Editorials
11 Great Made for TV Horror Movies You Can Stream Right Now
Before the advent of the digital age in media, made-for-television movies were event TV. They were a smart way to get family and friends to stay home and gather around the television. The ’60s through the early ’90s marked a boom of horror on the small screen, offering memorable -and some forgotten- gems that proved terror didn’t have to have a big Hollywood budget to be effective.
Even with lower budgets and programming limitations, some of the best horror emerged from the small screen. A lack of gore, nudity, and graphic violence won’t hinder a good scare, after all. What’s more, the format would allow filmmakers and storytellers to push the envelope in absolutely gonzo ways to compensate. Meaning that the made-for-TV movie could be downright frightening, but it could also be pure insanity.
These eleven made-for-TV movies run the gamut in horror. Some elicit chills, and some go off the rails into eccentricity. From ghosts to creatures to killers, there’s something for everyone. Best of all, you can stream them now and recreate that event TV nostalgia.
Invitation to Hell – Tubi
Months before Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street released in theaters, his bizarre made-for-TV sci-fi horror movie aired on ABC. Engineer Matt Winslow (Robert Urich) moves with his wife, Patricia (Joanna Cassidy), and children, Chrissy (Soleil Moon Frye) and Robert (Barret Oliver), to a new suburban community. He’s a workaholic so consumed by his job project in creating a thermal space suit that he doesn’t notice that something is quite off about the idyllic community and country club director Jessica Jones (Susan Lucci). The more Jessica woos his family, the stranger things get. Up until the bonkers final act, in which Matt descends into Hell, it’s a mostly standard horror movie with Lucci going full camp as the villainess. Though, that finale in Hell is out there. Invitation to Hell also earned a Primetime Emmy nomination, so 1984 belonged to Craven.
Satan’s School for Girls – Tubi, Prime Video
Following the suicide of her sister, Elizabeth (Pamela Franklin) enrolls in her sister’s school to find out what happened. Her investigation finds her in the crosshairs of a Satanic cult. Director David Lowell Rich built an extensive career directing made-for-TV movies, including The Horror at 37,000 Feet. While this 1973 movie might be dated in many aspects, Rich knew how to create atmosphere, and there are a few genuinely creepy moments. Producer Aaron Spelling (Charlie’s Angels, Melrose Place) produced the made-for-TV remake in 2000, too.
Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell – Tubi
Richard Crenna stars as Mike Barry, the patriarch of a family that just lost their beloved pup. They decide to get a new one, unaware that it’s been bred and used in a Satanic ritual that renders it possessed by evil. That’s right. This cute puppy is a minion of Satan, and it’s looking to wreak demonic mayhem. It’s up to dad to save the day. Luckily, that dad is played by Richard Crenna. While it has a silly title and the low budget shows some seams, Devil Dog offers up some Satanic fun and a few spooky moments. Assault on Precinct 13 and The Car’s Kim Richards also stars as Mike Barry’s daughter.
Trilogy of Terror – Prime Video
Directed by Dan Curtis and starring Karen Black, this anthology horror film is based on short stories by Richard Matheson. It was the film that Black felt led to her being typecast in horror, and it’s easy to understand why. Playing the lead in all three segments, each a different character, Black played a femme fatale, an unhinged woman with split personalities, and most memorably, a woman who finds independence from her overbearing mother thanks to the help of a pint-sized aboriginal warrior. That Zuni fetish doll, with its razor-sharp teeth and little spear, is the stuff of nightmares. Admittedly, the first two segments tend to be forgettable. Still, the strength of “Amelia,” and her fight for her life against one of the scariest dolls in movie history, keep this one forever at the forefront of made-for-television movie memory.
How Awful About Allan – Prime Video
A TV horror movie starring Anthony Perkins doesn’t need much else to pique your curiosity. Perkins stars as the eponymous Allan, a tormented man who has psychosomatic blindness after his father died in a fire he unwittingly caused. Once released from his stay at a mental facility, he moves in with his sister. She’s also taken in a stranger. When Allan begins hearing strange voices and whispers, he’s unsure whether someone is out to get him or if he’s suffered a mental relapse. The Haunting’s Julie Harris stars as his sister, Katherine. This pick is for fans of slow burn psychological horror. It’s much more interested in creating ambiguous atmosphere than scares. Once again, though, Perkins fully commits.
