Nothing says Halloween like lining up a bunch of DVDs of your favorite horror movies (or getting a streaming service subscription, given the time) and letting them suck you deep into uncharted, terrifying worlds. And what better way to spend a weekend than watching the scares unfold over three wildly interconnected installments of the same franchise? From hair-raising monsters to zombie mayhem, these trilogies leave no stone unturned.
Hollywood and international cinema has managed to strike gold when it comes to creating franchises within the horror genre. But when a series manages to get that perfect balance of keeping the audience invested while crafting an intricate, innovative, and incredible narrative, it deserves much more recognition. These three-movie sets evolve across their own plots of slasher villains, ghostly apparitions, or otherworldly creations, and deliver different chapters.
If you’re looking for the perfect horror trilogy to tune into this Halloween weekend, you might want to check out this list.
10 Cube Trilogy (1997 – 2004)
Cube
R
- Release Date
- September 9, 1997
- Director
- Vincenzo Natali
- Cast
- Maurice Dean Wint , David Hewlett , Nicole de Boer , Nicky Guadagni , Andrew Miller , Julian Richings
- Main Genre
- Horror
Back in the '90s, the horror genre was brimming with both unconventional storylines and unique spins on clichéd tropes. The Cube trilogy centers around several strangers waking up imprisoned in deadly cube-shaped rooms with no memory of how they arrived. As they explore the shifting tesseract and its ghastly traps, they learn the insidious meaning behind each block.
The first movie was released in 1997 and its fairly positive reception quickly gave way to mind-bending sequels – Cube 2: Hypercube, which expanded the franchise’s cult indie roots even further, and Cube Zero, which was a prequel story that coincided with the first movie and added greater depth to it. Over eight years, this fascinating Canadian science fiction/horror trilogy has retained its charm and even earned a remake in 2021.
Available to stream on Tubi
9 The Conjuring Trilogy (2013 – 2021)
The Conjuring
R
- Release Date
- March 20, 2013
- Director
- James Wan
- Cast
- Vera Farmiga , Patrick Wilson , Lili Taylor , Ron Livingston , Shanley Caswell , Hayley McFarland
- Main Genre
- Horror
The Conjuring universe may be quite extensive today, but there are actually just three films in the main series. Ed and Lorraine Warren are the central characters who take on one of their most terrifying cases in The Conjuring. Little do they know, their well-meant attempt will alter the map of modern cinema.
Based (very loosely) on the real-life paranormal investigators’ chilling case files , the movies introduce us to families struck by strange horrors and the Warrens infamously conducting trials on the supernatural. The Conjuring 2 and The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It pushed the trilogy to new domains and stayed refreshingly scary in terms of exorcisms. Overall, the films’ uncanny suspense factors and the amount of jump scares are what make them so interesting to watch.
Available to stream on Max
8 The Evil Dead Trilogy (1981 – 1992)
The Evil Dead
R
- Release Date
- September 10, 1981
- Director
- Sam Raimi
- Cast
- Bruce Campbell , Ellen Sandweiss , Richard DeManincor , Betsy Baker , Theresa Tilly , Philip A. Gillis
- Main Genre
- Horror
Despite earning a remake and a number of continuations, the original Evil Dead trilogy still stands at the top when it comes to campfire scares and gruesome deaths that come out of nowhere. The films include The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, and Army of Darkness. The original centers around five friends who hang out in a remote cabin and decide to tinker with a book, the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, and a tape containing incantations. This unleashes evil spirits called deadites from the abyss.
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While the first two films are definitely classics, it's Army of Darkness that really dials up the zaniness and gives you a proper picture of over the top this premise can get. Bruce Campbell stars as Ash Williams in the films, and suffice it to say, the actor will forever be synonymous with surviving the undead. Overall, The Evil Dead trilogy created a bar of increasingly outlandish perils and stood the test of time itself.
Available to stream on AMC+
7 Fear Street Trilogy (2021)
Fear Street Part 1: 1994
R
A circle of teenage friends accidentally encounter the ancient evil responsible for a series of brutal murders that have plagued their town for over 300 years. Welcome to Shadyside.
- Release Date
- July 2, 2021
- Director
- Leigh Janiak
- Cast
- Maya Hawke , Charlene Amoia , David W. Thompson , Noah Bain Garret , Darrell Britt-Gibson , Ashley Zukerman
- Main Genre
- Horror
Long before Stranger Things blew up the nostalgia genre and claimed it for its own, R.L. Stine's Fear Street book series provided all the necessary chills to kids in the ‘90s. Finally, Leigh Janiak took the initiative to bring this saga to life on Netflix, and to say that these throwback slashers proved to be very successful is an understatement.
1994 follows teens dealing with the cursed history of Shadeside as nasty deaths lead to bodies piling up in the darkness. 1978 delves into summer camp murders associated with a creepy lore. And finally, 1666 traces the witch trials that provoked the doom of mankind. Each story is different from the other, although they do follow a single narrative thread, which allows the Fear Street anthology to seamlessly blend summer’s fun vibes with brutally R-rated scare scenes.
Available to stream on Netflix
6 Slumber Party Massacre Trilogy (1982 – 1990)
The Slumber Party Massacre
R
- Release Date
- November 12, 1982
- Director
- Amy Holden Jones
- Cast
- Michelle Michaels , Robin Stille , Michael Villella , Debra Deliso , Andree Honore , Jennifer Meyers
- Main Genre
- Comedy
Not all movies in a trilogy have to be necessarily linked with each other in terms of storytelling or characterization. Slumber Party Massacre makes use of this fact and gives us a sick and successful female-driven slasher. The first movie warned people of a killer, who wields a drill as his weapon and goes around murdering guileless teenagers, by inviting us to a female student’s high school slumber party. The second and third movie changed the narrative and brought in a new cast, but the killer with the drill remained a constant terror.
