The Best Horror Movies Streaming This Month Are Slashers (August 2024)

There are various suggestions as to when the slasher movie sub-genre began, but it's safe to say it's been with us for at least 60 years. And in those 60 years, there's been a lot of dreck. That's not a bad thing, mind you — dreck can be fun! The slasher film, with its propensity for graphic kills and unstoppable killers taking center stage, is prone to sleaze and cheese, and that can be mighty enjoyable. It's a matter of taste — can you stomach what's being churned out? Or will you head to the toilet and lose your lunch? And then ... will you come back for more? 

A new month is upon us, which means it's time for me to yet again highlight some streaming horror titles. And this month is all about slashers! Before we get to it, some ground rules. I tried not to be too obvious here. There are a million different lists on a million different websites about slasher movies (like this one here!), and these lists often rattle off the same familiar titles. You know them, I know them. You love them, I love them. It's fine. But with this month's streaming guide, I wanted to try to not to state the obvious. For instance: "Halloween" isn't on this list. Not because it's not a great movie (it's one of the best horror movies ever made), but because we all know "Halloween" is great, and we've all (presumably) seen it a hundred times. Another example: while there's a "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie on this list, it's not the first "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie. You get the picture. 

So without further ado, here are the best horror movies streaming in August 2024, slasher edition. 

Streaming on Netflix.

Everyone has their own favorite Chucky movie, and while it seems that a large majority of fans gravitate towards when the series dipped into full-blown comedy territory with "Bride of Chucky," my favorite entry in the franchise is John Lafia's "Child's Play 2." The first "Child's Play" did a great job of establishing Chucky the killer doll, and "Child's Play 2" really lets him cook. Part of this has to do with the approach to the character: it's easy to forget, but the first movie actually spends a huge chunk of its runtime trying to make you wonder if Chucky is really alive. 

That's not the case for "Child's Play 2," which gets to have Chucky alive and kicking right out of the gate — and boy is he pissed. Once again, Chucky is targeting poor Andy (Alex Vincent), who has been taken away from his mother and put into foster care after the events of the first movie. Director Lafia goes big here, employing strange, distorted angles and moody cinematography to create what might be the most stylish entry in the entire franchise. And the film's big climax, where Andy and his new sister, cool teenager Kyle (Christine Elise), battle Chucky in the Good Guy doll factory, is brilliant. 

Stream this if you like to see Chucky kick his little doll legs. 

Streaming on Tubi.

A symphony of style and gore, Brian De Palma's "Dressed to Kill" has all the filmmaker's obsessions rolled into one slick package: voyeurism, sex, violence, and Hitchcock. A riff on "Psycho," "Dressed to Kill" is two stories in one. The first half of the film follows Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson), a bored woman who decides to have an affair with a total stranger. After Kate is brutally murdered in an elevator (spoiler, I guess?), the focus shifts onto Kate's nerdy son Peter (Keith Gordon), and Liz (Nancy Allen), a call-girl who witnessed Kate's murder. 

Also mixed up in this is Dr. Elliott (Michael Caine), Kate's psychiatrist who keeps getting threatening phone messages from one of his patients. Sleazy, scary, problematic, and wildly entertaining, "Dressed to Kill" isn't your typical slasher pic, but I think it still qualifies for the genre due to the grand guignol nature of the elevator kill scene, with its bright-red blood and unflinching gruesomeness. 

Stream this if you like "Psycho" and De Palma at his most De Palma-y. 

Streaming on Shudder.

For the life of me, I will never understand why we didn't get a glut of direct-to-VHS "Dr. Giggles" sequels. Don't get me wrong: I don't think "Dr. Giggles" is some masterpiece. It's pure cheese. But since when did that stop other horror franchises? We deserved more movies with Larry Drake as Dr. Giggles, a killer who dresses up as a doctor and dispatches people with increasingly silly medical tools (at one point he murders someone with a giant Band-Aid. Where did he get that?! Did he make it himself?). 

