Best Horror Anime to Watch This Halloween

Perfect Blue

Perfect Blue is the traditional psychological horror-thriller in anime form. The movie revolves around an idol-turned actress and it deals with a lot of important topics such as trauma and mental health. This movie is the closest thing to a live-action horror-thriller in anime form. Satoshi Kon managed to create one of the best anime movies of all time and it just so happened to also fall under horror genre.

From Satoshi Kon, this iconic psychological thriller has been hailed as one of the most important animated films of all time. A retired pop singer turned actress’ sense of reality is shaken when she is stalked by an obsessed fan.

-via Amazon Prime

You can watch Perfect Blue on Amazon Prime.
© Yoshikazu Takeuchi/Satoshi Kon/Perfect Blue Production Committee

The Garden of Sinners

Including The Garden of Sinners to this list required a bit of deliberation. This is a movie series by ufotable, set in the TYPE-MOON universe. As with all TYPE-MOON titles the timelines are all over the place and the watching order is a mess. But, don’t let that stop you and try to watch them in the release order, since the mystery kind of adds to it. The Garden of Sinners series has more of a philosophical/existential approach, but the stories themselves do have a horror feel to them, some parts more than others. It definitely is good Halloween material, and the amazing visuals make it a must watch in general.

After lying in a coma for two years, Shiki Ryougi awakens with amnesia. Inexplicably, she finds that she has also obtained the “Mystic Eyes of Death Perception” in which she can see the invisible lines of mortality that hold every living and non-living thing together. In this modern occult-action thriller, Shiki must tackle supernatural incidents while searching for her purpose for living.

-via Crunchyroll

You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
© KINOKO NASU / Kodansha, Aniplex, Notes, ufotable

Bonus: Horror Anime So Bad You Need to Watch It

I wanted to take a part of this list and dedicate it to the terrible horror anime, that are so bad that they are worth watching. This includes some slashers, and just titles that weren’t executed that well. Still, if you like those definitely give these titles a go.

Ao-Oni The Movie

This one had a lot of potential. A school club, isolated setting, mysterious murders and a monster on the loose. The ending will leave you absolutely baffled, as it’s a twist literally no one could have seen coming, especially when you consider that the rest of the movie is fairly typical for a horror. Overall, it was quite enjoyable and would make a fun watch, especially with friends.

On the outskirts of town stands an abandoned house where ghosts are rumored to appear. Hiroshi and his classmates Takuro, Takeshi, and Mika pay the house a visit, only to be attacked by a bizarre monster, the Blue Devil. Will Hiroshi and his friends succeed in answering riddles and escaping the house, or are they doomed to live hilarious lives forever with the Blue Devil in the haunted house?! The courage-testing life of these four friends begins with the Blue Devil who continues to entertain even after death.

-via Crunchyroll

You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
©noprops／Ao-Oni Production Committee

The Island of Giant Insects

Okay, this one. It was really terrible. First off – the insects, absolutely terryfing. The characters are super annoying, and there are copious amounts of fan service, but both the movie and the OVA (which are pretty much the same)were quite entertaining. The ending does hint at the possibility of a sequel but we will see.

Students from Hosho Academy High School were aboard a plane when it crash lands under mysterious circumstances. The heroine, Oribe Mutsumi and her classmates wash ashore on an island. The surviving passengers decide to wait for help to come, but the island turns out to be inhabited by giant insects!
Mutsumi wakes up on a beach and finds her classmate Matsuo Ayumi. They use their wits to procure food. Believing that help will come in three days, they decide to endure until then.

-via Crunchyroll

You can watch it on Crunchyroll.
©Yasutaka Fujimi/Redice (Akita Shoten)/Giant Insect Island Production Committee

Some Final Thoughts

Obviously, this isn’t a list of best horror anime ever, but simply a piece meant to give you ideas on how to spend your Halloween this year. Hopefully we get to see more horror anime in the upcoming years, since the manga/manhua/manhwa and webtoon scene certainly doesn’t lack it.