12 Of The Scariest Movies On Netflix According To These Terrifying Wikipedia Synopses

Reading the Wikipedia synopsis of this 2021 film is a wild ride involving murders, a witch, the undead, a resurrection, and a possession. Intrigued yet? Based on the books by horror master R. L. Stine, Fear Street Part One: 1994 begins with a massacre in Shadyside, Ohio, aka the “Murder Capital.” When a group of teens visits during a vigil, Sam (Olivia Scott Welch) gets a vision of the Fier witch, who put a curse on the town.

A series of strange occurrences happen including accidents, deaths, and, oh, a swarm of undead murderers come to life. When the group finally realizes what Sam unwittingly did to anger the witch, they realize they’re all in grave danger. The next two movies in this trilogy, Fear Street Part Two: 1978and Fear Street Part Three: 1666, sound equally chilling. —Alyssa Lapid

This 2018 techno-thriller follows Alice (Madeline Brewer), a cam girl who does live broadcasts under the username Lola_Lola. In order to boost her rank on the site, one day Alice simulates her own suicide. But not long after, Alice tries to capitalize on her rank momentum by doing another stream, only to see that somehow Lola_Lola is already live. When she checks the stream, she’s shocked to discover her own doppelgänger has seemingly taken over her account.

As Alice tries to figure out who has stolen her online identity and how, she faces nothing but judgment, ridicule, and danger from those she seeks help from due to the stigma of her being a cam girl. And when she stumbles upon other streams taken over by doppelgängers, Alice sets out to do whatever it takes to unravel this mystery and reclaim her own identity. —Sadie Gennis

If you’re not yet tired of thinking about global viruses, the 2017 post-apocalyptic film Cargo should be next on your watchlist. After the world is infected by a virus that turns humans rabid within 48 hours, Andy (Martin Freeman) attempts to escape to a supposed refuge with his wife, Kay (Susie Porter), and Rosie, their baby. Things go south when Kay turns rabid and bites Andy.

As Andy’s infection worsens, he bumps into Thoomi (Simone Landers), who believes that the infected — including her father — can still be cured. As they attempt to hide from those hunting them, Andy encounters people who’ve let the pandemic strip their humanity, all while his grip on his own life loosens. —Alyssa Lapid

Wikipedia reveals something right off the bat about this Netflix original that should immediately raise excitement for any horror fans — it’s based on a novel by Stephen King.

The film follows married couple Jessie (Carla Gugino) and Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) as they head to an isolated lake house in Alabama and embark upon some kinky sex involving handcuffs and roleplaying. Jessie is definitely not as into Gerald’s sexy games as he is, and at one point asks him to stop, prompting an argument. Then, things get even worse when Gerald suddenly dies of a heart attack, leaving Jessie handcuffed to a bed in a deserted area with no means of escape.

The rest of the synopsis offers plenty of specifics about what happens to Jessie afterward — including encounters with a strange (and hungry) dog, terrifying hallucinations (or are they?), and flashbacks to childhood trauma. It’s a wild ride, even for Stephen King material. —Taylor Maple

If you haven’t seen this 2002 remake of the Japanese film Ring yet, reserve a night to watch The Ring, stat. According to Wikipedia, the problem is straightforward: Anyone who watches the cursed videotape dies after seven days. And yet… Rachel (Naomi Watts), who already knows this after a series of deaths, still plays the tape and even enlists the help of her ex-boyfriend Noah (Martin Henderson) to study it. As expected, she receives a haunting warning call. Seven days are all she has.

As Rachel scrambles to uncover the truth about the long-haired crawler, what she finds out is utterly disturbing. Warning: Nightmares are likely. —Alyssa Lapid

Creep, starring Mark Duplass, is a classic case of found footage horror. According to Wikipedia, Josef (Duplass) hires a videographer, Aaron (Patrick Brice), to come over to his house to film a movie. Josef tells Aaron that the project is a gift for his son, since Josef is dying of cancer and wants the child to have this video from his dad long after he’s gone. Sounds innocent enough, right? Not so much.

Josef’s sense of humor gets more and more worrisome as the film goes on, and it soon becomes clear that perhaps not everything Aaron’s been told about the reason he’s been hired is true. What starts as a seemingly innocent (if a little odd) assignment turns into a bona fide thriller, and the synopsis has all the deets. —Taylor Maple

After his sister is kidnapped and held for ransom by a cult in 1905, Thomas (Dan Stevens) travels to the isolated island the cult operates out of to save her. There, he learns that the cult believes the naturally barren island is only fertile due to the group’s practice of ritual blood sacrifices. And it turns out, that at least on this point, the cult isn’t wrong. The island’s deity actually appears to Thomas, and it’s revealed she’s being imprisoned by the cult’s leader Malcolm (Michael Sheen).

And if that seems like we’ve already given away the whole movie, you are sorely mistaken. Things only escalate from there, per its Wikipedia, leading to what sounds like some seriously wild and violent twists. —Sadie Gennis

Insidious combines two of the most classic and chilling horror elements: a spooky house and a creepy kid. According to Wiki, after a family moves into their new home, their son Dalton (Ty Simpkins) inexplicably falls into a coma. Afterward, they begin experiencing spooky and unexplained phenomena — including hearing voices on the baby monitor and the unconscious Dalton sleepwalking at night.

