The Terrifying Movies You Can Watch On Tubi Right Now
Tubi is a free, ad-supported streaming service owned by Fox that has quietly built an excellent collection of movies — especially its hundreds of horror flicks that you can watch without paying a cent. The thing is, you have to wade through a lot of direct-to-DVD junk, and Tubi's clunky interface doesn't make it easy to find the hidden gems. Fortunately, help is out there.
In a recent thread on the r/horror subreddit, user RemarkableBlood5623 asked for some horror recommendations to watch on the free streamer and received dozens of excellent suggestions from recent hits to creepy canonical classics.
User PutridPestilence1 put together a thorough list of more than 50 horror greats on Tubi. Its diverse range includes horror throwbacks from more than 50 years ago, like 1960's Peeping Tom and 1959's House on Haunted Hill. It also features new contemporary hits from Korea like Train to Busan and The Wailing, plus '80s slashers like Slumber Party Massacre and The House on Sorority Row.
This Tubi horror list is so comprehensive, in fact, that we thought we'd highlight the very best items. If you're looking for some supreme scares to watch on Tubi right now, start below.
Audition
Prolific, deranged Japanese director Takashi Miike's most (in)famous film is this hard-to-categorize nightmare from 1999, which currently sports an 82% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The film tells the story of a widower named Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi), who holds a phony film audition to find a new wife. He becomes smitten with Asami (Eihi Shiina), a peculiar young woman who won't tell him anything about her past and who makes him pledge his love to her and no one else. He gladly does, of course. But it turns out it's not enough, and Asami demands more from Aoyama — a lot more.
Audition has some of the most extreme horror you'll find anywhere. It's graphic, but it's extra disturbing because it gets in your head. The torture depicted on-screen is both psychological and physical. Plus, it has one of the most unforgettable "WTF is that?!" reveals in cinema history. The New York Times' Elvis Mitchell described the theme of the movie as "the objectification of women in Japanese society and the mirror-image horror of retribution it could create."
Hellraiser
Writer-director Clive Barker's sadomasochistic classic still thrills all these years — and sequels — later. The supernatural horror original tells the story of a man named Frank (Sean Chapman) who seeks new, more extreme carnal experiences. He eventually gets transported to the realm of the Cenobites, bizarre creatures who can't distinguish pain from pleasure and who are led by the imposing demon Pinhead (Doug Bradley). Frank escapes their realm and links back up with Julia (Clare Higgins), his brother's wife with whom he had a torrid affair. Meanwhile, the Cenobites go looking for Frank and enlist the help of Julia's stepdaughter, Kirsty (Ashley Laurence), to find him.
It's a twisted, psychosexual gore-fest, with unforgettable character design and special effects courtesy of designer Bob Keen and his team. Released in 1987, Hellraiser spawned a franchise with nine sequels, three of which are also available on Tubi — Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Hellraiser: Revelations, and the most recent installment, 2018's Hellraiser: Judgment. Cenobite fans may also want to keep an eye out for the HBO Hellraiser series in development.
Intruder
This rather obscure but memorable slasher takes place over the course of one night, and makes great use of its setting: a locked grocery store where the crazed killer picks off the employees one by one.
Filmmaker Scott Spiegel made his directorial debut and co-wrote the screenplay with producer Lawrence Bender, who went on to produce movies like the documentary An Inconvenient Truth and all of Quentin Tarantino's movies until Inglourious Basterds. Spiegel actually used his experiences from working at a grocery story in rural Michigan as inspiration for the script.
None other than horror legend Sam Raimi, who also co-wrote Evil Dead 2 with Spiegel, has a supporting role in the film. Intruder also stars Elizabeth Cox, Dan Hicks, David Byrnes, and Renée Estevez — the third-most-famous child of fellow actor Martin Sheen. The cult classic film is renowned for its creative use of slasher tropes, off-kilter humor, and satisfying kills.