Welcome to the end of summer on the stream! As per usual, I'm including as many movies as I can per each category as I scour Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, HBO Max, Peacock, Fandor, Shudder, Arrow Video, Tubi, Midnight Pulp (a "+" will be included wherever subscription fees apply), VUDU’s free selections, The Roku Channel, Popcorn Flix, Crackle, Dark Matter TV, Night Flight, and Shout Factory TV. This month I've also added Paramount+ and AMC+.
Again, be warned – all of the free apps have ad breaks (I know, it sucks) and the video quality is inconsistent from app to app. Sometimes it's genuine HD, other times, it's sub-VHS. I've also included links to my own reviews of some of these films.
Alien Rip-Offs
Movies inspired by Ridley Scott's film are simply a personal favorite specific subgenre and most of the "best" ones are, surprisingly, available streaming
Contamination (Luigi Cozzi, 1980) – Arrow, Pluto TV, and Tubi
Scared to Death (William Malone, 1980) – Tubi
Inseminoid (Norman J. Warren, 1981) – Arrow, Pluto TV, Shout Factory TV, and Tubi
Galaxy of Terror (Bruce D. Clark, 1981) – Shout Factory TV and Tubi
Forbidden World (Allan Holzman, 1982) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV), Shout Factory TV, and Tubi
Creature (William Malone, 1985) – Paramount+, Roku Channel, Fandor, and Tubi
Lily CAT (aka: LILY-C.A.T.; Hisayuki Toriumi, 1987) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV), Roku Channel, Midnight Pulp, and Tubi (super weird Japanese animated film)
Creepozoids (David DeCoteau, 1987) – Tubi
Shocking Dark (aka: Terminator 2; Bruno Mattei, 1989) – Night Flight, Midnight Pulp +, and Tubi (this is actually a dual rip-off of Aliens *and* The Terminator)
Dark Side of the Moon (D.J. Webster, 1990) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV), VUDU Free, Midnight Pulp + and Tubi
Dead Space (Fred Gallo, 1991) – Tubi (remake of Forbidden World)
BONUS: Robowar (Bruno Mattei, 1988) – Tubi (Bruno Mattei's very precise rip-off of Predator)
Body Snatchers and Stolen Identities
Invaders from Mars (William Cameron Menzies, 1953) – Tubi
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956) – Amazon Prime, Paramount +, Pluto TV, and Crackle
The Brain Eaters (Bruno VeSota, 1958) – Pluto TV and Tubi
Planet of the Vampires (Italian: Terrore nello spazio; Mario Bava,1965) – Paramount +
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (Hajime Sato, 1968) – Criterion Channel
The Stepford Wives (Bryan Forbes, 1975) – Tubi
Shivers (aka: They Came From Within; David Cronenberg, 1975) – Criterion Channel, Roku Channel, Tubi, and Popcorn Flix
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978) – Amazon Prime and Pluto TV
Contamination (aka: Alien Contamination; Luigi Cozzi, 1980 – Arrow, Pluto TV, and Tubi
Dead and Buried (Gary Sherman, 1981) – Amazon Prime, Shudder, AMC+, VUDU Free, and Tubi
Starman (John Carpenter, 1984) – Pluto TV
The Stuff (Larry Cohen, 1985) – Arrow and Tubi
Lifeforce (Tobe Hooper, 1985) – Pluto TV
Invaders from Mars (Tobe Hooper, 1986) – Pluto TV
Seedpeople (Peter Manoogian, 1992) – Tubi and Night Flight
Star Trek: First Contact (Jonathan Frakes, 1996) – Paramount + and AMC+
The Faculty (Robert Rodriguez, 1998) – Paramount + and Pluto TV
Virus (John Bruno, 1999) – Tubi
Decoys (Matthew Hastings, 2004) – The Roku Channel
Slither (James Gunn, 2006) – Amazon Prime and Tubi
Annihilation (Alex Garland, 2018) – Paramount +
Assimilate (John Murlowski, 2019) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV), The Roku Channel, VUDU Free, and Tubi
Post-Apocalyptic Trash & Treasures
The Bed Sitting Room (Richard Lester, 1969) – Paramount +
