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Five Summer Themed Horror Movies to Stream This Week

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Summer Themed Horror - Psycho Beach Party

The Fourth of July holiday is here, which means summer is officially in full swing. It’s the season for road trips, beach excursions, weekend getaways, and summer camps. All things horror finds creative, bloody ways to exploit for our entertainment.

This week’s streaming picks bring the summer themed horror fun through bloodletting and terror, from creature features to intense thrillers. Let’s spill some blood in the sand, shall we?

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.


Jaws – Peacock

Jaws

If you’re looking to celebrate the Fourth of July with horror, Steven Spielberg’s quintessential shark horror movie arguably makes for definitive holiday horror viewing. Set over the Fourth of July weekend, one massive man-eating shark threatens to ruin tourist season for Amity Island. It’s up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and a shark hunter to intervene in this suspenseful feature that makes everyone afraid to go into the water. Stay cool inside with the air conditioner and watch the film that kickstarted shark horror – and the summer blockbuster – instead.


Joy Ride – Hulu

Joy Ride

Candy Cane? Hey, anybody know a Candy Cane?” A long summer road trip leads to boredom for college kids Lewis (Paul Walker) and Venna (Leelee Sobieski) and Lewis’s estranged brother Fuller (Steve Zahn). For entertainment, they play a prank via CB radio on a truck driver nicknamed Rusty Nail, luring him to a motel room while posing as seductive woman Candy Cane. They quickly realize they chose the wrong person to humiliate. A laid-back summer road trip turns into an intense and dangerous cat-and-mouse game with Rusty Nail in relentless pursuit. This early Aughts thriller brings the suspense.


Psycho Beach Party – Tubi

Psycho Beach Party

A strange comedic blend of ‘60s beach party movies, psychodrama, and ‘80s slashers, this parody based on an off-Broadway play brings the camp. Lauren Ambrose leads as the Gidget-like Florence, a young woman determined to become the first female surfer at Malibu Beach. Complicating matters is a string of murders, in which Florence becomes the prime suspect because of her dissociative identity disorder. In terms of kills, Psycho Beach Party is pretty tame. This is more of a genre-adjacent spoof than an outright slasher movie, so this pick is more for fans seeking something outside of the box.


Sleepaway Camp – Crackle, freevee, Peacock, Pluto TV, Roku, SCREAMBOX, Tubi

Sleepaway Camp

Summer isn’t complete without a summer camp slasher, and Sleepaway Camp ranks near the top of the most memorable thanks to meanspirited kills and one unforgettable finale. Shy, traumatized Angela Baker (Felissa Rose) gets sent to summer sleepaway camp with her cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten), where fellow campers bully her. It’s not just Ricky trying to stick up for her; someone’s ruthlessly dispatching Angela’s tormentors. It all builds to one of the most debated endings in horror history.


Zombeavers – Pluto TV, Tubi

Zombeavers - Summer Themed Horror

It’s not always sharks ruining summer vacation plans. Thanks to a runaway canister of toxic chemicals rolling into a nearby river, a weekend of summer fun on the water turns into a terrifyingly funny fight for survival. It’s college kids versus mutant zombie beavers in this horror-comedy. It’s over-the-top fun, filled with gore, one-liners, and wacky creature feature mayhem. In other words, it’s an entertaining summer watch perfect for a long holiday weekend.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon, SeriesFest, and Popcorn Frights Film Fest.

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Editorials

‘The Real Ghostbusters’: 10 Must-Watch Episodes from the Classic Series Now Streaming

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must-watch "The Real Ghostbusters" Animated Series Appears on Amazon Prime Video!

No conversation about cartoons based on live-action movies is ever complete without mentioning The Real Ghostbusters.

This animated continuation is, warts and all, a notable example of turning a hit movie into a hit series. And although the new target demographic skewed a little younger, even kids-at-heart could partake in the further adventures of Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddemore and Egon Spengler.

For a good part of its run, the show required fans to wait at least a week for more Ghostbustin’. That’s torture for a kiddo. Luckily, though, the entire series, or at least most of it, is now available for streaming.

So, as you revisit The Real Ghostbusters on Tubi—for now it’s just the first five seasons there—use this guide to help prioritize some must-see episodes.


The Boogieman Cometh

the real ghostbusters

“The Boogieman Cometh” (Season 1)

Season One’s “The Boogieman Cometh” is a classic episode featuring one of the show’s more iconic villains. It’s hard to forget the unique character design used for the Boogieman (whose creepy voice was provided by Ray and Slimer’s actor, Frank Welker). In this story, Egon is reunited with that bump-in-the-night entity who haunted his own childhood, all while trying to keep him away from his latest targets: the brother and sister claiming to have the Boogieman in their closet. Although the Ghostbusters do save the day here, the Boogieman eventually returns (“The Bogeyman Is Back“). That same episode also features the love-’em-or-hate-’em Junior Ghostbusters.


