It’s October and that means Monsters and Matinees is standing on her annual soapbox with this important message: horror movies aren’t just for Halloween.
Yes, I’m happy every October to see the large selection of horror films offered on small and big screens for the month. My family and friends always get enthusiastic about watching horror at Halloween and it’s fantastic. It’s just that they watch more horror films in October than they do for the entire rest of the year.
In my head I know it makes sense for people to want to watch horror films during the spooky season, especially with the origins of Halloween in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, a celebration of the end of harvest (sounds innocent enough) that also blurs the boundary between the living and dead.
And let’s face it, people watch more horror movies in October because it’s just so easy to do – they are everywhere! It seems like all the networks, streaming services and theaters host Halloween horror festivals.
Still, I wish the horror genre got more love all year. Maybe I can help. After all, if I’m going to continue to whine about it, I should offer suggestions on how to do it.
While I own a small collection of classic horror on home video, it surprises me just how much I watch in other ways. Best of all: they’re free.
Here are my favorite ways to watch classic horror films all year.
Turner Classic Movies
Let’s start with the most obvious place to go. If you already have a cable service, TCM is the place to watch classic movies. It’s heavy on horror in October but does mix in the genre throughout the year especially in birthday celebrations of horror icons like Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and Boris Karloff. You can look at the schedule by month on the TCM website at tcm.com and plan accordingly.
Tubi
This is my go-to place by far to watch classic films. I can’t recommend Tubi enough. It has an immense horror library that includes lots of well-known films with plenty of Vincent Price, great classics like the 1951 version of The Thing, and multiple Hammer films including Count Dracula. It’s also where I’ve discovered many others – some good and some not-so-good but still fun. (The Giant Claw and its goofy, googly-eyed flying killer is a new favorite.)
Search for the word “curse” and it pulls up more than 150 titles from the classics to today. A search for horror icon Christopher Lee had well over 50 offerings including a nice mix of movies, documentaries and TV shows.
Tubi is available as a free app or go to www.tubi.com. You can watch without setting up an account, but if you share your email it allows you to create your own library and it will resume a movie where you left off.
YouTube
YouTube the website at www.youtube.com – not the paid live TV service – is a treasure trove of all genres of classic movies. Just know going in that many are in the public domain, so you won’t always see the best version of the movie. So if you don’t like the quality of a film, try again. I’ve often found a better version. Sometimes the only way to watch a film may be with substandard visuals, especially if it’s a movie a century old, but it’s still worth watching.
Also, a tip when searching by movie title, actor or filmmaker: read the description carefully. Not everything is the full movie; it will usually say if it is the full movie, a preview, snippet or a video of people watching movies and giving their opinions. Also, the number of views will give you an idea of how good the selection is (it should be in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions).
When I can’t find a movie through other services, I can usually find it on YouTube. Recent case in point: Barbara Stanwyck in The House That Wouldn’t Die and the terrifying ABC Movie of the Week Trilogy of Terror.
This non-profit library is a great online resource with free movies along with music, websites and more. There are instructions on how to navigate the site, but it’s easy to find what you want without reading directions. My first page of “horror films” had a 12-minute version of Thomas Edison’s 1910 Frankenstein. It’s in rough shape, but it’s 125 years and is worth watching.
This is another video sharing and hosting website where I have watched many classic movies, including horror. It’s like YouTube in the sense that people upload movies, clips, etc. and you watch for free. And just like YouTube, sometimes the first one you pull up isn’t the best version DailyMotion has, so don’t hesitate to look again.
Your library and Hoopla
You might be surprised at the free video offerings at your neighborhood library. Visit or do an online search and it should pull from all of your local branches. If it’s somewhere in the system, I can often pick up the movie (or book) in a few days.
The library also offers a free streaming service call Hoopla that allows you to “borrow” a movie and stream it on your computer or another device (phone, tablet, TV etc.) for 72 hours. It does the same for ebooks, comics and more. You do need a library card, but that’s free! Go to Hoopladigital.com to get started.
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In addition to what I’ve listed, there are other free apps that pull movies from the public domain. You can find them under “apps” on your device.
I hope these free suggestions are helpful to you in finding classic movies of all genres, but please watch horror, too. I can give you great choices for Christmas and Valentine’s Day.
– Toni Ruberto for Classic Movie Hub
You can read all of Toni’s Monsters and Matinees articles here.
Toni Ruberto, born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., is an editor and writer at The Buffalo News. She shares her love for classic movies in her blog, Watching Forever and is a member and board chair of the Classic Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo chapter of TCM Backlot and led the offshoot group, Buffalo Classic Movie Buffs. She is proud to have put Buffalo and its glorious old movie palaces in the spotlight as the inaugural winner of the TCM in Your Hometown contest. You can find Toni on Twitter at @toniruberto or on Bluesky at @watchingforever.bsky.social
