Which Streaming Service Is Winning Halloween? Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+ And More, Ranked

Navigability: There is technically a dedicated hub for Disney+’s Halloween content, but you have to search for it. Here’s the all-inclusive hub.

What You’re Getting: There are basically two kinds of movies you want to watch on Halloween. You can watch family-friendly silliness or you can dive headfirst into the world of gore and guts. Obviously, Disney+ is last when it comes to genuinely spooky streaming services. But what’s surprising is that it isn’t that great when it comes to the fun side of this holiday.

What Disney+ offers is — as always — exclusivity. The streaming service is the only home of classics like Hocus Pocus, Halloweentown, The Haunted Mansion, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Owl House, and almost every “Treehouse of Horror” episode The Simpsons has aired. It also has Under Wraps, the 2021 remake of the Disney Channel Original Movie; the creepy but kid-friendly Star vs. the Forces of Evil and Gravity Falls (which are both on Hulu); and a couple of stellar Halloween-adjacent movies. You could make the case that Coco and Monsters, Inc. are seasonal enough, even though they’re about Día de Muertos and monster businessmen, respectively.

But that’s where the list ends. Disney+’s entire collection of good Halloween content is essentially seven movies, three short-lived Disney Channel shows, and 32 episodes of The Simpsons. And none of those shows or movies are actually scary.

Bottom Line: Disney’s exclusive classics don’t offer the variety of competitors like Hulu, putting them dead last.

Navigability: You have to dig, but there is a Halloween hub on Prime Video. Get ready for lots of Blumhouse.

What You’re Getting: There’s classic and predictable horror, movies that are filled with predictable jump scares and plot twists. And then there’s the world of high-brow cinematic horror. Craving a movie that will make you physically ill but will also question the extreme physical torture women undergo for our amusement? Then Prime Video is for you.

There are some truly twisted and worthwhile movies on Prime Video that aren’t anywhere else. For example, the streaming service is home to Midsommar, Suspiria, The Taking of Deborah Logan, The Lighthouse, Ju-On, Train to Busan, and We Need to Talk About Kevin. It even has a couple horror originals, including Them and I Know What You Did Last Summer the series.

But its library of creepy classic is pretty bare. Hellraiser and I Know What You Did Last Summer are good, but they can only last so long. Essentially, the streaming service is a good supplementary option when it comes to your Halloween frights. But if you’re relying on this as your No. 1 horror outlet, you will be disappointed.

Bottom Line: Prime Video has some subversive thrillers, but its library is too slim to be a real streamer of interest in the battle of the boos.

Navigability: Terrible. Unlike other streaming services on this list, Netflix does not have a well-advertised Halloween hub. Even worse, its searchable Halloween Favorites section doesn’t include some of the best horror movies hiding on Netflix, including Creep and Veronica.

What You’re Getting: When it comes to well known horror movies, Netflix’s once vast library looks bleak. Its best known non-Netflix options are Goosebumps, The Strangers, American Horror Story, Labyrinth, Jaws, and the Conjuring movies. Not great. Instead, where Netflix shines is through its original content.

There’s really no competition. Netflix has created more horror-inspired shows and movies than any other streaming service. There’s the Mike Flanagan universe of The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and Gerald’s Game. Then there are the genuine thrillers like You, Squid Game, Ratched, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and 1922. There’s even an entire section of humorous horror. That list includes Hubie Halloween, The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell, the Fear Street trilogy, The Babysitter movies, and Little Evil. That’s a ton of original Halloween content in a short amount of time. In fact, five of those projects were just released this year.

As impressive as this is, this is where you can see Netflix shooting itself in the foot. The streaming giant has trained its users to binge watch new content as soon as it’s released. As a result, there’s a really high chance viewers have recently seen most of these shows or movies. That’s not what you’re looking for on Halloween. You either want classics you can rewatch ad nauseam or you want something new. The streaming giant is hiding a few deeply spooky indie gems. Hush, It Comes at Night, Creep, Creep 2, and Veronica are all on the service, and they’re all excellent. But this October it feels as though Netflix has missed the mark.

Bottom Line: As we’ve covered before, Netflix released its creepiest new originals too early. There are certainly some frights hiding in its library, but they’re too hard to find.

Navigability: Out of all the streaming services, Hulu has one of the most easy-to-browse Halloween collections. It divides its titles by specific types of scares and even includes links to Halloween episodes. That’s the good news. The bad news is that you have to literally search for “Huluween” to find it. Not exactly intuitive.

What You’re Getting: Once upon a time, Hulu’s name was synonymous with Halloween. I mean, have you heard of Huluween? It just goes together. But this year, it seems that Hulu has abandoned frights for chuckles. While that’s certainly part of this holiday, it’s also why we can’t in good conscience call Hulu the head of all hallow’s eve.

There are some genuinely good horror movies on Hulu this October. The streaming service is the only one to have Signs, Parasite, and Let the Right One In. It’s also the only streamer to have American Horror Story: Double Feature and American Horror Stories. Those are nothing to laugh about, least of all Parasite. But that’s where its truly spooky exclusives end. Instead Hulu shines as a source of sitcom scares.

