Paramount+ is celebrating Peak Screaming during the month of October, and that means lots of horror-related programing. This is the Halloween season, after all, and that means it’s the perfect time of the year to enjoy the best horror movies that Paramount+ has to offer.
After narrowing down our choices, we went with a remake of a Stephen King movie, a film that is both a remake and a sequel, and one of the most impressive adaptations of a Japanese horror flick that we’ve ever seen. These are the three best horror movies on Paramount+ to watch this Halloween.
Scream (2022)
It would have been really helpful if Paramount had simply called this film Scream 5, instead of Scream. The rationale in favor of leaving the number out of this film’s title is that Scream is both a sequel and a remake. Or a requel, if you prefer.
A decade after the events of Scream 4, Tara Carpenter (Wednesday‘s Jenna Ortega) is brutally attacked by a new killer in a Ghostface mask. This forces Tara’s older sister, Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera), to come back to Woodsboro and face her own connection to the original Ghostface killer. But it isn’t long before the surviving characters from the previous films, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), and Dewey Riley (David Arquette), are also drawn into the new Ghostface killer’s murderous plans.
Watch Scream on Paramount+.
Pet Sematary (2019)
You may have heard that Paramount+ has recently premiered the original film Pet Sematary: Bloodlines, which serves as a prequel to the 2019 remake. Trust us when we say that you can (and should) avoid Bloodlines. Instead of that, you should watch the Pet Sematary remake. This movie is largely true to the spirit of Stephen King’s original story and the 1989 film, but it makes one key change and has a much more intimidating dead cat.
When the family cat, Church, is hit by a truck, Louis Creed (Jason Clarke) is led by his neighbor, Jud Crandall (John Lithgow), to a hidden burial ground that can bring back the dead. Unfortunately, no one comes back the same and Church returns to life as a feral beast. Despite this, when Louis’ daughter, Ellie (Jeté Laurence), is also killed by a truck, he can’t resist the temptation to bring her back.
Watch Pet Sematary on Paramount+.
The Ring (2002)
The early 2000s started a trend of American adaptations of Japanese horror movies. In this case, The Ring was based on Ringu, which came out in Japan four years earlier. Director Gore Verbinski proved to be up to the task as he delivered an absolutely unsettling monster in the form of a little girl: Samara Morgan (Daveigh Chase).
After freelance journalist Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) is asked to look into the mysterious deaths of several teens, she watches a videotape with disturbing imagery that is followed by a spooky phone call that warns that she has seven days to live. By the time that Rachel believes that the curse is real, her son, Aidan Keller (David Dorfman), has also watched the videotape. And if Rachel can’t figure out what Samara wants in time, then both she and her son will die at Samara’s hands.
Watch The Ring on Paramount+.
