Give the Gift of Terror

For a heterodox holiday, a Christmas for contrarians or a Chanukah with chutzpah, give the gift of terror this year with a subscription to Shudder. While we tend to think of October as the month for horror films, the images of eternal airport security lines, extreme weather events and excruciating meals with right wing relatives can rival anything in A Christmas Horror Story, one of the many idiosyncratic titles available to stream along with genre staples such as Halloween and Hellraiser. Shudder is practically a necessity for any avid horror fan who’s into more eclectic classics and cult franchises, so for $48 you can help them realize their blood-soaked nightmares for an entire year.

Even if you’re not the type of horror geek who thinks that Armando de Ossorio’s “Blind Dead” saga needed a fifth volume to round out the undead Knight Templars’ revenge arc, there are still plenty of movies both in and out of the genre worth seeing on Shudder. The service features a collection of Alfred Hitchcock movies that includes Vertigo and Rear Window, generally considered to be the Master of Suspense’s best films. For fans of Asian cinema, Park Chan Wook’s Vengeance trilogy and Kinji Fukasaku’s Battles Without Honor and Humanity films are also available to stream.

There are even a number of more thoughtful indie dramas, like Lodge Kerrigan’s Keane, Amy Seimetz’s Sun Don’t Shine, and Josephine Decker’s Butter on the Latch. However, most important of all, Shudder is the only streaming service where you can watch Nicolas Cage’s psychedelic killing spree against demonic bikers and evangelical cults in Mandy, the best film of 2018 that will not be honored at this year’s Oscars.

Click here to buy a 1-year Shudder gift membership ($48)