New Year’s is a time to party, but also a time to look forward to the fresh start ahead. Whichever type of New Year’s person you are, we’ve got some great horror movies you should check out for the holiday, and a few are even streaming completely for free.
So whether you want to party like there’s no tomorrow (which, for many of the characters in the movies below, there won’t be one), or if you prefer to look forward to what wonders (or terrors) might await you in the new year, check out these five horror movies you should stream on New Year’s.
We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
Antisocial (2013)
In a post-COVID world, pandemic films have suddenly become way more relevant and way more entertaining – maybe because we’ve all seen firsthand how real it can be? In Antisocial, a group of college kids decide to have a New Year’s gathering. But while at the party, they start getting the news that some kind of outbreak is spreading across the globe and causing people to become uncontrollably violent.
The madness soon spreads among the partygoers and it becomes an all-out death match. Antisocial definitely has lots of low-budget 2010s vibe, but it’s still tons of fun and is perfect for anyone who wants to celebrate New Year’s with a horror movie they probably haven’t seen yet.
Midnight Kiss (2019)
Part of Hulu’s Into the Dark collaboration with Blumhouse, Midnight Kiss sees a group of friends rent out a vacation home for New Year’s. There’s lots of partying and sex … but then a masked killer arrives and everything changes. There’s also a good mystery in Midnight Kiss about who this killer is and what exactly they want (and the reveal is pretty damn great).
The film stars Scott Evans (brother of Chris) and Smile 2‘s Lukas Gage, and despite being a made-for-Hulu exclusive, it’s actually a solid entry for fans of the slasher genre. If you want a modern example of a campy, ridiculous horror movie done right, this is it.
Terror Train (1980)
You want horror on New Year’s? Then check out the cult classic Terror Train. The film centers around a New Year’s frat party where everyone comes dressed in a costume. The party also takes place on a moving train, which creates a really unique and fun setting for a horror movie. But unknown to the partygoers, a bullied student decides to get revenge and the bodies start piling up.
Terror Train stars Jamie Lee Curtis during her post-Halloween Scream Queen era, and it was a modest hit upon its premiere. But it gained more fame throughout the years thanks to its fun premise. In 2022, Tubi even debuted its own subpar reboot of the film.
Watch Terror Train and its 2022 remake for free on Tubi.
New Year’s Evil (1980)
In New Year’s Evil (the name alone is fantastic), a killer calls into an L.A. radio station to let the DJ know that he’s going to kill women in every time zone at the strike of midnight on New Year’s. He then lets her know that she’ll be his final victim once he makes his way to the West Coast. As you’ll see when you watch the movie and get the finale’s big reveal, the underlying theme behind New Year’s Evil is all about toxic masculinity and male fragility.
Long before Men (2022) and the excellent remake of The Invisible Man (2020), New Year’s Evil was a (potentially accidental) feminist film that feels even more relevant now that society has started having conversations about gender and toxicity. Plus, its deeper plot helps keep the movie feeling interesting and engaging, proving that it’s more than some rando ’80s B-movie.
The Conjuring (2013)
New Year’s is all about having a fresh start and looking forward to what life will bring. If you want a good horror movie about a fresh start (that goes to hell), check out The Conjuring. In the movie, the Perron family moves into a Rhode Island farmhouse where they hope their family can grow and live a great life.
Unfortunately, the farmhouse is filled with malicious spirits – most notably Bathsheba, who killed herself in the house long ago. There’s actually tons of horror movies out there about people looking for fresh starts that go terribly wrong. If you’ve already seen The Conjuring, check out other flicks about fresh starts gone wrong like The Amityville Horror (1979), Sinister (2012), and The Hallow (2015).
