Shudder-Worth a subscription?

Is Shudder worth the subscription? I had decided to make an account with a free trial for seven days so I could watch Shudder’s new show, “Cursed Films”. Having a love of movies and especially horror, I thought it was a show I would just love. I will provide a brief review of that in a moment.

This site, app, subscription, or what have you is geared towards those who love all things horror. Ads have been appearing on my social feed for a couple of years now, and they sponsor even a podcast I listen to. After watching the show that was the cause for me signing up, I decided to explore and see what else there is and if is even worth the $5.99 a month they ask for. I discovered they had practically no cult classics such as American Werewolf in London, Evil Dead, Poltergeist, etc. They have a lot of B-rated films and currently they also have Friday the 13th movies but word is they’re leaving soon. They have some Korean Films I will definitely watch considering these horror films hit different, I think we can all attest to the original Grudge as still kind of terrifying.

But overall, looking at what they offer for a price I just don’t think it’s worth it. How often do they get new stuff? And that’s the other thing, they don’t even really carry anything new either. Now understand that all of this can be chalked up to licensing and rights but the fact of the matter is they have such a small library as compared to other streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix. As a horror fan take my word that a subscription to this service will leave you disappointed. Even if you find some things to watch, a two-month subscription might be all you need and that’s generous.

As a quick review of the show, I thought the show was actually a show with maybe at least 8 episodes. It’s a “5 part series” according to the description which I hadn’t bothered to read. Each episode focuses on a film that is “cursed” or had some tragedy involved. The Exorcist (which I’ve written about myself), The Omen, Poltergeist, The Crow, and The Twilight Zone (movie). The only episode I can say for sure that seemed to have had some seriously questionable coincidences would Episode two, The Omen. It goes beyond tragedy and rumor, there were some occurrences they talk about that will leave you wondering what it means.

The final episode, The Twilight Zone was not “cursed” really at all and I believe the only reason it made the list at all was because of the tragedy that had occurred. Now I didn’t know anything about what had happened, I found out watching the episode. Shudder does you so wrong because they have a copy of the filmed tragedy and they play the whole thing. It’s not exactly something I would have brought myself to watch intentionally, you never expect the whole thing to be shown so when it doesn’t cut away and the whole thing unfolds it left me breathless. I couldn’t believe they had the nerve to do it.

Looking at the show I will say I think they had all the right intentions and had a really great concept but the execution had left such a lame experience. If I were to provide an opinion on whether anyone should waste their time on this series I would have to say no. There’s not enough to justify saying go and watch this now! It’s mostly a series of tragedies involved with these films. Overall not worth the watch, spend your time elsewhere.