Mr. Sandman, Dream Me a Dream

ghostbusters

“Mr. Sandman, Dream Me a Dream” (Season 1)

You could say the namesake of “Mr. Sandman, Dream Me a Dream” had good intentions for putting mankind to sleep for the next few centuries—he wanted to end war and keep everyone dreaming. Sounds nice until you remember that whole free will business. But when it seems like the Ghostbusters have lost to their latest foe, the last one standing, Winston, gains a sudden ally. Janine’s dream of becoming a Ghostbuster is manifested, and she helps put this rogue spirit to bed.


When Halloween Was Forever

ghostbusters

“When Halloween Was Forever” (Season 1)

Before the show’s execs capitalized on Slimer’s popularity by making him the focus of later episodes, early stories like “When Halloween Was Forever” better utilized that gooey ghost. Here, the spirit of Halloween itself, Samhain, hopes to make the holiday a permanent thing by stopping time. And who does the embodiment of All Hallows’ Eve use in his nefarious plot? Slimer, of course. Thankfully, the lil’ green bud knows where he really belongs, and Samhain is banished (at least until Season 3’s “Halloween II 1/2“).


Night Game

ghostbusters

“Night Game” (Season 2)

Because Season Two was rather long, in comparison to other seasons, it accumulated quite a few solid episodes. One of the most beloved, though, is that ultimate good-versus-evil story, “Night Game“. Winston gets to shine here as he participates in a battle that was 500 years in the making. Except this time, the fighting is done on the baseball field. The other-dimensional settings in The Real Ghostbusters are always great, but the one here is particularly memorable.


Drool, the Dog-Faced Goblin

ghostbusters

“Drool, the Dog-Faced Goblin” (Season 2)

Not all ghosts and whatnot were bad in The Real Ghostbusters. As “Drool, the Dog-Faced Goblin” showed, some were actually benevolent. Sadly, it took a lot of convincing, and one very heroic act, for Peter and the others to see past this goblin’s grotesque appearance. The heroes find more than one shapeshifter at a sideshow carnival in the Poconos; a sinister Class-4er called the Metamorph does a swell job of menacing the Ghostbusters before they finally realize Drool’s not their culprit. The good guys indeed win here, but that victory is a bittersweet one.


The Collect Call of Cathulhu

“The Collect Call of Cathulhu” (Season 2)

While “The Collect Call of Cathulhu” does misspell “Cthulhu” in the title (probably to avoid legal issues), it is clearly the Old One in this Lovecraft-inspired episode. The story kicks off with the Necronomicon being stolen by the deity’s modern-day cult, who then raise their ancient god at Coney Island. From there, the Ghostbusters’ typical methods don’t work on the big guy, so they seek advice from an old issue of Weird Tales (or “Wierd Tales”, as it’s spelled on screen). That build-up to the finale comes with a decent amount of dread before the Ghostbusters, as well as a scholar named Alice, face off with one of the show’s most powerful entities.


Knock, Knock

“Knock, Knock” (Season 2)

A number of Real Ghostbusters episodes could be reworked into big-screen features, but perhaps “Knock, Knock” is the most hopeful. It helps that this story feels in step with the first two movies. Here, some ignorant construction workers accidentally uncover and open an ancient door in the subway. What’s behind said door is none other than those unspeakable evils that only the Ghostbusters can quell. A good deal of the imagery here is prime for adaptation.


The Grundel

“The Grundel” (Season 3)

One of the darker episodes, which was written by the prominent J. Michael Straczynski, is “The Grundel“. Here, a boy is being influenced by the titular entity, a type of ghost who ultimately turns his targets into new Grundels. The episode does have something of an after-school special quality to it, but that doesn’t take away from the eerier moments. For more Grundel lore, be sure to check out the episode “Grundelesque” from the sequel series, Extreme Ghostbusters.


Standing Room Only

“Standing Room Only” (Season 4)

It’s no secret that The Real Ghostbusters experienced multiple changes after the second season. Out of all of them, though, retooling the show so that Slimer would get more of the spotlight is maybe the most egregious. Thankfully, Season Four (the first to be called Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters) didn’t completely obey that new directive; episodes like “Standing Room Only” felt more like the old days. The focus here was on the well-being of the city and its people, rather than on the series’ green mascot (or the Junior Ghostbusters). In the episode, Peter’s new ghost attractor isn’t to blame for the ensuing chaos; the ghost-eating Mee-Krah is what’s really imperiling everyone. And the Ghostbusters must dish out everything they have to avoid a doomsday situation.


The Halloween Door

“The Halloween Door” (Season 5)

While many fans will skip the later seasons in their rewatches, episodes like “The Halloween Door” are still worth checking out. This colorful helping of Halloween pandemonium premiered on primetime, so the animation is better than usual. And save for a random musical moment, it’s an enjoyable event. Here, a group of anti-Halloweeners tries to cancel the holiday, but they only end up making things worse by unleashing a baddie named Boogaloo.


The first five seasons of The Real Ghostbusters are available on Tubi, starting on July 15.

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