Jasmine Birtles
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Stay home this Halloween: Watch Free Horror Films Online
Reading Time: 5 minutesFree Horror Films
Watch films online. It’s well reported in the news lately that the Cost of Living crisis has affected the way we spend our money somewhat casually on streaming services like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime.
But don’t worry! We’ve been looking for some FREE horror movies for anyone to watch, and you don’t need to pay anything as these are free services (although you may be required to log in to some of them.)
YOUTUBE
Rooting around YouTube will give you a ton of ideas as to what movies are out there: you may find something unexpected. There are horror films on there and one that we love is Hammer Studios’ The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959) starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, in whose company you really can’t go wrong.
It’s a studied, skilful adaptation of Doyle’s most famous work, and it’s jolly entertaining as Hammer always delivers beautiful sets, moments of arch drama and comedy, and pitch-perfect performances. As reviewed recently on the excellent Hammer Heads podcast.
CHANNEL 4
Channel 4 is available on Freeview and on-demand via the All4 service, which is free and requires quick registration so that you can watch it on phones, tablets, computers or TV. You have to sit through ad breaks but that’s a small price (actually no price) to pay.
All 4’s film collection may contain films that are a few years old at least, but how better to catch up on those films you missed amid all the hype? All 4 has classics old and new.
We’re going with Hereditory (2018) as our free horror recommendation. Toni Collette is incredible in this pute showcasde of Ari Astors’s dance with folklore and gore. Some iconic imagary and haunting themes that stick with you.
CHANNEL 5
Like Channel 4, C5 is one Freeview and has its own app, this time called My5, which again is ad-supported and free and requires gree registration.
A large number of free movies on C5 come from Pluto TV Movies, and there are a staggering 11 channels solely devoted to movies. Now, most of them are obscure titles among the more recognisable ones but leafing through the options may find you intrigued to watch movies that are a little off the beaten track.
Final Destination 3 is our horror choice here, and as scary franchises, this is one of the best entries. A team of doomed teens are plagued by visions of their grisly demises, from rollercoasters to cherry-pickers to tanning beds and trucks. There are some truly, memorably nasty effects on display here, and a great fresh cast including Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
TPTV
Similarly to C5, this excellent oldies site has reams of TV and film titles: comedies, dramas, war, westerns, some exclusive titles you can’t have seen anywhere else.
And with a great selection of sci-fi and monster movies, you’ll get to see some kitsch classics without having to go back in time to a 50s drive-in.
The Monkey’s Paw is the one horror story everyone seems to know, and this 1948 chiller fully delivers the creeps, directed by Norman Lee and starring Michael Martin-Harvey, Sydney Tafler & Alfie Bass. A curio dealer sells a monkey’s paw that can grant the possessor three wishes, but warns that disaster will follow. Would you make those wishes?
THE INTERNET ARCHIVE
A free digital library: not just movies but also digital books, games and old websites.
Again, these are mostly old or obscure titles which can be a benefit for movie fans because you can bet you’ll never find them on the mainstream streamers: Sci-Fi, Horror, Comedy, Film Noir, you name it.
And since we’re focusing on horror, we must go with Night of the Living Dead (1968), the late great George Romero’s seminal zombie flick that’s been an influence on everyone from Edgar Wright to Guillermo del Toro. Famously made without securing the follow-up rights, Romero just wanted to get the film made, and the result was an instant smash in public domain horror. The most addictively watchable, copiable horror movie of them all. If you’ve never seen it, now’s the time.
IMDB TV
This channel is owned by Amazon so it has a lot of famous films like Zero Dark Thirty, Chicago, American Beauty, A Streetcat Named Bob… and it’s free to watch as a Prime Video Channel or as a standalone Amazon Fire TV plugin.
Again, it’s free because you don’t need to be on Prime, which is what Amazon charges for. And they have some cracking horror, including our choice, the living legend John Carpenter’s Christine (1983). Perhaps underrated but definitely popular with those who love it, this is the one about a young man’s love affair with his car: in this case the demonically possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury with the titular name. Again, if you’ve never seen this one, you’re missing out. It’s got bags of style, an incredible synth soundtrack and the most beautiful cinematography by Donald M. Morgan.
PLEX
Plex has both an on-demand Movies & TV section and a Live TV section.
The movies are quite niche and there are a lot of US titles, but probably not so many UK titles you’ll be familiar with. The Live TV section has various channels and some of these show movies, again on the obscure side.
House of the Devil (2009) is one of those movie that effortlessly looks like it belongs to the late 70s, but was made by the absolutely stellar director Ti West, currently KILLING IT in cinemas with his ongoing trilogy of X, Pearl and next year’s MaXXXine. This one has a simple premise: an impoverished babysitter is asked to mind a house for the night, containing a weird old lady we don’t see, at first… would you do the job? No, us neither.
FILMZIE
Filmzie boasts films, TV shows and adverts and the unique selling point of indie films from lesser-known filmmakers, who will benefit when you watch something they created, usually outside of the film industry system.
They also offer many apps to make it e mobile phones, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung TVs and more.
Our final free recommendation is The Little Shop of Horrors: not the superlative 1986 musical version but Roger Corman’s 1960 version, with a great cast including a young Jack Nicholson!
VIMEO
There’s much to enjoy on Vimeo, and you’ll get a good range of indie horrors that are possibly unreleased anywhere else. One such treasure is the comedy-horror Whoops! a very British tale about hapless serial killer Rose Clemente and her husband who tries dutifully to cover up her friends.
With comparisons to Hitchcock’s funnier films and TV such as Santa Clarita Diet… and with unapologetic lashings of gore, this is a free gem from the ‘Zomblogalypse’ team and is available for free by following this link and entering the code WHOOPSFREE at payment:
So there we go, if you love your free horror films. There are many more on these sites so have a root around, but we hope you enjoy this cross-section of truly great horror movies that won’t cost you anything to watch!
If Horror films aren’t your thing then don’t forget that these channels have all genres. This is a round-up of all the places to watch things online for free. (legally of course).
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