All the Horror You Need to Stream in May 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 watch in May 2023:

Howdy boils and ghouls. Congratulations: we’ve made it to proper, bonafide Springtime. If any of you suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, I hope things are starting to take a turn for the sunny. We’re still suffering from a good deal of cloud coverage up here in the Pacific Northwest. But the flowers are out, the birds are chirping, and everyone has a pep in their step.

But don’t let the sunshine, rainbows, and baby animals fool you. The horror train chugs on as enthusiastically as ever! Case in point: this month’s streaming giants are bringing bucketloads of horror films to their services.

All that said: 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 May 2023.

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

May 2023 Horror Streaming Cheat Sheet

• Tubi is bringing the Blade trilogy to their service on the first of the month. If you’re a dark-superhero enjoyer with a Tubi account, you can also watch both of the Nic Cage Ghost Rider films.
• Fangoria‘s Chainsaw Awards — which celebrate the year’s best in horror — will stream on Shudder TV on May 21st at 9 pm ET.
• The Mummy trilogy (starring Brendan Fraser) hits Peacock on the first of the month.
• New-ish releases kicking around this month include:
  • Creepypasta (2023) on Screambox as of May 23rd; Ancestral (2022) on May 2nd; Project Wolf Hunting (2022) on May 15th, and Executioner 2 (2021) at an undefined date.
  • Consecration (2023) on Shudder on May 19th; Influencer (2023) on the 26th, and Huesera: The Bone Woman (2022) on May 12.
  • Mercy Falls (2023) on Tubi on May 14th; Sleeping Beauties (2023) on the 16th; Pastacoplypse (2023) on May 21st; The Amityville Curse (2023) on May 28th, and Demonic (2021) on May 1st.
  • Alone at Night (2022) on Hulu on May 5th and Slash/Back (2022) on May 18th.
  • Fresh (2022) on Paramount+ on May 1st.
  • Violent Night (2022) on Prime Video on May 26th.

The streaming service champion of the month is Tubi. Not just because they’re free (with ads) but because they have brought a truly sarcastic amount of top-shelf horror to their service this month.

The streaming service dunce of the month is Freevee which, while free like Tubi, is anemic with respect to their incoming horror offerings.

Collection Corner: May 2022 Horror Streaming

• • ARROW
    • Molto Argento: The Dario Argento Collection (as of May 1)
      • “A killer collection of one of the all-time masters of horrors’ murderous masterpieces, Molto Argento is a season of slick and stylish films from maestro Dario Argento.”
      • Titles include Deep Red, Tenebrae, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, and Deep into the Red.
    • P S Y C H O T R O N I C (as of May 3)
      • “… a collection of far-out films all listed in Michael Weldon’s cult guide to the wildest movies ever made, and the film guide that Quentin Tarantino swears by.”
      • Titles include Something Weird, The Crazies, and The Baby.
    • The Gore The Merrier (as of May 12)
      • “Featuring all of our most absolutely artery-opening, guts-spilling, bodies-bisecting films, those of a nervous or queasy disposition need not apply. This is an ARROW abattoir and your armchair is smack dab in the middle of the splatter zone!”
      • Titles include Microwave Massacre, Island of Death, and Inferno of Torture.
    • Masters of Horror (as of May 19)
      • “Nine directors whose game-changing work in the genre earned them the title ‘Masters of Horror’ (and a spot directing an episode of the legendary 2005 television show of the same name).”
      • Titles include Audition, Don’t Torture a Duckling, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer
    • Adam Cesare Selects (as of xxx)
      • “Adam Cesare is the Bram Stoker Award-Winning author of the young adult slasher novel Clown in a Cornfield … his other works include the cult hit novels Video Night and The Con Season … he limited his Selects choices to American-made films.”
      • Titles include The Stylist, The Crazies, Dark August
    •  Ghostly Goings-On (as of May 26)
      • “These haunting supernatural tales will give you goosebumps and send shivers up your spine. There’s not a bedsheet with eye holes cut in it in sight, just ethereal apparitions and pulse-pounding phantoms dead set on ensuring you don’t get a wink of sleep tonight.”
      • Titles include Scared Stiff, 8-bit Ghost Hop, Lady Morgan’s Vengeance

Horror Streaming Highlights for May 2023

Pick of the Month: Evil Dead (2013)

Synopsis: In an effort to help their pal Mia kick her drug habit, four friends shack up in a remote cabin. But what’s this? A flesh-bound book encased in fuck-off barbed wire and wrapped up like a body bag? They should probably read from it. What’s the worst that could happen?

We’ve really got to give a hand (wink wink) to the Evil Dead movies: no matter which way you slice it, it’s easily one of the most consistently great horror franchises out there. And I’d bet there are plenty of fans (new and old) who are feeling the itch to check out the original re-quel.

While I’m a lot more enthusiastic about Fede Álvarez’s 2013 bloodbath than our chief film critic Rob Hunter, I’m convinced that I’m on the right side of history. Taking more genetic material from Ram Raimi’s original video nasty — and all the vicious bad vibes and unrelenting gore that entails — feature-length debuts rarely come this self-assured. There are very, very few 21st Century horror remakes that manage to both honor the source material and bring something new to the table. Evil Dead (2013) is one of them.

Available on Tubi on May 1.

A movie by, for, and about perverts

Synopsis: The improbably-named private detective Singapore Sling is searching for this girlfriend/secretary, Laura, a romantic blip from his past who has since gone missing. Unfortunately, his quest leads him straight into the lair of the women who killed his lover: a mother-daughter duo whose decadence is only matched by their sadism.

Directed by avant-garde Greek filmmaker Nikos Nikolaidis, 1990’s Singapore Sling is easily one of the most perverted movies ever made. No. Seriously. The parents’ guide on IMDb reads like Marquis de Sade’s weekend checklist. Its director may have intended to crossbreed comedy and Greek Tragedy, but the result, unequivocally, is about as sticky and salacious as arthouse gets. Consider watching on mother’s day!

Available on The Criterion Channel on May 1st.

The bloodiest film from 2022’s Fantastic Fest

Synopsis: During a prisoner exchange between South Korea and the Philippines takes an ultra-violent turn when the human cargo enters open waters. Captors slaughtered, the criminals’ murder spree takes a turn when a stowaway decides that it’s his turn to spill some blood.

A blood-splattered darling of 2022’s Fantastic Fest, Project Wolf Hunting is what you get when you put cheesy action in a blender with French extremity. As far as corporeal carnage goes, the limit simply does not exist. With a — and I really can’t stress this enough — sarcastic amount of fake blood, Project Wolf Hunting is a hyper-violent genre mishmash that will satisfy the toughest customer.

Available on Screambox May 15th.

A criminally under-seen mid-80s Mexican terror trip

Synopsis: The year? 1965. The place? Mexico City. A privileged but devastatingly lonely schoolgirl named Flavia makes a friend with an orphan obsessed with witchcraft. Convinced that her new friend is a real witch, innocent flights of fancy take a dark turn when Flavia is asked to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Stylish, haunting, and atmospheric as all get out, Poison for Fairies brings a gothic folk horror sheen to the endlessly creepy “kids yes-and-ing each other into crime” sub-genre. Featuring faceless adults and a disconcerting parasitic relationship between its two young stars, Carlos Enrique Taboada’s 1986 film is a must-watch.

Available on Shudder May 8th.

Streamable Horror Incoming This Month

Horror Streaming Titles Expiring Soon