Are you self isolating? Are you thinking about broadening your cinematic horizons? Perhaps you’d like to learn about a specific genre? I’m here to help. I'm finishing up the regular Grinding the Stream columns with everything I found that wouldn't fit anywhere else (stay tuned for one last super secret entry, though).
Once again, we're looking at the big three, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, as well as smaller boutique paid services Shudder, Criterion Channel, and Fandor, and a collection of free streaming services available via Roku, Amazon Fire, Chromecast, et cetera. I compared a bunch and, for the sake of simplicity, I found the best in terms of content and video quality to be Tubi, Midnight Pulp (a "+" will be included wherever subscription fees apply), VUDU’s free selections, The Roku Channel, Shout Factory TV (though most of their titles can also be watched via Amazon Prime), Popcorn Flix, Dark Matter TV (again, a "+" will be included wherever subscription fees apply).
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. Apologies if I’ve suggested something with particularly grim A/V quality and be aware that the availability is based on the research I did on March 31st, 2020 (because I'm so close to the end of the month, I'll double check availability on these tomorrow and edit as needed). Given the nature of streaming media, I imagine very few of these titles will be available in perpetuity. I've 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) – Amazon Prime, Shudder, and Midnight Pulp
Scared to Death (William Malone, 1980) – Amazon Prime
Inseminoid (Norman J. Warren, 1981) – Midnight Pulp
Galaxy of Terror (Bruce D. Clark, 1981) – Shout Factory TV
Forbidden World (Allan Holzman, 1982) – Amazon Prime and Shout Factory TV
Creature (William Malone, 1985) – Fandor
Lily CAT (aka: LILY-C.A.T.; Hisayuki Toriumi, 1987) – Amazon Prime and Midnight Pulp (super weird Japanese animated film)
Creepozoids (David DeCoteau, 1987) – Tubi
Shocking Dark (aka: Terminator 2; Bruno Mattei, 1989) – Midnight Pulp + (this is actually a dual rip-off of Aliens *and* The Terminator)
Dark Side of the Moon (D.J. Webster, 1990) – Amazon Prime and Midnight Pulp +
Syngenor (George Elanjian Jr., 1990) – Midnight Pulp
Dead Space (Fred Gallo, 1991) – Amazon Prime and Shout Factory TV (remake of Forbidden World)
Body Snatchers and Stolen Identities
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956) – Amazon Prime
Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell (Hajime Sato, 1968) – Criterion Channel
The Stepford Wives (Bryan Forbes, 1975) – Tubi
Shivers (aka: They Came From Within, 1975) – HULU and Tubi
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978) – Amazon Prime
Dead and Buried (Gary Sherman, 1981) – Amazon Prime, Shudder, VUDU Free, and Tubi
The Stuff (Larry Cohen, 1985) – Amazon Prime, Shudder, and Tubi
Seedpeople (Peter Manoogian, 1992) – Tubi
Annihilation (Alex Garland, 2018) – HULU and Amazon Prime
Post-Apocalyptic Trash & Treasures
A Boy and his Dog (L.Q. Jones, 1975) – Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, VUDU Free, and Popcorn Flix
Black Moon (Louis Malle, 1975) – Criterion Channel
Death Race 2000 (Paul Bartel, 1975) – Criterion Channel, Fandor, and Popcorn Flix
The Aftermath (Steve Barkett, 1982) – Midnight Pulp
Warlords of the 21st Century (aka: Battletruck; Harley Cokeliss, 1982) – Amazon Prime
1990: The Bronx Warriors (Italian: 1990: I guerrieri del Bronx; Enzo G. Castellari, 1982 – Shudder and VUDU Free
Escape from the Bronx (Italian: Fuga dal Bronx; Enzo G. Castellari, 1983) – VUDU Free
Endgame (Italian: Endgame - Bronx lotta finale; Joe D’Amato, 1983) – Amazon Prime
The Exterminators of the Year 3000 (Italian: Gli sterminatori dell'anno 3000; Giuliano Carnimeo, 1983) – Amazon Prime
The New Barbarians (Italian: I nuovi barbari; aka: Warriors of the Wasteland; Enzo G. Castellari, 1983) – Amazon Prime
Prisoners of the Lost Universe (Terry Marcel, 1983) – Amazon Prime and Midnight Pulp
Rats: Night of Terror (Italian: Rats - Notte di terrore; Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso, 1984) – Amazon Prime
Warriors of the Year 2072 (Italian: I guerrieri dell'anno 2072; Lucio Fulci, 1984) – Amazon Prime
Def-Con 4 (Paul Donovan and Digby Cook, 1985) – Tubi
The Quiet Earth (Geoff Murphy, 1985) – Shudder
Wheels of Fire (Cirio H. Santiago, 1985) – Amazon Prime and Tubi
Hands of Steel (Italian: Vendetta dal futuro; Sergio Martino, 1986) – Amazon Prime
Steel Dawn (Lance Hool, 1987) – VUDU Free and Popcorn Flix
Mutant Hunt (Tim Kincaid, 1987) – Tubi
The Sisterhood (Cirio H. Santiago, 1988) – Amazon Prime
Bronx Executioner (Vanio Amici, 1989) – Amazon Prime
Delicatessen (Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro, 1991) – Amazon Prime and Criterion Channel
Tank Girl (Rachel Talalay, 1995) – Amazon Prime
Other B-Sci-Fi and Fantasy
StarCrash (Luigi Cozzi, 1978) – Amazon Prime and Shout Factory TV
Message from Space (Kinji Fukasaku, 1978) – Amazon Prime
Battle Beyond the Stars (Jimmy T. Murakami, 1980) – Shout Factory TV
Hawk the Slayer (Terry Marcel, 1980) – Tubi and Shout Factory TV
Space Raiders (Howard R. Cohen, 1983) – Amazon Prime and Shout Factory TV
Deathstalker (James Sbardellati, 1983) – Shout Factory TV
Sorceress (Jack Hill, 1986) – Shout Factory TV (a personal favorite)
Deathstalker II (Jim Wynorski, 1987) – Shout Factory TV
Nightfall (Paul Mayersberg, 1988) – Amazon Prime, Shout Factory TV, and Tubi
Doctor Mordrid (Charles and Albert Band, 1992) – Midnight Pulp and Tubi (originally designed as a Dr. Strange movie, before the Band's lost the rights)
Revisionist Westerns
I’m going to assume folks have already seen the Quinten Tarantino, P.T. Anders, and Coen Bros westerns.
