Is Arrow Player good?
We’ve used the Arrow Player streaming TV service for 18 wonderful months—it rules. That’s because Arrow Player’s parent company is Arrow Video, the UK-based company renowned for exceptionally high-quality boutique Blu-ray and 4K UHD releases of cult films.
Think of Arrow Player as an extension of Arrow Video. Arrow Player’s hefty, expertly curated catalog, attractive app, and affordable price make it the ideal streaming experience for cult film fanatics.
Pros
- Affordable price
- Deep, well-curated library
- Gorgeous, reliable app
- Up to 4K UHD resolution
- Offline viewing
- 14-day trial
Cons
- Some missing Arrow Video titles
- Confusing site navigation
- No PlayStation compatibility
Arrow Player deals and promotions
We don’t see any active deals from Arrow Player, but its 14-day free trial is twice what you get from other streaming services.
Arrow Player plans and pricing
Data as of post date.
For only $6–$7 a month, Arrow Player has 600+ movies, three simultaneous streams, 4K UHD resolution, and offline viewing. That’s an explosive bang for your buck. Arrow Player might even be the best value among its rival streaming services.
Arrow Player vs. the competition
Service | Monthly price | Library size* | Streams | Resolution (up to) | Details |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Best for cult Arrow Player |
$6.99/mo. or $69.99/yur. | 600+ | 3 | 4K | View Plan |
Best for horror Shudder |
$6.99/mo. or $71.88/yr. | 630+ | 1 | 720p | View Plan |
Best for schlock Full Moon Features |
$6.99/mo. or $59.99/yr. | 440+ | 3* | 1080p | View Plan |
Best for nostalgia Night Flight Plus |
$5.99/mo. or $49.99/yr. | 999+ | Unlimited | 1080p | View Plan |
Best for low budgets Screambox |
$6.99/mo. or $59.99/yr. | 415+ | 3 | 1080p | View Plan |
Data as of post date.
* Based on our tests. Stream amount not advertised.
Price-wise, every service in the above table is affordable. Arrow Player and Full Moon Features are the most expensive, followed by Shudder, Night Flight Plus, and Screambox.
At 600+ titles, the Arrow Player library is roughly the same size as those of Shudder and Night Flight Plus. But the overall content of each library is different. (We discuss this in more detail in the movies and shows section.)
So Arrow Player’s edge is thin but keen. It comes down to the overall experience, which is informed by Arrow’s excellent quality control, with the 4K UHD resolution, beautiful app, and a library that‘s both comprehensive and on-brand.
Arrow Player movies and shows
With niche streaming services, the library is the main attraction. Arrow Player is like having an arthouse cinema (the crème de la crème) and grindhouse theater (the cream of the crap) in your living room—or, if you’re on mobile, your pocket. So, for genre film fanatics, Arrow Player is a comprehensive and satisfying dream.
Arrow Player has Shudder’s and The Criterion Channel’s curation quality, Full Moon Features’ reverence for the irreverent, and the pop-culture sensibility of Night Flight Plus. Arrow even includes content from these streaming services plus titles from other boutique Blu-ray companies like Blue Underground, Severin Films, Vinegar Syndrome, and more.
Categories and genres on Arrow Player
- 70s Cult
- 80s Cult
- 90s Cult
- Action
- The AGFA Collection
- The American Horror Project
- Arrow Shorts
- Asia Extreme
- Bodies of Water
- Blood Lust
- Britsploitation
- Camp Arrow
- Classics
- Comedy
- Dead Silent
- Extras
- The Films Of . . .
- Giallo
- Kaiju Collection
- Magnifique
- New Cult
- Selects
- Shawscope
- Slashers
- Starter Collection
- Third Window Films
- The Vinegar Syndrome Collection
- Westerns
- What the Folk
- Yakuza
- Action
- Adventure
- Animation
- Anime
- Biography
- Classics
- Comedy
- Crime
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fantasy
- History
- Horror
- Independent
- Music
- Musical
- Mystery
- News
- Reality
- Romance
- Sci-fi
- Short Films
- Special Interest
- Thriller
- War
- Western
Director spotlights on Arrow Player
You’d expect auteur pages on a service like The Criterion Channel or Mubi. Genre film fans like to give their favorite filmmakers the same treatment. Here’s a partial list of the visionary directors who have collections on Arrow Player:
- Dario Argento
- Enzo Castellari
- Claude Chabrol
- Jim Cummings
- Lucio Fulci
- Jean-Luc Godard
- William Grefé
- Shohei Imamura
- Meiko Kaji
- Fritz Lang
- José Ramón Larraz
- Herschell Gordon Lewis
- Brian Lonano
- Justin McConnell
- Takashi Miike
- Jean Rollin
- George A. Romero*
- The Shaw Brothers
- Rick Sloane
- Seijun Suzuki
- Toshiaki Toyoda
- Kiju Yoshida
Data as of post date.
* No Romero zombie films.
Title screens for The Sacred Spirit and The Stylist show included special features (via Arrow Player mobile app).
