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Last Updated on October 8, 2026 by Stefanie Hutson

Darkness is coming earlier now, and the weather is cooling – which means it's a great time to curl up with something British and spooky. Below, we take a look at 30 excellent candidates for your next evening in. We've done our best to steer clear of gore and overt horror, opting instead of folk horror, creeping dread, and general spookiness (along with a few family-friendly selections, too).

Most of the films below are available with SOME subscription streaming service, but there are a handful that are only available for streaming rental/purchase at the moment.

Blithe Spirit – 2020 – A blocked playwright hires a questionable medium for research and accidentally summons the ghost of his first wife, who has no intention of leaving. This adaptation of Noël Coward's 1941 play is set in 1937 and stars Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey) as Charles Condomine, with Judi Dench as Madame Arcati, Isla Fisher and Leslie Mann as the living and dead wives, and Emilia Fox (Silent Witness), Julian Rhind-Tutt (Green Wing) and Aimee-Ffion Edwards (Detectorists) in support. Theatre director Edward Hall made it as his first film, with a screenplay by Nick Moorcroft, Meg Leonard and Piers Ashworth. It was filmed around Surrey and London, with the Art Deco house Joldwynds standing in for the Condomine home. Stream it HERE

The Banishing – 2020 – In the late 1930s a young vicar, his wife and their daughter move into a rectory with an ugly history, and the wife soon begins to see things in its mirrors. Jessica Brown Findlay (Downton Abbey) stars with John Heffernan (Dracula), Sean Harris (Southcliffe) and John Lynch (The Fall). Christopher Smith (Severance, Triangle) directed from a script by David Beton, Ray Bogdanovich and Dean Lines. The story is loosely inspired by Borley Rectory in Essex, which ghost hunter Harry Price made famous as “the most haunted house in England”, and Harris's character is a thinly veiled version of Price. Filming took place in Yorkshire, at Broughton Hall near Skipton and in the cellars of Salts Mill in Saltaire. Stream it HERE

The Little Stranger – 2018 – In 1948, a country doctor is called out to Hundreds Hall, a crumbling Warwickshire estate where a once-grand family is coming apart, and he becomes drawn into both the household and whatever is troubling it. Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina) plays Dr Faraday, with Ruth Wilson (Luther) as Caroline Ayres, Will Poulter (The Bear) as her war-scarred brother and Charlotte Rampling (Broadchurch) as their mother. Lenny Abrahamson (Room) directed from Lucinda Coxon's adaptation of Sarah Waters's Booker-shortlisted 2009 novel. It's an Irish-British-French co-production and as much a drama about class and the end of the gentry as it is a ghost story, with very little in the way of conventional scares. Stream it HERE

A Warning to the Curious – 1972 – An out-of-work clerk with a passion for archaeology arrives at a quiet seaside town to hunt for one of the three legendary buried crowns said to protect the East Anglian coast from invasion, and he finds the crown still has a guardian. Peter Vaughan (Porridge) stars as Paxton, with Clive Swift (Keeping Up Appearances) as Dr Black, a character carried over from the previous year's The Stalls of Barchester. Lawrence Gordon Clark adapted, produced and directed it for BBC1, where it went out on Christmas Eve 1972 as the second of the original A Ghost Story for Christmas films. The story is M.R. James's, set in a disguised Aldeburgh, but the filming was done in north Norfolk at Holkham Beach, Happisburgh and Wells-next-the-Sea. Stream it HERE

Altar (aka The Haunting of Radcliffe House) – 2015 – A restoration specialist moves her artist husband and two children into a derelict house on the Yorkshire Moors that she's been hired to return to its Victorian grandeur, and the work uncovers a sealed attic room and an occult mosaic on the floor. Olivia Williams (The Crown) and Matthew Modine (Stranger Things) play the couple, with Steve Oram (Sightseers) as the local builder. Nick Willing, who made the Alice and Tin Man miniseries, wrote and directed. The house's Victorian owner is said to have killed his wife there during a ritual, and the family begins to suspect they aren't alone. Channel 5 premiered it on 27 December 2014 under the title The Haunting of Radcliffe House, two months before its US release as Altar. Stream it HERE

Harry Price: Ghost Hunter – 2015 – Rafe Spall stars as real-life British ghost hunter Harry Price in this relatively tame ghost story. He’s approached on behalf of an MP whose wife’s behaviour leads him to believe their home is haunted. Price moves in to investigate, researching the home’s history and trying to get to the bottom of the problem. Fans of the recent series Ghosts may recognise the Goodwin home as “Button House” from the sitcom. Stream it HERE

The Haunted Hotel – 2021 – This film offers eight tales of ghostly encounters over a number of decades at a fading English hotel. Stream it HERE

