Editorials
Twenty 2023 Horror Releases You Can Stream Right Now
The Halloween season is almost here, which means a hectic Fall release schedule filled with horror looms just around the corner. Some of the year’s biggest horror releases are still ahead, including The Nun II, Saw X, The Exorcist: Believer, and Five Nights at Freddy’s.
Of course, they join countless movies already released these past eight months. As always, many titles might’ve slipped through the cracks, despite being available to stream now.
Whether you’re looking to get ahead on curating Halloween watchlists or catching up on 2023 horror before the year is through, here are twenty 2023 releases you can stream right now.
65 – Netflix
A high concept sci-fi effort from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the writers behind A Quiet Place and writers/directors of Haunt. Adam Driver and Ariana Greenblatt star as the unlucky pair that find themselves on a hostile planet filled with creatures and obstacles. Driver takes his role seriously in this straightforward, polished sci-fi adventure filled with dinosaur mayhem.
Cocaine Bear – Prime Video
Cocaine Bear, directed by Elizabeth Banks.
A title like Cocaine Bear speaks for itself. It sums up the premise, but perhaps more importantly, it suggests an outrageous tone with energy to match. While drawing from the 1985 true crime account that left cocaine scattered across the wilderness and both a bear and the drug smuggler responsible dead, Cocaine Bear finds highly entertaining ways to fill in those story gaps with glorious violence, humor, and an incisive depiction of humanity at its best and worst.
Enys Men – Hulu
In the spring of 1973, The Volunteer (Mary Woodvine) spends each day on an uninhabited island of the British coast adhering to a specific routine. However, as the April days approach May, The Volunteer’s monotony gets upended by strange visions that increase with haunting regularity. The old, familiar adage defining insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result feels at home in writer/director Mark Jenkin’s abstract folk horror feature.
Evil Dead Rise – Max
Writer/Director Lee Cronin transports the familiar franchise cabin setting to a Los Angeles high-rise apartment to plunge a family into Deadite hell. In Cronin’s attempts to forge new ground, the filmmaker always retains sight of what makes an Evil Dead movie, well, Evil Dead. The filmmaker pays tribute to the features that came before through iconic camera work, quotable lines, hero shots, beloved weaponry, and an admirable commitment to spilling the most blood possible. But it’s Alyssa Sutherland’s absolutely demented performance as the central Deadite foe that steals the movie.
Family Dinner – SCREAMBOX
Writer/Director Peter Hengl’s feature debut combines the discomfort and cringe of awkward family dynamics at the dinner table with Easter holiday folk horror. Fifteen-year-old Simi (Nina Katlein) arrives at her Aunt Claudia’s (Pia Hierzegger) house just before Easter, hoping to get her aunt’s help to lose weight. Aunt Claudia’s strict caloric restrictions become the least of Simi’s problems when Claudia’s family starts to behave strangely. Easter brings the slow-simmering folk horror to a roaring boil. Fraught psychological dread explodes in violence.
Ghastly Brothers – SCREAMBOX
It’s Ghostbusters meets Beetlejuice in this gateway horror comedy. In the SCREAMBOX exclusive, “Lilith is sent to boarding school where she meets the Ghastly brothers, a pair of strange ghost hunters. Together, they need to rid the school of the demons who have made it their home!” Come for the charming gateway horror fun, but stay for the horror references and nods, including a cameo from Cub director Jonas Govaerts.
Holy Shit! – SCREAMBOX
There’s something extra intense about claustrophobic, single location thrillers and this one will leave you shouting “Holy Shit!” Lukas Rinker’s bonkers black comedy sees an architect locked inside a portable toilet at a construction site that’s equipped to detonate. Expect things to get more than a little weird.
Huesera: The Bone Woman – AMC+, Shudder
When so many pregnancy horror movies isolate the mother-to-be, breeding mistrust from everyone around her, Huesera internalizes it. Refreshingly, it’s less about motherhood and more about the loss of self. Director Michelle Garza Cervera, who co-wrote with Abia Castillo, repurposes a Mexican folktale for a modern tale of maternal fears. Cervera uses the Huesera to create unsettling moments that build tangible dread and suspense. More prominent than the atmosphere, though, is how the haunting figure is employed to crack open main character Valeria’s (Natalia Soliá) psyche and expose repressed emotions and anxieties.
