All the Horror You Need to Stream in August 2023

Welcome to Horrorscope, a monthly column keeping horror nerds and initiates up to date on all the horror content coming to and leaving your favorite streaming services. Here’s what to stream in August 2023:

Howdy boils and ghouls.

With the dog days of summer are upon us, hopefully you’re all practicing good sun safety. Which is to say: staying inside and watching horror movies. This is that one secret dermatologists don’t want you to know about. I’m sunspot free for a reason, Joanne. It’s because I can’t stop watching Amicus ensemble pieces on Tubi.

This month sees a bit of everything: old classics, franchise dumps, and new features shuffling from one streaming service to another.

Be sure to peruse the complete list below, calendar in hand, for a full picture of what horror movies are coming and going from your favorite streaming services in August 2023.

Please keep in mind that all dates listed below may not apply to viewers outside the US.

August 2023 Horror Streaming Cheat Sheet

• Finding true-blue horror films on The Criterion Channel is always a nice treat, and three very good ones are leaving at the end of the month! These include the certified haunted house banger The Haunting (1963) as well as two silent films from the 1920s, which are short and will make you smarter (that’s what happens when you watch 100-year-old movies, right?).
• As of August 1st you can catch the Jurassic Park franchise for free on Freevee. If free streaming “bothers you” you can take your capitalist ass over to Hulu, which is also streaming the series.
• Get your Freddy freak-on over at HBO Max, which invites the entire A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise to its service on the first of the month. Also don’t forget to catch a solid handful of Hellraiser sequels before they depart from the service at the end of the month.
• Do you want to play a game? A good chunk of the Saw franchise will be available on Prime Video as of August 1st.
• The people’s streaming service, Tubi, is bringing a number of banger double-bills to its platform on the first of the month including: Both of Rob Zombie’s Halloweens; both of James Gunn’s Scooby-Doos and all four Jaws films.

Collection Corner: August 2023 Horror Streaming

• The Criterion Channel
  • Grindhouse Gothic: Roger Corman Directs Edgar Allan Poe (as of August 1)
    • “Roger Corman began one of the most artistically ambitious projects of his heroic career with a series of brilliantly inventive, hair-raising adaptations of stories by Edgar Allan Poe”
    • Titles include The Premature Burial, House of Usher, and The Raven
• ARROW
  • Reece Shearsmith Selects (as of August 7)
    • “How do you possibly choose a selection of favourite ARROW film releases and not go mad in the process? Well, that’s what ARROW asked me to do, and I’ve done both. So please go ahead and read my choices as I find I must kill again…”
    • Titles include Deep Red, The Crazies, Society
  • Roger Avary Selects (as of August 21st)
    • “When I select a film, dear viewer, it is safe. There is no question about it anymore. My Selects are the best films. I don’t mean that they’re the most virtuous, or indeed the least virtuous, or the cleverest or the stupidest, or the most expensive or the best made. But the best. In a word, films about which there is no question.”
    • Titles Include The Living Dead Girl, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Road Games
  • This is Torture! (as of August 25)
    • “A curated collection dastardly designed to make you wince and recoil in shock and horror from the misery, torment and agony being inflicted. Dare you peek between your fingers to witness the graphic and painful torments contained within ‘This is Torture!’?”
    • Titles Include American Guinea Pig: Sacrifice, American Guinea Pig: The Song of Solomon, American Guinea Pig: Bloodshock

New(ish) Releases

2021

• Old (Freevee)
• Malignant (Hulu)
• Bliss (Screambox)
• Ghastly Brothers (Screambox)
• America Latina (Shudder)

2022

• Skinamarink (Hulu)
• Enys Men (Hulu)
• Bones and All (Prime Video)
• 6 Wheels From Hell (Screambox)
• Sinphony (Screambox)
• The Communion Girl (2022)

2023

• Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (Netflix)
• Marry My Dead Body (Netflix)
• Killer Book Club (Netflix)
• Organ Trail (Paramount+)
• Unseen (Prime Video)
• The Black Demon (Prime Video)
• Subject (Screambox)
• Bad Things (Shudder)
• The Housekeeper (Tubi)
• Rock the Boat (Tubi)

The streaming service champion of the month is Criterion Channel, who really went and said “Halloween comes early this year.” Thanks, lads.