The plot, such as it is, involves a teenage girl with a bad heart (played by Holly Marie Combs) who finds herself targeted by good old Dr. Giggles. Most of the time, though, Dr. Giggles is bumping off horny teens and nosy neighbors in creative ways, all while throwing out terrible puns and jokes ("If you think that's bad, wait until you get my bill!" he quips after one kill). This is a very, very silly slasher, and I mean that in the best possible way. 

Stream this if you like "The Dentist" and corny doctor jokes. 

Streaming on Prime Video.

It's August. You know what that means — we're one-step closer to Spooky Season, baby! Halloween will be here soon, bringing with it autumnal vibes and a sh*t-load of goards! If you can't wait to get into the Halloween spirit, then I recommend you check out "Haunt." I tend to revisit this movie every Halloween season, but there's no rule that says you can't watch it during the summer. Written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who co-wrote the first "A Quiet Place" movie, "Haunt" follows a group of college kids looking for some Halloween thrills. They end up at a haunted house attraction that turns out to be much, much more realistic than they were counting on. And when I say "realistic" I mean people get straight-up murdered. 

"Haunt" is tense and creepy, and the masked killers who run the haunted house are highly memorable for reasons I won't dare spoil. Also helping matters is the fact that the film has a highly sympathetic lead character, Harper (Katie Stevens). We really want her to survive as we watch her friends drop like flies around her. If you're a fan of Halloween-set horror, I'm almost positive you'll love this one. There are more than a few "Halloween attractions that turn out to be real!" movies at this point, but in my humble opinion, "Haunt" is the best of the bunch. Now bring on that sequel.

Stream this if you like simple-but-effective Halloween masks. 

Streaming on Max.

A lot of folks were mighty confused when James Wan's "Malignant" arrived in theaters in 2021 (I was firmly on board from the jump, FYI), but at this point, Wan's ultra-gonzy slasher pic has a healthy cult following. And rightfully so — it's a hoot. If you've somehow avoided the film after all this time I won't dare spoil the absolutely bonkers twist. Here's what I'll tell you: "Malignant" follows Madison (Annabelle Wallis), a woman who seems to have a psychic connection to a serial killer known as Gabriel. 

Gabriel, meanwhile, is picking a series of people off one by one in increasingly gruesome fashion. What is this killer's deal? Who is he? And what's his connection to Madison? You'll have to watch "Malignant" to find out, but despite how wild and crazy the twist ends up being, I think Wan plays fair: there are plenty of clues along the way to let you know what's really going on here. There's also an unhinged, almost wacky atmosphere to the proceedings that makes "Malignant" something special. It's weird in the best possible way.

Stream this if you like "Tenebrae" and plot-twists that make your head spin.  

Streaming on Shudder and Tubi.

Some movies inspire you. Other make you want to take a long, hot shower. William Lustig's "Maniac" is definitely in the latter category. This scummy, scuzzy, nasty film is like a time capsule back to when NYC and the Times Square area in particular was like a breeding ground for slime. Everything here feels icky. You get the feeling that if you touch the screen your fingers will come away with a thin coat of grime on them. This is low-budget shock-horror at the peak of its powers. It almost feels like some sort of accident; as if you couldn't make a movie this dirty if you tried.

Joe Spinell, who also co-wrote the script, stars as Frank Zito, a dirtbag with serious mommy issues. Frank works as a landlord by day, and by night he stalks women, brutally murdering them and then scalping them. He takes the scalps home and places them on the heads of mannequins. Yeah, it's that kind of movie. There is a structure here; a story can be found among all the gristle. But "Maniac" is less about its plot and more about the nasty headspace of its lead character, backed up by gruesome gore effects courtesy of the legendary Tom Savini. 

Stream this if you like "Angst" and feeling gross. 

Streaming on Prime Video and Tubi.

That's right: there's not one but two William Lustig-directed movies on this list with "Maniac" in the title. Like "Maniac," "Maniac Cop 2" is also set on the dirty streets of NYC. But this is a different beast. The first "Maniac Cop" is quite good for what it's trying to do, but this sequel elevates things to a whole other level, including a car chase scene that looks so real and so dangerous that I'm genuinely surprised no one was killed while filming it. 

