Heat up your summer with horror streaming in August

With summer upon us, and Halloween still three months away, Netflix and Hulu aren’t currently adding a lot of horror and sci-fi. Still, there are some good selections available for August, so let’s take a look at what’s new.

Horror coming to Netflix:

Aug. 1:

Horns – Based on the horror novel by Joe Hill (NOS4A2), this film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Ig Perrish, who has been accused of raping and murdering his girlfriend. When Ig wakes up one morning to find that he has grown horns, and now has the power to make people tell him their secrets, he uses the power to find the real killer.

Jupiter Ascending – Jupiter Jones is a cleaning woman who is approached by an interplanetary warrior with some interesting info. It seems that Jupiter is descended from galactic royalty, and has the power to save the earth from certain annihilation.

Panic Room – Meg and her daughter Sarah move into a brownstone that just happens to include a “panic room” meant to protect the owners from break-ins. On the night they move into the house, mother and daughter put the room to good use when a robbery occurs.

Aug. 9:

iZombie (Season 5) – In this series, loosely based on the comic of the same title, Liv Moore has become a zombie with a conscience. She doesn’t want to kill innocent people, so she takes a job at the county morgue, where she eats the brains of corpses. There’s an interesting side effect of her diet, in that she temporarily assumes the characteristics of the people she’s dining on, and she takes advantage of this quirk to help solve crimes.

Aug. 14:

The 100 (Season 6) – 100 juveniles return to earth from a space habitat after a nuclear event has wiped out most of earth’s inhabitants. The 100 must learn to survive the harsh conditions and fight off a group of ruthless people called the Mountain Men.

Aug. 16:

Better Than Us (Season 1) – This is Netflix’s first acquisition of a Russian TV series, and is set in the near future, where robots are commonplace. A family gets a robot that’s not so commonplace, and soon she is being hunted by investigators, terrorists and a mysterious organization.

Frontera Verde (Green Frontier) – When a series of unusual deaths occur, two detectives investigate. When one of the bodies seems to have no signs of aging, the detectives are pulled into a mystery.

Mindhunter (Season 2) – FBI agents Holden and Bill investigate the Atlanta Child Murders and interview notorious killers such as Charles Manson and Son of Sam.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance – This highly anticipated 10-episode series is a prequel to the 1982 Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal. It follows three Gelflings who start a rebellion against the Skeksis.

Selfless – When a wealthy man is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he arranges to transfer his consciousness into a new body. Afterwards, he discovers the procedure was not without consequences.

August 20:

Gangs of New York – Though neither horror nor sci-fi, Gangs of New York is certainly brutal enough to be included on this list. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Amsterdam Vallon, who is sent to an orphanage when his father is killed by a man known as Bill the Butcher. As an adult, Amsterdam returns to seek revenge. If you have never seen this violent, bloody film, I highly recommend it.

Coming to Hulu:

Aug. 1:

My Bloody Valentine – You may have seen the 2009 remake, but this is the original 1981 film. A group of young people throw a Valentine’s party at the town mine, which has a horrible history, and a killer (dressed in miner’s gear) starts murdering the party-goers.

Final Destination (1 through 4) – All four films center around a group of people who narrowly escape death when one of them has a premonition of an impending mass casualty incident. Unfortunately, they soon find that you cannot escape death, it will track you down (and kill you in many creative ways).

Jeepers Creepers 2 – Shortly after the events in the first movie, a high school basketball team’s bus has a flat tire (thanks to the Creeper). Stranded, the teens are soon hunted by the creature, who is on the 22nd day of his 23-day eating binge.

Rosemary’s Baby – In Roman Polanski’s 1968 horror classic, Mia Farrow becomes convinced that her husband and their neighbors are after her unborn baby. Spoiler alert: she is not wrong. This movie is well-deserving of its accolades, mainly due to Farrow’s performance.

Aug. 2:

Into the Dark: School Spirit – Hulu’s monthly anthology horror series returns with its August episode. There aren’t really any holidays in the month, so I guess we are loosely going with Back To School as a theme. A group of students on weekend detention share school legends and ghost stories, causing an eventual bloodbath.

Aug. 29:

Body at Brighton Rock – This 2019 film premiered at South by Southwest in March. An inexperienced park ranger gets lost in the woods and comes across a dead body.

With night falling, she must stay with the body until help can arrive in the morning.

Is this enough horror to keep you occupied until Halloween finally gets here? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.