The streaming service dunce of the month is Peacock, who are only bringing the marginally horror-adjacent R.I.P.D. to the table this month. Somehow that’s worse that Disney+ having no horror at all.

Horror Streaming Highlights for August 2023

Pick of the Month — Grindhouse Gothic: Roger Corman Directs Edgar Allen Poe

Synopsis:  Released in a sarcastically short four-year period between 1960 and 1964, exploitation cinema’s grandpa Roger Corman directed eight (yes, eight) cinematic adaptations of stories by gothic grump Edgar Allen Poe. 

Whether or not you think Corman’s “Poe Cycle” is for you, here’s my selling point: all eight films are around eighty minutes long. The secret to Corman’s productivity (apart from rigorous pre-production) is efficiency. Bless him.

The collection includes all eight of Corman’s Poe Cycle films: House of Usher; The Pit and the Pendulum; The Premature Burial; Tales of Terror; The Haunted Palace; The Raven; The Masque of the Red Death; and The Tomb of Ligeia. While all the films have recognizable Poe-ish hallmarks (live entombments, black cats, “dead” wives, and blood-red candles), each brings some new macabre twist to the table. Want a horror comedy? Watch The Raven. Want a “omg it’s just like covid” fable? Watch The Masque of the Red Death.

Dig in, enjoy, and remember to always know where your cat is before you wall-up your nemesis in your cellar!

Arriving on The Criterion Channel on August 1st.

The horror origins of Oppenheimer’s own Josh Hartnett

Synopsis:  When the teachers at Herrington High start acting a little more murder-y than usual, an unlikely group of students must band together to get to the bottom of their suspicious behavior. 

Do I need an excuse to recommend Robert Rodriguez‘s teen sci-fi horror classic? Of course not. Do I feel a responsibility to remind y’all that Christopher Nolan’s newest boy, Josh Hartnett, started his movie career making horror movies? Absolutely. (Technically his debut was Halloween H20, but The Faculty came out the same year, so sue me).

The Faculty has many boons, from its aggressive Y2K sensibility to an all-star ensemble cast that is so star-studded it’s almost sarcastic. For the benefit of any of you who have yet to see it, I’ll keep the credits hush hush so you can gasp with glee when the credits roll. It’s fun. It’s gory. It’s got a soundtrack that includes both The Offspring and Garbage. Run, don’t walk.

Arriving on Paramount+ on August 1st.

Cannibalism, for the teens!

Synopsis:  It’s Ronald Reagan’s America and Maren and Lee are doing their best to survive in it. The teenage duo are cannibals, drawn, compulsively, to the consumption of human flesh. On a cross-country road trip, the pair dig into their traumatic pasts and explore a budding romance.  

Based on Camille DeAngelis’ 2015 novel of the same name, Bones and All is is a remarkably tender character study that also happens to have a lot of people-eating in it. If you’re a fan of Trouble Every Day or Ganja & Hess, this modern take on the horror x romance sub-genre is well worth seeking out. Throw in music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and a stellar cast headlined by Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell and you’ve got yourself one of the more enticingly bizarre entries in Luca Guadagnino‘s career.

Arriving on Prime Video August 8.

A body horror-filled descent into what it costs to make it in Hollywood

Synopsis:  An aspiring starlet with stars in her eyes is killing herself to make it in Hollywood. No, literally. It’s hard out here, and Sarah is willing to do absolutely anything to make it big. She just didn’t think the whole “die and be re born” thing was going to be so literal.

If anything, Starry Eyes has only become more relevant since it premiered in 2014. A tale about a young woman desperate for fame — so desperate she’ll sell her soul, shed her skin, and sever personal ties — feels very on-brand for the 2020s. Grounded by a fantastic lead performance by Alex Essoe (who recently starred in The Pope’s Exorcist), this under-seen Hollywood horrorshow is a must-see.

Arriving on Screambox August 1st.

Streamable Horror Incoming This Month

Horror Streaming Titles Expiring Soon