9 Best Movies About Occult That Will Send Chills Down Your Spine

Liputan6.com, Jakarta - The occult is full of dark secrets: rituals, curses, and forces that cannot be explained by science. For a long time, people have been both scared of and fascinated by these mysteries. It is no surprise that filmmakers have used these themes to tell some of the most frightening stories ever put on screen. Movies about occult take us to dark places where normal rules do not apply, and where one wrong step can mean the end of everything.

If you love horror and want to feel truly scared, you are in the right place. Here are nine of the best movies about the occult that will send shivers down your spine. 

Where to Watch: Philo, Shudder, Sundance Now, Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home, Kanopy, Plex

Let's start with A Dark Song, a quiet but deeply unsettling film directed by Liam Gavin. This movie tells the story of a woman who hires an occultist to help her perform a long and dangerous ritual inside a rented house. She wants to contact her dead son. The ritual takes months and demands total sacrifice. As the process goes on, the two struggle to trust each other, and something dark begins to grow inside the house.

Where to Watch: AMC+, Philo, Shudder, The Roku Channel, Fandango at Home Free, YouTube Free, Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Video, FlixFling, Apple TV Store 

A legendary piece of cinema history, Nosferatu is one of the oldest horror films ever made. Directed by F.W. Murnau, this silent German film follows a young man who travels to Transylvania to help a mysterious count buy a new home. The count, however, is no ordinary man. He is a vampire with a shadowy and evil power that soon follows the young man back home. If you enjoy this classic, you may also want to check out the 2024 modern adaptation directed by Robert Eggers.

Where to Watch: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home, Kanopy, Plex Player, Fawesome

Starring Edward Woodward and Christopher Lee, The Wicker Man tells the story of a police officer who travels to a remote Scottish island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. What he finds is a community that follows old pagan beliefs and performs strange rituals. The islanders seem friendly on the surface, but something is very wrong. The ending of this film is one of the most shocking in all of horror cinema.

Where to Watch: Netflix

In this Taiwanese found-footage horror film, we follow a mother who tries to protect her young daughter from a powerful curse. Years earlier, she broke a sacred religious rule while visiting a temple with her friends. Now, something terrible is following her family. Directed by Kevin Ko, the film is shot like a real home video, which makes it feel very personal and very real. It is one of the scariest found-footage movies in recent years.

Where to Watch: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home, Kanopy

Directed by Ari Aster, Midsommar follows a young American woman named Dani, played by Florence Pugh, who travels to Sweden with her boyfriend and his friends after a family tragedy. They are invited to a midsummer festival that happens only once every 90 years. The village is bright and beautiful, filled with flowers and singing. But the rituals that follow grow stranger and far more violent with each passing day.

Where to Watch: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV Stor

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Dakota Johnson and Tilda Swinton, Suspiria is a remake of the 1977 Italian horror classic. Set in 1970s Berlin, the film follows a young American dancer who joins a famous dance academy. Strange events begin happening around the school. Students go missing, bodies are found, and the teachers seem to be hiding a very dark secret connected to witchcraft and ancient rituals.

Where to Watch: Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Fandango At Home

Another great occult movie released in 2018, Hereditary comes from director Ari Aster in his feature debut. After the death of her secretive mother, Annie Graham begins to discover disturbing truths about her family's past. Starring Toni Collette in a powerful performance, the film slowly unravels into something truly horrifying. It is a story of a family being pulled toward a dark and unavoidable fate connected to a sinister cult.

Where to Watch: HBO Max, Amazon Video, Fandango At Home, Apple TV Store

Set in 1630s New England, The Witch follows a Puritan family who is cast out of their village and forced to live alone near a dark forest. Their baby disappears. Their crops fail. The family begins to turn on each other as fear and suspicion grow. Directed by Robert Eggers, much of the dialogue in this movie is based on real historical documents, making the world feel terrifyingly authentic.

Where to Watch: IndieFlix, Cultpix, Apple TV Store, Plex Player, Fawesome

Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Holy Mountain is unlike anything else on this list. A mysterious alchemist gathers nine powerful and corrupt people and leads them on a spiritual journey to reach a legendary mountain where immortal gods are said to live. The film is filled with strange occult symbols, surreal rituals, and bold visuals that challenge the viewer at every turn. It is strange, provocative, and deeply unforgettable.