6.3/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 84%
  • Letterboxd: 3.6/5
  • Directed By: Jonathan Glazer
  • Leading Stars: Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay

A young woman who prowls the streets and roads of Scotland in pursuit of the human prey is actually an alien creature inhabiting a human body. She lures her abandoned and alone men into an ethereal realm where they are stripped and eaten. However, the alien visitor started to alter as a result of existence in all its complexity. She starts to accept that she is a person, which has terrible and terrifying repercussions.

16. The Lure (2015)

  • Release Date: December 25, 2015
  • IMDB Rating: 6.3/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 89%
  • Letterboxd: 3.4/5
  • Directed By: Agnieszka Smoczynska
  • Leading Stars: Marta Mazurek, Michalina Olszanska, Kinga Preis

A family of musicians comes across the aquatic sirens Silver and Golden at the water’s edge. The winsome sirens are asked to join the Figs and Dates band at a neon-lit Warsaw dance club after assuring the family that they won’t gobble them up. When Silver develops a romantic interest in stunning blonde bassist Mietek, the craftier Golden, who can’t help but be bloodthirsty by nature, fears that their shared dream of swimming to a new life in America will be scrambled.

17. Malignant (2021)

  • Release Date: September 10, 2021  
  • IMDB Rating: 6.2/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 76%
  • Blue-ray.com: 4/10
  • Directed By: James Wan
  • Leading Stars: Annabelle Wallis, Maddie Hasson, George Young

Abused Madison awakens in a Seattle hospital twenty-seven long years after the horrible Simion Research Hospital incident. Madison’s mysterious background gradually comes to light, confusing both herself and the local investigators as numbing visions of murder increasingly interfere with her ability to lead a regular life. Are these blatantly brutal murders the reason for Madison’s disordered mind?

18. The Eyes of My Mother (2016)

  • Release Date: November 18, 2016
  • IMDB Rating: 6.2/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 78%
  • DVD Netflix: 2.8/5
  • Directed By: Nicolas Pesce
  • Leading Stars: Kika Magalhães, Will Brill, Olivia Bond

Francisca (Kika Magalhaes) has been unmoved by death since a young age as she inherited a deep understanding of human anatomy from her mother, a former surgeon in Portugal. Her deep grief eventually sparks some unusual curiosities as disaster shatters her family’s lovely life in the country. As she becomes older, her yearning to interact with the world around her assumes a rather sinister shape.

19. Assassination Nation (2018)

  • Release Date: September 21, 2018 
  • IMDB Rating: 6/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 74%
  • Letterboxd: 3.1/5 
  • Directed By: Sam Levinson
  • Leading Stars: Odessa Young, Abra, Suki Waterhouse

Assassination Nation is a satirical black comedy thriller that follows the story of Lily, a senior in high school, and her three closest friends. They were living in a world of texts, posts, selfies, and conversations, just like the rest of the world. As the private messages and secrets of thousands of people are revealed after a malicious data hack in the town of Salem, they eventually find themselves fighting for their lives against an armed mob as rage turns into full-blown violence.

20. Antlers (2021)

  • Release Date: October 29, 2021 
  • IMDB Rating: 5.9/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 60%
  • Letterboxd: 2.8/5
  • Directed By: Scott Cooper
  • Leading Stars: Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas

ANTLERS is a visionary film by legendary filmmaker Scott Cooper and master of horror Guillermo del Toro. A middle-school teacher (Keri Russell) and her sheriff brother (Jesse Plemons) become involved in a scary series of meetings with a fabled ancestral beast who lived before them thanks to their mystifying pupil (Jeremy T. Thomas) in a rural Oregon town.

21. Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

  • Release Date: June 20, 2019  
  • IMDB Rating: 5.9/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 64%
  • Letterboxd: 2.6/5 
  • Directed By: Gary Dauberman
  • Leading Stars: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mckenna Grace

Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren lock the demonic doll in their home’s relics room in an effort to stop Annabelle from unleashing additional harm. The couple’s 10-year-old daughter, her friends, and their young babysitter, however, quickly experience an unspeakable night of terror when the doll awakens the evil spirits in the room.

22. Old (2021)

  • Release Date: July 23, 2021 
  • IMDB Rating: 5.8/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 50%
  • Vudu: 3.8/5
  • Directed By: M. Night Shyamalan
  • Leading Stars: Gael García Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell

This new thriller from visionary filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan is about a family who goes on vacation in the tropics and learns that the isolated beach where they are unwinding for a few hours is somehow forcing them to age rapidly, compressing their whole lives into a single day.

23. The Purge (2013)

  • Release Date:  May 31, 2013
  • IMDB Rating: 5.7/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 40%
  • Letterboxd: 2.7/5
  • Directed By: James DeMonaco
  • Leading Stars: Ethan Hawke, Lena Headey, Max Burkholder

The government authorizes a 12-hour time every year during which all illegal conduct, including murder, is lawful in a country where crime is rampant and jails are overflowing. When an intruder brings the dangerous outside world into their house, James Sandin (Ethan Hawke) and his family are put to the ultimate test. James, Mary (Lena Headey), and their two kids struggle to make it through the night while trying not to evolve into the monsters like the ones they are striving to avoid.

