Blending elements of slapstick comedy and low-budget underground horror, Evil Dead 2 is a unique film that starts off fast and never lets up. Unlikely hero Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell) takes a vacation to a remote cabin with his girlfriend before it gets thrown off track by Deadites, which possess his girlfriend and other inhabitants of the cabin.

The physical comedy of Campbell here is unmatched, especially in scenes where his hand is possessed by one of the demons.

There’s also lots of impressive visual effects, including lots and lots of demonic blood and goop drenching the cast, and the iconic image of Ash with a chainsaw replacing one hand and holding a sawed-off shotgun with the other.

The Evil Dead series continued with three more films and a TV series, with the most recent film Evil Dead Rise releasing in 2023.

Evil Dead II is available on AMC+ or Shudder. 

The original “self-aware” horror that spawned a hundred imitators, the first Scream is one of the most well-known movies of all time. The opening scene is iconic, an encapsulation of everything great about the series.

There’s the charmingly sophisticated voice over the phone (Roger L. Jackson), references to classic slashers like Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, and the iconic line “What’s your favorite scary movie?”

The mystery of who is behind the Ghostface mask is compelling, with everyone as a suspect up until the moment they’re stabbed, culminating in one of the best twists I’ve seen to date.

The Scream series continued with five other films, with Scream VII set to be released on February 27, 2026.

Scream is available on Max.

One of the funniest horror-comedies of all time, Tucker & Dale vs. Evil follows the titular characters (Tyler Labine and Alan Tudyk, respectively) after a series of misunderstandings causes a group of college kids to believe they are murderous kidnapping hillbillies, rather than the friendly people they are.

After a member of the group (Katrina Bowden) injures herself, the pair take her to their cabin to recover, causing the college students to mount misguided, ill-planned, and often fatal (through no fault of Tucker and Dale’s) attempts to rescue her.

Filled with heart, humor, and incredibly quotable lines, the movie works through and upends every cliché in the book, telling us not to base opinions off of appearances.

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is available on Prime Video and Peacock. 

The Cabin in the Woods starts off like it’s a completely different movie. Two engineers are discussing the failure of an operation in Stockholm, leaving their facility and one in Japan to complete the unknown operation.

While this seems completely out of place, it’s soon revealed that these engineers are directing a ritual to appease ancient gods by sacrificing a group of teens who are staying at the titular cabin.

Like Scream, it plays with the tropes of horror movies, but this time it asks “what if every cliched horror movie was that way because it had to be like that?” The film barrels towards an insanely over-the-top, fun climax that hasn’t really been equaled by any other movie I’ve seen.

The Cabin in the Woods is available on Peacock. 

Yes, it’s a trilogy. But I couldn’t just pick one, as these movies are perfect to binge at a party, with each offering a different genre of horror.

Part One, set in 1994, is inspired by Scream and the 90s era of horror, while Part Two is clearly inspired by Friday the 13th, especially the summer camp setting. Part Three goes all the way back to 1666, where the curse on the town began, and is inspired by The VVitch, though that movie’s painstaking historical accuracy is replaced with a vaguely imagined colonial setting here.

The curse of Sarah Fier, the plotline that runs throughout all three films, is an intriguing and imaginative setup for various stories to be told in the universe.

The main characters of Deena (Kiana Maderia), her brother Josh (Benjamin Flores Jr.), and her girlfriend Sam (Olivia Scott Welch) are all fleshed out and realistic, making us care about what happens to them.

All three Fear Street films are available on Netflix. 

While M3GAN may have originally been another low-budget January flop, after the trailer exploded on TikTok, it became one of the highest-grossing horror films of 2022.

M3GAN, an android powered by advanced AI, begins to break through the firewalls on her programming to fulfill her directive to protect the young, orphaned Cady (an excellent Violet McGraw) at all costs, even from her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams).

It’s campy and fun, with a topical message about the dangers of an over-reliance on technology. M3GAN herself is creepy, with movements that gradually get more fluid as she learns and becomes self-aware.

The effects used to create M3GAN are impressive, which included a combination of puppeteering, animatronics, and a live actor (Amie Donald, then only 12 years old). M3GAN is available to stream on Starz.