Arrow Player original movies and shows
Arrow Player doesn’t have exclusive or original content in the usual sense. Arrow Video, however, produces many of the special features on its Blu-ray and 4K releases, so Arrow Player includes them with some titles.
A scene from Evil Ed as viewed on a Samsung QN90A smart TV via the Roku Ultra.
Movies on Arrow Player (partial list)
- The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
- A Taste of Blood
- Audition
- Bad Black
- Basket Case
- The Baby
- Beyond the Door
- The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
- Brain Damage
- Bride of Re-Animator
- Burst City
- Creepshow 2
- Crumbs
- Dave Made A Maze
- Day of Anger
- Dead or Alive
- Deep Red
- The Deeper You Dig
- Dirty Ho
- Django
- Django, Prepare a Coffin
- Don’t Torture a Duckling
- Edge of the Axe
- The El Duce Tapes
- Evil Ed
- The Five Venoms
- Funky Forest: The First Contact
- Girls Nite Out!
- Gone With The Pope
- The Gore Gore Girls
- Gwilliam
- The Hills Have Eyes (1 and 2)
- Hobgoblins
- House (1986)
- House 2: The Second Story
- Inseminoid
- Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway
- Kansas City
- Lady Street Fighter
- The Lake Michigan Monster
- The Last Matinee
- LFO
- Malatesta’s Carnival of Blood
- Man Under Table
- Microwave Massacre
- The Monster Club
- Night of the Bloody Apes
- No Escaped
- One-Armed Boxer
- Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge
- Psychomania
- Putney Swope
- The Rambling Guitarist
- Re-Animator
- The Righteous
- Ringu
- Road Games
- Running Out of Time I and II
- Running Time
- The Sacred Spirit
- Sleep
- The Street Fighter trilogy
- The Stuff
- The Stylist
- The Subspecies Collection
- The Sword and the Claw
- Tetsuo: The Iron Man
- Tetsuo II: Body Hammer
- Tideland
- Torso
- Two Thousand Maniacs
- Vampyres
- Vengeance is Mine
- Vice Academy 1–3
- Warning from Space
- The Warped Forest
- Whiskey Mountain
- Who Killed Captain Alex?
- Wolf Guy
- The Woman
- The Zero Boys
- Zombie for Sale
- Zombie Nightmare
A scene from The Day of the Beast viewed on a Samsung QN90A smart TV via the Roku Ultra.
Shows on Arrow Player
Arrow Player has no TV series—it’s all about movies. But you can still binge-watch movies on Arrow Player like they’re Stranger Things episodes.
Arrow Player specs and features
What else does Arrow Player have going for it besides that stacked library and eye candy app? Let’s find out.
Arrow Player simultaneous streams
Service | Streams |
---|---|
Arrow Player | 3 |
Shudder | 1 |
Full Moon Features | 3* |
Night Flight Plus | Unlimited |
Screambox | 3 |
Data as of post date.
* Based on our tests. Stream amount not advertised.
Arrow Player gives you three simultaneous streams—that’s the industry average. Some streaming services have fewer (Shudder has only one), and some have more (Night Flight Plus has unlimited streams). But three is a good amount.
Arrow Player offline viewing
Offline viewing is one of the best features of any on-demand streaming service. It’s the next best thing to cloud DVR. Arrow Player’s offline viewing has a couple of restrictions:
- To complete a download, you must keep the Arrow Player app open, and your screen must remain on. If your screen goes dark, you’ll have to start over. So turn off your screen timer to avoid frustration.
- Once you’ve downloaded a movie, you have 30 days to start playback. Once you hit ‘play,’ you have 48 hours to finish the film.
Arrow Player app
The Arrow Player is one of the best-looking and most reliable mobile streaming TV apps we’ve used, regardless of the devices used to test it.
Based on the Vimeo over-the-top (OTT) platform, the Arrow Player app works just the Brown Sugar, Full Moon Features, and Troma NOW! apps. There are four links on the left-hand side of the screen (Search, Explore, Library, and Settings). To the right is a long list of category-specific carousel menus with thumbnails in three sizes (think of Netflix) for visual variety.
Vimeo (and other OTT platforms like Matchpoint) leaves the app’s aesthetic design up to the individual services—and the Arrow Player looks amazing. Clearly, the high aesthetic standards Arrow Video applies to its boutique Blu-ray releases also extends to the Arrow Player app. Bravo, Arrow.
The Arrow Player home screen viewed on a Samsung QN90A smart TV via the Roku Ultra.
The Arrow Player home screen viewed on a Windows 10 laptop via the Google Chrome browser.
The Arrow Player home screen viewed on a Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 smartphone via the Arrow Player app for Android.
If there’s one part of the app design that could be better, it’s how Arrow Player lays out the “My List” page across apps.
On the Roku Ultra version of Arrow Player, “My List” includes two carousel menus: “My List” and “Resume.” The latter menu is redundant with “Continue Watching” on the main page. It robs precious space from “My List,” which shows only the 20 most recently added titles, with a “View All” link that opens a scrollable list of thumbnails.
