Every month, I’ll make my way through the dark halls of Tubi, searching for five horror films you don’t want to miss on the streamer.
This month, we’re saying goodbye to summer and hello to fall with a pair of titles to set the seasonal mood. I’ve also lined up a trio of films ranging from a seaside chiller to a clever comedy and the weirdest werewolf movie you’ve never seen.
Check them out below, if you dare. And make sure to revisit this tomb when I’m back in October with five more titles to make your nerves scream. After all, Tubi has over 300,000 titles available to stream. It’s completely free, and no sign-up is necessary. For horror fans, it’s heaven.
Dark Night of the Scarecrow (1981)
Courtesy of CBS
Those who know me know that I consider September to be “Scarecrow Season”, and in terms of scarecrow horror, you’re not going to find a better film than Dark Night of the Scarecrow.
Released in 1981, the film follows a group of vigilantes who wrongfully murder a mentally challenged man named Bubba (Larry Drake) after believing he attacked a little girl. The justice system fails, setting the men free after the court finds the murder to be an “accident”. But Bubba’s death was no accident. Now, one by one, the men meet horrific fates as a mysterious scarecrow stalks them. Does someone know what they did, or is it Bubba, back from the dead and seeking vengeance?
Quiet and atmospheric with a focus on dread over bloodshed, Dark Night of the Scarecrow reigns not just as the most beloved scarecrow movie, but one of the more admired made-for-TV horror films, too. It’s perfect for easing into the Fall season, when the sun sets earlier and the night wind picks up a foreboding chill.
Howling III (1987)
Courtesy of 20th Century Studios
As a massive werewolf fan, The Howling franchise feels like a miraculous gift, comprised of some of the weirdest movies you’ve ever seen in the sub-genre. And Howling III takes the moon cake as the weirdest of them all.
Set in Australia and directed by Philippe Mora (the madman behind Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf), this ludicrous sequel finds a werewolf who flees her pack and falls in love with a guy who works on horror movies. Meanwhile, a sociologist searches for proof of the creatures. The two eventually team up, with the woman and her family on the run from a government that wishes to torture and study them.
Describe Howling III, and it sounds like a film that couldn’t possibly exist. It has everything from sex with a werewolf, to werewolf nun assassins, a werewolf god, and even a creepy/cute werewolf baby that crawls around in his mother’s pouch (these werewolves are marsupials, after all). Is it all incredibly absurd? Yes. But is it a wild blast shot with an unrestricted B-monster movie energy? Also, yes.
Messiah of Evil (1974)
Courtesy of International Cine Film Corp.
Writers Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz (American Graffiti, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) directed just one film together…the eerie horror masterpiece, Messiah of Evil.
A Carnival of Souls-esque tale, the 1974 chiller follows a woman who arrives at a seaside town in California in search of her father, an artist. Once there, though, she discovers a sinister place taken over by the dead.
I first discovered Messiah of Evil some years ago, and it’s become one of my favorite films in the genre since. I’m a sucker for both horror movies governed by dream logic and seaside atmospherics. Each element oozes from every frame. Not to mention Stephen M. Katz’s luscious cinematography. It’s a dread-choked story of loneliness, driven by that feeling deep in our gut that something isn’t right. The sort of film where vicious animal noises are heard in the night and the sense of being watched never passes. One sequence set in a theater should have you squirming in your seat the next time you brave going to the movies.
The Reef (2010)
Courtesy of Lightning Entertainment
We’re in the waning days of Summer now. Most of you are probably ecstatic to be rid of the heatwave we’ve been in. Still, why not wave goodbye with this underrated swim under the sun?
Written/directed by Andrew Traucki, The Reef follows a small group of friends as they sail along the Great Barrier Reef. But after their boat is capsized, they must swim to safety through shark-infested waters. It goes about how you’d expect.
The Reef works so well because of how real it plays. This isn’t Jaws or Deep Blue Sea, with sharks behaving way outside of the norm. No. Traucki’s film is a raw, brutal, downright eviscerating survival horror film that reminds us of our vulnerability when confronted with nature. It’s one of the meaner sharksploitation films you’ll encounter, and easily one of the better entries in the sub-genre over the last two decades.
Eli Craig’s (Clown in a Cornfield) hilarious debut feature, it follows hillbilly friends Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine). They’ve just acquired a fixer-upper cabin in the woods, their dream home. But when a bunch of teens mistake them for psychotic killers, the men find themselves under attack by their accusers, leading to a series of unfortunate (and bloody) accidents.
Horror has never depicted hillbillies all too kindly. For at least as far back as Deliverance, the genre has presented them as dumb, psychotic, or all the above. Think about it. How often do you see slashers about teens from a small town driving into the big city? You don’t. It’s always the other way around. Craig brilliantly twists the familiar tropes, turning the hillbillies into the protagonists with a “don’t judge a book by its cover” message that resonates stronger than ever.