Dead of Night (1977) – Shudder, Prime Video, Tubi
Like Trilogy of Terror, this horror anthology was also helmed by Dan Curtis and scripted by horror author Richard Matheson. It also features three tales of terror; one involving time travel, the second a vampire, and the last a story about a mother that wishes her dead child back to life. The latter of which was updated and reused in Trilogy of Terror II. When it comes to TV horror, it doesn’t get much more reliable than when Curtis is involved, and he knows how to arrange an anthology. Like Trilogy of Terror, he saves the best segment for last. “Bobby” is some creepy stuff.
The Spell – Prime Video
If the ’70s taught us anything, it’s that bullies are best dealt with through telekinesis. Poor 15-year-old Rita is frequently bullied by her schoolmates for being overweight. She discovers she has telekinetic powers and begins to seek vengeance. The Spell aired on NBC in 1977, drawing inevitable comparisons to Carrie, though writer Brian Taggert attempted to develop the project for theatrical release before Brian De Palma’s movie released. Despite the similarities, there are key differences. The biggest of which is that Rita’s mother isn’t a monster like Margaret White. Look for young Helen Hunt playing Rita’s sister.
Summer of Fear – Prime Video
Also known as Stranger in Our House, this is Wes Craven’s more recognizable television movie. That’s probably because it’s based on a novel by famous author Lois Duncan, and stars Linda Blair. Lee Purcell also stars as Julia, a teen taken in by her aunt and uncle after her parents’ death. Her cousin Rachel (Blair) is initially excited to have a girl her age around but quickly becomes suspicious after a string of accidents and unlucky coincidences. Rachel soon discovers Julia might be an evil witch. Evil teen witches make for a fun, somewhat campy movie. There’s no real suspense or scares, but the wacky series of events more than compensates. Also, look for an early performance by Fran Drescher.
When a Stranger Calls Back – Prime Video
One of the earliest examples of a sequel far superior to its predecessor, this under-seen cable movie delivers severe tension starting with one of horror’s best openings of all time. If you haven’t seen the original film, that’s okay; this stands on its own just fine and fills in the necessary blanks. Jill Schoelen (The Stepfather, Cutting Class) stars as this outing’s babysitter, the target of an unseen stranger when left to care for two sleeping kids. While the first film delivered the iconic, “The calls are coming from inside the house” trope, this sequel goes to surprising and unnerving places. Airing on Showtime in 1993, When a Stranger Calls Back offers up one of the most eccentric killers of the decade. And that’s saying a lot.
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane – Prime Video
On Halloween, teen Rynn Jacobs (Jodie Foster) celebrates her thirteenth birthday alone in her father Lester’s house. It’s clear to everyone that aside from Rynn’s frequent solitude, the 13-year-old is also harboring a dark secret. The landlord and her son, Frank Hallet (Martin Sheen), are determined to find out what it is. Despite the PG rating, this small screen flick is rather mature and provocative. His sexual advances render a psychological cat and mouse chase between the adult Frank and young Rynn all the creepier. A pedophiliac villain would be warped enough, but Rynn has some disturbing skeletons in her closet. That Foster and Sheen play the leads further elevates this unique movie into something memorable. Edit: This one wasn’t actually made for TV, though a less explicit version did air on TV.
Gargoyles – Tubi
Dr. Mercer Boley (Cornel Wilde) and his daughter Diana (Jennifer Salt) are traveling in New Mexico for his work. They come upon a colony of actual living gargoyles, and they’re quite unfriendly. These aren’t the Gothic cathedral variety, but evil, demonic beings of folklore. It’s a creepy monster movie that doesn’t bother with any layered story, just monster-induced chaos. That’s okay! Legendary makeup artist Stan Winston handled the gargoyle makeup, earning him his very first feature film credit. Gargoyles won the 1973 Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Makeup. By today’s standards, Gargoyles may not terrify as effectively as it did when it aired on CBS in 1972, but it left an indelible traumatic mark on the generation that caught it on air.
