Welcome to Horrorscope, a monthly column keeping horror nerds and initiates up to date on all the horror content coming to and leaving your favorite streaming services. Here’s what horror to stream in January 2024:
New year, same tenacious desire to watch as many horror movies as possible.
Welcome, friends, to a new year, and a new opportunity to make your Letterboxd statistics as bloody as a butcher’s shop. I’m told that habits are formed over time, so get that horror-watching routine started with our breakdown of what’s going on in the world of horror streaming this month.
Be sure to peruse the complete list below, calendar in hand, for a full picture of what horror movies are coming and going from your favorite streaming services in January 2024.
Please keep in mind that all dates listed below may not apply to viewers outside the US.
The streaming service champion of the month is Shudder, who reminded me this month of what they do best: balancing hot new releases (e.g. Destroy All Neighbors) with dusty gems in need of some love (e.g. Blue Eyes of a Broken Doll). It’s not your fault that AMC Networks cut 20% of its workforce in 2022. You’re doing your best and we see you.
The streaming service dunce of the month is Disney+ because the sky is blue and the sun rises in the east. These goobers rarely add any horror content to their slop trough and I’m going to continue to call them out on it.
Synopsis: A kitty cat, a knight, and a magical girl from beyond the stars band together to thwart the evil machinations of a massive alien mold monster that wants to take over planet Earth.
If that plot summary didn’t grab you, suck on this: The Cat was directed by Lam Nai-Choi, a.k.a. the madman behind Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky. Bursting with trademark Golden Harvest insanity, The Cat is a goopy, brain-melting experience that must be seen to be believed.
While it’s unabashed uniqueness suggests otherwise, The Cat is actually part of an unofficial franchise of book-to-screen adaptations following Ni Kuang‘s intrepid protagonist Wisely. If you’re looking for a good Wisely double bill, the most well-known film adaptation in the series is undoubtedly 1986’s The Seventh Curse, which (1) was also directed by Nai-Choi and (2) is often hailed as Hong Kong’s answer to Evil Dead II.
Available to stream on The Criterion Channel on January 1.
Synopsis: Renowned plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard is obsessed with his latest invention: ultra-resilient artificial skin. Shunned by his colleagues for partaking in human experimentation, Ledgard uses Vera, a mysterious captive woman, as a test subject.
Part high-camp telenovela, part Frankenstein riff, and entirely unforgettable, 2011’s The Skin I Live In is a divisive, visceral horror-thriller that is, to date, the only genre foray of the Spanish auteur. A damn shame, considering the horrific mélange of influences, visual ideas, and identity horror Pedro Almodóvar displays here.
While the specifics should remain a mystery to first time watchers, it’s worth knowing that The Skin I Live In suffers from a degree of (unwarranted) controversy for certain LGTBQ+ themes. This is rich considering Almodóvar’s career-long focus on queer stories beyond his own experience as a gay man, as well as his longstanding commitment to normalizing queer identities on-screen. But at the end of the day, you should watch the film for yourself and make up your own mind. For my money, The Skin I Live In is one of the best horror films of the 2010s. We should be so lucky if Almodóvar ever chooses to return to the genre.
Available to stream on Tubi on January 1.
Synopsis: Bad dog! There are oodles of murderous poodles in the horror genre: family pets go wrong, werewolves stalk the streets, and rabid mutts slobber over fresh meat. Cult-focused streaming service ARROW throws us a bone with a collection of dog-focused horror films that turn man’s best friend into his worst nightmare.
I don’t know if ARROW and The Criterion Channel are in cahoots, but the cat movie collection and this dog-focused collection coming out in the same month is all the evidence I need that 2024 is going to be a good year. Including films like The Pack, Wolf Guy, and Madhouse, ARROW is barking up the right tree. Sure, there are plenty of horror movies with heroic pooches. But horror fans know that masochistic mutts are equally entertaining.
Available to stream on ARROW on January 26.
Synopsis: An ex-con plagued by visions of strangling women is hired as a caretaker at a massive country estate owned by three eccentric blue-eyed sisters. Not long after the drifter’s arrival, the women fall prey to a serial killer who likes leaving eyeballs in bowls of water like pale, ocular olives in a martini glass. Surely the drifter is guilty of these horrifying murders, right? Right?!
Boasting the much cooler alternative title House of Psychotic Women, Carlos Aured’s Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll exists somewhere between a giallo and a soap opera. Which means that it absolutely rules. The film enjoys the notoriety of being dubbed a “video nasty” by the British government and stars crafty Spaniard slasher star Paul Naschy as its very-guilty-looking drifter — who discerning readers might remember from the stupendously silly The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman.
If you’re like me, a twisty title, a good mystery, and some solid kills are a sleeper-cell activation phrase. This would make an inspired “weird nymphomaniac sisters in a mansion” double bill with Andy Warhol’s Dracula or, if ya nasty, The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!
Available to stream on Shudder on January 15.
Related Topics: Horror, Horrorscope, streaming
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Rachel Marsden
Donald Low
Bradley Blankenship
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
Abbas Juma
Michael Kwet
visit website
