As films from Village Of The Damned to The Omen to this year’s Tales Of Halloween have made very clear, children are duplicitous little instruments of Satan who should not be trusted. Therefore, your best strategy when the little hellions begin descending upon neighborhoods across the country tomorrow night is to draw the curtains, lock the door, turn down the lights and settle in for a scary movie or 12. We’ve collected a guide to streaming the titles featured in this year’s Horrors Week here at The A.V. Club, so pop some popcorn, crack the beverage of your choice—adult or otherwise—and enjoy.
After reading Jesse Hassenger’s essay on the mid-’90s attempts to update Universal monsters for an adult audience, you can start with a triple feature of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Wolf, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, although you’ll have to pay for individual rentals of all of them on Amazon. Similarly, to form your own opinions on this week’s Crosstalk subject, The Cabin In The Woods, you’ll have to pay for a digital rental on Amazon or iTunes, as you will to watch Stanley Kubrick’s version of The Shining.
Nathan Rabin’s essay on Tales From The Hood, on the other hand, can be supplemented with a viewing of the movie on Hulu (although you’ll have to shell out for the premium Showtime tier), and Randall Colburn’s defense of found-footage horror might inspire you to watch The Blair Witch Project on Hulu as well. Noel Murray’s thoughts on what he deems “unbeatable horrors” can be supplemented with The Babadook on Netflix. It Follows—also the subject of this week’s Scenic Routes feature—is not yet available on streaming, but iTunes is offering a special $0.99 rental of the film this weekend, so no excuses.
Out of the anthology horror movies featured in this week’s Watch This feature, only Tales From The Darkside (Netflix) and Fear(s) Of The Dark (YouTube) are on streaming. (Several of the Witchcraft movies are available for free streaming on Amazon Prime, but besides the deliciously overripe cheese of Witchcraft V: Dance With The Devil, we can’t be held responsible for what happens if you do.)
If you’d like to spend your weekend catching up on The A.V. Club’s top 25 horror films since 2000, meanwhile, you might be well served to subscribe to Shudder. It’s the only streaming service to offer our No. 1 pick, Audition—as well as our No. 13 and No. 18 picks, Pulse and Kill List— and has a special curated selection of Halloween-appropriate titles, besides. Here’s the full list:
25. Martyrs (digital rental only)
24. Ginger Snaps (Hulu)
23. The Strangers (digital rental only)
22. The Others (Netflix)
21. 28 Weeks Later (digital rental only)
20. May (digital rental only)
19. Wolf Creek (digital rental only)
18. Kill List (Shudder)
17. The Host (Netflix, Shudder)
16. Trouble Every Day (Fandor)
15. The Devil’s Backbone (digital rental only)
14. The Cabin In The Woods (digital rental only)
13. Pulse (Shudder)
12. The Ring (digital rental only)
11. The Orphanange (digital rental only)
10. Inside (digital rental only)
9. Let The Right One In (Netflix, Shudder)
8. Cure (Hulu)
7. The Descent (Hulu)
6. Drag Me To Hell (digital rental only)
5. 28 Days Later (digital rental only)
4. The House Of The Devil (Hulu, Shudder)
3. The Babadook (Netflix)
2. It Follows (Rental only; $0.99 on iTunes)
1. Audition (Shudder)
Tales From The Crypt, meanwhile, still isn’t on streaming, so if you need us, we’ll be writing angry, pun-filled emails to HBO. Happy Halloween!