The House That Dripped Blood – 1971 – This creepy classic anthology film includes stars Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Ingrid Pitt. It sees a Scotland Yard Inspector investigating a haunted mansion while trying to find a missing film star. As the history of the house unfolds, we get four stories of terror and mystery involving previous tenants. Stream it HERE

Crooked House – 2008 – Not to be confused with the Agatha Christie mystery of the same name (adapted most recently in 2017), this feature-length supernatural anthology was originally broadcast in three 30-minute episodes on BBC Four. Mark Gatiss (Sherlock, Doctor Who) wrote and starred. Each of the stories concern the ghostly secrets of the fictional Geap Manor, a demolished Tudor mansion. Stream it HERE

Boys from County Hell – 2021 – In the fictional small town of Six Mile Hill in Northern Ireland, a group of construction workers are making way for an unpopular bypass when then accidentally awaken an ancient Irish vampire known as Abhartach. The vampire comes from a real local legend. Stream it HERE

The Woman in Black – 2012 – Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) stars as Arthur Kipps, a widowed lawyer who’s been sent to a remote village to deal with the affairs of a recently deceased local eccentric. He soon realises the house is haunted. Stream it HERE

Ghost Stories – 2017 – Andy Nyman (Unforgotten) and Martin Freeman (Sherlock) star in this film about a skeptic who devotes his life to uncovering phony psychics and other supernatural con artists. It’s all going well until he encounters several cases he can’t explain, each of them with connections to his own life. Stream it HERE

The Turn of the Screw – 1999 – Based on the horror story by Henry James, this film follows a governess who looks after two children at a remote estate and becomes convinced the home is haunted. The 1999 adaptation features Colin Firth and Pam Ferris. Stream it HERE

Other adaptations:

1974
2009
Netflix adaptation: The Haunting of Bly Manor
2022 – This is not a direct adaptation of the work, but it follows a young woman taking part in a production of The Turn of the Screw

Nails – 2017 – This British-Irish co-production stars Shauna Macdonald (Spooks/MI-5) as a track coach left paralysed after a hit-and-run accident. When she wakes up in the hospital, she’s haunted by a ghost who enters her room at night. QI fans will recognise comedian Ross Noble in the role of Trevor. Stream it HERE

The Prestige – 2006 – This period thriller set in Edwardian London was written by Christopher Nolan and follows two rival magicians at the end of the 19th century. Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, and David Bowie all star. Stream it HERE

The Wicker Man – 1973 – This British horror classic has been referred to as “the Citizen Kane of horror movies”, and it focuses on a police sergeant sent to an isolated island to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. He’s horrified to find that locals claim no knowledge of the girl, and they’ve abandoned Christianity for Celtic pagan rituals. The movie was filmed around Scotland (including Plockton, which also served as the location for Hamish Macbeth), and it had a very small budget due to the production company’s precarious financial situation. Stream it HERE

The Lair of the White Worm – 1988 – This supernatural comedy includes Hugh Grant and Peter Capaldi among its cast members, and Roger Ebert called it “a respectable B-grade monster movie”. Scottish archaeology student Angus Flint unearths a snake skull tied to the legend of the d'Ampton worm, sparking a sinister chain of events involving Lady Sylvia, an immortal priestess to an ancient snake god. As Lady Sylvia’s true nature and terrifying powers are revealed, Angus and his allies must confront deadly serpentine forces that may have left a lasting mark on him. Stream it HERE

Amulet – 2020 – A homeless ex-soldier is offered a room in a rotting London house in exchange for helping a young woman care for her bedridden mother, and he comes to suspect that something inhuman lives on the top floor. Carla Juri (Blade Runner 2049) and Alec Secăreanu (Baptiste) lead, with Imelda Staunton (The Crown) as the nun who arranges the lodging. Amulet was written and directed by actress Romola Garai (The Hour) as her feature debut, and it premiered in the Midnight section at Sundance in January 2020. It's the most graphic film on this list, so it's one for adults only. Stream it HERE | Also available on Tubi

The Haunting of Margam Castle – 2020 – This delightfully bad film follows a group of American paranormal researchers who head to Wales to investigate reports of ghostly activity – only to find themselves fighting for their lives when they anger the spirits. Stream it HERE

The Awakening – 2012 – This supernatural drama stars Rebecca Hall (daughter of Sir Peter Hall) as a ghost hunter investigating the haunting of a Cumbria boys’ school shortly after WWI. Imelda Staunton (Flesh & Blood) and Dominic West (John Carter) also star. Stream it HERE

An American Werewolf in London – 1981 – This classic British-American horror-comedy includes Brits John Woodvine (The Crown) and Jenny Agutter (Call the Midwife) among the central cast members. It sees two American backpackers trekking across the moors of Yorkshire when they encounter a mysterious and vicious creature. Stream it HERE