Get ready for a spine-tingling Halloween with Showmax’s thrilling lineup of horror films! From the terrifying escapades of beloved franchises to fresh and twisted tales, there’s something to chill every horror fan’s spine.
Whether you’re a longtime admirer of classic horror or seeking the latest in supernatural suspense, these films promise to deliver heart-pounding excitement and unforgettable scares. Dive into this chilling collection of must-watch titles and prepare for a frightfully good time!
Here are 16 Halloween Horrors You Can Stream on Showmax
1. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – Available to Stream on Showmax already
The 15th biggest blockbuster of 2024 (so far), Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire picks up three years after Ghostbusters: Afterlife. When the discovery of an ancient artefact unleashes an army of ghosts that casts a death chill upon the city, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to save the world from a second Ice Age.
Returning Afterlife cast include Paul Rudd, named People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2021; Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard; Emmy nominees Carrie Coon and Mckenna Grace; and Kenya-born Celeste O’Connor, while Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts are all back in their original Ghostbusters roles. Oscar nominee Kumail Nanjiani and Emmy winner Patton Oswalt also join the fun this go round.
Chicago Sun-Times calls the film “a delightful balance of slimy ghost stuff, sharp one-liners, terrific VFX and a steady stream of callbacks to various characters, human and otherwise, from the 1984 movie.”
FPB rating: 13 HLPPS
2. The Fix – Available to Stream on Showmax from Thursday, 31 October
Set in a dystopian future Cape Town with toxic air, The Fix follows a model who takes a new designer drug at a party and suffers a shocking transformation. Pursued by forces with competing interests in the drug’s effects, Ella discovers that her mutations could save the human race.
Grace van Dien (Chrissy in Stranger Things S4) stars as Ella, opposite Daniel Sharman (Fear The Walking Dead, Teen Wolf), SAFTA nominee Keenan Arrison (Binnelanders), Clancy Brown (John Wick 4, The Penguin), and Nicole Fortuin (Alles Malan).
The Showmax Original was the opening night film at MIPAfrica and the closing night film at Chattanooga, where it won the Dangerous Visions Awards.
“When you lay your eyes on South African filmmaker Kelsey Egan’s thrilling sci-fi/action/body horror concoction, The Fix, you’ll immediately understand why we knew this had to be our 2024 Closing Night Selection,” says Chattanooga. “We love this movie, from its killer lead performance by the wonderful Grace van Dien to its wild dystopian world and fantastic mutation effects.”
Gravitas Ventures will be releasing the South African film in the US, Canada and select international territories on 22 November 2024.
FPB rating: 16 LVD
3. The Nun II – Available to Stream on Showmax from Thursday, 31 October
The highest grossing horror movie in South Africa last year, The Nun II sees Sister Irene once again coming face-to-face with Valak, the demon nun – the greatest evil in The Conjuring universe.
Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story) stars as Sister Irene, with Emmy winner Storm Reid (The Last of Us, Euphoria) as Sister Debra and Bonnie Aarons reprising her role as the demon nun.
The Conjuring Universe is in the Guiness Book of World Records for the highest-grossing horror franchise of all time. You can go back to where it all began on Showmax in The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2, which star Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as real-life paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren.
Showmax is also streaming the creepy vintage doll spinoff prequel Annabelle, the biggest horror blockbuster of 2014, and its prequel Annabelle: Creation.
FPB rating: 16 HV
4. Saw X – Available to Stream on Showmax from Thursday, 31 October
Between the events of Saw I and Saw II, a sick and desperate John travels to Mexico for a risky experimental medical procedure in hopes of a miracle cure for his cancer – only to discover the entire operation is a scam to defraud the most vulnerable.
Armed with a newfound purpose, the infamous serial killer returns to his work, turning the tables on the con artists in his signature way.
As John, Tobin Bell was nominated for a Critics Choice Super Award this year as Best Actor in a Horror Movie.
A #1 box office hit, Saw X has an 80% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the highest yet for the franchise. As the critics’ consensus there says, “Led by a franchise-best performance from Tobin Bell, Saw X reinvigorates the series with an instalment that has a surprising amount of heart to go with all the gore.”
FPB rating: 18HLPV
5. Talk to Me – Available to Stream on Showmax already
Named Best Horror Movie at the 2024 Critics Choice Super Awards, Talk To Me follows a group of friends who discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand. They soon become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.
Sophie Wilde won Best Actress in a Horror Movie at the 2024 Critics Choice Super Awards, as well as the BAFTA Rising Star Award and the Cannes Film Festival’s Female Revelation Award.
Directed by YouTuber twins Danny and Michael Philippou (of RackaRacka fame), the Australian indie film was a breakout hit, becoming distributor A24’s highest-grossing horror movie ever and #3 highest-grossing movie overall.
As The Wrap says, “Talk To Me is, unquestionably, the horror movie of the year… A fast, funny, very scary campfire story.”
