The spooky season is just around the corner, which means that horror fans are getting ready for their favorite scary movies of the Halloween season. Fortunately, there’s no shortage of streaming services available to scratch that holiday horror itch. From slasher movies to zombies to supernatural ghosts and everything in between, there’s a streaming service for just about every preference imaginable.
However, not all streaming services are created equal. Some require a monthly subscription fee, while others cost nothing, but can interrupt your viewing experience through advertisements, which could take a viewer out of their immersive horror movie experience.
Casual viewers of scary movies who only want their horror fix once a year will likely find what they need on platforms like HBOMax, Peacock, Netflix, and Paramount Plus, all of which offer more mainstream, blockbuster horror movies. However, more hardcore horror fans looking to ramp up their regular Halloween viewing experience will find services like Tubi, Screambox, Shudder, and Crackle more to their liking, given the range of movies and shows on those platforms. In the end, it’s all about personal preference.
Services with underground and lesser-known preferences
Tubic is a free streaming service that offers many classic slasher movies and B-movie horror movies. There are nearly 500 movies listed under the Horror Platforms section, including movies like Creature from the black lagoon, Axe, the blob, The hills have eyesand Frankenstein. Considering the number of offers on Tubi’s platform, it’s a great option to check out for the month of October. Not many mainstream titles are available, but there are plenty of lesser-known movies for viewers to discover and enjoy while getting their pre-season creeps. Plus, free is always a good option.
Crackle is another free streaming platform similar to Tubi. Like Tubi, Crackle is made for the Lover of B movies. The service offers some mainstream titles but is filled with more cult classics and niche movies like nosferatu and dead snow. The Horror section of the platform is made up of about half the amount of movies Tubi offers, but it isn’t lacking in content. Since it is free, it is worth checking out for any horror movie lover.
scream box is made for more hardcore horror fans and offers about 400 titles for a monthly subscription of $4.99, which seems like a steal considering what the platform offers. Since the service is strictly a horror streaming platform, the genres are divided into more specific subgenres, which is very helpful in figuring out the kind of movie a viewer wants to discover. Such sub-genres include Found Footage, Brutal & Disturbing, Backwater Butchers, Humorous Horror, and many more. Viewers are likely to find any style of horror movie they’re looking for with Screambox.
shudder is similar to Screambox in that it is strictly a streaming service for the horror genre. It is owned and operated by AMC and offers 500 movies for a monthly subscription fee of $5.99. The platform’s essential buffet of movies and TV shows, including some of Hudder’s originals, makes the monthly fee well worth it. The sub-genres on the service aren’t as nuanced as Screambox, but the content is there for anyone looking to dive into horror for the season.
Services with more mainstream preferences
HBOMax has a host of newer releases that are sure to satisfy a wider audience, including titles like malicious, It, Oldand the incantation. There are also well-known franchises available to stream such as: I know what you did last summer, underworldand the Final destination movies. The platform offers its plans starting at $9.99 per month with ads. If ads aren’t your thing, you’ll need to spend a little more money to enjoy everything the platform has available during the month of October without interruption.
Netflix offers a multitude of original content in the horror genre, including: Army of the Dead, day shift, fear streetand Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story. The standard monthly plan starts at $15.49, which allows HD streaming these days. It is certain one of the most expensive streaming services out there, but since it offers original content in a range of genres beyond horror, viewers are unlikely to seek Netflix specifically for its horror movies. If you already have a Netflix subscription, check out this season’s horror section.
Paramount Plus doesn’t immediately come to mind when looking for horror movies, but the platform surprisingly has quite a bit to offer, including the scream movies, A quiet place 1 and 2and the Paranormal Activity movies, just to name a few. A $4.99 monthly subscription is required for the service, which is on par with most other smaller streaming services. It offers relatively newer movies and even offers the public its theatrical releases earlier than any other platform, something the other services can’t necessarily provide.
Peacock offers the cheapest monthly plan with a current limited-time offer of $1.99 per month, but doesn’t have the same kind of content as other streaming services. The black phone is currently available, as well as other older movies like Village of the Damned and army of darkness, but it is certainly not a platform with a multitude of scary movies. However, the price makes it worth checking out this October.
Regardless of preference, there is sure to be a plethora of platforms available to everyone this Halloween season.