List Curated by GRACE DETWILER
The season of love is here and horrifying. Cleanse your palate of holiday cheer with the following offerings from the Shudder and Screambox streaming subscriptions, and the free platforms Crackle, Kanopy, Popcornflix, and Redbox. Check out our list below:
DARIO ARGENTO PANICO
Available on Shudder on February 2, 2024.
Starring Dario Argento, Asia Argento, Fiore Argento, Nicolas Winding Refn, Gaspar Noè, Guillermo Del Toro, Michel Savia, Lamberto Bava, Franco Ferrini
Written by Manlio Gomarasca, Davide Pulici, Simone Scafidi
Directed by Simone Scafidi
Genre & Synopsis: Horror Documentary. In the secluded ambiance of hotel rooms, Dario Argento crafted his greatest cinematic creations, seeking solace from the outside world to delve into his nightmares. Now, he finds himself in a hotel room to return to the very setting that ignited his creative fervor to conclude his latest script and participate in an intimate interview, all while being followed by a film crew documenting his life for a movie about his illustrious career.
HERE FOR BLOOD
Available on Screambox and digital on February 9, 2024.
Starring Shawn Roberts, Dee Snider, Maya Misaljevic, Joelle Farrow, Tara Spencer-Nairn, Michael Therriault
Written by James Roberts
Directed by Daniel Turres
Genre & Synopsis: Horror/Comedy. Struggling to make ends meet, a rowdy pro wrestler agrees to babysit a precocious 10-year-old girl. What starts off as a laid-back night of junk food and video games quickly spirals into bloody chaos as the secluded home is invaded by a cult of mask-wearing maniacs.
HISTORY OF EVIL
Available on Shudder on February 23, 2024.
Starring Paul Wesley, Jackie Cruz, Murphee Bloom, Rhonda Johnsson Dents
Written and Directed by Bo Mirhosseni
Genre & Synopsis: Horror. In the near future, war and corruption have plagued America and turned it into a theocratic police state. Against the oppression, ordinary citizens have formed a group called The Resistance. One such member, Alegre Dyer, breaks out of political prison and reunites with her husband Ron and daughter Daria. On the run from the militia, the family takes shelter in a remote safe house. But their journey is far from over, as the house’s dark past begins to eat away at Ron, and his earnest desire to keep his family safe is overtaken by something much more sinister.
Horror films available for free in February on no-fee streaming services:
CRACKLE
Blood Widow: Laurie and Hugh are a successful young couple who have just closed on a weekend home away from the city. When their friends explore the property, they have no idea that they disturbed an emotionally-broken killing machine: The Blood Widow.
Eat: A struggling actress deals with her stress and disappointment by biting her nails but when her bad habit turns into bloody self-mutilation, she turns to one doctor who may save her.
Lucky Stiff: A plump loser, after being left at the alter by his fiancee, is invited to Christmas dinner by a beautiful woman, but her family are cannibals who intend to have *him* as the main course.
Star Light: A teen’s life is turned upside down when he helps a world-famous pop star on the run to escape her violent pursuers.
The Hazing: Several college kids spend the night in a spooky mansion in an attempt to pledge fraternities and sororities. A deranged “professor” begins murdering them. They must figure why, and also if one or more of them are working with the killer.
Honeymoon: A newlywed couple’s idyllic country-lake honeymoon descends into chaos after Paul finds Bea wandering and disoriented in the middle of the night.
Rubber: A homicidal car tire, discovering it has destructive psionic power, sets its sights on a desert town once a mysterious woman becomes its obsession.
Tar: A mysterious creature rises from the depths of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles to wreak the city.
The Wolf House: Tells the story of Maria, a young woman who takes refuge in a house in southern Chile after escaping from a German colony.
The Long Dark Trail: After two impoverished teenage brothers manage to escape their abusive father, they embark on a treacherous and haunted journey in the hope of finding their estranged mother who has joined a sadistic cult, deep in the woods of Northwest Pennsylvania.
The Ghosts of Monday: The chilling story of a group of US film-makers who travel to Cyprus to film a documentary in the tragically famous Hotel Gula – a once popular resort where more than 100 people died in mysterious circumstances. What begins as just another day at the office will eventually turn into a terrifying journey into the unknown.
Discarnate: A neuroscientist’s obsession with a drug that expands the human mind inadvertently unleashes a deadly supernatural force on his team.
Blood Honey: Tortured by early trauma, Jenibel returns to her family’s remote hunting lodge after a decade away, only to find herself stuck in a life threatening nightmare. Unsure if her family is there to help or hurt her, she must decide before it’s too late who she can trust, if anyone at all.
KANOPY (Troma Collection – through your local library!)
The Toxic Avenger I, II, III & IV
Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead
Cannibal! The Musical
Frankenhooker
Class of Nuke ‘Em High
Tromeo and Juliet
The Wedding Party
Terror Firmer
POPCORNFLIX
A Crack In The Floor: A vacation of hiking and camping suddenly becomes a survivalist nightmare when a group of athletic young friends happen upon a deranged hermit’s cabin.
The Stepfather: After murdering his entire family, a man remarries a widow with a teenage daughter in another town and prepares to do it all over again.