In fact, there’s an entire section of Hulu devoted to Halloween-themed episodes of TV. Want something family friendly? There are episodes of Bob’s Burgers, Black-ish, and Malcom in the Middle at your fingertips. What about the funniest seasonal episodes around? Say hello to a curated batch of episodes from Scrubs, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Cheers, and 30 Rock. There’s even a subsection devoted to Halloween episodes of animated comedies from King of the Hill to Rick and Morty. Also, Hulu is currently the lone home of What We Do in the Shadows, Over the Garden Wall, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, three cult projects that are a guaranteed good time, while also streaming Star vs. the Forces of Evil and Gravity Falls.

Bottom Line: If you want to laugh this Halloween, Hulu is your best bet. But this holiday is about fear, not frivolity. Sorry, Huluween. You are not in our top three.

Navigability: Paramount+’s Halloween hub is everything you want in a good seasonal collection. It’s easy to find, easy to navigate and points you to some gems you may otherwise miss. Boo-kini Bottom anyone? But as solid as it is, it’s not the best.

What You’re Getting: If we were to create a rubric for what a good Halloween streaming line-up should look like, Paramount + would be the example for a solid B. It has an excellent balance of new scares with certified classics as well as some lighter-hearted shows and movies the whole family can enjoy.

If you’re in the mood for older classics, there’s Night of the Living Dead, Child’s Play, Zodiac, and The Ring. Solid. The streaming service also has a respectable collection of scary movies you may have missed. Both A Quiet Place and A Quiet Place II are available to stream as are mother!, the gator drama Crawl, and CBS’ underrated Evil.

Rounding out this list is Paramount+’s collection of family-friendly content, which ranges from curated episodes of Cheers and Sabrina the Teenage Witch to almost every Nickelodeon Halloween special ever aired. Hello, iCarly pumpkin shenanigans. All of this is excellent. What’s holding Paramount+ back is that it has some steep competition.

Bottom Line: Paramount+ is strong, but it has some stronger competition. This second runner-up cannot be the King of Halloween.

Navigability: Peacock’s Halloween hub may be the best around. Unlike Disney+ and Hulu’s, it’s well advertised. And unlike Netflix’s, it seems to be both complete and vast. Excellent work.

What You’re Getting: We all laughed at Peacocktober. How could we not? That combination of letters is a confusing assault on the eyes. But as ridiculous that name is, Peacock is a serious contender this holiday season.

The big thing working in Peacock’s favor is its price tag, Right now you can watch a bunch of horror classics for free. That list includes every Friday the 13th movie (with the exception of Freddy vs. Jason), all eight Saw movies including Jigsaw but excluding Spiral, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Gremlins and Gremlins 2, The Sixth Sense, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, E.T., and Night of the Living Dead. There are even some more modern staples like It Follows; sitcom musts like Halloween episodes of The Office and Parks and Recreation; and some truly old-school hits. The Bride of Frankenstein, 1932’s The Mummy, and 1933’s The Invisible Man are all available to watch for free. And if you happen to have Peacock Premium, that selection gets even better. That upgrade gives you access to Dracula, the new Halloween movie, Halloween Kills, and every single Harry Potter movie. That’s a stacked list.

Peacock is so close to being king. But there’s one streaming service that has a slightly better mix of new releases and modern classics.

Bottom Line: Peacocktober is actually awesome and is our first runner-up for King of Halloween.

Navigability: You have to dig around on the homepage a bit, but HBO Max does offer a Halloween hub. And it’s a great one. There’s a breakdown of spooky episodes of TV shows, collections based on types of horror movies, and even a curated series of recommendation videos divided by Not Scary At All, Scary, and Very Scary titles. A+ all around.

What You’re Getting: Look, if you want to be scared this month there’s really only one option. You’re going to have to go with HBO Max.

At the moment the streaming service doesn’t have many horror originals. There’s Lovecraft Country, The Outsider, and True Blood. If you count in thrillers so chilly that they could be horror, the streaming service also has The Night Of, True Detective, and Sharp Objects. As great as all those series are, that’s not why you’re here. No, the reason why you type “Halloween” into the search bar of your favorite streaming service is because you want something familiar to scare you, dammit. That’s exactly where HBO Max excels.

In the mood for some genuine classics? Say hello to The Evil Dead, Gremlins, every A Nightmare on Elm Street movie ever made, all the Final Destinations, Poltergeist, both Conjuring movies, 28 Days Later as well as 28 Weeks Later, the Godzilla collection, King Kong, the Jurassic Park trilogy, and the whole Blade trilogy. Missed the hype train on a recent horror hit? It Chapters 1 and 2,  The Invisible Man, The Hunt, and Ouija: Origin of Evil are all waiting for you. There are even some more lighthearted thrillers in the mix. HBO Max is home to Corpse Bride, Freaky, Little Shop of Horrors, Wellington Paranormal, Warm Bodies, and Witches of Eastwick. But in all honesty? There’s one movie that makes this streaming service a no brainer. HBO Max is the only one to have The Shining. 

Bottom Line: HBO Max understood the assignment. Get ready for genre classics, underrated gems, and funny seasonal movies all in one place. Bow down to your new King of Halloween.