Aquatic horror season is in full swing, though the horror release slate is surprisingly slight on new offerings so far. Netflix’s Under Paris unleashed shark attack mayhem and carnage amidst a huge sporting event in the Seine, but there’s far more to aquatic horror than sharks.

This week’s streaming picks are dedicated to the dangers of the sea, from the fantastical, like killer mermaids, to realism-based horrors like oxygen deprivation. When the sun is scorching, these five horror movies will make you afraid to go into the water.

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

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

Bait – freevee, Hoopla, Plex, Starz

In this Australian-Singaporean disaster horror film, it’s a tsunami that leaves a group of people stranded in a flooded grocery story. The devastation to the building, flooding, and volatile tensions between people would be enough to send stress levels into overdrive, but the tsunami also traps a few hungry great white sharks in the store, too. While the plot setup sounds outlandish and implausible, Bait is way more fun than it sounds. Plus, at least one pass of the script was written by Russell Mulcahy (Highlander), who would’ve also directed if not for prior engagements. Mulcahy is no stranger to Australian nature-based horror having directed 1984’s Razorback.

Breaking Surface – Hoopla, Plex, Prime Video, Tubi

The setup for the aquatic Breaking Surface sounds familiar; two sisters on a diving excursion find themselves facing a grueling race against the clock when one of them becomes trapped on the ocean floor. Instead of sharks and a required suspension of belief, writer/director Joachim Hedén opts for realism and ingenious situations, creating one of the most intense and propulsive survival thrillers in recent memory. It never struggles to find new ways to prolong the answer to whether these sisters will make it out alive. It’s lean, simple, and focused solely on the survival component, with a sharp focus on realism and an apparent depth of knowledge for diving. Hedén demonstrates that mother nature doesn’t need sharks or aquatic beasties to kill you; it can knock you out in several ways with alarming ease.

Deep Rising – Hoopla, Tubi

Writer/director Stephen Sommers’ late ’90s action-horror movie follows a group of armed hijackers attempting to loot a luxurious cruise liner, only to find that a large, tentacled, man-eating sea creature has already devoured most of the people on board. It’s so much fun. There’s action, humor, and even a lot of surprising gore; the creature has rather grisly eating habits and gruesome table manners. The only downside for this one is that the late ’90s CG hasn’t aged well, and some of the big reveal scenes with the creature don’t hold up. Even still, it’s a complete blast.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter – Paramount+

Director André Øvredal and screenwriter Zak Olkewicz deliver an atmospheric expansion of “The Captain’s Log” passage from Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, trapping the ill-fated crew of the Demeter with a ravenous, desperate vampire. Javier Botet’s Dracula is ghoulishly creepy. From the outset, Øvredal infuses Demeter with a sense of epic-sized adventure. Edward Thomas’ impressive production design brings personality to the ship itself, introduced on the Carpathian docks as an awe-inspiring, larger-than-life schooner with a sense of lived-in history. Rich world-building, impressive scale, a commitment to practical effects, and fully realized characters ground the increasingly claustrophobic, grim tale set at sea. 

She Creature – Tubi

In 2001, Cinemax broadcast a series of made for cable creature features that were meant as a tribute to the retro horror films of American International Pictures. The first of the five that aired was writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez’s (Snakes on a Plane, Gothika) She Creature. With creature effects by Stan Winston Studio, and Winston himself serving as producer, it’s a period horror film at sea about a killer mermaid. Starring Rufus Sewell and Carla Gugino as a husband and wife team looking to take a captured mermaid overseas to America, they find their voyage a much more treacherous experience when the mermaid on board. It’s claustrophobic horror with imaginative creature effects and proves that not only do we need more aquatic horror, but more films about killer mermaids as well.