Editorials
10 Horror Movies Streaming on Tubi to Put on Your Halloween Watchlists
Tubi, like many streaming platforms this month, is rolling out the red carpet for horror with curated “Terror on Tubi” programming. Though robust, horror fans know that it only scratches the surface of Tubi’s deep, obscure well of programming and library selections. There’s a wealth of deep cuts and Halloween horror movies lurking on the platform, like the newly returned “Freddy’s Nightmares.”
If the overwhelming selection causes decision paralysis this Halloween season, consider this a starter pack of horror movies to add to your watchlists, from charming forgotten favorites to gems set around Halloween, and many of them only available on Tubi.
Arachnophobia
Creepy crawlies and spiders, in particular, serve as regular fixtures of Halloween, and this pinnacle of spider horror movies lives up to its title. It revolves around an arachnophobe protagonist forced to confront his fears in the worst possible way when the small town he’s just relocated his family to is invaded by a new species of spider. A species that happens to be extremely aggressive and highly venomous. There’s no shortage of horrifying moments as the spider offspring quietly sneak into homes and attack oblivious humans doing innocuous things like putting on shoes or turning off lamps. But the showdown in the wine cellar is a spine-tingling, suspenseful battle for the ages.
The ‘Burbs
Gremlins and The Howling filmmaker Joe Dante’s dark comedy, penned by screenwriter Dana Olsen, hinges on a simple question – what if the new neighbor on the block could be a serial killer? Imaginations run wild after a secretive family moves in, prompting a paranoid amateur investigation that leads to chaos and maybe even murder. Starring Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Bruce Dern, Corey Feldman, Dick Miller, Courtney Gains, and more, there are a lot of genre vets in the cast. It’s an ensemble dark comedy that veers into horror, making it a great watch for Halloween gatherings. There’s also a TV series adaptation on the way from Peacock.
Felidae
Those seeking more hidden horror gems this October should add this grim animated film for grown-ups to their watchlists. Michael Schaack’s adaptation of Akif Pirinçci’s crime fiction novel follows a cat named Francis as he’s drawn into a murder investigation shortly after moving into a new neighborhood with his owner. There’s a serial killer picking off the area’s cats in savage ways, not to mention sexual violence, psychological horror, and hints of Satanism. In other words, horror and crime collide in R-rated ways in one of Germany’s most expensive animated features, contrasted by its vibrant art style. Life is violent on the streets, and despite appearances, this bleak tale isn’t remotely suitable for children.
The Hills Have Eyes
A Halloween pick for the adrenaline junkies. This intense remake was prompted by Wes Craven himself, paving the way for a bloody and intense update. The suburban Carter family are caravanning from Ohio to California with their two dogs in tow but wind up stranded in the desert. They are relentlessly hunted and killed by a twisted and sadistic cannibal family in the desert hills. In director Alexandre Aja and writer Grégory Levasseur’s hands, this updated version of The Hills Have Eyes is an onslaught of suspenseful violence and faster pacing. The cannibal family is also much more monstrous.
The Hunger
Tony Scott’s directorial debut loosely adapts Whitley Strieber’s 1981 novel of the same name, centered around a love triangle between a gerontologist and a pair of vampire lovers. The alluring Miriam (Catherine Deneuve) sets her sights on Sarah (Susan Sarandon) when her vampire lover John (David Bowie) begins a painful descent into an eternal living-death. The erotic horror movie oozes gothic atmosphere and style, featuring Bauhaus and practical effects by the legendary Dick Smith.
I Am Not a Serial Killer
John Wayne Cleaver (Max Records) adheres to a strict therapy regimen and rules to ward off his sociopathic, homicidal impulses. His darker nature makes him deeply curious when a string of murders ensues in his small midwestern town, leaving behind traces of black goo. This adaptation of Dan Wells’ novel offers a unique blend of supernatural mystery and a sweet yet strange coming-of-age tale. While it doesn’t wholly embrace Halloween, the holiday does factor into the film’s events. Christopher Lloyd also stars.
