These couples’ trips from hell make the perfect Valentine’s Day watches if you and your boo love horror movies.
Valentine’s Day is a big holiday for travel, whether you’re booking a cute little staycation at the nearest nice hotel, a blowout vacation to a luxury resort, or a quick jaunt to a cabin in the woods. One of these days, I will get into those aesthetically pleasing getaway cabinswith floor-to-ceiling windows and an insane view of the snow-covered woods.
But even if you’re not the type to plan a huge baecation, you’ll still want a really lovely night with the person you love — think a chic meal at a top chef’s restaurant or a wine-drunk dinner party with your “couple friends.” This all sounds dreamy, right? Well, unfortunately, these are all the set-ups to some of the bloodiest, unnerving, and uncomfortable horror movies. Forget infidelity or hard feelings related to sex, careers, or children– the couples in these movies are thrust into situations that truly test the mettle of their relationship.
So, I present to you 13 horror movies to watch this Valentine’s Day if you’re in need of a getaway:
1. Companion (2025) – Prime Video
Doubling up this Valentine’s Day? When you’re on a joint date or couples trip, the goal is to have fun and maybe learn something about the other couple’s dynamic along the way.
The big reveal in Drew Hancock’sCompanion, however, is mind-blowing in the worst possible way. Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid star as a picture-perfect couple whose relationship isn’t at all what it seems.
2. Fresh (2022) – Hulu
Can your situationship turn into real romance? Can your young relationship make it to Valentine’s Day?
These are questions that plague you early in your romantic relationship, but the protagonist of Mimi Cave’s Fresh has so much more to worry about.
Several dates in, Steve (a lethal Sebastian Stan) invites Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) on a weekend getaway. Little does Noa realize that her potential boyfriend prefers human hearts to heart-shaped chocolates.
This film sufficiently grossed me out, but I’m also a Bones and All truther who believes that cannibalism is kind of the perfect metaphor for devotion.
3. The Invitation (2022) – Hulu
More so than Valentine’s Day, a wedding invite as a single person can bring up a lot of complicated feelings. If you didn’t find a plus one ahead of time, you’re kind of secretly hoping to get hooked up with someone when you arrive. But what if the person hitting on you is a vampire?
Directed by Jessica M. Thompson, The Invitation stars Nathalie Emmanuel as the American invited to the wedding of a long-lost family member, and co-stars Thomas Doherty as the reason why this wedding just got so much better and so much worse.
4. Bodies, Bodies, Bodies (2022) – HBO Max
Never has it been worse to be the annoying older boyfriend who tagged along on a trip for the girls and gays. Halina Reijn’sBodies, Bodies, Bodies tells the story of a group of frenemies trapped at a mansion during a hurricane. Born out of boredom, their mafia-style game takes a bloody, paranoid turn.
The film has a stacked ensemble cast including Pete Davidson, Lee Pace, Rachel Sennott, Myha’la, Amandla Stenberg, and Chase Sui Wonders, who just starred in the 2025 reboot of Jennifer Kaytin Robinson’s I Know What You Did Last Summer as Ava. That’s plenty of scream queen eyecandy to make your Valentine’s Day extra sweet.
5. The Strangers (2008) – Rental
Between Us and Bryan Bertino’sThe Strangers, I’ve decided that nothing good ever comes of visiting your childhood summer home.
Kristen (Liv Tyler) and James (Scott Speedman) are a couple in an awkward place during their stay at James ’ vacation home. They just attended a friend’s wedding, and Kristen curbed James’ proposal at the reception. The couple will need to get over their tensions quickly as mysterious strangers, who have nothing but bad intentions, target them at the vacation house. I just know there’s some kind of icebreaker — or roleplay? — with your partner here for Valentine’s Day.
6. The Menu (2022) – Rental
Movie snobs, art snobs, food snobs– all the same. Mark Mylod’sThe Menupokes fun at neurotic foodies. Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) drags his girlfriend (Anya Taylor-Joy) to an exclusive dinner curated by a celebrity chef (Ralph Fiennes) on the restaurateur’s private island.
This movie will make you think twice about which restaurant you book for Valentine’s Day dinner, because amid the antics of food critics and clout chasers, you quickly realize that something is very wrong.
Starring horror heavy hitters from Nosferatu, The VVitch, and the 28 Years Later franchise, The Menu is truly *chef’s kiss*.
7. Eden Lake(2008) – Streaming Free
Do teenagers scare the living shit out of you? They might after watching James Watkins’ Eden Lake.
The film follows Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and Steve (Michael Fassbender), a couple whose vacation at the aforementioned lake is interrupted by a gang of unhinged teenagers — a true Valentine’s Day nightmare. And as a surprise to no one who has watched Sinnersor 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, the teenager who leads the rowdy pack is played by Jack O’Connell.
8. Blink Twice(2024) – Prime Video
Cater waiter Frida (Naomi Ackie) has a meet-cute with tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum), which leads to an impromptu group trip to his private island.
Amid the glamour, Zoë Kravitz’sBlink Twice is a Cinderella story that slowly unravels — and reveals itself to be anything but romantic. It may even make you look sideways at your partner this Valentine’s Day.
9. Infinity Pool (2023) – Rental
Another entry into the “Rich People Are Weird” cinema canon, Infinity Pool follows couple James (Alexander Skarsgård) and Em (Cleopatra Coleman), whose lives are complicated by the other couple they meet on vacation at a luxury seaside resort.
When shit hits the fan, Infinity Pool shows a reality that isn’t unfamiliar. Anyone can get away with anything if they’ve got the coins to back it up. This movie is directed by a Cronenberg, though, so of course there’s an extra gooey, futuristic, and perverted twist — that’s perfect for a Valentine’s Day date night watch.
10. The Blackening (2022) – Netflix
A group of friends pull up to a cabin in the woods not on Valentine’s Day, but a different holiday: Juneteenth. After some snooping, the core group of friends find a racist supernatural game called The Blackening, not knowing that it already killed one of the couples in the group.
The board game is a death trap, sparing only those who can ace the pop culture questions and prove that they’re the Blackest.
Directed by Tim Story, this horror-comedy features an ensemble cast including co-writer Dewayne Perkins, Grace Byers, Jermaine Fowler (who just starred in Night Patrol), Melvin Gregg, X Mayo, Antoinette Robertson and Sinqua Walls.
11. The Invitation (2015) – Streaming Free
Surviving your first few Valentine’s Day weekends as a romantic couple? Light work. Try going to a dinner party with all your partner’s friends and their ex, at the site of their biggest life trauma.
This is the premise of The Invitation (2015) — directed by Karyn Kusama of Jennifer’s Body fame — and it’s a set-up that is already scary enough. The icing on the cake is this horror movie’s setting of Los Angeles, where nobody is beating the Hollyweird allegations.
12. Bone Lake (2024) – Netflix
You show up to the rental, and you realize the property was double-booked. What do you do? Which party should leave? Welcome to Mercedes Bryce Morgan’s Bone Lake, which presents a nightmare scenario for a Valentine’s Day getaway.
Just like with Barbarian, this is only the beginning of a messy situation. But unlike that film, this horror movie deals with four people booked for a two-person reservation — so there’s double the scares, double the blood, and double the WTF.
Real-life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco play lovers at odds, who try to bond by going on a hike. A trip into nature turns into an overnight cave stay, where things get absolutely sticky.
Take notes: With all of these horror movie couples, the money spent on food, alcohol, gas, and the Airbnb rental should have just gone to couples’ therapy.
As you lock in your Valentine’s Day plans, stay away from private islands, vacation homes or even your local lake… and just watch these movies instead.