FPB rating: 13 HLPPS
6. Five Nights at Freddy’s – Available to Stream on Showmax already
The highest grossing horror movie globally of 2023, Five Nights at Freddy’s follows Mike, a troubled young man caring for his 10-year-old sister, Abby.
Recently fired and desperate for work so that he can keep custody of Abby, Mike agrees to take a position as a night security guard at an abandoned theme restaurant: Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria.
But Mike soon discovers that nothing at Freddy’s is what it seems as he is dragged into the black heart of an unspeakable nightmare.
Starring Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games), the video game adaptation was nominated for Drama Movie of the Year at the 2024 People’s Choice Awards and for Best Creature FX for Jim Henson’s Creature Shop at the Fangoria Chainsaw Awards. There’s already a sequel in production.
FPB rating: 16 HLV
7. M3GAN – Available to Stream on Showmax already
M3GAN is a marvel of artificial intelligence, a lifelike doll that’s programmed to be a child’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. When its designer, Gemma, becomes the unexpected caretaker of her eight-year-old niece, Cady, she pairs the girl with a M3GAN prototype – with terrifying consequences.
The best reviewed horror film of last year, M3GAN has a 93% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus says, “M3GAN is the rare horror-comedy that delivers chuckles as effortlessly as chills.”
Critics Choice nominee Allison Williams (Get Out, Girls) stars as Gemma, with Violet McGraw (The Haunting of Hill House) as Cady. As M3GAN, Amie Donald and Jenna Davis were nominated for Best Actress and Best Villain at the 2024 Critics’ Choice Super Awards, where M3GAN was up for Best Horror.
M3GAN is the brainchild of horror legend James Wan (The Conjuring and Saw franchises) and scriptwriter Akela Cooper (The Nun II).
FPB rating: 16 HLV
8. Evil Dead Rise – Available to Stream on Showmax already
Moving Sam Raimi’s iconic horror franchise out of the woods and into the city, Evil Dead Rise tells the twisted tale of two estranged sisters whose reunion is cut short by the rise of flesh-possessing demons, thrusting them into a primal battle for survival as they face the most nightmarish version of family imaginable.
The highest-grossing film of the series, Evil Dead Rise was nominated for Best Horror Movie at the 2024 Critics Choice Super Awards, where
Alyssa Sutherland was nominated for Best Actress in a Horror Movie.
FPB rating: 16 HLV
9. Scream VI – Available to Stream on Showmax already
Following the Woodsboro Legacy Murders, the four survivors set out to start a fresh chapter in New York, only to find a new Ghostface killer targeting them in the big city.
Scream VI was up for Best Horror Movie at the 2024 Critics Choice Super Awards, where Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) was nominated for Best Actress. Also look out for everyone from Courteney Cox (Friends) to Hayden “Save the cheerleader” Panettiere (Heroes).
AV Club says it’s “one of the franchise’s best (and most brutal) sequels.”
FPB rating: 18 HLV
10. Infinity Pool – Available to Stream on Showmax already
While indulging in an exclusive island getaway, novelist James Foster (Emmy winner Alexander Skarsgård) and his wealthy wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman) break the rules and venture beyond the resort grounds.
But a tragic accident leaves James facing a zero-tolerance policy for crime and a horrifying choice – execution, or, for a hefty sum, watching himself die instead.
As Gabi, their seductive and mysterious guide through an unfamiliar world of hedonism, violence, and surreal horror, Mia Goth (X, Pearl, Suspiria) was nominated for the 2024 Critics Choice Super Award for Best Actress in a Horror Movie.
At the 2024 Canadian Screen Awards, Infinity Pool was up for Best Picture, Achievement in Direction and Original Screenplay for Brandon Cronenberg (yes, he’s the son of legendary horror auteur David Cronenberg).
Not released in South African cinemas, the adults-only horror boasts an 87% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Time Out hailing it as “one hell of a twisted ride… damn-near unmissable and, from a safe distance, addictive as all hell.”
FPB rating: 18 DHLNSV
11. Knock at the Cabin – Available to Stream on Showmax already
From Oscar-nominee M. Night Shyamalan (Old, The Sixth Sense), Knock at the Cabin is set at a remote holiday cabin, where a young girl and her parents are taken hostage by four armed strangers who demand that the family make an unthinkable choice to avert the apocalypse.
Dave Bautista was up for Best Actor in a Horror at the 2024 Critics Choice Super Awards, opposite the likes of Jonathan Groff (Kristoff in Frozen) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley in Harry Potter).
Knock at the Cabin is based on the bestselling novel The Cabin at the End of the World by Bram Stoker Award winner Paul Tremblay.
“A harrowing, economical thriller that will sit with you for days, this is Shyamalan’s best film in years, and a calling card for Bautista in his strongest performance yet,” says Empire Magazine.