Gas-s-s-s! (Roger Corman, 1970) – Paramount +
A Boy and his Dog (L.Q. Jones, 1975) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV), Pluto TV, Shout Factory TV, and Crackle
Black Moon (Louis Malle, 1975) – Criterion Channel
Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel, 1975) – Popcorn Flix and Tubi
Deathsport (Allan Arkush, Roger Corman, and Nicholas Niciphor, 1978) – Amazon Prime, Tubi, and Shout Factory TV
Mad Max (George Miller, 1979) – Paramount + and HULU
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (George Miller, 1981) – HBO Max
The Aftermath (Steve Barkett, 1982) – Midnight Pulp
Warlords of the 21st Century (aka: Battletruck; Harley Cokeliss, 1982) – Tubi
1990: The Bronx Warriors (Italian: 1990: I guerrieri del Bronx; Enzo G. Castellari, 1982) – VUDU Free, Night Flight, and Tubi
Escape from the Bronx (Italian: Fuga dal Bronx; Enzo G. Castellari, 1983) – Amazon Prime, VUDU Free, Night Flight, and Tubi
The New Barbarians (Italian: I nuovi barbari; Enzo G. Castellari, 1983) – Night Flight and Tubi
The Exterminators of the Year 3000 (Italian: Gli sterminatori dell'anno 3000; Giuliano Carnimeo, 1983) – Shout Factory TV and Tubi
Stryker (Cirio H. Santiago, 1983) – The Roku Channel
Prisoners of the Lost Universe (Terry Marcel, 1983) – Tubi
Rats: Night of Terror (Italian: Rats: Notte di terrore; aka: Blood Kill; Bruno Mattei, 1983) – Tubi
Warriors of the Year 2072 (Italian: I guerrieri dell'anno 2072; Lucio Fulci, 1984) – Amazon Prime
Wheels of Fire (Cirio H. Santiago, 1985) – Tubi
Def-Con 4 (Paul Donovan & Digby Cook, 1985) – Tubi
The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy, 1985) – Tubi
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (George Ogilvie and George Miller,1985) – HBO Max
She (Avi Nesher, 1985) – Paramount +
Land of Doom (Peter Maris, 1986) – Paramount +
Equalizer 2000 (Cirio H. Santiago, 1987) – Shout Factory TV and Tubi
Steel Dawn (Lance Hool, 1987) – Tubi and VUDU Free
Mutant Hunt (Tim Kincaid, 1987) – Tubi
Hell Comes to Frogtown (R.J. Kizer, Donald G. Jackson, 1988) – Shudder, AMC+, and Tubi
The Sisterhood (Cirio H. Santiago, 1988) – Tubi
Empire of Ash (Lloyd A. Simandl & Michael Mazo, 1988) – VUDU Free
Dune Warriors (Cirio H. Santiago, 1991) – Shout Factory TV and Tubi
Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro, 1991) – Amazon Prime
Raiders of the Sun (Cirio H. Santiago, 1992) – Tubi
Tank Girl (Rachel Talalay, 1995) – Amazon Prime
Other B-Sci-Fi and Fantasy
StarCrash (Luigi Cozzi, 1978) – Pluto TV and Tubi
Message from Space (Kinji Fukasaku, 1978) – Paramount +
Eyes Behind the Stars (Italian: Occhi dalle stelle; Mario Gariazzo, 1978) – Shout Factory TV and Tubi
Battle Beyond the Stars (Jimmy T. Murakami, 1980) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV), VUDU Free, Pluto TV, Shout Factory TV, and Tubi
Hawk the Slayer (Terry Marcel, 1980) – Shout Factory TV and Tubi
Space Raiders (Howard R. Cohen, 1983) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV) and Tubi
Deathstalker (James Sbardellati, 1983) – Shout Factory TV and Tubi
Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (Héctor Olivera, 1985) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV) and Tubi
Sorceress (Jack Hill, 1986) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV) and Tubi (a personal favorite)
Deathstalker II (Jim Wynorski, 1987) – Shout Factory TV and Tubi
Nightfall (Paul Mayersberg, 1988) – Tubi
Doctor Mordrid (Charles and Albert Band, 1992) – Pluto TV and Tubi (originally designed as a Dr. Strange movie, before the Band's lost the rights)
Revisionist Westerns
