I know what you're thinking: Of all the things you need right now in life, another streaming service subscription is probably a long way down the list. But hold onto that thought.
The real mark of a good streaming platform, at least in my opinion, is the stuff you can't get anywhere else. The unique stuff. Obviously, the overall breadth of films and TV shows is important, too, but the exclusives and the originals are what really sets a service apart.
This is an area that Shudder — a platform that focusses on "horror, thriller, and supernatural" content — does well in. At the time of writing, its "Exclusive and Originals" movie category is around 180-strong, and it's growing all the time.
In the list below, from the eerie magical realism of Tigers Are Not Afraid to the terrifying Zoom-based jump-scares of Host, I've rounded up the best of them...
Speak No Evil
What's it about?
After befriending a family on vacation, a couple with a young daughter take up an invite to visit them at their home in the Netherlands. But shortly after they arrive, they realise something is badly wrong.
Why should you watch it?
Director Christian Tafdrup's dark thriller is a clever one that leaves a whole lot of clues foreshadowing that twisted ending. "Despite the ominous score, the film’s first act plays like a devilishly dark comedy," writes Mashable's Kristy Puchko in her review. "The faux pas might spark a crooked smile or even an awkward guffaw. But as the screw is turned, the tension rises. And like our hapless tourists, we are sucked into the terror and its terrible thrill. In the end, Speak No Evil is a dark journey well worth the cost of admission."
How to watch: Speak No Evil is streaming now on Shudder.
Spiral
What's it about?
In the mid-nighties, a gay couple and their teenage daughter move out of the city to start a new life in small-town America. But writer Malik (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) soon suspects that something may be seriously wrong with their new neighbours.
Why should you watch it?
If you're a fan of Get Out and that ominous, something-is-wrong-in-this-place-and-everyone-else-is-in-on-it vibe, then you're definitely going to enjoy this one from Colin Minihan and John Poliquin. Like Jordan Peele's 2017 masterpiece, Spiral mixes social commentary with very tense horror, as Malik flicks between violent flashbacks and strangers breaking into his new house to spray-paint slurs on the walls and bizarre symbols on the ceiling.
Minihan and Poliquin's script is snappy, the characters are realistic and sympathetic, and Kurtis David Harder's direction builds up the suspense like trapped water boiling in a pot.
How to watch: Spiral is streaming now on Shudder.
Tigers Are Not Afraid
What's it about?
After the death of her mother at the hands of a Mexican cartel boss, a young girl called Estrella (Paola Lara) is granted three wishes. When she joins up with a group of orphaned children in a similar situation, their shared goal becomes clear: revenge against the men who murdered their parents.
Why should you watch it?
Ever watched Pan's Labyrinth? If you're a fan of Guillermo del Toro's fantasy epic, you'll almost certainly love Issa López's 2017 fairytale. Haunting, terrifying, and deeply moving, the two films share a similar style: dark magical realism with hints of horror and coming-of-age.
Is this one going to make you jump as much as some other entries on the list? Probably not. But the seamless blend of fantasy and reality will keep you hooked, and the performances from Lara and the rest of the young cast may well have you fighting back tears.
How to watch: Tigers Are Not Afraid is streaming now on Shudder.
The Unheard
What's it about?
After undertaking an experimental procedure to restore her hearing, a young woman begins to experience auditory hallucinations that may be connected to her mother's disappearance.
Why should you watch it?
"As you might have guessed from that description, [Jeffrey A.] Brown's movie is a bit of a genre mish-mash," I wrote in my review for Mashable. "The setup sounds like a Black Mirror episode, the hallucinations and isolation are straight-up horror, and the disappearances blend it all together with a kind of mystery/crime/thriller element. It's a combination that could easily start tripping over itself, but somehow it keeps a steady, confident footing. Between Brown's perfectly unnerving direction, a tight script from Michael and Shawn Rasmussen and a well-acted story, The Unheard crackles through its two-hour runtime with scares and tension aplenty."
How to watch: The Unheard is streaming now on Shudder.
Monstrum
What's it about?