Murder In The Woods: Soon after arriving to a mysterious cabin in the woods, a group of college friends discover the dark secret it holds, which forces them to fight for their lives.
A Feral World: A young boy in a post-apocalyptic world befriends a grieving mother who is tracking her missing daughter. Together they overcome many obstacles.
The Slumber Party Massacre: When Trish decides to invite her high school girls’ basketball teammates over for a slumber party, she has no idea the night is going to end with an unexpected guest- an escaped mental patient and his portable power drill -crashing the party in the cult classic.
An Accidental Zombie Named Ted: Ted knows he’s not a zombie. He just picked up a “skin thing” on his vacay in The Caribbean. But his hilariously kooky family is not convinced, especially after he brings home a hot vampire he met in group therapy.
The Crush: A journalist becomes the unwanted center of attention for a 14-year-old girl,who proceeds to sabotage his life after he refuses her sexual advances.
A Fantastic Fear of Everything: A crime novelist whose research on Victorian serial killers has turned him into a paranoid wreck must confront his worst fears when a film executive takes a sudden interest in his movie script.
The Caretaker: A young woman returns home to care for her sickly grandmother only to begin sleepwalking, envisioning spirits and uncovering dark secrets in her family’s past.
The Hike: A young soldier, Kate, returns from a tour in Afghanistan after witnessing her boyfriend’s tragic death in combat. With the comfort of her friends, including Torri, she takes the chance to get away on a camping trip to a picturesque, remote area of the British countryside. Wanting to escape their past, the girls begin their expedition into the woods for a peaceful break. As they near Sunset Point, they come across a strange and evasive group of locals who seem to be living off the land. As darkness falls, the girls will be forced to rely on each other and their newly formed friendships to find Charlie before it becomes the last hike of their lives.
They Reach: It’s 1979, and a 13-year-old science nerd stumbles upon a possessed tape player and accidentally unleashes a demonic entity. She recruits her two best friends to fight the beast before it devours more souls in the small town of Clarkston.
Vipers: A break-in at a medical research laboratory at a classified seaside location has freed a mass of genetically enhanced vipers. They don’t just bite. They eat. Reproducing at a rapid rate, they now outnumber the locals of a nearby remote island who have barricaded themselves in an increasingly vulnerable hotel. With help on its way – or not–, the lone survivors have one chance to stay alive: make it to the shore—and fast.
The Seventh Curse: This old-school Hong Kong fantasy adventure follows Dr. Yuen and Mr. Wisely, dueling in battle against evil sorcerers and bloodthirsty creatures to release the powerful “Blood Curse”.
REDBOX
Night Night: After waking up from a horrific car accident, April must find a way to work through her trauma and a will to survive a recovery from hell.
Megan: A hiker finds shelter in a mountain lodge inhabited by two strange women.
The Clearing: A father must battle his way through the zombie apocalypse to save his daughter.
Autumn Road: Twin brothers running a haunted house and an aspiring actress are all affected by the disappearance of a young girl.
They Don’t Cast Shadows: Lisa McGrath is a high school girl given a supernatural gift allowing her to see angels and demons. With the help of a mysterious boy, Lisa finds romance and danger as they fight alongside angels to rid her hometown of demons.
The Barn: A serial killer strikes Sugar Grove, Virginia. As the number of victims increases rapidly, Richmond’s TV channel KRCB sends to town her rising and ambitious journalist Melissa Crawford. Her investigation will lead her to meet a lonely farmer, Gil Perry, and his scary mute brother Earl. As the murders continue and the victims pile up, the journalist figures there is more to this situation than the serial killer: this town may be hiding a darker, long-kept secret.
The Horde: John Crenshaw has given up his life as leader of his Navy SEAL team to settle down and marry his girlfriend Selina. He accompanies Selina and her students on a weekend nature-photography expedition deep into the Oregon woods. What starts out as an educational and fun-filled weekend turns into horror as the group is besieged by an unspeakable evil – a horde of hideously disfigured, mutated humans with an insatiable taste for blood. As things go from bad to worse, Crenshaw becomes their only hope if they are going to get out alive.
The Sonata: A gifted musician inherits a mansion after her long lost father dies under mysterious circumstances. She discovers his last musical masterpiece riddled with cryptic symbols that unravels an evil secret.
Tethered: In the film set miles from civilization, a blind teenager and the hunter he befriends are tormented by a mysterious creature lurking in the woods.
Crone Wood: A young couple who just met decides to go camping after a wonderful first encounter, a decision they will soon regret.
Grave Encounters: A reality TV show crew film inside an abandoned mental hospital, where unexplained phenomena was reported. They quickly realize that the building is not only haunted, but it has no intention of ever letting them leave.
Alien Predator: A black ops reconnaissance team is sent to investigate the crash of an unidentified aircraft. When they arrive, they find strange markings and residue visible only in infrared. The team discovers that they are being hunted by an alien expedition to Earth.
The Attic: What horrors hide in the attic? A dream house turns into a nightmare in this supernatural horror story. Emma (Elizabeth Moss) is haunted by a sinister ghost in her new home, one that looks exactly like her – with an undead twist.
Find the above streamers at your device’s app store.