Found footage movies rely on immersion and a particular kind of suspension of disbelief in order to scare viewers, so it stands to reason that playing along with the “kayfabe” of it all is necessary for these movies to be effective. However, despite being something of a purist when it comes to in-universe recordings, I’ve come to accept that traditional productions can benefit from the occasional injection of found footage thrills.
For instance, Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation makes genius use of the analog gimmick in order to trap us in the titular rooms alongside our main characters before effortlessly switching back to a more cinematic language. In honor of these dynamic films that manage to combine the best of both worlds, today I’d like to share six other hybrid horror movies that successfully incorporate found footage into their scares!
For the purposes of this list, “hybrid” horror movies are defined as any flick that shifts between diegetic recordings and traditional filming techniques for a significant amount of time (or at least for pivotal scenes).
As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own hybrid favorites if you think a particularly freaky one was missed.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. The Last Broadcast (1998)
Internet critics may have overstated the influence that Stefan Avalos and Lance Weiler’s The Last Broadcast had on The Blair Witch Project, but the found footage subgenre still owes a huge debt to this underrated piece of avant-garde filmmaking. However, while the movie sets itself up as a documentary about the disappearance of a group of cryptid-hunters attempting to track down the Jersey Devil, things take a darker and much more grounded turn towards the final act.
I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoilers, but suffice to say that the jarring shift in perspective actually helps to sell the idea that everything we’ve seen before the finale was an attempt at using filmmaking to manipulate the public perception of a “real” incident.
Not bad for a movie with a $900 budget!
4. Cam (2018)
When you consider just how much the internet affects our daily lives, it’s strange that we don’t see Screenlife elements pop up in more movies these days. For instance, Isa Mazzei & Daniel Goldhaber’s highly underrated Cam only works as a freaky parable about online sex-work because it masterfully balances Madeline Brewer’s intimate moments with highly immersive segments within cyberspace.
While one might argue that the entire film could have been produced as a Screenlife experience, the hybrid approach allows the filmmakers to explore our main character’s life beyond the screens – with the duality of modern human existence actually becoming a recurring theme in the story.
3. Banshee Chapter (2013)
Most of H.P. Lovecraft’s popular stories were told in the epistolary format (where the text is presented as an in-universe compilation of letters or personal notes), so it makes sense that a spiritually faithful adaptation of his work would incorporate elements from the modern-day equivalent to epistolary fiction – found footage!
That’s why Blair Erickson’s Banshee Chapter is such an effective scare-fest, as this hybrid adaptation of From Beyond -retold through a conspiratorial lens as it references MK-Ultra and even secretive numbers stations- immerses viewers in a mind-bending tapestry of Cosmic Horror that blurs the line between fiction and reality.
2. The Deep House (2019)
The underwater setting does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s The Deep House, with the film being especially uncomfortable if you’re already scared of tight spaces and being deprived of oxygen. However, even the universally unsettling elements of the flick only work because the POV often shifts into claustrophobic footage courtesy of our main characters’ GoPro cameras.
Telling the story of a couple of YouTubers who encounter a haunted house at the bottom of an artificial lake while vacationing in France, The Deep House’s first-person exploration sequences contain some of the film’s scariest moments. In fact, I’d argue that the movie didn’t even need ghosts, as becoming trapped in the titular House already sounds like a fate worse than death.
1. Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon (2006)
My personal favorite instance of filmmakers successfully managing to combine traditional cinematography with POV filmmaking, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, is proof that the two formats can co-exist if the right story comes along.
After all, what better way to conclude a mockumentary all about reality getting increasingly more cinematic than by ditching the found footage gimmick altogether during the finale? Not only does this shift in presentation work on a conceptual level, but it also elevates Behind The Mask into a proper Slasher, which is probably why we’re so excited for that long-overdue sequel!
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