Infinity Pool – Hulu
Writer/Director Brandon Cronenberg returns to the deep well of surreal, grotesque sci-fi horror for his latest. It sees James Foster (Alexander Skarsgård) thrown into the deep end of depravity when fellow affluent tourists teach him a loophole to avoid punishment for crimes. It’s not just the shocking escalation or Cronenberg’s approach that keeps Infinity Pool so engaging and occasionally repulsive, but the committed performances by Skarsgård and co-star Mia Goth. The increasingly complex layers added to James and Gabi reveal there’s far more to Infinity Pool than simply the rich eating the rich. Cronenberg’s sense of style, an unrelenting sense of dread and tension, and two utterly captivating, depraved leads ensure these provocative waters are worth wading into.
Kids vs. Aliens – AMC+, Shudder
In Kids vs. Aliens, produced by Bloody Disgusting, Cinepocalypse, and Studio71, Gary (Dominic Mariche) wants to make wrestling home movies with his best buds. Gary’s annoyed that his older sister Samantha (Phoebe Rex) wants to skip their wrestling fun to hang with the cool kids. When the siblings’ parents head out of town on Halloween weekend, a teen house party turns to terror when aliens attack, forcing the siblings to band together to survive the night. Prepare to cheer, “F*ck space!”
Knock at the Cabin – Prime Video
M. Night Shyamalan’s Knock at the Cabin adapts author Paul Tremblay’s Cabin at the End of the World, a grim novel that asks the impossible of its characters with no painless solution. The deceptive simplicity of the source material gives way to existential, moral conundrums in the face of a potential apocalypse. Shyamalan gives his spin on the story, injecting recurring themes of faith and optimism. In other words, expect a vastly different outcome from the source material.
M3GAN – Prime Video
M3GAN reunited producer James Wan and screenwriter Akela Cooper, responsible for 2021’s highly entertaining Malignant, and put Housebound’s Gerard Johnstone at the helm. It resulted in a murderous killer doll with style and dance moves, ensuring the year kicked off with a meme-able horror comedy that had everyone talking.
Project Wolf Hunting – Hi-Yah!, SCREAMBOX
Don’t miss the splatterfest that plays like Con Air meets Jason Takes Manhattan and Predator. In the film, “During transport from the Philippines to South Korea, a group of dangerous criminals unites to stage a coordinated escape attempt. As the jailbreak escalates into a bloody, all-out riot, the fugitives and their allies from the outside exact a brutal terror campaign against the special agents onboard the ship.” Truly, it’s one of the year’s goriest films.
Renfield – Peacock
Director Chris McKay (The Tomorrow War) and writer Ryan Ridley (“Rick and Morty”) bring Universal classic characters Dracula (Nicolas Cage) and Renfield (Nicholas Hoult) into the modern world for a horror-comedy about a toxic relationship between a megalomaniac and his bug-eating servant. McKay unleashes the gore and laughs in spades in his tribute to these classic characters.
Scream VI – Paramount+
Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett (Scream, Ready or Not) continue their streak of hitting that perfect blend of suspenseful thrills and biting humor. Here the filmmakers up the ante, delivering inventive, edge-of-your-seat set pieces that showcase the urban setting and how savage Ghostface is this round. The kills are merciless and visceral, and the chase sequences are impressive and plentiful. It’s also surprising how this sequel engages with Scream 2 in plot and theme. Dense arcs and themes aside, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett ensure that you’ll never want for entertainment here; it’s a bloody feast for the slasher fan.
Sick – Peacock
It’s hard to believe that 2023 began with a Friday the 13th debut for this timely slasher, written by Kevin Williamson and Katelyn Crabb. John Hyams (Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, “Black Summer”) directed the pandemic-set story that sees two best friends fight for their lives when masked invaders crash their quarantine home. Look for callbacks to Williamson’s previous works and a breathless commitment to suspenseful chase sequences.
The Outwaters – Plex, Roku Channel, SCREAMBOX, Tubi
Despite a familiar initial setup, there’s nothing conventional about found footage nightmare The Outwaters. Nothing will prepare you for the disturbing journey writer/director Robbie Banfitch has in store, either. Banfitch mercilessly lulls viewers with a soothing intro before ripping open a dark abyss beneath them, flinging them into an immersive pit of visceral madness.
