The Best Horror Movies on Streaming in July 2021

Welcome to Horrorscope, a monthly column keeping horror nerds and initiates up to date on all the genre content coming to and leaving from your favorite streaming services. Here’s what to watch in July 2021:

If you are reading this from a certain hemisphere, congratulations, you are in the full-blown thrall of summer! This is great news for seasonal depression sufferers and those with a healthy interest in patio season. But as we inch closer and closer into a firey climate crisis, it is more important than ever to remember the core principles of sun safety. The best way you can prevent your body from overheating and blistering into a cancerous Cronenbergian mess is to take breaks indoors. Especially during peak UV hours (between 10 am and 4 pm). And this July, what better way to catch a little siesta than to stream some top-tier horror offerings?

While there is certainly a good crop of summer-themed horror films out there to choose from, the truth of the matter is that brand-spankin’ new genre gems (and waiting-to-be-discovered classics) are plentiful in the realm of streaming. Truly, when it comes to streamable horror in July 2021, it’s a viewers’ market. This month I’ve highlighted four flicks with a foot in both worlds: the new and the old. Our pick of the month is a genuinely bizarre studio offering bound for cult status. Also in camp “new,” we’ve got a trilogy of terror trips sure to please those in the market for a bloody blast. And to round things out, I’ve also spotlighted two older and criminally under-seen spooky flicks that will unsettle even the most hardened horror hound.

Be sure to peruse the complete list below, calendar in hand, for a full picture of what horror flicks are coming and going from your favorite streaming services in July 2021. Keep in mind that all dates listed below may not apply to viewers outside the United States.

Pick of the Month: The Empty Man (2020)

Synopsis: A local girl is missing. James, a retired cop, is looking into it. But he doesn’t like what he finds: a group of slaughtered teens, a local legend, and whisperings of a cult attempting to summon a sinister entity.

The Empty Man (2020) didn’t have an easy start when it premiered. But then few cult films do. As our own Matthew Monagle puts it, The Empty Man is 2020’s most ambitious — and most abandoned — horror film. It was dropped in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, beset with production foibles, and forced to contend with being lost in the shuffle of Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox. But discerning horror fans have a talent for sniffing out true gems. And as we speak, The Empty Man is on the fast-track to cult status. If you missed the film’s original theatrical run (for understandable reasons), you owe it to yourself to catch up on this genre blend of ’70s paranoia, J-horror, and H.P. Lovecraft.

The Empty Man marks the feature film debut of David Prior, who’s been hard at work for years as a production documentarian for the likes of David Fincher and Peter Weir. Don’t let past experiences with junky creepypasta procedurals dissuade you. The Empty Man is cut from a different cloth. It’s very rare for a first-time director to receive a solid chunk of change to make a bizarre two-hour studio film. The Empty Man is brimming with ambition and is the kind of film you can tell its creator was dying to make.  So even if 23-minute cold opens (!) aren’t your thing, you really ought to see what all the fuss is about.

Available HBO Max July 17

A French/Canadian exploitation offering starring baby Jodie Foster

Synopsis: It’s Halloween and Rynn Jacobs is celebrating her 13th birthday alone. She recently moved to this small seaside town and is having a good crack at living independently. But the nosey neighbors have questions that threaten her bohemian lifestyle. Namely: where is her absent poet father?

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) is an odd duck. Originally premiering to mixed reviews (and a court order challenging its distribution), the film has achieved a level of cult status thanks in large part to the strength of Jodie Foster‘s performance and the film’s advocacy for children’s rights and independence.

While Martin Scorsese‘s Taxi Driver was released in the same year, the ingenue Iris (who earned Foster an Oscar nomination) couldn’t be further from the cold, resourceful Rynn. And Martin Sheen, at the time most recognizable for his work in Badlands, is so despicable here you may never look at him the same way again. Equal parts moody and disturbing, The Little Girl Who Lives Down is the kind of film you could only make in the 1970s. And we mean that as a compliment. Hamster lovers beware.

Arriving on Shudder July 6th

A trilogy of terror based on R. L. Stine’s more mature offerings

Synopsis: This three-part series adapts the Y.A. fiction series penned by ‘Goosebumps’ author R.L. Stine. Taking place in the fictionalized city of Shadyside, each entry sees a gaggle of fresh teens up against all manner of ghoulish adversaries. Oh, and unlike Stine’s more kid-friendly fare, this time, there will be blood. And lots of it.

Look, we’re not going to beat around the fetid corpse here, around these parts, we’re big fans of Fear Street. And it’s a true treat that R.L. Stine‘s intelligent and genuinely grisly novels have finally made their way to the small screen.

As its name suggests, Fear Street: Part 1 – 1994, is in conversation with meta 90s slashers like Scream (1996) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). As our own Rob Hunter enthusiastically praised in his review: Fear Street: Part 1 is energetic, gore-filled, and arguably one of the best 90s slashers made in the 21st Century. This inaugural entry in the trilogy sees a plethora of deranged (sometimes masked) killers running wild in Shadyside. And the word on the (Fear) street is a long-dead witch may be behind the rampant rise in homicides.

By all accounts, this first entry in the trilogy is a horror-filled hoot. So color us excited for what parts two and three have to offer: 1978— an hommage to more giallo-indebted and summer camp-set slashers — and 1666 — which pays dues to period-piece offerings like The VVitch. There’s a little something for everybody. What a time to be a horror fan!

Arriving on Netflix on the following dates: July 2 (part 1), July 9 (part 2), and July 16 (part 3)

“What if Lars von Trier made an animated movie about animal testing?”

Synopsis: Unthinkable horrors unfold at the animal research facility in the Lake District. Two dogs, Rolf and Snitter, have been drowned, prodded, and cut open all in the name of science. Unexpectedly, the pair manage to escape only to be hunted by their former captors, the media, and the military, driven by rumors that the dogs are carrying the bubonic plague.

In the Before Times, I was very lucky to catch a screening of director Martin Rosen‘s personal print of Watership Down. The sold-out theater was packed wall-to-wall with Millenials whose groovy parents had inadvertently (or sneakily) exposed us to one of the most traumatizing “kids’ movies” ever made. Sure, rabbits are cute. But there’s also cannibalism, gruesome strangulation, and the volatile cowardice of tyrants. You know…for kids!

The pre-show of this particular screening included snippets of The Plague Dogs (1982), which even to the uninitiated immediately registered as another collaboration between Rosen and Watership Down author Richard Adams. Suffice to say, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an audience fall so silent so quickly. We were all dumb-struck. There’s no other word for it. The Plague Dogs is often touted as an adventure film but holy hell what a misnomer. The Plague Dogs is both an unflinching critique of animal cruelty and a punishing depiction of the darkest depths of nihilism. If Lars von Trier made an animated film, he would have made The Plague Dogs. There’s a Dog-me 95 joke in there somewhere. Bring tissues and a strong stomach.

Arriving on The Criterion Channel July 1st as a part of the “Art-House Animation” collection

Streamable Horror Incoming This Month

Fresh blood: A list of all the horror content coming to streaming services in July 2021.

Horror Titles Expiring from Streaming Soon