The Best Horror Movies On HBO’s Max
Last Updated: January 9, 2025
(HBO) Max is giving genre kids an array of titles to dig into this January. The streamer offers original shows like The Eastern Gate (Przesmyk) and Scars of Beauty (Beleza Fatal). The app is also adding both seasons of Shining Vale for people who never subscribed to Starz but have been dying to check out the Courteney Cox series. They are also adding The Front Room for people who waited for Brandy’s return to horror to hit a streamer. You can also continue digging into their collection of old Hollywood noir films when they add The Narrow Margin, Nocturne, and Red Light this January. So, there is some fun to be had with Max this winter. Which is why it was even more fun than usual to pick out five titles that deserve our undivided attention. I am really geeked about my selections and think some of you will be too!
Check out the five titles I cannot wait to watch this month.
A Different Man (dir. Aaron Schimberg)
An aspiring actor has a radical procedure to transform his appearance but soon learns that his new face comes with a price. Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, and Adam Pearson give some of my favorite performances of last year in this movie. So, I am excited this A24 thriller is hitting the streets so everyone can see it. If for no other reason than watching the social media joy as Pearson charms an even wider audience. A Different Man is really an excellent film for people with a slightly dark sense of humor. More importantly, the themes are evergreen and only get more valid as we all continue the lifelong journey to being kinder to ourselves. A Different Man will arrive on Max on January 17. I foresee many people watching it and then being as upset as I am that Pearson is not getting nominated for his work this award season.
Blue Velvet (dir. David Lynch)
The discovery of a severed human ear is just the beginning of a much bigger mystery for the young man investigating the crime. This stacked cast includes Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, and Dean Stockwell. I need to know how this ear leads to nightclub singers, psychopaths, and kidnapping because that has to be a fun story. I remember trying to watch this movie in my youth and not getting it. So, I need to revisit it as an adult and see if it is as great as everyone keeps telling me. Weirdly enough, I am looking forward to coming at it with an open mind and a better understanding of noir films. Who knows? Maybe Blue Velvet will end up being my favorite David Lynch project?
The Craft (dir. Andrew Fleming)
A new girl falls in with the wrong coven at her new high school. Who among us was not obsessed with The Craft as a child? Were you even alive in the 90s if you didn’t play Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board, then blame your siblings for your inability to levitate? Because I figured out early on that witchcraft was usually code for feminism, I ate this movie up and made it my personality. We all owe it to ourselves to watch Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, Rachel True, and Company remind us that the 90s occult media is unmatched. This probably explains why so many people in my generation are aspiring witches. Kids today do not know how good we had it. We also need to discuss how this was the other 1996 movie where Skeet Ulrich played a character terrorizing a group of friends.
It Follows (dir. David Robert Mitchell)
A young woman picks up a supernatural entity after a sexual encounter. No matter how often I type some version of this premise during my career, it will always chill me to the bone. The idea of picking up sexually transmitted evil breaks my brain. This is why It Follows is one of the movies that haunts me the most. The film is also scary, beautifully directed, and the first time many of us realized we needed Maika Monroe in the horror genre. Since this film, Monroe has gone on to do iconic movies like Watcher, Significant Other, and Longlegs. However, I always have one eye on this terrifying title because They Follow is coming for us sooner than we think. I want this darksided story fresh in my brain when I head to the theater to see what the next chapter holds.
The Other Side (dir. Daniel Posada)
A poet wakes up handcuffed to a stretcher and people accusing him of murdering his 82-year-old mother. The Other Side is based on a true story. This Max original tells the story of Carlos Framb, who fought Columbian courts and public opinion after helping his mother die on her own terms. The thought of being jailed for homicide after assisting a loved one with something so heavy upsets me to my core. This legal thriller might be the most emotional journey on the streamer this month. So, pack some tissues and a few comfort snacks, and be prepared to be angry. If you prefer to read the story in Framb’s own words, his book Del Otro Lado Del Jardín is for sale.
Everything coming to Max in January
A Different Man
The Addams Family 2 (2016)
Annabelle Comes Home (2019)
Annabelle: Creation (2017)
Black Butterfly (2017)
The Boondock Saints (1999)
Blue Velvet (1986)
The Cable Guy (1996)
The Conjuring 2 (2016)
The Craft (1996)
The Curse of La Llorona (2019)
Each Dawn I Die (1939)
The Eastern Gate (Przesmyk), Season 1 (Max Original, Poland)
The Front Room
Heaven Help Us (1985)
Holla (2006)
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Hot Tub Time Machine 2 (2015)
House at the End of the Street (2012)
It Follows (2015)
It: Chapter Two (2019)
Johnny Angel (1946)
The Leopard Man (1943)
Mad Max (1980)
Matilda (1986)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
Morgan (2016)
The Narrow Margin (1952)
Nocturne (1946)
Red Light (1949)
The Other Side (Del Otro Lado Del Jardín) (Max Original, Colombia)
The Purge: Election Year (2016)
Scars of Beauty (Beleza Fatal), Season 1 (Max Original, Brazil)
Shining Vale, Season 1
Shining Vale, Season 2
Stephen King’s It (1990)
Teen Wolf (1985)
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)
Warcraft (2016)
Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic (2008)
The Whistlers (2020)
The Wrong Man (1957)
Are you digging Max’s January lineup? Then let me know what title caught your eye at @misssharai
Categorized:Streaming Guides
