The Best Serial Killer Movies on Shudder

What it's about: Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween Night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: Five friends visiting their grandfather's house in the country are hunted and terrorized by a chain-saw wielding killer and his family of grave-robbing cannibals.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, Prime Video & Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: After a 13-year imprisonment for the kidnap and murder of a 6 year old boy, beautiful Lee Guem-ja starts seeking revenge on the man that was really responsible for the boy's death. With the help of fellow inmates and reunited with her daughter, she gets closer and closer to her goal. But will her actions lead to the relief she seeks?

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix & Tubi TV) & stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Kanopy).

What it's about: Four interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: an everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer; a college virgin might have just met the one guy for her; a group of teenagers pull a mean prank; a bitter old recluse receives an uninvited guest.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Seven years after the death of his wife, company executive Aoyama is invited to sit in on auditions for an actress. Leafing through the resumés in advance, his eye is caught by Yamazaki Asami, a striking young woman with ballet training.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: A killer is released from prison and breaks into a remote home to kill a woman, her handicapped son and her pretty daughter.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Shudder) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: Henry likes to kill people, in different ways each time. Henry shares an apartment with Otis. When Otis' sister comes to stay, we see both sides of Henry: "the guy next door" and the serial killer.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: The sequel to House of 1000 Corpses – the Firefly family are ambushed at their isolated home by Sheriff Wydell and a squad of armed men guns blazing – yet only Otis and his sister, Baby, manage to escape the barrage of bullets unharmed. Hiding out in a backwater motel, the wanted siblings wait to rendezvous with their errant father, Captain Spaulding, killing whoever happens to stand in their way.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Tribeca Short List) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: The next great psycho horror slasher has given a documentary crew exclusive access to his life as he plans his reign of terror over the sleepy town of Glen Echo, all the while deconstructing the conventions and archetypes of the horror genre for them.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Shudder) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: Summer is usually a time for fun and games, but some teens get much more danger than they bargained for after beginning to suspect their neighbor is a serial murderer.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: What starts as a poignant medical documentary about Deborah Logan's descent into Alzheimer's disease and her daughter's struggles as caregiver degenerates into a maddening portrayal of dementia at its most frightening, as hair-raising events begin to plague the family and crew and an unspeakable malevolence threatens to tear the very fabric of sanity from them all.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Microsoft).

What it's about: A troubled woman living in an isolated community finds herself pulled between the control of her oppressive family and the allure of a secretive outsider suspected of a series of brutal murders.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).

What it's about: Desperate to repay his debt to his ex-wife, an ex-con plots a heist at his new employer's country home, unaware that a second criminal has also targeted the property, and rigged it with a series of deadly traps.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix, Tubi TV & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, ConTV, Shudder & 1 other) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: In the summer of 1979, gay porn producer Anne sets out to film her most ambitious film yet, but her actors are picked off, one by one, by a mysterious killer.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (HereTV, Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: A martial arts instructor working at a police academy gets imprisoned after killing a man by accident. But when a vicious killer starts targeting martial arts masters, the instructor offers to help the police in return for his freedom.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu & YouTube), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Hiyah & Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Prime Video & 3 others).

What it's about: A Nazi doctor who had a fetish for young boys feels guilt after torturing and murdering his latest victim, and throws himself off a roof. Some years later, the doctor, confined to an iron lung, accepts as his nurse a boy who secretly witnessed that killing.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV) & stream on a subscription service (Shudder).

What it's about: Rachel, a rookie cop, is about to begin her first night shift in a neglected police station in a Scottish, backwater town. The kind of place where the tide has gone out and stranded a motley bunch of the aimless, the forgotten, the bitter-and-twisted who all think that, really, they deserve to be somewhere else. They all think they're there by accident and that, with a little luck, life is going to get better. Wrong, on both counts. Six is about to arrive - and All Hell Will Break Loose!

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Shudder) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: A young policewoman slowly goes insane while tracking down an elusive serial rapist/killer through Italy when she herself becomes a victim of the brutal man's obsession.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu), stream on a subscription service (Mubi, Full Moon & Shudder), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Prime Video).

What it's about: Mr. Nomura is an eerily handsome, sharply dressed, sociopathic serial killer who preys on the women of Tokyo. In Jakarta, a world-weary journalist named Bayu finds himself unexpectedly falling into vigilantism after brutally killing two sadistic robbers. When each posts videos of their violent sprees online, the pair find one another on the Internet and begin a toxic and competitive duel. While Bayu clings to the hope that he can resume a normal life, Nomura continues to spill blood without remorse. Killing, advises Nomura, is something everyone ought to consider.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Hiyah & Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: The legend of that creepy masked-man, Michael Myers, comes to life once again in this fourth installment of the successful horror franchise. This time, it's Michael's niece, Jamie, who can't seem to escape her crazy uncle. With Michael on the loose, Jamie enlists the help of good old Dr. Loomis to stop the murderer. This time, though, there seems to be no end to Michael's madness.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Vudu).

What it's about: Three teenage thieves infiltrate a mansion dinner party, unaware that it is secretly being hosted by a serial killer cult for the social elite.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 8 services (iTunes, Google Play & 6 others).

What it's about: A frustrated Boston detective searches for the maniac responsible for mutilating a number of university coeds.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix & Tubi TV), stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: This slasher movie follows a relentless killer who is out to avenge the death of a young girl who died after being bullied and teased by four of her classmates. Now high-school students, the guilt-ridden kids have kept their involvement a secret, but when they start being murdered, one by one, it's clear that someone knows the truth. Also coping with the past are members of the dead girl's family, most notably her prom-queen sister, Kim Hammond (Jamie Lee Curtis).

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix, Tubi TV, Vudu & 1 other), stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: An 18-year-old high school girl is left at home by her parents and decides to have a slumber party. Meanwhile, a mass murderer with a propensity for power tools has escaped from prison, and eventually makes his way to the party where the guests begin dropping off one by one.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix & Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shout Factory TV & Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Four college pledges are forced to spend the night in a deserted old mansion where they get killed off one by one by the monstrous surviving members of a family massacre years earlier for trespassing on their living grounds.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: At a summer camp for youths, cocky pre-teen calls out the name of mass serial killer "Madman Marz". Suddenly, counselors are being maimed and slaughtered in various ways by the backwoodsman who has returned when his name was called.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, ConTV & Shudder) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: A young Vienna-based taxi driver of Turkish origin witnesses an extremely brutal murder. The perpetrator, a serial killer, makes eye contact with her; a deadly game of cat-and-mouse ensues.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: Serial killer is genetically mutated in car wreck on the way to his execution. After which, he becomes a murdering snowman hell-bent on revenge for the sheriff who caught him.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix, Tubi TV & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Shudder), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: A sprawling, psychedelic ensemble piece that follows several serial killers over the course of a single night.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi TV), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 7 services (iTunes, Google Play & 5 others).