For Your Consideration: Best Streaming Premiere (2023/24 Horror)

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July 18, 2024
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Tags: 2023 horror 2024 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards 80s horror Hulu indie horror Kevin Williamson No One Will Save You shudder Sick The Adams Family Totally Killer V/H/S/85 Where the Devil Roams

Get comfy and tune in as we celebrate some of the best 2023 streaming premieres in horror with the five Fangoria Chainsaw Award nominees.

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The 2024 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards are shining a spotlight on the best in streaming horror with their “Best Streaming Premiere” category. These five nominees prove that some of the most terrifying experiences can be found right in your living room, showcasing the evolving landscape of horror distribution.

The contenders for this year’s Best Streaming Premiere are:

NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU – A tense, nearly dialogue-free alien invasion thriller that pushes the boundaries of visual storytelling.
SICK – A pandemic-era slasher that injects new life into the home invasion subgenre with timely twists.
TOTALLY KILLER – A time-traveling horror-comedy that blends ’80s slasher nostalgia with modern sensibilities.
V/H/S/85 – The latest installment in the found footage anthology series, offering a retro-flavored collection of terrifying tales.
WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS – A Depression-era horror that follows a family of sideshow performers on a dark and twisted journey.

These nominees represent the diverse range of horror content now available at our fingertips, from innovative silent thrillers to period pieces and anthology frights. They demonstrate how streaming platforms have become a vital playground for horror filmmakers to experiment and push the genre forward.

As we dive deeper into each of these chilling selections, prepare to discover why these films have captivated audiences and earned their place among the year’s best streaming horrors. Whether you’re a fan of alien encounters, masked killers, or supernatural mysteries, these nominees prove that some of the most exciting horror experiences are just a click away.

1. No One Will Save You

Recommended by Conor McShane

No One Will Save You doesn’t exactly rewrite the alien invasion story, but it has enough inspired moments of weirdness to put its own unique stamp on a well-trodden genre.

For one, there’s the near-total absence of dialogue, the only words spoken coming at the film’s hallucinatory climax. Then, there’s the film’s conception of aliens that feel truly “alien,” with bizarre physiology and movements that largely go unexplained, eschewing the more humanoid forms of a movie like 2002’s Signs, probably its closest analog.

Finally, there are the bizarre and unnerving final moments, which leave our protagonist with a warped version of a “happy ending” that makes you wonder what comes next—for her and for humanity.

At the center of it all is Kaitlyn Dever as Brynn, who delivers a stunningly committed performance that manages to convey so much with just her physicality and expressive face. Writer/director Brian Duffield keeps things moving along briskly, giving us just enough to establish Brynn’s isolation and outsider status before giving us what we came to see.

Most of the marketing around No One Will Save You framed it as a home invasion thriller with an extraterrestrial bent, and while that’s partially true, It only tells half the story. It goes in some far stranger directions as it goes along, throwing in some possession horror, alien abduction, and even overcoming childhood trauma, which seems to be a requirement for indie horror these days.

Above all, It’s a wonderfully efficient and effective slice of genre fun that delivers the goods.

It doesn’t try to be more profound than it is, giving us a little bit of thematic depth with Brynn’s backstory, but it stays in its lane and gives its audience a good time.

WATCH THE TRAILER

2. Sick

Recommended by Guest Contributor Sean Lynch

At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, I found myself predicting (and perhaps dreading) a wave of films mining the 2020 lockdowns for drama. Surely, there would be a glut of movies in which the characters all wear face masks, fret about catching COVID-19, and cope with quarantine cabin fever. To my surprise, that wave never came.

Aside from a few notable exceptions such as Host and Glass Onion, the movies largely carried on as if the pandemic had never happened. Perhaps it was the best outcome, as it likely saved us from some terrible films about a terrible time that we’d all like to forget about, but I couldn’t help but pine for some of the great untold stories of our global nightmare.

When I first heard about Sick, it was described to me as “Scream for the COVID era.” I met this poster-ready blurb with some skepticism, as it seems like every slightly above-average slasher is invariably compared to Wes Craven’s 1996 masterpiece. But when I realized that Kevin Williamson himself had co-written the screenplay with Katelyn Crabb, my interest was piqued.

When I learned it was directed by John Hyams, who helmed the deliriously taut survival thriller Alone, Sick immediately went to the top of my watchlist.

Set in April 2020, the film kicks off with a tightly directed cold open that would fit right into the Scream universe.