Unwelcome – AMC+, Shudder
Grabbers director Jon Wright’s latest blends modernism with Irish mythology. Described in a pitch as “Gremlins meets Straw Dogs,” Unwelcome introduces the far darrig, tiny bloodthirsty fae also dubbed redcaps for their signature red hats. While the early home invasion set up might polarize, the third act goes big on creature feature carnage.
We Have a Ghost – Netflix
We Have A Ghost. (L to R) David Harbour as Ernest, Anthony Mackie as Frank, Jahi Winston as Kevin in We Have A Ghost. Courtesy of Netflix © 2022.
Writer/Director Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day, Freaky) evokes the family-friendly Amblin movies of yesterday for his latest. Wearing its formative gateway horror influences on its sleeves, We Have a Ghost blends nostalgic family adventure-induced charm with Landon’s distinct ability to render authentic characters to an affecting degree. While it threatens to overstay its welcome, the tender adventure delivers ghostly charm, poignant family bonds, and humor that’ll appeal to new generations of budding genre fans.
We Might Hurt Each Other – SCREAMBOX
Lithuania’s first slasher pays tribute to the golden age of the subgenre while infusing an influence from Eastern European folklore. It follows a group of students that find trouble post-graduation when they destroy local folk art. A quick pace, excellent cinematography, surprise turns, and gruesome kills make for a welcome slasher entry.
Stephen King is an interesting follow on the site formerly known as Twitter. When not posting about politics or his latest literary find, he’s ranting about the state of the world and making observations that position him as a sort of elder statesman in the horror community. A recent tweet by the Master of Horror mentions a bygone era of salacious magazines that harkens back to his early career: “Hey, do you guys remember that supermarket tabloid that used to have stories about BatBoy? Man, I loved that shit.”
The world-famous author is likely referencing publications like The National Enquirer and similar periodicals that used to grab eyes in checkout lanes with claims of Elvis sightings and alien encounters. Frequently inspired by the world around him, King has his own literary brand of tabloid journalism with Inside View, a rag that has been appearing in his work for decades.
The Dead Zone
‘The Dead Zone’
Inside View began its life in one of King’s early classics, The Dead Zone (1979). This political thriller follows Johnny Smith, a teacher who awakens from a four-year coma with a disturbing ability to see into the past and future. When news of his powerful gift makes its way outside of the hospital, it peaks the interest of a sleazy periodical. Richard Dees, a journalist for Inside View approaches Johnny at his home with a lucrative offer to exploit this ability in a salacious column filled with parlor tricks and outsized predictions. Smith and his father summarily dismiss Dees and throw him off of their porch, valuing their privacy over a lifetime of lucrative infamy. But with this one interaction, an entity was born.
Inside View would become a fixture in King’s interconnected literary world and continue to appear in his novels and short stories for the next 45 years.
Danse Macabre
‘Freaks’
But to truly understand the genesis of this fascinating magazine, we need to go even further back in time. King has always been fascinated by oddities and opens his first non-fiction work, Danse Macabre, with memories of childhood nightmares. In the first chapter, “Tales of the Hook,” King tackles the concept of monstrosity by exploring fascination with carnival sideshows and the impact of Tod Browning’s disturbing 1932 film Freaks. While much of this section would be considered problematic by today’s standards, it was an uneven contribution to early conversations about disability and acceptance. King also seems fully aware of the salacious nature of this exploitation. In a treatise on horror, he’s examining the concept of otherness and our tendency to fixate on physical differences as a way of reifying the social hierarchy. He insists, “it is not the physical or mental aberration in itself which horrifies us, but rather the lack of order which these aberrations seem to imply.”
King credits The National Enquirer with sparking his own interest in monsters and even admits to being an occasional patron. In a footnote following a mention of the tabloid, he confesses, “I buy it if there’s a juicy UFO story or something about Bigfoot, but mostly I only scan it rapidly while in a slow supermarket checkout lane, looking for such endearing lapses of taste as the notorious autopsy photo of Lee Harvey Oswald or their photo of Elvis Presley in his coffin.” While King may cast slight judgment on the authors of these exploitative stories, he does not shame the readers themselves. He describes these stories with a mix of reverence, bemusement, and childish wonder. These grainy photos of alien autopsies, flesh-eating dogs, and grotesque physical anomalies once sparked his imagination and introduced a young horror fan to elements of the macabre that would inform his prolific writing career for decades to come.