In 16th century Korea, retired warrior Yoon Gyeom (Kim Myung-min) is summoned to the kingdom of Joseon in order to investigate rumours of a beast terrorising the surrounding mountains. But when he returns to the city with his brother Sung Han (Kim In-kwon) and his daughter Myung (Lee Hyeri), he soon realises that the stories aren't all they seem.
Why should you watch it?
Directed by Heo Jong-ho, Monstrum combines the speedy sword-play of Lord of the Rings with the dog-eat-dog political infighting of Game of Thrones, throwing in a splash of creature-feature fantasy and a few intense martial arts sequences for good measure.
Humour also comes in the form of long-suffering sidekick Sung Han and the zero-nonsense attitude of Myung, giving us characters we genuinely root for when they get caught up between the realms of fantasy and human treachery.
How to watch: Monstrum is streaming now on Shudder.
Host
What's it about?
Set and filmed in the UK during the coronavirus pandemic, Host starts out with a premise most people will be all too familiar with: a bunch of friends stuck in their own houses, getting together for a drink over Zoom.
But when the group tries out a virtual seance and one of them doesn't take it seriously enough, things start to go wrong.
Why should you watch it?
There's a reason everyone's been talking about Host.
Aside from the film's juicy 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, director Rob Savage's idea (which all started with a scary viral tweet) is a brilliantly timely one: a horror film shot entirely over a video call, sort of like a Zoom version of The Blair Witch Project.
It's one of those premises that could have easily have turned out a bit naff, but in the hands of Savage and his co-writers Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd, not to mention the film's brilliant cast, the idea has absolutely flourished. Though the seance-gone-wrong set-up is well-worn horror territory, as Mashable's Alexis Nedd wrote, "Host is far from typical in its brilliance and unique execution." The script is realistic and well-paced, blending nervous humour with rising tension, and the jump scares — which Savage taught the actors how to set up themselves at home — are genuinely scream-inducing.
How to watch: Host is streaming now on Shudder.
Mandrake
What's it about?
A probation officer takes on the case of "Bloody" Mary Laidlaw (Derbhle Crotty), a woman just released from prison after 20 years for the murder of her husband, and who the locals believe to be a witch.
Why should you watch it?
"Without giving two much away, Mandrake is a film of two halves," I wrote in my review for Mashable. "There's the slow, winding tension of the opening act, and then the gory, locked-room suspense of the final chapter. This jump may divide people — if you've seen Ben Wheatley's Kill List, you'll understand — and personally I'd have preferred the film to spend a little longer building tension before the reveal.
"But no matter where you land on this, the overall story is still undeniably effective. Davison pulls us into a gloomy world of disappearances, dread, and dank woodlands where the shadowy landscape is its own monster, the mysteries are old, and the answers don't come easy."
How to watch: Mandrake is streaming now on Shudder.
Mayhem
What's it about?
After a rage-inducing virus infects a high-powered law firm, Derek (Steven Yeun) decides to get revenge on the bosses who unjustly fired him. With the help of spurned client Melanie (Samara Weaving), the two join forces to battle their way through the building.
Why should you watch it?
What if you had a free pass to fight back against the day-to-day injustices in your life without fear of consequences?
This is the Purge-style premise Mayhem starts off with, using a morality-eliminating virus to dial the violence levels – which are very bloody, but also quite silly – right the way up to 11. Directed by Joe Lynch and written by Matias Caruso, the result is a fun comedy-horror in the style of Shawn of the Dead, in which Yeun and Weaving (who are both excellent) slash, stab, and pepper spray their way through a large number of suited lawyers.
The film wears its anti-capitalist metaphor on its gory sleeve, but the journey is an entertainingly brutal one.
How to watch: Mayhem is streaming now on Shudder.
Boar
What's it about?
A small rural community in Australia is stalked by a giant, man-chomping boar.
Why should you watch it?
Sometimes you want to watch a multi-layered, beautifully shot tale with cutting edge writing and deep-rooted symbolism.
Other times you just want to watch people fighting a giant boar.