24. The Forever Purge (2021)

  • Release Date: June 30, 2021
  • IMDB Rating: 5.4/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 49%
  • Vudu: 4/5
  • Directed By: Everardo Valerio Gout
  • Leading Stars: Ana de la Reguera, Tenoch Huerta, Josh Lucas

Juan, Adela’s spouse, resides in Texas with the affluent Tucker family as a ranch worker. The Tucker patriarch, Caleb, is impressed by Juan, but Dylan, his son, is made envious and enraged by this. A masked gang of murderers attacks the Tuckers the morning following the Purge, compelling both families to unite and fight back as the nation descends into anarchy.

25. We’re All Going to the World’s Fair (2022)

  • Release Date: January 31, 2021
  • IMDB Rating: 5.3/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 90%
  • Hoopla: 3.1/5
  • Directed By: Jane Schoenbrun
  • Leading Stars: Theo Anthony, Anna Cobb, Holly Anne Frink

Amid glow-in-the-dark stars, teenage Casey (Anna Cobb, making her feature film debut), scrolls the internet in her attic bedroom late one chilly night somewhere in the United States. Finally, she has made up her mind to accept the uncertainty that the World’s Fair Challenge, an online role-playing horror game, provides. After the initiation, she records any changes that may or may not be taking place, adding her stories to the collection of web videos that are made public. A mysterious individual contacts her and claims to have noticed something exceptional in her uploads as she starts to lose herself in the space between dream and reality.

26. Halloween Kills (2021)

  • Release Date: October 15, 2021   
  • IMDB Rating: 5.5/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 39%
  • Blu-ray.com: 6/10 
  • Directed By: David Gordon Green
  • Leading Stars: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak

Unstoppable killer Michael Myers escapes Laurie Strode’s trap to carry out his ritualistic bloodbath. When Laurie is hurt and sent to the hospital, she meets Tommy Doyle, the young kid she was watching the night Michael started his reign of terror. Tommy is the leader of a vengeful mob of vigilantes that rise up against Myers and exterminate the evil as Laurie fights through the pain.

27. Tusk (2014)

  • Release Date: September 19, 2014
  • IMDB Rating: 5.3/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 45%
  • Letterboxd: 2.5/5
  • Directed By: Kevin Smith
  • Leading Stars: Justin Long, Michael Parks, Haley Joel Osment

When podcaster Wallace visits Canada to conduct an interview, he ends up meeting a bizarre man named Howe, who is full of tales about his prior life. The following morning, Wallace discovers that Howe is not who he initially believed him to be. Howe intends to mentally and surgically transform Wallace into a walrus.

28. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

  • Release Date: December 3, 2007
  • IMDB Rating: 7.3/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86%
  • Directed By: Tim Burton
  • Leading Stars: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman

In order to get his hands on the gorgeous wife of a London barber (Johnny Depp), evil Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) extradites Johnny Depp to Australia for a crime he didn’t commit. After 15 years, the man returns under the guise of Sweeney Todd and swears vengeance. He kills unfortunate customers with his razor and delivers their bodies to Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), who employs them in her meat-pie store. Though many succumb to his blade, he won’t be content until Turpin’s throat has been cut.

9. Daybreakers (2009)

  • Release Date: January 8, 2010
  • IMDB Rating: 6.4/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 69%
  • Letterboxd: 2.9/5
  • Directed By: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
  • Leading Stars: Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill

Ten years after a pandemic converts the majority of people on Earth into vampires, a severe blood scarcity sparks fear and horrifying mutations among the living dead. When Edward (Ethan Hawke), a vampire hematologist, encounters Lionel (Willem Dafoe) and Audrey (Claudia Karvan), two runaway humans who claim to have a potential cure, Edward attempts to create a blood substitute. In an effort to develop the treatment before it’s too late, Edward pledges his allegiance to them.

30. Friday the 13th (2009)

  • Release Date: February 13, 2009
  • IMDB Rating: 5.5/10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 25%
  • Letterboxd: 2.5/5
  • Directed By: Marcus Nispel
  • Leading Stars: Jared Padalecki, Amanda Righetti, Derek Mears

Jared Padalecki’s character, Clay, searches the spooky forests surrounding Crystal Lake for his missing sister against the advice of the villagers and authorities. But he discovers more than just the decaying huts of a deserted summer camp. Clay and the gang of college students who have come to the forest to the party are in danger as the hockey-mask-wearing killer Jason Voorhees waits for an opportunity to attack them with his razor-sharp machete.

Wrapping up!

Voila! Enjoy watching your favorite horror films on streaming without having to wade through a hundred films to get the best ones. Instead, we’ve simply sorted the best films that critics and fans have praised and given high ratings.

We hope you enjoyed our choice of the best horror films, which you can easily stream by going to the HBO Max website. However, if you encounter difficulty accessing those movies in your home region, check out how to access HBO Max.

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