FPB rating: 16 HLV
12. Get Out – Available to Stream on Showmax already
Named one of the top 100 films of all time in Sight & Sound’s once-a-decade critics’ poll, Get Out follows a young African-American who visits his white girlfriend’s parents for the weekend, where his simmering uneasiness about their reception of him reaches a boiling point.
For Get Out, Jordan Peele became the first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, as well as the first African American to be nominated for producing, writing, and directing in the same year. Get Out went on to win more than 150 awards internationally.
As Chris Washington, Daniel Kaluuya was nominated for an Oscar and BAFTA for Best Actor, with Lil Rel Howery (Judas and the Black Messiah) taking home the MTV Movie Award for Best Comedic Performance as Rod. Critics Choice nominee Allison Williams (M3GAN) co-stars.
Get Out has a 98% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus calls it “funny, scary, and thought-provoking.”
This Halloween, Showmax is also streaming Peele’s multi-award-winning horror Us, starring Kenya’s Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o.
FPB rating: 16 HLV
13. The Blackening – Available to Stream on Showmax already
Horror fans know the Black character is traditionally the first to die – but what if the entire cast is Black?
The Blackening is out to skewer the genre tropes, centring on a group of Black friends who reunite for a weekend getaway, only to find themselves trapped in a remote cabin with a twisted killer.
The Blackening has an 87% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with IndieWire calling it “the first great horror parody of the post-Get Out era.”
As Dewayne, co-writer Dewayne Perkins was up for Best Breakthrough Performance at the 2024 Black Reel Awards, where The Blackening was also nominated for Outstanding Ensemble. Look out for the likes of Antoinette Robertson (Dear White People), Sinqua Walls (White Men Can’t Jump, Power), and Melvin Gregg (House Party, Snowfall), as well as Teen Choice nominee Grace Byers (Empire) and Emmy-nominated Nigerian-American star Yvonne Orji (Insecure).
FPB rating: 16 PLPV
14. Thanksgiving – Available to Stream on Showmax already
After a Black Friday riot ends in tragedy, a masked Thanksgiving-inspired killer terrorises Plymouth, Massachusetts – the birthplace of the holiday. Picking off residents one by one, the random revenge killings are soon revealed to be part of a larger, sinister holiday plan. Will the town uncover the killer and survive the holidays – or become guests at his twisted holiday dinner table?
From multiple-award-winning Splat Pack director Eli Roth (Hostel), Thanksgiving has an 84% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus says, “Combining belly-busting humour with delightfully over-the-top gore, Thanksgiving is a feast for grindhouse fans.”
The horror stars TikTok phenom Addison Rae and rising star Milo Manheim (Zombies), along with the likes of Gina Gershon (Bound), Rick Hoffman (Suits, Hostel), and Patrick Dempsey (McDreamy in Grey’s Anatomy), who was up for Best Supporting Actor at this year’s Golden Scythe Horror Awards, where Thanksgiving was nominated for eight prizes, including Best Picture.
FPB rating: 18 HLV
15. The Last Voyage of the Demeter – Available to Stream on Showmax already
The Last Voyage of the Demeter chronicles the doomed journey of a merchant ship ferrying 50 mysterious wooden crates from Carpathia to London. The crew soon discovers they are not alone: at night, they are stalked by a hidden passenger whose monstrous thirst for blood turns the trip into a harrowing nightmare.
Based on a single chilling chapter from Bram Stoker’s classic novel, Dracula, the film has been praised by horror icons like Guillermo del Toro, who called it “gorgeous, lavish and savage,” and Stephen King, who called it “a throat-ripping good time.”
The Last Voyage of the Demeter was up for Best Creature FX at this year’s Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, as well as nine Golden Scythe Horror Awards, including Best Actor (Corey Hawkins) and Best Supporting Actor (Liam Cunningham).
FPB rating: 16 HLV
16. The Exorcist: Believer – Available to Stream on Showmax already
It’s been a little over 50 years since arguably the most terrifying horror film in history landed on screens, shocking audiences around the world and becoming the first horror nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture.
Now Blumhouse (Get Out, M3GAN) and director David Gordon Green (who resurrected the Halloween franchise) deliver The Exorcist: Believer.
Since the death of his pregnant wife in a Haitian earthquake 12 years ago, Victor Fielding has raised their daughter, Angela, on his own. When Angela and her friend Katherine disappear in the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them, it unleashes a chain of events that will force Victor to confront evil and, in his terror and desperation, seek out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil.
Oscar nominee Leslie Odom Jr (Hamilton) stars as Victor, with Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn returning to her iconic role as Chris MacNeil for the first time.
FPB rating: 18 HLV
Well, there you have it, 16 Halloween Horrors you can stream on Showmax. If you don’t have an account yet, sign up HERE.
Watch this space for updates in the Movies category on Running Wolf’s Rant.
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