The parents eventually call in a team of paranormal investigators, who reveal the harrowing truth behind these events — which involve some pretty otherworldly revelations that we won’t spoil here. (Though Wiki is always here for you if you want to know what we’re talking about.) —Sadie Gennis

Hush is far more interesting — and gripping — than your typical home invasion horror. According to Wikipedia, Hush‘s main character, Maddie (Kate Siegel), is a deaf woman who is completely unaware when her neighbor frantically runs to her home and begins to beat on her door for help. It turns out that a masked killer has begun to terrorize the neighborhood, and when he figures out that Maddie can’t hear him approaching, he makes her his next target.

Thinking of Maddie as easy prey, the killer begins taunting her. Only, Maddie is far more resourceful and clever than he bargained for. She’s a total badass who manages to outsmart the killer on more than one occasion, and what follows is a super intense game of cat and mouse. —Taylor Maple

The Invitation takes a seemingly normal plot and turns it on its head. Per Wikipedia, protagonist Will (Logan Marshall-Green) and girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) attend a dinner party together at the home of Will’s ex-wife (Tammy Blanchard) and her new husband (Michiel Huisman). The history between Will and his ex becomes more and more clear to viewers as the movie goes on — and increasingly disturbing.

The dinner party also goes off the rails as one guest mysteriously fails to show up, the cell phone signal for the partygoers randomly disappears, and Will begins to uncover evidence that his ex and her husband are involved in some strange kind of cult. His paranoia only gets worse, and eventually is revealed to be completely justified. —Taylor Maple

“Loosely based on true events” is how many of the best horror Wikipedia pages begin, including the one for Verónica. Set in 1991, the 2017 film follows the 15-year-old Verónica (Sandra Escacena), who gathers her friends for a séance with a Ouija board on the same day of a solar eclipse. But when Verónica accidentally drips blood on the board at the moment of the eclipse, a dark connection is made that seemingly dooms this innocent teen.

Now subject to terrifying paranormal occurrences, Verónica goes to one of the school’s nuns, ominously dubbed Sister Death, who reveals that she has a dark spirit attached to her. As Verónica becomes increasingly desperate to protect her younger siblings from this demonic force, she realizes just how little control over the spirit — and herself — she actually has. —Sadie Gennis

The title may reference a light-hearted game of hypotheticals played among friends, but the reality of Would You Rather is much darker. As protagonist Iris (Brittany Snow) searches for a way to fund her brother’s cancer treatment, she meets a rich philanthropist who offers her a unique opportunity, according to the Wikipedia synopsis. If she attends his dinner party and wins his favorite parlor game, his charity will pay for her brother’s treatment.

The horrible twist comes when the nature of the game is revealed: In each round, all the night’s participants are forced to choose between painful and sometimes deadly actions to do to themselves or one another — including electric shocks, stabbings, and whippings. There’s no obvious escape from the game in sight, and it becomes a night of desperate and traumatic decisions. —Taylor Maple

Here’s another Stephen King-inspired banger to add to your watch list. The movie, unsurprisingly set in 1922, begins with farmer Wilf (Thomas Jane) convincing his son Henry (Dylan Schmid) to be an accomplice in his mother’s (Molly Parker) murder, all to prevent Arlette from moving away and selling their farm. The duo go through with the crime, slitting Arlette’s throat and dumping her body down the well, where rats feast on it.

Years later, Wilf and Henry remain haunted (literally and figuratively) by what they’ve done. Hordes of rats turn out to be Arlette’s chosen agents of justice on the mortal plane — which truly just sounds horrifying to watch — as her ghost refuses to rest until her twisted justice is served. —Sadie Gennis

Jane (Natthaweeranuch Thongmee) and her boyfriend, photographer Tun (Ananda Everingham), clearly never watched I Know What You Did Last Summer, since Wikipedia says the movie starts with them running over a woman and leaving her for dead. Afterward, Tun begins seeing mysterious faces in his photographs and having bad neck pains. Convinced Tun is being haunted by the ghost of the girl they hit, Jane investigates the mystery and discovers the hit-and-run victim was Natre, whom Tun had been in a secret relationship with in college.

The more Jane looks into Natre, the more she learns the insidious truths about Tun and his friends. While nothing that happens next is too shocking, based on the summary, it does sound like the film features some memorable horror imagery and intriguing ways of depicting the crushing — and sometimes fatal — weight of guilt. —Sadie Gennis

When four men set out on a hike in Sweden to honor their recently murdered friend, things immediately take a bad turn when one of them, Dom (Sam Troughton), injures his leg. As a result, they decide to veer off the path and cut through the woods to save some time and Dom some pain. (Mistake!) Once in the woods, they begin experiencing strange phenomena — like one waking up with puncture marks in his chest — while also being haunted by the memory of their friend’s death. The situation quickly escalates, though, when they realize they are being stalked by a sinister cult looking for some human sacrifices.

Based on the Wiki summary, it sounds like this friend group was already fracturing before this hiking trip, and these disintegrating relationships really get put through the wringer in this spine-chilling fight for survival. —Sadie Gennis