Free movies are a rare beast these days. There are plenty of paid subscription services that offer unlimited viewing, but at a monthly cost that isn’t accessible for everybody, especially with all the exclusive series' and original movies out there. Even though Netflix has a cheaper subscription service, it’s still paid, andit’s a lot more limited than the full version. That’s where YouTube comes in!
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These aren’t pirated, low-quality movies uploaded by random channels. These are high-quality, legally uploaded, official movies (with Ads), and they have a very wide selection! But it’s not all great - horror fans might find themselves sifting through cheap scares for hours. For a selection of the best of the library, here are ten of the best horror movies on YouTube for free.
9Scream (1996)
Scream(1996)is a horror movie that every fan should be familiar with. The film that sparked a decades-long horror franchise stars Neve Campbell, David Arquette, and Courteney Cox, to name a few!
The original is absolutely worth a watch, even if the slew of sequels and remakes have come to represent just abouteverything wrong with modern sequel culture. It’s inspired by the real life case of Gainesville Ripper, and follows a group of high-school students stalked by a knife-wielding maniac that uses horror movies as part of a deadly game.
Night of the Living Dead(1968)is a fascinating horror movie, and a must-watch for fans of the genre. Known as one of the original, if nottheoriginal zombie movie, the George Romero classic follows seven people trapped in a barn, under siege by an onslaught of flesh-eating monsters.
The movie is a feat of creativity and filmmaking, especially for the era. With a budget of around $100k, it managed to gross $30 million, earning more than 250 times its budget!
7Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Nosferatu, an archaic Romanian word for ‘night creature’, technically refers to any ghoul, but is most prominently associated with the vampire.Nosferatu the Vampyre(1979)is a story derived from Bram Stoker’sDracula, and an homage remake of the 1922 movie of the same name.
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The moviescores incredibly highly on Rotten Tomatoesat 95%, making it one of the highest-rated horror movie remakes of all time.
6Triangle (2009)
Triangle(2009)is a mind-bending psychological horror film from British director Christopher Smith,and is criminally underrated. Melissa George portrays Jess, a single mother who goes on a boating trip with a group of friends. When they’re forced to abandon their boat, they end up on an ocean liner where time doesn’t quite make sense.
Time-loop horror is hard to pull off, and even harder to do well. While there are some minor loose ends that never quite get tied up,this should not put viewers off from what is an incredible and fascinating feat of creativity.
5Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum (2018)
Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum(2018)isa modern found-footage horror filmwith an ensemble cast starring Wi Ha-joon, best known for his portrayal of the police detective Jun-ho inSquid Game.
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The plot follows a horror web-series crew that broadcasts live from supposedly haunted asylum ‘Gonjiam’, where it’s rumored that the ping-pong obsessed director went mad and killed all the patients. It’s a classic tale of greed for fame and publicity gone wrong, and has an epilogue that might even be more haunting than the film itself.
4The Mimic (2017)
The Mimic(2017)is a South Korean horror movie (subtitles on!) with stunning visuals and a haunting premise. The mother of a missing child moves her family to the mountains and takes in a lost young girl she finds in the woods, but soon begins to wonder if the child is even human.
The story is heavily influenced by the myth of the Jangsam tiger, a South Korean legend that tells of a mysterious, man-eating tiger that parallels the idea of the mimic in western media.
3The Girl With All the Gifts (2016)
Fans of sci-fi/horror will loveThe Girl With All the Gifts(2016). This British film directed by Colm McCarthy (who has directed several episodes ofPeaky Blinders,Doctor Who, evenBlack Mirror) depicts a dystopian future - the result of a parasitic fungal infection that wiped out most of the population.
It focuses on Melanie, an exceptional girl born with the fungus known as a ‘neonatal’. An intensive prison houses her and those like her, until an invasion of ‘hungries’ breach the lab.
2Godzilla (1954)
Everyone has heard of Godzilla. Not everyone, however, has witnessed the monsters debut picture.Godzilla(1954)is not technically the origin of kaiju stories, or even kaiju movies, but it’s undoubtedly the most famous of all time.
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With ties to the tragedy of Hiroshima, the 1954 film directed by Ishirō Honda is the story of a huge, dinosaur-like monster awaken from centuries of slumber by an atomic bomb. The fire-breathing monster terrorizes Japan, making even more terrifying the horrors of nuclear devastation.
1Train To Busan (2016)
Train to Busan(2016)isone of the best Korean horror movies out there, and possibly one of the most heartbreaking movies ever made. It takes place mostly on a high-speed train, at the beginning of a zombie outbreak that sends South Korea into a frenzy.
On that train are Seok-woo, a divorced workaholic father attempting to connect with his daughter Su-an, who on their way to visit Su-an’s mother. On the train are also Sang-hwa and his wife Seong-kyeong who is pregnant, a high school baseball team, two elderly sisters, and many more characters so full of life that the viewer is devastated at every death. Bring tissues to this one.
