Few genres are more associated with a holiday than horror movies are with Halloween. Spooky season is the perfect time to get spooked yourself by watching a great horror movie, but sometimes, you’re looking for something that has a little of that flair, but also sits in another genre.
We’ve pulled together a list of great action movies that you can check out this Halloween. These movies are all at least a little scary, but they also have the kind of pulse-pounding action that you would expect from any action movie worth watching.
We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix, the best movies on Hulu, the best movies on Amazon Prime Video, the best movies on Max, and the best movies on Disney+.
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)
A brilliant parody of a specific kind of horror movie, The Cabin in the Woods is surprising in part because it’s almost equal parts an action movie and a horror movie. The horror is loaded into the first half, as the film’s central characters find themselves hunted by a zombified family.
Eventually, though, the central characters come to understand that everything is not as it seems, and they decide to go on offense against the people who have orchestrated the attack that they’re facing. The move toward action and comedy has helped make the movie a staple of Halloween viewing for many.
You can watch The Cabin in the Woods on Peacock.
Aliens (1986)
The original Alien is a fairly straightforward horror movie with a sci-fi bent. Any action the movie contains is limited and fairly discrete. Aliens, by contrast, is a muscular action movie with some terrifying undertones.
Set decades after the first film, it follows Ellen Ripley as she is forced to accompany a military unit who has been assigned the unenviable task of accompanying a military unit to take on a bunch of aliens. When the unit discovers just how overmatched they are, they become determined to survive with their lives. Thanks to director James Cameron, Aliens is both the same and totally distinct from its predecessor.
Predator (1987)
John McTiernan’s jungle masterpiece, Predator, tells the story of a gang of macho soldiers who find themselves overmatched by an alien alpha-predator who has come to the planet for the simple purpose of hunting them.
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers, Predator is a movie about a bunch of military guys who think their strength will save them, and slowly discover how wrong they are. The movie is both terrifying and a little bit funny as these men meet their ends one by one, often in gruesome fashion. Sure, the good guys win in the end, but Predator is fun in part because of how many losses they suffer first.
You can watch Predator on
Don’t Breathe (2016)
A terrifying, messed up movie that’s all about a group of burglars who get in over their heads when they break into the house of a blind veteran, Don’t Breathe is solely about survival. There’s nothing supernatural at work here.
Instead, Don’t Breathe is about human depravity, and about the terrifying ways that a person can be terrorized by someone else. Above all else, though, Don’t Breathe is a movie with a remarkably simple premise that sees that premise through in a series of tense, heart-pounding sequences that culminate in exactly the right way.
You can watch Don’t Breathe on Amazon Prime Video.
I Am Legend (2007)
I Am Legend gives Will Smith the chance to be in an action movie that’s also pretty terrifying. The movie is set in a New York City that has been ravaged by a zombie apocalypse. Smith’s doctor is the only man still alive in the city, and he’s fallen into a routine with the help of his dog.
When that routine gets disrupted, though, and they find themselves being attacked by the hordes of zombies that still occupy the city but only come out at night, I Am Legend is at its very best. True, the movie’s ending is somewhat compromised, but you’ll be amazed by how riveting everything up through those final beats is.
You can watch I Am Legend on Amazon Prime Video.