The Furies (Anthony Mann, 1950) – HULU
Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray, 1954) – HULU and Amazon Prime
A Man Alone (Ray Milland, 1955) – HULU
The Deadly Companions (Sam Peckinpah, 1961) – Amazon Prime and Tubi
One-Eyed Jacks (Marlon Brando, 1961) – Amazon Prime
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1966) – Amazon Prime
The Shooting (Monte Hellman, 1966) – HULU and Tubi
Ride the Whirlwind (Monte Hellman, 1966) – Criterion Channel and Tubi
Little Big Man (Arthur Penn,1970) – Amazon Prime
Hannie Caulder (Burt Kennedy, 1971) – HULU and Amazon Prime
China 9, Liberty 37 (Monte Hellman, 1978) – Amazon Prime (almost a spaghetti western!)
Dead Man (Jim Jarmusch, 1995) – Criterion Channel
Lone Star (John Sayles, 1996) – VUDU Free
The Proposition (John Hillcoat, 2005) – Amazon Prime, VUDU Free, Tubi, and Popcorn Flix
Meek’s Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2010) – HULU, Amazon Prime, Criterion Channel, Tubi, Dark Matter TV, and Popcorn Flix
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)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: A Family Portrait (Brad Shellady, 1988) – Amazon Prime
My Best Fiend (Werner Herzog, 1999) – Fandor, Shout Factory TV, and Tubi (Herzog explores his relationship with Klaus Kinski)
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild Untold Story of Ozploitation (Mark Hartley, 2008) – Tubi
Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno (Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea, 2009) – Amazon Prime (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) – Amazon Prime and Tubi (retrospective doc about the legacy of Troll II)
Nightmares in Red, White and Blue (Andrew Monument, 2009) – Amazon Prime (general look at ‘60s/’70s American horror movies)
Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy (Andrew Kasch and Daniel Farrands, 2010) – Shudder
Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Godfather of Gore (Frank Henenlotter and Jimmy Maslon, 2010) – Criterion Collection
Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan (Gilles Penso, 2011) – Amazon Prime and Tubi
Birth of the Living Dead (Rob Kuhns, 2013) – Amazon Prime (the making of Night of the Living Dead)
Milius (Joey Figueroa and Zak Knutson, 2013) – Amazon Prime and Tubi
The Search for Weng Weng (Andrew Leavold, 2013) – Midnight Pulp
Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th (Daniel Farrands, 2013) – Shudder
That Guy Dick Miller (Elijah Drenner, 2014) – Amazon Prime and Popcorn Flix
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau (David Gregory, 2014) – Amazon Prime
Why Horror? (Nicolas Kleiman and Rob Lindsay, 2014) – Shudder (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) – Amazon Prime and Midnight Pulp (these are mediocre, but enjoyable)
Leviathan: The Story of Hellraiser and Hellbound: Hellraiser II (Kevin McDonagh, 2015) – Shudder (in two parts)
Smoke and Mirrors: The Story of Tom Savini (Jason Baker, 2015) – Shudder
De Palma (Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow, 2015) – Netflix
Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four (Marty Langford, 2015) – Amazon Prime and VUDU Free
To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story (Derek Dennis Herbert, 2017) – Amazon Prime
78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene (Alexandre O. Philippe, 2017) – HULU
Unearthed & Untold: The Path to Pet Sematary (John Campopiano and Justin White, 2017) – Tubi and Popcorn Flix
Becoming Bond (Josh Greenbaum, 2017) – HULU
King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen (Steve Mitchell, 2017) – Shudder
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)
Master of Dark Shadows (David Gregory, 2019) – Amazon Prime (documentary about Dark Shadows and Dan Curtis)
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)
Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror (Xavier Burgin, 2019) – Shudder
Not Sure How to Categorize These Ones!
Eating Raoul (Paul Bartel, 1982) – Criterion Channel (Bartel's brilliant class and cannibalism comedy)
Crimes of Passion (Ken Russell, 1984) – Amazon Prime (Russell's brilliant psychosexual dramatic comedy)
Peanut Butter Solution (Michael Rubbo, 1985) – Amazon Prime (utterly bizarre Canadian-made kiddie adventure/comedy/coming-of-age pseudo-horror movie)
The Stunt Man (Richard Rush, 1980) – Shout Factory TV (a unique genre mash-up)