Spooky season is in full force, but you don’t have to tack on yet another subscription service fee to watch the best horror movies. Your library card is the ultimate pass to some of the most talked-about scares in recent cinema thanks to Kanopy, where you can stream critically acclaimed thrillers and terrifying indie hits without paying a dime … or watching any ads!
Kanopy’s library is stacked with over 30,000 movies, TV shows, and educational videos, and like the rest of the best streaming platforms, it’s constantly rotating its stock. This month, it added a dozen new horror movies, but only three are worth your time. That includes a surprisingly chilling turn from Hugh Grant in “Heretic,” Mia Goth proving why she’s quintessential scream queen yet again in “Maxxxine,” and a nightmarish odyssey from Bi Gan with “Resurrection.”
Want to know more before you commit your precious streaming time? I don’t blame you. Here’s everything you need to know about the best horror movies new on Kanopy to stream now, blessedly ad-free.
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‘Resurrection’ (2025)
Visionary director Bi Gan takes his deepest plunge yet into the realm of pure dreamscape with “Resurrection,” a sci-fi drama with enough nightmarish moments that I feel confident lumping it into the “horror” category. It’s a movie about movies, a genre-hopping odyssey in a world where humanity has given up the ability to dream in exchange for immortality. Between such a killer hook and its 91% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s definitely worth a spot on your watchlist this week.
In this strange world, Deliriants are outcasts who refuse to surrender their dreams and take refuge in movies to continue dreaming. An unnamed woman (Shu Qi) hunts down one such Deliriant (Jackson Yee) and tries to better understand him by replaying his past life in dreams. That kicks off a journey through a century of cinema, from silent film and film noir to a delirious vampire romance captured in one of Bi’s signature long takes.
Watch “Resurrection” on Kanopy now
‘Heretic’ (2024)
Not gonna lie, I expected “Heretic” to be a campy if middling horror thriller when I saw it in theaters, but it turned out to be one of the smartest horror movies I’d seen in years. While its wordy first half might turn off some impatient viewers, those who stick with it are in for a thrill ride that worms its way under your skin with a particularly mesmerizing turn from Hugh Grant as the sinister Mr. Reed.
While Grant’s played villains before, Mr. Reed has more in common with his cheeky rom-com roles, making him all the more unsettling. The movie opens with him welcoming two young Mormon missionaries, Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher of “Yellowjackets” fame) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East), into his home to learn more about their faith. The longer they stay, though, the more uneasy they feel, and when they try to leave, they realize they’re trapped in Reed’s puzzle box of a home where they’ll have to prove their faith to have any hope of leaving.
Watch “Heretic” on Kanopy now
‘Maxxxine’ (2024)
“Maxxxine” marks the conclusion of Ti West’s “X” trilogy, stitching up various plot threads from 2022’s “X” and “Pearl.” I recommend watching the first two, which are both streaming for free on Tubi, to get the full picture. While “Maxxxine” is the weakest of the three, it still delivers plenty of the director’s signature style, and Mia Goth once again throws herself into the lead role.
After the bloody ending of “X,” Maxine Minx (Goth) finally gets her big break when she lands a role in an upcoming horror movie. But just as her dreams of Hollywood stardom are coming true, a mysterious killer begins targeting young actresses on the streets of 1980s Los Angeles. With the body count rising, Maxine worries she could be next. As stylish as “MaXXXine” is, it falls short of the high bar “Pearl” set, but Goth is as mesmerizing as ever as the final girl.
Watch “Maxxxine” on Kanopy now
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