I Shout Jesse James (Sam Fuller, 1949) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
The Furies (Anthony Mann, 1950) – HULU and Paramount +
Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954) – HULU, Amazon Prime, and Paramount +
Man with the Gun (Richard Wilson, 1955) – Tubi, Pluto TV, and The Roku Channel
A Man Alone (Ray Milland, 1955) – HULU and Paramount +
The Deadly Companions (Sam Peckinpah, 1961) – Amazon Prime, Paramount +, Pluto TV, and Tubi
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962) – HULU and Paramount +
One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961) – VUDU Free, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, and Tubi
Cat Ballou (Elliot Silverstein, 1965) – The Roku Channel
The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) – HBO Max, Criterion Channel, The Roku Channel, and Tubi
Ride the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) – Criterion Channel, The Roku Channe, and Tubi
Little Big Man (Arthur Penn,1970) – Amazon Prime
Hannie Caulder (Burt Kennedy, 1971) – HULU, Amazon Prime, and Paramount +
The Hunting Party (Don Medford, 1971) – Amazon Prime
Chato's Land (Michael Winner, 1972) – Amazon Prime
China 9, Liberty 37 (Sam Peckinpah, 1978) – Pluto TV
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max
The Proposition (John Hillcoat, 2005) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV), The Roku Channe, VUDU Free, Tubi, Pluto TV, Crackle, and Popcorn Flix
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010) – HULU, Criterion Channel, Amazon Prime, Tubi, VUDU Free, Dark Matter TV, Crackle, and Popcorn Flix
Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012) – Netflix, Peacock, The Roku Channe, VUDU Free, and Pluto TV
The Nightingale (Jennifer Kent, 2018) – HULU
Documentaries About Cult Movies
Burden of Dreams (Les Blank, 1982) – Criterion Collection (the making of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo) – Criterion Channel
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait (Brad Shellady, 1988) – VUDU Free and Tubi
Reflections on the Living Dead (aka: Night of the Living Dead: 25th Anniversary Documentary, Thomas Brown, 1993) – Midnight Pulp
Flesh and Blood: The Hammer Heritage of Horror (Ted Newsom, 1994) – Night Flight and Tubi
My Best Fiend (Werner Herzog, 1999) – Tubi (Herzog explores his relationship with Klaus Kinski)
The American Nightmare (Adam Simon, 2000) – YouTube
Ban the Sadist Videos! (David Gregory, 2005) – Arrow
The Spaghetti West (David Gregory, 2005) – YouTube
The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels (Kevin Sean Michaels, 2008) – Tubi
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (Mark Hartley, 2008) – Amazon Prime, VUDU Free, Pluto TV, and Tubi
Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno (Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea, 2009) – Arrow (the story behind Clouzot’s unfinished film)
I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale (Richard Shepard, 2009) – Fandor
Best Worst Movie (Michael Stephenson, 2009) – VUDU Free, Crackle, and Tubi (retrospective doc about the legacy of Troll II)
Nightmares in Red, White and Blue (Andrew Monument, 2009) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV), Arrow, Pluto TV, and Tubi (general look at ‘60s/’70s American horror movies)
Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape (Jake West, 2010) – Arrow (extensive look at the Video Nasties phenomenon)
American Grindhouse (Elijah Drenner, 2011) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV), Pluto TV, and Tubi (general look at grindhouse films)
Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan (Gilles Penso, 2011) – Arrow and Tubi
