Just because everything is now warm and sunny outside doesn’t mean that horror movies can’t find their place. Just look at Midsommar or Jaws. Both films are set in an idyllic location for summer travel, they boast bright and colorful summertime fun… with something sinister lurking just below the happy façade. This July, (between July 2 and the end of the month), Shudder will be the exclusive host for streaming the 2023 Etheria Film Festival on their platform. The festival highlights all the latest horror film creations from an entirely female director pool, including Zoey Martinson (Cupids), Jennifer Zhang (Charon), Meg Swertlow (Give Me an A), Alix Austin (Do Not Resuscitate), and many more.
In addition to hosting Etheria Film Nights, Shudder will continue to add new and classic horror movies to its catalog. This article will help you find your next goosebump-inducing summer watch!
RELATED: The Best Horror Movies on Shudder Right Now
Quicksand (2023)
Available on: July 14
Director: Andres Beltran | Runtime: 88 minutes | Sub-Genres: Survival Horror, Suspense
Cast: Allan Hawco, Carolina Gaitan, Sebastian Eslava
This movie was originally intended to be released in June, but for unknown reasons was delayed for a July release instead. Set and filmed in Colombia, Quicksand follows an American couple with a rocky relationship. While traveling through Colombia for a work conference, they decide to go on a hike through the rainforest. A sudden storm catches them off-guard and as they try to flee the elements, they wind up falling into a pit of quicksand. Unable to move, the two of them will have to work together if they want to beat the odds against venomous snakes and insects, and of course, get out of the quicksand.
Sharksploitation (2023)
Available on: July 21
Director: Stephen Scarlata | Runtime: N/A | Sub-Genres: Documentaries
Cast: “Bruce” The Shark
This feature-length documentary might look like it’s another laughably bad shark horror movie, but its purpose is actually the opposite. Sharksploitation takes a deep dive into the portrayal of sharks in horror movies and how that has impacted how people view them and interact with them. The documentary, directed by Stephen Scarlata (Jodorowsky’s Dune), will conduct interviews with shark experts as well as a few directors of films that perpetuate sharks as malevolent creatures with evil intent. If you’re the type who watches Jaws every 4th of July, this documentary will explore the cinematic impact of shark films and explain the audience’s obsession with sharks.
Death Game (1977)
Available on: July 24
Director: Peter S. Traynor | Runtime: 91 minutes | Sub-Genres: Psychological Thriller
Cast: Sondra Locke, Seymour Cassel, Colleen Camp
This classic thriller, not to be confused with the 1996 Death Game, follows George Manning (Seymour Cassel) who is home alone when two women knock on his door, asking him to come inside and seek refuge from a thunderstorm. He allows them inside but begins to regret his act of kindness almost immediately as the two women begin to act increasingly erratic and rude. They rummage through his house, even going as far as to try on George’s wife’s clothing. When he tries to force them to leave, they tell him that they are underage and that they can and will ruin his life by claiming he assaulted them. This movie has been remade twice since its release, including (if you haven’t guessed it already) Eli Roth’s Knock Knock, starring Keanu Reeves.
Contorted (2022)
Available on: July 17
Director: Kang Dong Hun | Runtime: 91 minutes | Sub-Genres: Supernatural, Mystery
Cast: Yeong-hie Seo, Kyung Da Eun, Kang Gil-woo, Kim Min-jae, Bo-Min Kim, Jo Soo-Hyang
This Korean horror movie is your classic “haunted house” film, as it follows a family who has just moved into a new home in a quiet and remote area. Right away, the members of the family begin to experience nightmares. The wife expresses her concern to her husband, as she has also heard strange noises in the home during the day, but her husband dismisses her. As the family spends more time in the home, they begin to question their perception of what’s imaginary and what is reality.
Day of the Dead (1985)
Available Now
Director: George A. Romero | Runtime: 100 minutes | Sub-Genres: Zombie, Post-Apocalyptic
Cast: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joe Pilato, Jarlath Conroy, Richard Liberty
Day of the Dead is the third installment of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead franchise and holds an 83% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Set in Florida after a zombie apocalypse has already decimated the world’s population, a group of scientists, soldiers, and survivors, desperately trying to figure out a solution to the zombie pandemic. Stuck in an underground bunker, tensions run high as the scientists and the soldiers butt heads over the experimentation being performed on the zombies as well as the fallen soldiers. To be arguing in a situation where it is crucial for everybody to work together, fatal accidents tend to ensue, compromising the safety of everybody in the bunker.
The Boogey Man (1980)
Available on: July 10
Director: Ulli Lommel | Runtime: 82 minutes | Sub-Genres: Slasher, Supernatural
Cast: Suzanna Love, Ron James, John Carradine, Nicholas Love, Raymond Boyden
This film is not the same as the recent Stephen King short-story adaptation, The Boogeyman, but instead is more influenced and inspired by John Carpenter’s Halloween, stylistically speaking. In their childhood home, siblings Lacey (Suzanna Love) and Willy (Nicholas Love) experience abuse from their mother’s boyfriend. Willy, in a fit of rage, stabs the boyfriend to death one night in front of a large mirror. 25 years later, Lacey and her husband return to the childhood home, where Lacey sees the image of her mother’s boyfriend reaching to attack her. She breaks the mirror, and her husband offers to fix and replace the mirror for the current owners of the home. As the spirit of the dead boyfriend possesses each shard of broken mirror, she puts herself, her family, and others in danger of the vengeful ghost.
The Devonsville Terror (1983)
Available on: July 10
Director: Ulli Lommel | Runtime: 82 minutes | Sub-Genres: Slasher, Supernatural
Cast: Suzanna Love, Donald Pleasence, Robert Walker Jr., Paul Wilson
German writer and director Ulli Lommel co-wrote this supernatural thriller with his wife, Suzanna Love, inspired by the Salem Witch Trials. The film begins in 1683 when three young women are accused of witchcraft and subsequently killed by various torturous methods. 300 years later, the town remains rural and isolated, with many of the older, patriarchal mindsets still deeply engraved in the mentality of the Devonsville residents. Three women move into town and immediately upset the locals with their fierce independence and progressive ideas. Convinced that the three women will “corrupt” the other women of the town, the men form a mob and kidnap them, accusing them of being reincarnations of the three women killed back in 1683. This vintage feminist horror film was one of the first among many that emerged in the late 70s and early 80s.
Stay tuned next month for a rundown of what Shudder will be introducing to its inventory in August!
