This summer, you need to see good horror films, specifically the ones where bright sunshine, road trips and quiet homes become the backdrop for unimaginable terror.
Here is a list of the best Netflix horror to haunt your summer with. Some you may have seen, and some you definitely haven’t, but they are sure to remain etched in your memory once you watch.
Gerald’s Game (2017)
For a film that Hollywood had avoided for years because it was considered impossible to adapt, director Mike Flanagan and co-writer Jeff Howard delivered a remarkable achievement with Gerald’s Game. Based on Stephen King’s 1992 novel, the film follows Jessie Burlingame, played by Carla Gugino, who joins her husband Gerald for what is meant to be a romantic weekend at an isolated lake house.
Everything changes when Gerald suddenly dies of a heart attack, leaving Jessie handcuffed to the bed with no means of escape, no one nearby to hear her cries and only a stray dog slowly circling the house with unsettling curiosity.
What unfolds is both a survival story and a psychological battle. As the hours stretch on, Jessie’s present becomes increasingly entangled with long-buried childhood trauma, while strange figures begin appearing in the corners of the room. Whether these visions are the product of a deteriorating mind or something far more sinister is a question the film deliberately refuses to answer.
The bright summer landscape surrounding the lake house, with its blazing sunlight and peaceful wilderness, only heightens the horror. Instead of becoming a place of romance and escape, nature becomes another silent witness to Jessie’s isolation.
Incantation (2022)
Tsai Hsuan-yen stars as Ronan, a woman who unknowingly unleashed a terrible curse after violating a sacred religious taboo during a visit to an isolated cult commune. Years later, she is desperately trying to save her young daughter, Dom, from the consequences of that mistake.
The story unfolds through a fragmented narrative that moves between the terrifying events of the past and a present already collapsing under the weight of the curse. Throughout the film, Ronan repeatedly speaks directly to the audience, asking viewers to repeat a mysterious incantation to help protect her daughter. By the time its true purpose becomes clear, the audience has already become part of the ritual.
As Taiwan’s highest-grossing film of 2022, Incantation combines found footage, non-linear storytelling and audience participation into an experience that feels disturbingly immersive. Rather than simply watching someone make terrible decisions, viewers become unwilling participants in an unfolding folk horror ritual.
Veronica (2017)
Inspired by one of the most documented supernatural cases in Spanish police history, Veronica begins with a real-life story. In 1991 Madrid, a teenage girl died under mysterious circumstances, prompting police officers to file reports describing strange events they claimed to witness inside her family home. Director Paco Plaza, transforms that story into one of modern horror’s most unsettling films.
Veronica, played by Sandra Escacena, uses a Ouija board during a solar eclipse with two friends at school to try to contact the deceased boyfriend of one of them. Whatever comes through is not him. She returns home to her three younger siblings and what follows quietly dismantles the life around her before revealing itself in full.
Unlike many supernatural films that patiently build toward their scares, Veronica refuses to signal when terror is coming. The evil is already inside the house before the audience fully understands what is happening, making each revelation feel increasingly overwhelming.
Don’t Breathe (2016)
Director Fede Alvarez reunited with writer Rodo Sayagues, alongside producers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, to create one of the most effective suspense thrillers of the last decade.
The story follows three young thieves who break into the home of a blind Gulf War veteran living alone in a nearly abandoned Detroit neighbourhood. Expecting an easy robbery and a large cash payout, they instead discover they have entered the territory of someone far more dangerous than themselves.
Stephen Lang delivers a terrifying performance as the blind homeowner, whose ability to navigate entirely through sound transforms every tiny noise into a possible death sentence.
Although the film contains no supernatural forces, the blind man’s precise movements through the dark make him seem almost ghost-like. Don’t Breathe remains one of the genre’s most nerve-racking experiences.
Fear Street Part One: 1994 (2021)
Few horror films embrace the feeling of a nostalgic summer quite like Fear Street Part One: 1994. Imagine if Stranger Things borrowed influences from decades of classic slasher cinema and refused to hold back on the violence.