Chris Sun's Boar is — and I can't stress this enough — absolutely ridiculous, a slapstick creature-feature about a feral pig the size of an SUV stalking a small town of terrified Australians. But it's fun, dammit. The film doesn't take itself at all seriously, splicing silly dialogue with even sillier jump scares and special effects.
One of the main characters, Bernie (played by former WWE wrestler Nathan Jones) is basically the Australian Arnold Schwarzenegger, a 6'11' powerhouse who sings along to Vanilla Ice in one scene before going hand-to-tusk with the boar in another.
Will this film be for everyone? Definitely not. But if you're in the mood for a light-hearted monster movie with a bunch of entertaining characters, you could do a lot worse.
How to watch: Boar is streaming now on Shudder.
Skinamarink
What's it about?
Given how experimental Kyle Edward Ball's movie is, this one's sort of hard to summarise. But it's essentially about two siblings who can't find their dad and are trapped in a dark house by themselves with only a whispering voice for company.
Why should you watch it?
"It totally and entirely wants to terrify us," writes Jason Adams for Mashable in his explainer. "Skinamarink wants us to become children trapped in our beds again. It wants the very concept of the dark to be foreign, filled with questions and strangeness and terror. Forcing us back to when we were little and we didn't know more than what was right in front of us, when what lay beyond our hallway or, God forbid, our front door might as well be the edge of the flat earth, falling off into nothingness."
How to watch: Skinamarink is streaming now on Shudder.
Summer of '84
What's it about?
After growing suspicious that their neighbour may be a serial killer, four 15-year-old boys dedicate their summer to finding proof.
Why should you watch it?
Eighties nostalgia has been all the rage for a while now, and the trend doesn't appear to be stopping anytime soon. Directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell, Summer of '84 takes the retro, coming-of-age horror vibes of Stranger Things and IT and adds its own curtain-twitching spy twist that's reminiscent of Rear Window.
The film has all the elements you'd expect — constant teenage banter; a gripping central mystery; plenty of secret base-made plans and nighttime sneaking — and for the majority of the film it seems obvious where things are headed.
But without giving too much away, the last 15 minutes take a sharp turn — and the ending is not for the faint-hearted.
How to watch: Summer of '84 is streaming now on Shudder.
Yummy
What's it about?
While accompanying his girlfriend Alison (Maaike Neuville) to a very dodgy hospital in Eastern Europe, Michael (Bart Hollanders) accidentally frees, well, a zombie. Soon the entire building has turned into a bloody hellscape that Michael, Alison, and her mother Sylvia (Annick Christiaens) must do their best to escape.
Why should you watch it?
Yummy is a bit like Boar in that you have a pretty good idea of the type of film it's going to be going in, and you're not disappointed. Lars Damoiseax's zombie gore-fest is fun, silly, and incredibly over-the-top throughout (there's a scene involving fire and a man's nether regions, which probably tells you all you need to know about the film's tone).
If you're after genuine scares or well-crafted mystery you'll want to look elsewhere, but for zombie fans looking for a fun take on the genre, Yummy is well worth its 90-minute run-time.
How to watch: Yummy is streaming now on Shudder.
Shrew's Nest
What's it about?
Agoraphobic dress-maker Montse (Macarena Gómez) lives with her younger sister, La Niña (Nadia de Santiago), who she worries will leave her on her own now that she's turned 18.
So when their upstairs neighbour breaks his leg after falling down the stairs, Montse takes him in to look after him — and then won't let him go.
Why should you watch it?
From directors Juanfer Andrés and Esteban Roel, Shrew's Nest is one of those disturbing, downward spiral-type films that starts off with simmering tension before erupting into a full-blown nightmare.
On the surface, the carer-turned-kidnapper story has strong echoes of Misery, and Monste's starey-eyed unpredictability is indeed reminiscent of Annie Wilkes — but her character also goes deeper than that. Rather than just being an out-and-out sociopath, Montse's relationship with La Niña — and her traumatic backstory — is revealed bit by bit in the film, giving an insight into how and why a person like that might come to be.
How to watch: Shrew's Nest is streaming now on Shudder.
Topics Streaming
