Best Streaming Services for Horror Fans 2023

Trick or treat, smell my feet, gimme somethin’ good to stream! Okay, horror fans—it’s time to start planning your Halloween-season horror movie binge-watching schedule. To find the good stuff, read this guide to the best streaming services for horror fans. (SPOILER: Shudder is again our editor’s choice for horror.)

Jump to:

• Best horror streaming services
• Compare horror streaming services head to head
• What to look for

Best streaming services for horror fans

• Shudder ($5.99/mo. or $56.99/yr.)—Editor’s choice
• Arrow Player ($6.99/mo. or $69.99/yr.)—Best for cult horror
• Full Moon Features ($6.99/mo. or $69.99/yr.)—Best for schlock
• Night Flight Plus ($4.99/mo. or $39.99/yr.)—Best for cheap horror
• Tubi (free)—Best for free horror

Compare horror streaming services head to head

* Count from JustWatch.com¹
† Count from Troma NOW! page on the app stores.
^¶ Based on CableTV.com testing.

In terms of price, library size, features, and resolution, these five horror streaming services all have similar value, but vary in these areas.

• Price: Tubi’s free. Screambox and Night Flight Plus are cheap. But the best horror streaming services—Shudder, Arrow Player, and Full Moon Features—are still very affordable, with tons of value.
• Library size: Tubi has 6,200 horror movies, and Screambox has a modest 250+ titles. The rest have 600+ titles each—and better overall quality.
• Library quality: Shudder and Arrow Player are the most quality-dense horror services.
• Streams: Night Flight Plus has—and advertises—unlimited streams. Shudder has only one stream. The other services have three, which is the industry average.
• Offline viewing: Shudder and Tubi do not have this feature.
• Resolution: Arrow Player streams at up to 4K HDR. Shudder and Tubi are the worst with 720p. The rest stream at up to 1080p.*

* Depending on source material.

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Check out our trivia contest with Full Moon Features, running on our Twitter all of October. Answer horror movie trivia questions to win daily prizes… if you dare.

Best horror streaming services in depth

An overview ain’t enough for you? Fine. Let’s look at each service individually and in more detail.

Editor’s choice—Shudder

• Low price
• Large, well-curated library
• Frequent new additions
• Exclusive and original movies and shows
• Fun user experience with Shudder app

• 720p max resolution
• Only one stream
• No offline viewing

Curated by real horror fans, Shudder is the unstoppable masked serial killer of horror streaming services. It’s the service you go to for pure horror.

At only five or six bucks, Shudder is a screamin’ deal. It has everything from hoary old black-and-white classics to cult horror to slick new hotness. Even better, Shudder is prolific in licensing exclusive—and creating original—movies and shows. Shudder is also the current home of legendary horror scene gadfly Joe Bob Briggs and his show The Last Drive-In.

A couple of gripes, though: Shudder has only one stream, 720p max resolution, and no offline viewing. Every other horror streaming service in this article has more streams, higher resolution, and offline viewing for roughly the same price. Even so, while Arrow Player got a higher rating, Shudder still gets our editor’s choice pick based on its much stronger horror library.

Best for cult horror—Arrow Player

• Affordable price
• Deep, well-curated library
• Gorgeous, reliable app
• 4K HDR resolution
• Offline viewing
• 30-day trial

• Some missing Arrow Video titles

Arrow Player is owned and operated by Arrow Video, one of the top boutique Blu-ray companies in the world. That means you can expect nothing but quality in every aspect of Arrow Player.

Content-wise, Arrow bows to “The Art of Cult” before any single genre. So, while horror comprises a significant chunk of the Arrow Player library, it also contains many action, comedy, kaiju, sci-fi, and western films. If you’re nostalgic for late-night cable TV, drive-in theaters, or video stores, Arrow Player is your dream streaming TV experience.

Another highlight of the service is the Arrow Player app. It combines what we loved about browsing VHS covers at Blockbuster with the colorful and vivid imagery favored by geeks of all stripes. Factor in 4K resolution (mostly on newer titles) and offline viewing; you’ll see why we love it.

Or, if you’ve seen Clerks, think of the part where video store clerk Randal falls to his knees visiting the rival Big Choice Video. That’s how we feel about Arrow Player.

Best for schlock—Full Moon Features

• Affordable pricing
• Large library
• Downloads for offline viewing
• Free DVDs or Blu-rays with annual subscription

• Poor experience as an Amazon Prime Video Channel
• Limited titles available for free DVD/Blu-ray offer

Full Moon Features is best known for schlocky horror films, but its library also includes action, comedy, kids, and softcore pr0n movies. That’s the Full Moon library we’re talking about—the service also licenses scarier horror titles from Blue Underground, Severin Films, and other horror distributors.

You may already know about Full Moon Features franchises like Puppet Master, Demonic Toys, Subspecies, Evil Bong, and The Gingerdead Man. If so, you know Full Moon’s signature style, which is all about enthusiasm, exploitation, and imagination. For that reason, Full Moon Features’ schlock is many fans’ favorite horror flavor—but also an acquired taste for others.

If you’re unsure where you stand on that, try Full Moon Features free for seven days. If you like the service, keep it. It’s inexpensive, with a reasonably large library, offline downloading, and three streams.