Murder Party
Before Green Room and Blue Ruin, filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier quietly debuted with Murder Party. The horror comedy follows Christopher (Chris Sharp), a nice guy with no plans for Halloween, until he finds a mysterious party invitation on the way home. With a DIY costume assembled and a host gift baked, Christopher treks over to the costume party in a nondescript warehouse. There, he finds that the partygoers plan to murder him in the name of art, though everything that could go wrong does to hilarious results. Hyper-violence and a glorious bloodbath make for one of the most fun final acts, with a satisfying conclusion to Christopher’s venture out on Halloween night. Look for The Toxic Avenger‘s director Macon Blair as a lovesick werewolf.
Neon Maniacs
This ‘80s monster fest features a group of homicidal monsters that live under the Golden Gate Bridge by day but come out at night to slaughter. When a teen escapes their clutches, they spend the rest of the film hunting her down and killing anyone in their path. Each monster has a personality and costume of his own, from samurai to mad doctor, which makes their final battle set during the high school Halloween dance a perfect cover. Creatures, silliness, and an ‘80s synth score make for a perfect Halloween party.
Slugs
This slimy, gory creature feature about toxic waste-spawned slugs is from the mind of Pieces’ Juan Piquer Simon. These killer slugs are downright gruesome in their kills, making for some really fun surprises. This small town has no clue what’s happening, and only health worker Mike Brady is on the case. The kills are much more isolated and spread apart at first, but they really ramp up their attack on Halloween, when everyone is out and about in costume. The holiday theming may be light, but the gory kills make this another perfect Halloween watch.
The Strangers: Prey at Night
One last family trip before boarding school leads to a grueling fight for survival when the masked trio comes knocking once more in Johannes Roberts’ stylish but lighter sequel. Bailee Madison, Lewis Pullman, Christina Hendricks, and Martin Henderson star as the family unit forced into harrowing chase sequences and lethal confrontations. Roberts borrows a page or two from John Carpenter and Christine in this survive-the-night thriller with an earworm soundtrack. It’s the standout pool sequence that ensures this sequel has legs.
Editorials
Not Another ‘Scary Movie’: Revisiting Forgotten Parody ‘Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th’
After Scream (1996) made a killing at the box office, as well as won over critics and audiences, a lot of folks in the movie biz thought they could do the same thing (and yield similar results). That thing, of course, being a slasher. Most of these opportunists wound up being pretty straightforward; they were low on humor or commentary. Yet others, like Scary Movie (2000), saw the potential for spoofing Scream, and acted on that impulse with both haste and excitement.
A few months after the Wayans’ comedy first hit theaters, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th landed on the USA Network, as part of the channel’s “Shriek Week” programming. That straight-to-cable (then home video) destination is possibly why many people still don’t know about this one. Or they simply chose to forget. Whatever the reason, only one of these two horror parodies came out on top—and it’s certainly not the movie where Coolio channeled Prince, and Tom Arnold saved the day.
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th previously went by the name of I Know What You Screamed Last Semester. That Trimark acquisition then settled on a wordier title, just so it could avoid the litigious wrath of Miramax Films. Folks may or may not remember that Columbia Pictures was sued over the “implied connection” between I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Scream. So, yeah, there was no way that this competing Scream parody wasn’t going to be kept on a tight rein.
A Heavy Reliance on Late ’90s TV References
Simon Rex, Julie Benz, Majandra Delfino, Harley Cross, Danny Strong, Tom Arnold and Tiffani-Amber Thiesen in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.
Naturally, there would be similarities between Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th and Scary Movie—their scripts are built on the backs of the same two movies. It goes without saying that the other big slasher of the 1990s, I Know What You Did Last Summer, was as much of a target as Scream. However,the film pads itself with more TV references than Scary Movie did.