Nightmares and Dreamscapes
While King’s work has always centered on the exploration of monsters, both fantastical and human, he dove head-first into this interest with his third short story collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes (1993). Akin to a curio shelf of horrific objects, this assortment of 23 unnerving tales features a number of dangerous oddities and unexpected monsters. Subjects range from a massive finger growing out of a toilet and a pair of murderous wind-up teeth, to bat people masquerading as powerful businessmen and killer frogs raining from the sky. His introduction – King’s beloved way of speaking directly to his Constant Readers – mentions freakish tales from paperback compilations of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, a publication he fondly remembers devouring in his youth.
Rather than factual evidence, it’s belief that seems to interest King most. In a subtle nod to the climax of his magnum opus It (1986), King muses on the power of believing in myths like poisonous gas at the center of tennis balls and the ability to sever a shadow by piercing it with a stake. Similar to urban legends that shape our interactions with the larger world, King notes the importance belief in these imaginative legends has had in his own life. “This made for more than a few sleepless nights, but it also filled the world I lived in with colors and textures I would not have traded for a lifetime of restful nights.” Rather than cast a baleful eye on journals that traffic in the sensational, King’s collection highlights the power of believing in the “unseen world all around us.” His introduction concludes with an invitation to suspend disbelief and venture into a world where anything is possible.
The Night Flier
‘The Night Flier’
Given this fantastical focus, it’s no surprise that Nightmares and Dreamscapes features King’s most overt exploration of Inside View. The collection’s fourth story “The Night Flier” follows Dees, now a veteran reporter, on the trail of a “vampire” traveling the country in a small private plane. It’s a grim story with a true crime feel and a fascinating approach to vampire lore. The titular pilot may wear the black cape made famous by Bela Lugosi, but he has a hideous face with two large, bore-like fangs that puncture the necks of his victims and cause their blood to spurt out like crimson guisers. Dwight Renfield is not an elegant killer, but a ripper-like psycho leaving grisly crime scenes and dismembered corpses in his wake – the perfect subject for Inside View.
Rather than focus solely on the monster himself, King spends just as much time exploring Dees’s own ethical code. Far from the ambitious hack that once knocked on Johnny Smith’s door, this Dees has been curating the publication’s scandalous content for decades. He operates on the iron-clad directive to never print anything he believes and to never believe anything he prints, an interesting subversion to King’s earlier introduction. I won’t spoil one of the collection’s best entries, but “The Night Flier” plays with the price of disbelief as Dees is forced into a world where the stories he’s been spinning for decades might actually be real.
Modern Mentions
‘Doctor Sleep’
King presents Nightmares and Dreamscapes as the concluding chapter in a trilogy of short story collections and it does feel like the end of an era. The author’s next literary phase is much more experimental, playing with formats, bending genres, and moving further away from the hallmarks of classic horror. Inside View remains a constant, but the author’s perspective seems to gradually shift. Tess, the heroine of his 2010 rape-revenge novella “Big Driver,” chooses not to report her assault in part because she fears the magazine would blame her for the crime. In Doctor Sleep (2013), Abra’s mother keeps her daughter’s psychic abilities a secret for fear that, like Johnny Smith, she would become fodder for the tabloids. This shift may have something to do with King’s own time recovering from a near-fatal highway accident. During his lengthy recovery, the world-famous author may have imagined pictures of his own mangled body appearing in publications willing to disregard ethics in favor of a massive payday.
Though mentions have decreased since the ’90s, King has not stopped writing about Inside View. Billy Summers (2021) and Fairy Tale (2022) both include references to this fictional tabloid. Inside View also makes an appearance in You Like It Darker, now available. The eagerly anticipated collection revisits Cujo, another Castle Rock story from King’s early catalog.
King’s intro for Nightmares and Dreamscapes extols not only the virtues of short stories, but also their ability to save the world. “Good writing–good stories–are the imagination’s firing pin, and the purpose of the imagination, I believe, is to offer us solace and shelter from situations and life-passages which would otherwise prove unendurable. I can only speak from my own experience, of course, but for me, the imagination which so often kept me awake and in terror as a child has seen me through some terrible bouts of stark raving reality as an adult.” With the world seeming to come apart at the seams, perhaps it’s time to renew our faith in the fantastical, suspend our disbelief, and once again venture with King into the world of the seemingly impossible.
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