Feminist powerhouse Amy Holden Jones directs all three films and infuses them with campy laughs and bloody kills. Amid all the B-movie mayhem, the films also made sure to tip societal critiques and make sure to be a symbol of feminine strength by never portraying women in a negative or lustful light.
Available to stream on Fubo TV
5 The Omen Trilogy (1976 – 1981)
When a child is marked as the Antichrist, all hell breaks loose (quite literally) in this iconic 1970s trilogy. The Omen is directed by Richard Donner, and it centers on Damien Thorn, a child born of Satan and given to the Thorn families across generations. Apparently, Damien plays a mysterious role in apocalyptic prophecies and in the subsequent films, we see him as a 13-year-old and then as a fully grown man in his thirties.
The Omen, which was first released in 1976, did a masterful job with its gritty supernatural chills and ultimately set the stage for the expansive sequels that followed. Not many trilogies in Hollywood center around occult lore and biblical themes that push storytelling boundaries of their time. While there still is Omen IV: The Awakening, it’s more of a reboot and less of a continuation to the original trilogy.
Available to rent on Apple TV
4 Basket Case Trilogy (1982 – 1991)
Basket Case
R
- Release Date
- April 2, 1982
- Director
- Frank Henenlotter
- Cast
- Kevin Van Hentenryck , Terri Susan Smith , Beverly Bonner , Robert Vogel , Diana Browne , Lloyd Pace
- Main Genre
- Comedy
Director Frank Henenlotter’s Basket Case trilogy took indie cinema – horror genre, to be specific – by a storm in the 1980s with its bizarre plot and even bizarre execution. The first Basket Case introduces us to a young man named Duane Bradley and his peculiar obsession with carrying his conjoined twin Belial around in a wicker basket. Their aim is to find the doctors who separated them and give them the ghastly end they deserve, and in the process, Durane and Belial chart the sleazy underbelly of Manhattan and are pursued by several foes.
Henenlotter makes these misfits seem normal by satirizing what’s normal in the society. Across three installments, their twisted bonds become stronger, the practical effects scarier, and they even meet others outcasts.
Available to stream on Tubi
3 Alien Trilogy (1979 – 1992)
alien
R
- Release Date
- May 25, 1979
- Director
- Ridley Scott
- Cast
- Tom Skerritt , Sigourney Weaver , Veronica Cartwright , Harry Dean Stanton , John Hurt , Ian Holm
- Main Genre
- Horror
Ridley Scott’s science fiction/horror trilogy redefined both genres and gave millions of fans nightmarish visions by creating the Xenomorph. Set in an isolated atmosphere, inside the space tug Nostromo, Alien follows a crew intercepting signals from a planet and deciding to investigate it. But they’re unaware of the monster in their ship, waiting to pounce and attack them. Scorr flawlessly blends atmospheric scare in a setting where no one can really hear you scream. Plus, the creature design and action only made it popular enough to get sequels.
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James Cameron’s Aliens took the fear factor to an even higher scale. But Alien 3 took the most risk by transporting the saga to a penal colony planet and giving the female lead an alien embryo to carry. Each Alien film evolved its beast and allowed Ellen Ripley to shine through themes of isolation and war.
Available to stream on Hulu
2 Re-Animator Trilogy (1985 – 2003)
Re-Animator
NR
- Release Date
- October 18, 1985
- Director
- Stuart Gordon
- Cast
- Jeffrey Combs , Bruce Abbott , Barbara Crampton , David Gale , Robert Sampson , Gerry Black
- Main Genre
- Horror
Loosely based on the serialized short stories by H. P. Lovecraft, Re-Animator is a horror trilogy that came to gory life at the hands of Stuart Gordon and Brian Yuzna. The three films – Re-Animator, Bride of Re-Animator, and Beyond Re-Animator – center around medical student Herbert West and his weird experiments to reanimate the dead. Naturally, the playing-with leads to a midnight phenomenon, making the original 1985 film a go-to for fans every Halloween.
All the films use outrageous practical effects, jarring humor, and subtle touches of eroticism to subvert the tropes of horror set by other franchises. The second film still managed to dive further off the rails, but by 2003, when Beyond Re-Animator was released, the series had left its madcap energy behind – for better or worse.
Available to stream on AMC+
1 Night Of The Living Dead Trilogy (1968 – 1985)
Night of the Living Dead
NR
- Release Date
- October 4, 1968
- Director
- George A. Romero
- Cast
- Duane Jones , Judith O'Dea , Karl Hardman , Marilyn Eastman , Keith Wayne , Judith Ridley
- Main Genre
- Horror
Zombie movies are less scary and more fun. Director George A. Romero essentially invented the modern zombie horror genre with the 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. The plot of the movie goes something like this – when bodies mysteriously rise from their graves craving human flesh, seven strangers (including Ben and Barbra Cole) band together to survive the nightmare by barricading themselves in a remote farmhouse.
The inaugural film was shot on a shoestring budget with little lighting and a fidgety camera. But that simply heightened the film’s intensity because the viewers felt like they were right there. The sequels, Dawn of the Dead, and Day of the Dead, expanded the scope and even developed Romero's social satire on humanity. Presented together, the Living Dead films are still unmatched.
Available to stream on Max
