Halloween is creeping up fast, which means it’s officially time to turn off the lights, grab some popcorn and scare yourself silly.
And while, yes, you could stick on that slasher movie where a masked man goes around stabbing school kids for the hundredth time, Prime Video’s got a whole line-up of seriously chilling series that we suggest you check out instead.
From true-crime documentaries to haunted folklore, we can’t guarantee you’ll get much sleep this All Hallows’ Eve, but isn’t that pretty much the point?
The best part is, you can watch all of these entirely for free with a 30-day trial (it's £5.99 after that, or £8.99 if you want the full Prime membership); check out the link below to see how.
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1. Lore
An adaptation of Aaron Mahnke’s hit podcast about macabre history, this chilling series introduces a different mythical creature or location in each episode, before unfolding a mix of related disturbing stories that get darker the longer you watch. Adam Goldberg, Thor’s Colm Feore and The Amazing Spider-Man’s Campbell Scott all play key characters, with the series bringing to life a mix of classic podcast tales and scary new originals.
Season two’s second episode is especially unsettling, starting with the brutal tale of the “Bunny Man” killings in early-1900s Virginia before delving into the grim reality of America’s first asylums, but with 12 episodes across two seasons, there will be plenty to keep busy.
2. I Know What You Did Last Summer
If you spent your teenage Halloween years watching Reese Witherspoon, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prinze Jr et al trying to escape from a freaky murderous fisherman then the Prime Video adaptation of I Know What You Did Last Summer is the perfect nostalgic watch.
The eight-part slasher series follows a similar storyline as the film - after covering up a hit and run, a group of friends is stalked the following summer by a serial killer who picks them off one-by-one – but with a fresh new cast, plenty of twists and lots of modern-day chaos along the way, it’s a solid throwback that’s most certainly worth a watch.
3. American Horror Story
If there’s one show that’s earned its place in Halloween TV history, it’s American Horror Story. Another Ryan Murphy masterpiece, the anthology series reinvents itself every season, with the same core cast (think Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters and even Lady Gaga, to name a few) stepping into completely new, and often unrecognizable, roles.
Having tackled everything from haunted houses and demonic asylums to witch covens, freak shows and even the lost Roanoke colony, each season feels like a fresh, twisted world of its own, and with all nine available now, you’d better get ready to settle in for a very long binge.
4. Zero Zero Zero
While it might not technically be a horror, there’s one Prime Video miniseries so nail-biting that the undisputed ‘King of Horror’ Stephen King even once dubbed it 'bone-shaking and terrifying', which basically gives it honorary horror status.
Zero Zero Zero digs deep into the brutal, high-stakes world of the global cocaine trade, following one massive shipment of drugs as it travels from the producers in Mexico to buyers in Italy, with a powerful American shipping family, the Lynwood family, managing the deal in between.
Taking to X (formerly Twitter) in 2020, King said: "ZERO ZERO ZERO (Amazon): Hard to believe I will see anything this year that's better than this. Bone-shaking, chilling, terrifying, epic. Dane DeHaan and Andrea Riseborough are incandescent." Now that’s a pretty good endorsement.
5. Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein
If you’re after something genuinely chilling to watch this Halloween, forget all the overplayed scary movies like Scream and The Exorcist, because Psycho: The Lost Tapes of Ed Gein is real-life horror at its most terrifying. Off the back of Netflix’s Monsters: The Ed Gein Story, everyone’s been talking about the man who inspired Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but this docuseries shows you the actual monster behind the stories.
Across four episodes, it uses never-before-heard audio tapes, archive footage and expert insight to paint a disturbing picture of the killer who shocked 1950s America, with the fact that it all actually happened making it ten times worse. You’ll be triple-checking the locks before bed after this one.
How can I watch Prime Video?
You can stream all these horrors and more right now on Prime Video (there’s even a 30-day free trial for new members). Just don’t blame us if you end up sleeping with the lights on.
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Topics: Amazon Prime, American Horror Story, Horror, Film and TV, Halloween
Naomi Chadderton