Best for cheap horror—Night Flight Plus

• Affordable pricing
• Deep, diverse library
• Delicious nostalgia fix
• New content weekly

• No Android app
• Buggy Roku Ultra app
• Non-syncing favorites lists
• No “Continue Watching” menu on some apps

Okay, Night Flight Plus isn’t purely a horror streaming service. It’s more like a pop-culture portal with a healthy amount of horror films. And if you grew up forgoing sleep to stay up and watch four-hour blocks of Night Flight on the USA Network, you’ll love all of the content regardless of genre.

We’re talking about cartoons, concert films, movie trailers, music documentaries, music videos, “as-aired” classic episodes of Night Flight (with commercials), and horror films.

Night Flight Plus has scary flicks from Arrow Video, Blue Underground, Grindhouse Releasing, Severin Films, Vinegar Syndrome, and more. Some are cheesy, some are freaky, and they’re all fantastic—even when they suck.

So if you’re looking for a cheap way to scratch your horror itch, Night Flight Plus has a super-low price, generous streams (unlimited), and offline viewing for less than five bucks a month.

Best for free horror—Tubi

• Free
• Massive library
• Reasonable ad breaks
• Parental controls

• Ads
• 720p resolution
• Some NC-17 content
• No age check

With a free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) service like Tubi is free, all that matters are its library and ad-break frequency/duration.

Tubi’s catalog is taller than Godzilla (we reckon). With nearly 39,000 movies and shows, including a whopping 6,200 horror films. That’s double the combined size of Shudder, Arrow Player, Full Moon Features, Night Flight Plus, and Screambox catalogs. But the quality of Tubi’s horror titles doesn’t always measure up.

True horror fans will find tons of conventionally good and so-bad-it’s-good content. Don’t expect many new releases (aside from Tubi Originals like Hellblazer), though. And beware the glut of straight-up garbage titles on Tubi.

There’s no point in simultaneous streams on Tubi since it’s free. You can use the service with or without an account, but signing up for one adds features like a watchlist and recommendations. It also gives you parental controls—a necessity with all of the extreme horror films on Tubi—but they’re easily circumvented.

Finally, ads are how Tubi pays the bills. So we’re paying Tubi with our time (and attention, if you watch the commercials). Fortunately, Tubi has only four to six minutes of ads per hour of content. That’s a price we can afford.

What to look for

Usually, when shopping for a streaming TV service, you want to consider pricing, library (quality and size), features (simultaneous streams, offline viewing), and overall value. The same is true for horror streaming services—with some slight differences.

Movies and shows

We highly recommend evaluating a horror movie streaming service’s library before subscribing. You don’t want to subscribe to schlock-laden Full Moon Features if you’re mainly interested in Shudder’s blend of classic horror and new releases.

Price

Niche streaming services like the horror ones covered in this guide don’t have as much content as larger on-demand or live TV streaming services. Expect to pay $2.99–$6.99 monthly for horror and other genre-specific streaming services like Brown Sugar (classic black cinema) and HI-YAH! (martial arts).

If you can afford to pay higher upfront costs, many services have an annual subscription option that can save you up to 40% annually.

Streams

Most streaming services allow an average of three simultaneous streams. Exceptions are Shudder (one stream) and Night Flight Plus (unlimited streams). Full Moon Features doesn’t specify how many streams it has, but we’ve used it on three devices simultaneously.

Offline viewing

With offline viewing, you can download movies and shows to watch when you’re away from home, so you don’t have to use your mobile data—or watch vanilla airline entertainment.

Among the horror streaming services covered here, only Shudder lacks offline viewing. That’s a bummer but not a dealbreaker. Remember: the library is the main attraction, and Shudder’s is vast and masterfully curated.

Resolution

Nobody wants to see exploding heads in boring standard definition—we want to see the chunks on the chunks!

That said, on these horror streaming services, resolution maxes out at full high-definition (1080p), depending on the strength of your internet connection. Shudder, however, streams in regular HD (720p), and Arrow Player goes up to 4K HDR.

Remember that many streaming TV services adjust resolution according to your internet speed. So, while a service reports a max resolution of 4K, a poor or overcrowded connection means your content will stream at 1080p or lower.

Streaming resolution also depends on the quality of the source material. Horror streaming services have a lot of older titles that haven’t been (or can’t be) upgraded to HD or 4K, so they stream in their original resolution (480–720p).

Final take

All five horror streaming services we recommend in this guide are affordable and packed with content. Here’s what sets them apart from each other:

• Editor’s choice: Shudder has the best and scariest horror experience, but only one stream and 720p resolution.
• Best for cult horror: Horror fans who also appreciate cult action, comedy, sci-fi, and westerns will fall madly in love when Cupid shoots them in the ‘donk with the affordable, nearly perfect Arrow Player.
• Best for schlock: Full Moon Features schlock isn’t for everyone, but it’s affordable, and plenty of people will love its bizarre movies. And don’t forget the free Blu-rays offer.
• Best for cheap horror: Night Flight Plus isn’t purely for horror fans, but it has a sizable selection of spooky titles and unlimited streams for a very low price.
• Best for free horror: With 6,200 horror movies—and more good ones than you’d expect for the price, go with Tubi.

Best streaming services for horror fans FAQ

Methodology

The TV experts and horror sickos at CableTV.com have spent thousands of hours researching and testing horror movie streaming services. For this article, we compared the services’ libraries, features, and overall value so we could make accurate, insightful recommendations to our readers. For more on our process, check out the CableTV.com How We Rank page.

Endnotes

1. JustWatch.com, “All Movies and Shows on Tubi.” Accessed September 8, 2022.
2. ReelGood.com, “Full List of Movies on Full Moon Features.” September 9, 2022.