Axes, knives, and chainsaws — oh my! Supernatural scares and monster movies are all well and good, but sometimes horror fans need something a bit more visceral. As in, something that might cause a bit of debate among your friends about how stomach-churning is too stomach-churning.
The films and shows below are oozing with blood, packed with severed limbs, and aren’t afraid to take a stab in the dark (or commit some totally casual ritual sacrifices). So if you’re looking for a bloody good time, check out these gory movies and series streaming on Netflix.
Writer-director James Cameron’s sequel flick is teeming with Facehuggers, Chestbursters, and skin-melting acid blood. This 1986 sci-fi horror classic follows Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) decades after the events of Alien (1979). Ripley, the sole survivor of an alien (aka Xenomorph) attack, has just woken up after cruising in an escape shuttle for 57 years. Luckily, she’s been found by a deep-space salvage team — but a new and deadly adventure awaits: She and a crew of Colonial Marines (played by Bill Paxton, Ricco Ross, and others) are sent to investigate a ravaged space colony that’s running rampant with Xenomorphs in all stages of life. And every single alien, no matter its size, wants to tear them apart.
This black comedy proves that everyone has their insecurities, but some will go to sacrificial extremes to get past them. Cole (Judah Lewis) is getting bullied at school and only has two friends: his neighbor, Melanie (Emily Alyn Lind), and his former babysitter, Bee (Samara Weaving). Curious about what his older friend gets up to after hours, Cole spies on Bee and her high school friends as they play spin the bottle. When Bee kisses and then stabs a boy in the group, Cole discovers that his seemingly kind friend is actually a zealous cult leader. Thus begins a bloody night that will test Cole’s ability to stand up for himself — and stay alive.
This erotic thriller kicks off with two people being hunted, naked, through the woods — and only gets more visceral from there. When Sage (Maddie Hasson) and Diego (Marco Pigossi) are accidentally booked into the same lavish lakeside country estate as another couple, Will (Alex Roe) and Cin (Andra Nechita), they all agree to try and make the best of the uncomfortable circumstances. But as the weekend progresses and the couples get to know each other, their planned romantic weekend takes a grisly turn. Is the local legend about a serial killer who used the nearby lake as a dumping ground real? Or is this nightmarish maze of sex and manipulation simply a coincidence?
This soft reboot of the iconically gory, Sam Raimi–created franchise is directed by Fede Álvarez (Don’t Breathe). And, yes, there is a chainsaw. When Mia (Jane Levy) invites a group of her closest confidants — including her estranged half-brother, David (Shiloh Fernandez) — to a remote cabin in the woods to help her get clean and sober, her friends are doubtful about her commitment. They soon discover a basement packed with rotting animal carcasses and a book bound in human skin. As Mia’s withdrawal symptoms worsen, the group begins to suspect that something foul is at play — and learn that a truly demonic force is lurking in the forest, begging to be unleashed.
If you wanna get weird with it, you could technically wax poetic about Hannibal being peak foodie inspiration. After all, the titular doctor’s culinary creations are to die for. This fan-favorite procedural thriller, created by Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies), is based on characters in Thomas Harris’s novels, and follows Will Graham (Hugh Dancy), a brilliant FBI special investigator whose penchant for understanding the inner workings of violent killers is taking its toll. So Will’s boss, Jack Crawford (Laurence Fishburne), pairs him with a psychiatrist: Dr. Hannibal Lecter (Mads Mikkelsen). While Dr. Lecter is a gifted physician, he’s also a serial killer — and, y’know, a cannibal. Hiding in plain sight has never been so delicious.
You know the nursery rhyme: “Lizzie Borden took an axe / And gave her mother forty whacks …” But this bloody series is decidedly not for nursery rhyme–aged kids. (Unless your kids are, like, really chill. No one’s judging here.) The fourth installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s hit anthology series centers on Lizzie Borden, the infamous New England woman who became the subject of the trial of the century when she was charged with the brutal axe murder of her father and stepmother in 1892. Ella Beatty portrays Lizzie in the eight-episode series, which stretches from Lizzie’s childhood in the mid-19th century up until the 1990s, when the Borden murders inspire another infamous killer.
When you’re ranking modern final girls, Samara Weaving’s Grace comes in hot — shotgun in hand, and clad in a blood-soaked wedding gown. (Talk about Halloween costume inspo.) In this horror-comedy directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Abigail), Grace has just married the youngest son (Mark O’Brien) of the wealthy, eccentric Le Domas clan, who made their money in board games. As the celebrations progress, the family members are instructed to draw cards in order to decide which game to play, and Grace picks the hide-and-seek card. Easy, right? Except the family is cursed, and it turns out whoever draws that card will be hunted and ritually sacrificed so the Le Domases can keep their riches. Happy hunting.
Reverse bear traps all around! A list of gory horrors isn’t complete without Saw. Created by modern fright maestros James Wan (The Conjuring) and Leigh Whannell (Insidious), the iconic franchise’s first, eponymous movie premiered in 2004 and spawned nine brutal follow-up flicks over almost 20 years. Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith reprise their roles as John Kramer and Amanda Young in this 10th installment. Set between the events of Saw and Saw II, Kramer travels to Mexico, where he’s been told he can receive an experimental treatment that might cure his terminal cancer. When the procedure doesn’t go as expected, Kramer enacts revenge the only way he knows how: by subjecting those responsible to one of his torturous games.
If you’ve already checked out creator Haley Z. Boston’s atmospheric series, you know all about the bloody, toe-tingling generational horrors that are coming your way. Rachel (Camila Morrone) and her fiancé, Nicky (Adam DiMarco), travel to Nicky’s family’s luxurious home for their intimate wedding celebration. But it’s bad vibes from the get-go: The locals behave strangely, Nicky’s relatives are creepily eccentric, and his mother (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and sister (Gus Birney) bulldoze the wedding plans to suit their selfish desires. Rachel’s growing unease comes to a head when she realizes that something in her own family’s mysterious past could spell impending doom, leading her to question how serious the consequences of marrying the wrong person might be.
This 2022 reboot of the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre sees Leatherface enter the influencer age. The film follows sisters Lila (Elsie Fisher) and Melody (Sarah Yarkin) as they return to rural Harlow, Texas, where Melody hopes to create a social media paradise. Melody’s business partner, Dante (Jacob Latimore), is a developer who buys up most of the town to gentrify it, which leads to clashes between the crew and the maintenance person hired to help. That’s when the bloodbath begins in this modern incarnation of the franchise. But one person in particular makes this film a standout: Sally Hardesty (Olwen Fouéré), Leatherface’s original lone survivor, who returns to finally put a bloody end to his violent spree.