Birth of the Living Dead (Rob Kuhns, 2013) – Pluto TV and Tubi (the making of Night of the Living Dead)
Milius (Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson, 2013) – Pluto TV, VUDU Free, and Tubi
The Search for Weng Weng (Andrew Leavold, 2013) – Midnight Pulp, VUDU Free, Night Flight, and Tubi
Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (Daniel Farrands, 2013) – Shudder and AMC+
I am Divine (Jeffrey Schwarz, 2013) – Netflix and Tubi
Video Nasties: Draconian Days (Jake West, 2010) – Arrow (a sequel/expansion)
That Guy Dick Miller (Elijah Drenner, 2014) – Amazon Prime, VUDU Free, Popcorn Flix, and Tubi
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau (David Gregory, 2014) – Shudder, AMC+, VUDU Free, and Tubi
Why Horror? (Nicolas Kleiman and Rob Lindsay, 2014) – AMC+ (horror fandom and psychology)
Monster Madness (three parts: The Golden Age of the Horror Film, The Gothic Revival of Horror, and Mutants, Space Invaders & Drive-Ins; Jeff Herberger, 2015) – Midnight Pulp and Tubi (these are mediocre, but enjoyable)
Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini (Jason Baker, 2015) – Shudder and AMC+
Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four (Marty Langford, 2015) – VUDU Free, Popcorn Flix, and Tubi
They Came from the Swamp: The Films of William Grefé (Daniel Griffithm, 2016) – Arrow
At the Drive-In (Alexander Monelli, 2017) – VUDU Free, Night Flight, Midnight Pulp, and Tubi (about drive-in theaters, not the band from El Paso)
To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story (Derek Dennis Herbert, 2017) – Shudder, AMC+, VUDU Free, Crackle, and Tubi
78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene (Alexandre O. Philippe, 2017) – HULU
Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary (John Campopiano and Justin White, 2017) – Popcorn Flix and Tubi
Becoming Bond (Josh Greenbaum, 2017) – HULU
King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen (Steve Mitchell, 2017) – VUDU Free and Tubi
They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead (Morgan Neville, 2018) – Netflix (the making of Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind)
Shirkers (Sandi Tan, 2018) – Netflix (story of an unfinished, teen-made Singaporean indie movie)
All the Colors of Giallo (documentary about gialli; Federico Caddeo, 2019) – Midnight Pulp + and Tubi
The Dawn of the Kaiju Eiga (Jonathan Bellés, 2019) – Midnight Pulp (mostly about Godzilla movies)
Memory: The Origins of Alien (Alexandre O. Philippe, 2019) – Crackle and Popcorn Flix
Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (Xavier Burgin, 2019) – Shudder and AMC+
Making Apes: The Artists Who Changed Film (William Conlin, 2019) – Amazon Prime (via imdbTV), VUDU Free, Pluto TV, and Tubi (documentary about Planet of the Apes make-up)
Cursed Films ( Jay Cheel, 2019) – Shudder (five part series)
Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street (Roman Chimienti and Tyler Jensen, 2019) – Shudder and AMC+
Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death of Al Adamson (David Gregory, 2019) – Shudder, AMC+, and Tubi
Fulci for Fake (Simone Scafidi, 2019) – Midnight Pulp + and Tubi
Not Sure How to Categorize These Ones!
Eating Raoul (Paul Bartel, 1982) – Criterion Channel and HBO Max (Bartel's brilliant class and cannibalism comedy)
Peanut Butter Solution (Michael Rubbo, 1985) – Night Flight, The Roku Channel, and Tubi (utterly bizarre, Canadian-made kiddie adventure/comedy/coming-of-age pseudo-horror movie)
The Stunt Man (Richard Rush, 1980) – HBO Max and Popcorn Flix (a unique genre mash-up)