Like the first "Maniac Cop," "Maniac Cop 2" follows the story of Matt Cordell, a dead cop who returns from the grave and starts murdering people. The film's concept of a "killer cop" feels more timely than ever, even if the cop in question here happens to be a rotting zombie. Grungy and violent, "Maniac Cop 2" also has style. Look at that screenshot above — revel in how moody and atmospheric it is! And also in how it makes you want a cold beer.

Stream this if you like brief appearances from Bruce Campbell and jaw-dropping low-budget stunts.

Streaming on The Criterion Channel and Tubi.

Where did the slasher movie begin? For some folks, the answer lies in Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," which arrived in 1960. But another movie also dropped that year that could also be considered at the forefront of the sub-genre. It was Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom," a British thriller that ultimately hurt Powell's storied, acclaimed career. Many were so shocked by the film's subject matter that they felt it was somehow beneath a filmmaker of Powell's status. However, in the years since its release, "Peeping Tom" has become something of a classic, renowned and acclaimed and embraced.

Like "Psycho," "Peeping Tom" follows a disturbed young man with parental issues. Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) is a wannabe filmmaker who also moonlights as a serial killer, murdering women with a knife attached to his camera tripod and filming their horrified reactions in the process. The shy, awkward Mark was abused as a child by his father, a doctor who experimented on his son by testing how the boy would react to fear. Mark's entire world of lust and murder is thrown off-kilter when he befriends Helen (Anna Massey), a nice young woman who lives in the same building as Mark. Stylish and unnerving, "Peeping Tom" is one of the finest psychological thrillers you'll ever see, and within its frames you can spot the seeds that would blossom into the slasher genre as we know it. 

Stream this if you like "Psycho" and lots and lots of tension.

Streaming on Max.

The first "The Strangers" movie is good, but I don't think it quite qualifies as a slasher movie, despite the presence of masked killers. However, the sequel, "The Strangers: Prey at Night," very much fits into the slasher mold. It's not as good as the first movie, which is quite adept at building lots of dread, but gosh, it's a lot of fun. In this sequel, a family is driving their troubled teen daughter (Bailee Madison) off to boarding school. Along the way, they stop at an entirely empty trailer park to visit family members. Unfortunately, those family members have been murdered by the Strangers, a trio of masked killers who like to bump people off just for the fun of it.

While the first movie is a home invasion thriller with a nihilistic streak, "Prey at Night" is more of a slasher throwback, complete with a retro musical score (courtesy of Adrian Johnston) that's trying really hard to sound like John Carpenter's music. Again: this isn't as good as the original movie. In some cases, it's even a step-down. But "Prey at Night" also moves at a brisk pace and features some inventive set-pieces that stick with you. 

Stream this if you like "The Strangers," not to be confused with that other version of "The Strangers."

Streaming on Shudder.

Before Wes Craven made "Scream," he helmed another self-referential slasher movie. "Wes Craven's New Nightmare" is a meta-sequel that asks, "What if Freddy Krueger was real? And what if he started coming after the people who starred in the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' series?" On paper, this sounds like the recipe for something silly, but Craven, who also penned the script, takes this seriously, and not in a dour, unentertaining way. The end result is something brilliant, as well as a movie that manages to make Freddy seem scary again. When "New Nightmare" came out, old Fred had entered parody territory, cracking bad jokes at every turn. "New Nightmare" re-imagines him as a kind of ancient evil that's always been with us in one form or another.

Heather Langenkamp, playing a fictionalized version of herself, is the target of Freddy's real-world antics, and numerous folks involved with the "Nightmare" franchise pop up here as themselves, including Freddy actor Robert Englund and even Craven himself. Oddly enough, "New Nightmare" is actually the lowest-performing "Nightmare" movie, box-office-wise, which is a damn shame because it's easily one of the best movies in the franchise. 

Stream this if you like the "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies and Freddy wearing a trench coat.