Half the cast coming off of (and in some cases, returning to) a WB show could be a reason why. Dawson’s Creek is particularly zeroed in on, based on how there’s a central character named “Dawson Deery“, and how the teen drama’s teacher-student affair plotline is satirized to the nth degree. As if there weren’t enough nods to television, Baywatch, VH1’s Pop Up Video, and even those cheesy Mentos commercials all serve as joke prompts.
Shriek director John Blanchard and writers Sue Bailey and Joe Nelms all hailed from television, so it’s understandable that they would stick close to home. The movie’s humor in general makes more sense, in light of learning that Blanchard worked on SCTV, Kids in the Hall, and MADtv. The writers, on the other hand, were each fairly green, with Bailey being the most experienced of the two; she wrote and produced the game show BattleBots. Nevertheless, they, plus Blanchard, churned out a passable, joke-a-minute movie. The whole thing is staggeringly of its time, but no one here was aiming for longevity.
Having seen enough of these kinds of movies, we know to expect jokes of the low-hanging fruit variety. That’s the parody’s whole prime directive. From the characters having names like “Screw Frombehind” and “Doughy Primesuspect”, to stereotyping that feels taboo nowadays, this is a movie from a different era of comedy. Its coarse, corny, and unapologetic sense of humor won’t sit well with everyone in these more enlightened times. In which case, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th can be treated as a time capsule.
Does Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th Humor Still Hold Up Today?
“You may already be a victim”—Someone receives a most peculiar threatening piece of mail in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.
Although Shriek doesn’t live up to its own claims of being so funny that you’ll die of laughter, its bawdier parts could still lead to some nervous laughter. For instance, after this movie’s parallel to Drew Barrymore’s Scream character is done in—not by the killer but by a bug zapper—the movie throws a newspaper next to the victim’s fresh corpse. The headline? “Popular slut killed! Football team mourns”.
We then move on to the wacky and inappropriate goings-on at Bulimia Falls High School, home of the Hurlers. At this nexus of constant absurdity, indecency, and surrealism, students are seen fornicating on the lawn, cheerleading squad applicants are advised to be comfortable with partial nudity, and terrorists openly prepare for an anthrax attack. It can be a tad jarring to watch, especially if you didn’t grow up witnessing this style of comedy firsthand. Hell, even if you did, you may still have a “what the hell were they thinking?” reaction.
It’s not just the aggressively edgy humor here that can make you chuckle—the slapstick, the sight gags, and the ribaldry all have a decent chance of landing. The movie’s own villain, whose hockey mask was instantly transformed into a crudely Ghostface-esque one after coming in contact with an open flame, commits more cheap laughs than kills. His and his victims’ chase sequences, most of which are cartoonish in nature, left this writer grinning. The Scooby-Doo fan in me also totally ate up that clever unmasking joke.
Final Thoughts on This Forgotten Horror Parody
Shriek If You Know What Did Last Friday the 13th
Now, the jury is still out on whether these comedies are to blame for the death of the first slasher revival. There is more to consider than some parodies. At the very least, the likes of Scary Movie didn’t exactly encourage big studios to put their money on a trend that was being derided to death (and not as profitable as the spoofs). These sorts of movies also felt unnecessary at the time, given how their principal inspiration is already a deconstruction of the genre. But like anything else that quickly becomes popular, mockery is unavoidable.
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th is indeed a movie nobody asked for, much less needed. As a sample of pre-millennium humor and cultural attitudes, it’s not always precise. But as I’ve laid out, your mileage may vary. Horror parodies typically don’t have the best track record, so managing one’s own expectations here is recommended.
Upon rewatching, I for one laughed a bit more than I did back then. Only this time, I responded to the jokes that my younger self didn’t notice or find all that amusing. So it just goes to show that the movies don’t change—we do.
Harley Cross and Majandra Delfino must unmask the killer a number of times in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th before learning their true identity.
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