Featuring a masked killer with a penchant for creepy text messages, the opening deftly sets the table for a bloody whodunit in a world already under siege by the COVID-19 pandemic. We then meet our central protagonists, college students Parker (Gideon Adlon) and Miri (Beth Million), who are quarantining at Parker’s massive lake house when a certain text-happy killer arrives on the scene.

Adlon and Million are well-cast, both believable as close friends and adept at helping the obligatory exposition go down smoothly before the cat-and-mouse game kicks into gear.

A few clever nods to past slashers, particularly the original Friday the 13th, are welcome. Hyams’ high-energy camera makes the most of Williamson and Crabb’s tense screenplay, as the director has a wonderful sense of action, always keeping us rooted in the geography of the mammoth lake house, even when the mayhem is dialed up to 11.

If there’s a bum note here, it’s in the film’s climax. Like so many of Scream’s sequels and clones, the reveal of the killer can’t help but feel a little underwhelming compared to the setup. Sure, the motive makes a kind of sense, but once the threat is unmasked and we get Kevin Williamson’s monologues about why they did the things they did, the air starts to go out of the tires.

Still, it’s not enough to ruin the thrill of the journey.

As with Hulu’s horror hit Fresh, it’s a shame that such a crowd-pleasing thriller got dumped onto streaming, depriving the Friday night crowds of a rollicking good time at the movies.

WATCH THE TRAILER

3. Totally Killer

Totally Killer Streaming Horror 2023

Recommended by Laura Sloan

Director Nahnatchka Khan brings a clever and comedic slasher to the genre with Totally Killer.

Thirty-five years ago, on October 27, 1987, in the small town of North Vernon, Tiffany (Liana Liberto) was stabbed sixteen times on her sixteenth birthday. Her friends were to follow the same fate at the hands of a smiling blond masked killer. In the present day, Chris Dubusage (Jonathan Potts) takes a small group on a podcast tour of the murders.

Meanwhile, Gen Z-er Jamie Hughes (Kiernan Shipka) is embarrassed by her overprotective and fun-loving parents, Pam (Julie Bowen) and Blake (Lochlyn Munro). However, when tragedy strikes on Halloween night with the unexpected return of the Sweet Sixteen Killer, Jamie is desperate to stop the past from ruining her present.

When the killer first shows up, reminiscent of Scream, the scene is intensely shot as Pam jumps into battle and succumbs to sixteen stab wounds, propelling the film’s events forward.

Jamie’s friendship with Amelia (Klcey Mawema) and her mother, Lauren (Kimberly Huie), who are family science buffs, is her solace after her mother’s death. She discovers that Pam was researching the murders with Chris before her death. Jamie wants to go back in time to save Pam with Amelia’s time machine.

She is swiftly transported back to 1987 after being chased by the killer, where she poses as a Canadian foreign exchange student and tries to solve the mystery of the murders.

Jamie bonds instantly with the younger Lauren (Troy Leigh-Anne Johnson), who recognizes her own scientific configurations. She also meets the younger Pam (Olivia Holt), who belongs to the clique called “The Mollys” (girls dressed like Molly Ringwald). Time is of the essence to find the killer before the next Molly turns sixteen.

I love how the young cast nailed their eighties personas with an oblivious nature. Shipka’s performance is captivating, as she conveys many emotions of pain and regret.

Director of Photography Judd Overton captures an eerie atmosphere to draw in that cloud of true crime exploitation, and I was thoroughly intrigued by this clever whodunnit storyline.

Totally Killer displays some of the best writing, along with a clever killer reveal and just the right amount of action sequences.

WATCH THE TRAILER

4. V/H/S/85

Recommended by Stephanie Malone

I first saw V/H/S/85 in front of an enthusiastic Fantastic Fest (Austin, Texas) crowd that savored every sip like fine craft beer. The popular V/H/S franchise had once again proven its ability to deliver spine-tingling thrills, this time taking viewers on a terrifying trip back to the 1980s, offering a perfect blend of nostalgia and horror that will satisfy both longtime fans of the series and newcomers alike.

Set against the backdrop of 1985 — the golden age of VHS tapes — this entry in the found footage franchise presents five interconnected segments that explore various facets of horror, from cosmic dread to supernatural encounters. The film opens with “Total Copy,” a wraparound segment directed by David Bruckner that cleverly mimics the style of 80s tabloid news shows, setting the tone for the retro horrors to come.

Each segment in V/H/S/85 brings something unique to the table.