Set in the cursed town of Shadyside, the story follows a group of teenagers who uncover the centuries-old history behind generations of brutal mass killings. After accidentally disturbing the remains of a long-dead witch, they become the newest targets in an endless cycle of supernatural violence.
The film fully embraces its 1990s setting with vibrant colours, familiar pop culture influences and a youthful cast, while its R-rating makes clear that this is no nostalgic family adventure.
Instead of relying on one iconic masked killer, Fear Street introduces multiple relentless murderers whose attacks are fast, inventive and brutally effective. At the same time, the film gives enough attention to its teenage characters that the emotional stakes matter alongside the bloodshed.
It also serves as the perfect introduction to a trilogy that grows darker and more ambitious with each installment.
His House (2020)
Remi Weekes’ debut feature stands apart from traditional haunted-house stories by grounding its horror in real human suffering.
Bol and Rial are South Sudanese refugees who survive a deadly journey to England before being placed in a deteriorating council house while awaiting a decision on their asylum application. They desperately want to build a new life, but the horrors they escaped refuse to remain behind.
The house itself becomes an extension of their psychological wounds. Strange spirits and disturbing rituals rooted in South Sudanese folklore begin invading their fragile new existence, forcing them to confront both supernatural forces and memories they desperately want to forget.
The peeling walls, cramped rooms and decaying surroundings reflect the emotional devastation carried by its central characters. Rather than separating horror from reality, His House makes the supernatural inseparable from grief, and trauma, resulting in a haunting experience that feels personal.
Bring Her Back (2025)
Following the success of Talk to Me, Australian twin filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou returned with the darker and even more disturbing Bring Her Back. After the death of their father, 17-year-old Andy and his visually impaired step-sister Piper are placed in the care of Laura, a former counsellor who also fosters a mute boy named Oliver.
At first, Laura appears caring, if somewhat eccentric. However, Andy begins noticing increasingly disturbing rituals taking place throughout the secluded home. The film slowly reveals that Laura is preparing for a horrifying occult act, allowing dread to build through patient storytelling rather than constant shocks.
Sally Hawkins anchors the film with a deeply unsettling performance that transforms maternal affection into something profoundly disturbing, while the Philippou brothers refuse to look away from the emotional devastation their story creates.
The Invisible Man (2020)
Leigh Whannell reinvented H.G. Wells’ classic science-fiction concept by shifting the focus away from the invisible figure and onto the woman trying to survive him.
Elisabeth Moss stars as Cecilia Kass, who escapes her abusive partner Adrian Griffin, a wealthy technology entrepreneur. When news breaks that Adrian has died by suicide, Cecilia believes her nightmare has finally ended.
Instead, impossible events begin occurring around her. Objects move on their own, and rather than relying solely on invisible attacks, the film builds horror through psychological manipulation and emotional abuse.
Empty rooms, open doorways and vacant spaces become sources of unbearable tension because viewers are never certain whether someone is already standing there. When violence finally erupts, it is swift, brutal and unforgettable.
Cloverfield (2008)
Produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by Matt Reeves from Drew Goddard’s screenplay, Cloverfield arrived in 2008. The film is an enormous monster movie told entirely from the perspective of a handheld video camera belonging to a group of friends at a going-away party on the night Manhattan is attacked.
The monster of the film was designed under the concept of a newborn creature. It tears through the city out of confusion and terror while the group attempts to navigate the collapsing streets to reach a friend trapped in a building on the other side of town.
Although it is filled with it, the film’s real horror is not the scale of mass destruction. It is built on the absolute helplessness of watching it all through a single, failing camera held by people who have no framework for what is happening to them.
The footage, the film tells you, was recovered by the US Department of Defense from an area formerly known as Central Park. That single sentence at the start does more to set the dread than most horror films manage in ninety minutes.
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