On Google Chrome, “My List” and “Continue Watching” are the first two carousel menus. In the Android app, “Resume [Watching]” is on the home screen (which is also called “Explore”), while “My List” is under “Library.”
Some consistency would be nice, but the current layouts aren’t awful when you weigh them against everything good about Arrow Player.
The Arrow Player “My List” screen as viewed on a Samsung QN90A smart TV via the Roku Ultra.
The Arrow Player “My List” screen viewed on a Lenovo ThinkBook (Windows 10 Pro) via Google Chrome.
The Arrow Player “My List” screen as viewed on the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 smartphone via the Arrow Player app for Android.
Arrow Player supported devices
Device | Full Moon Features support |
---|---|
Amazon Fire Cube, Stick, TV | ✔ |
Android phones, tablets | ✔ |
Android TV | ✔ |
Apple TV (4th gen.) | ✔ |
Apple TV 4K | ✔ |
Chromecast, Chromebook | ✔ |
Echo Show | — |
iPhone, iPad | ✔ |
LG smart TVs (select models) | — |
Nintendo Switch | — |
NVIDIA Shield Pro TV | ✔ |
PC, Mac web browsers | Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari |
PlayStation 3, 4, 5 | — |
Roku devices | ✔ |
Samsung smart TVs (select models) | ✔ |
TiVo Stream | — |
VIZIO smart TVs (select models) | — |
Wii | — |
Xbox One | ✔ |
Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S | ✔ |
Data as of post date.
The Arrow Player app supports many devices, including Xbox gaming consoles, so you shouldn’t have to buy any new gear to use Arrow Player.
Arrow Player playback controls
Arrow Player doesn’t skimp on the playback controls. Here’s what you can do on the mobile app. The Roku Ultra and browser-based Arrow Player apps have the same features except “Share,” “Cast,” and “Download.”
- Play/pause
- Rewind/fast-forward
- 10-second jumps (both directions)
- Subtitles
- Chromecast icon
- Full-screen toggle
- Settings
- Add to watchlist
- Share
- Download
- Close app
- Status bar
- Timecode (elapsed and total run time)
Arrow Player playback controls viewed on mobile via the service’s Android app.
Arrow Player video and audio quality
Few niche streaming services stream in 4K UHD—but Arrow Player is one of them. See what we mean about attention to technical details? Arrow is all about giving users the best movie experience.
Remember, though, that streaming in 4K UHD depends chiefly on the source material. If a title isn’t available in 4K, it will stream in SD or HD.
Arrow Player testing
Test | Screen (TV, phone, tablet, or laptop) | Streaming device/app platfrom | Internet connection | Results |
---|---|---|---|---|
Test #1 | Samsung QN90A smart TV (2021 model) | Roku Ultra | Google Fiber 1 Gbps | Consistent 4K UHD* |
Test #2 | LG UH615A (2015) | NVIDIA SHIELD TV Pro | Google Fiber 1 Gbps | Consistent 4K UHD* |
Test #3 | Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 smartphone | Arrow Player app for Android | Google Fiber 1 Gbps | Consistent 4K UHD* |
Test #4 | Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 smartphone | Arrow Player app for Android | T-Mobile 5G mobile data | 720p SD–1080p HD† |
Test #5 | Lenovo ThinkBook laptop (2021) | Google Chrome browser (Windows 10 Pro) | Google Fiber 1 Gbps | Consistent 4K UHD* |
Data effective as of post date.
* Depending on source material
† Depending on source material and location
We use Google Fiber 1 Gbps at home and the T-Mobile 5G mobile network when we’re out. Both connections, when stable, have more than enough bandwidth to stream in 4K. The T-Mobile connection, however, isn’t always stable if we’re driving (don’t worry, we weren’t behind the wheel). When that happened, the Arrow app adjusted image quality accordingly.
A scene from Django viewed on a Samsung QN90A smart TV via the Roku Ultra.
Arrow Player FAQ
What is Arrow Player?
Arrow Player is a streaming TV service specializing in cult action, comedy, horror, western, and other genre films.
Is Arrow Player the same as Arrow Video?
Yeah, pretty much. Arrow Player is the streaming TV service owned by Arrow Video, which puts out deluxe Blu-ray reissues of genre films.
Is Arrow Player any good?
Arrow Player is excellent. We think it’s a must-have. For what you get—an expertly curated library of 600+ genre films, 4K resolution, a nearly perfect app, and offline viewing, its price ($6–$7 a month) is a steal.
How much is Arrow streaming service?
Arrow Player is $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year (a 17% discount).
Is Arrow on Roku?
Arrow Player is on Roku.
Methodology
Our TV experts have spent hundreds of hours testing Arrow Player and other streaming services. For this article, we tested Arrow Player on three smart TVs, two streaming devices, one smartphone, one laptop, and four internet connections.
Also, we compared Arrow Player to competing services based on pricing, features, libraries, and more to deliver accurate, helpful recommendations to our readers. Check out the CableTV.com How We Rank page to learn more about our process.