Gigi Saul Guerrero’s “God of Death” stands out as a highlight, using the real-life 1985 Mexico City earthquake as a backdrop for a chilling tale that blends disaster cinema with supernatural horror inspired by Aztec mythology. Scott Derrickson’s “Dreamkill” taps into the director’s “Sinister” roots, delivering a blood-soaked story of serial killers and psychic teenagers that will leave viewers unsettled.

What sets V/H/S/85 apart from its predecessors is its commitment to the aesthetics and themes of the 1980s. The filmmakers have gone to great lengths to capture the look and feel of the era, using authentic VHS cameras and embracing the imperfections of the format. This attention to detail creates an immersive experience that transports viewers back in time while still delivering modern scares.

The anthology format allows for a diverse range of horror styles, from the body horror of “No Wake” to the techno-paranoia of Natasha Kermani’s “TKNOGD”. This variety ensures that there’s something for every horror fan, while the overarching themes of existential dread and humanity’s place in a terrifying universe tie the segments together cohesively.

Fans of the V/H/S series will be pleased to find that V/H/S/85 maintains the franchise’s reputation for pushing boundaries and delivering shocking moments. The practical effects are particularly impressive, with each segment featuring its fair share of gore and grotesquerie that will satisfy even the most hardened horror enthusiasts.

While some may argue that V/H/S/2 still holds the crown as the best in the series, V/H/S/85 is a strong contender for the top spot. Its consistent quality across segments and its thematic coherence make it one of the most satisfying entries in the franchise to date.

V/H/S/85 isn’t just a throwback; it’s a fresh take on found footage horror that uses its period setting to explore timeless fears. Whether you’re a fan of the series or new to the world of V/H/S, this film offers a frightfully good time.

Ultimately, V/H/S/85 is a nostalgic nightmare worth rewinding — an authentically frightful and wildly entertaining journey back to the days of analog terror.

WATCH THE TRAILER

V/H/S/85

5. Where the Devil Roams

Where the Devil Roams Streaming Horror 2023

Recommended by Stephanie Malone

The filmmaking collaborative known as The Adams Family has become a real indie powerhouse in the art-horror genre, and Where the Devil Roams is their biggest swing to date. But the payoff is grand, as a macabre exercise and a moving gut punch. It’s an indie chiller I wish made bigger waves in the horror community — a masterclass in atmospheric dread and psychological tension.

The film’s combination of oneiric, impressionistic narrative with the gnarliest of practical gore is irresistible, making it a beautiful and grotesque rock and roll anthem that slays. Its ambitious scope and irresistible blend of narrative and practical effects make it a must-watch for anyone seeking something beyond the conventional.

From the moment the film begins, you’re enveloped in a richly textured world that feels both familiar and unsettlingly off-kilter. The directors have crafted a visual feast that pays homage to classic horror while carving out its own unique aesthetic. Every frame is meticulously composed, with shadows that seem to breathe and landscapes that whisper dark secrets.

Set against the backdrop of Depression Era America, Where the Devil Roams follows a family of performers traveling the cold, dying carnival circuit. The family, comprising Seven, who likes books; Maggie, fond of hammers; and daughter Eve, obsessed with scissors, perform on a ratty stage to earn their supper. However, it’s their bloody side act that truly captivates the audience. After a violent comeuppance severs the family’s bond, Eve, with the help of a sinister Devil-dealing carny, begins to shine in their gruesome act, guided by the Devil from below.

It’s a testament to the Adams Family’s ability to tap into a Gothic vein filled with lingering horror, creating a beautifully seedy atmosphere ideal for the era and setting. For those seeking visceral kills and gore, the film delivers. But it’s also a compelling story, delivering ample ambiance and spellbinding performances.

John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser deliver haunting performances that stay with you long after the credits roll. They embody characters who are both impossibly beautiful and excessively ugly.

It frequently surprises, burrowing under the viewer’s skin with its febrile and claustrophobic horrors.

With a slow-burn storytelling that creeps along like decay in rotting flesh, Where the Devil Roams revels in its ability to blend emotional connections and supernatural unease with lots of blood, underlined by a warmth that continually takes viewers aback. It’s a shocking and bold blend of horror, dark comedy, and surrealism, making it a highly satisfying and original offering.

The Adams Family has crafted a true American original that was easily one of the best independent horror films of 2023.

If you need more convincing, my colleague Conor McShane offered a stellar take on the film, which you can read right here.

WATCH THE TRAILER

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