Horror, martial arts, sci-fi and more – here’s our pick of 35 genre films you can watch for free on Tubi.
Like any streaming service, particularly of the ad-supported variety, there’s a lot of filler on Tubi, the subscription-free platform which recently made its debut in the UK.
On there you’ll find an array of low-budget documentaries of spurious quality (Missing 411: The UFO Connection, I Shot JFK: The Shocking Truth), landfill reality TV (Ghost Hunters, Dirty Home Rescue) and how-did-this-get-made TV movies (Amish Abduction).
Do a bit of digging, though, and you’ll find plenty of movies that are genuinely worth watching, including the work of such respected directors as Michael Mann (Ali), Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), David Fincher (Gone Girl) and Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel).
Look beyond even those worthy films, and Tubi is positively stuffed with genre and cult offerings – sci-fi, horror, comedy, martial arts, thrillers and more besides. Finding these can take a bit of hunting around, however, so to save you a bit of time, we’ve done some hunting for you. We’re nice like that.
Here’s our pick of 35 genre and cult films currently available to watch for free on Tubi in the UK. We’ll also keep the list below updated as we uncover more.
Reign Of Fire
Made in that strange period before the 2010s McConaissance, and before Christian Bale became Batman, Reign Of Fire is the post-apocalyptic dragon fantasy you never knew you needed. Matthew McConaughey and Bale play survivors in a scorched near-future in which gigantic fire-breathing lizards patrol the skies. It’s pure B-movie stuff, but with A-movie cash lavished on it, meaning Reign Of Fire features some of the most convincing (and mildly scary) dragons ever put on the screen.
The Mist
Frank Darabont’s horror – adapted from Stephen King’s story – isn’t the most obscure movie on this list. But if you haven’t seen it for some reason, here’s your chance to see The Mist for free on Tubi. Gigantic monsters emerge from a storm one fateful day, leaving Thomas Jane’s artist, his family, and a bunch of other neurotic survivors avoiding deadly tentacles in a supermarket. Tense and singularly bleak, it’s a movie that has justly been rediscovered after a somewhat muted release in 2007.
Crank
It’s a febrile twist on Jan De Bont’s Speed, except with Jason Statham’s hitman frantically trying to keep his heart rate from dropping when he’s injected with a deadly serum. It’s a far-out premise that serves as a perfect venue for both Statham’s physical abilities as a performer and directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s frantic style of digital filmmaking.
The Witch
The film that launched writer-director Robert Eggers’ career as a filmmaker and Anya Taylor-Joy as a movie star. Eggers creates a realistic-feeling 17th century New England setting in which a devoutly Christian family encounters something disturbingly supernatural on their remote farm. Ralph Ineson and Kate Dickie bring all their experience to bear as the mother and father in the beleaguered household, but it’s Taylor-Joy who truly shines as the unpredictable Thomasin. Oh, and Eggers brings us Black Philip – one of cinema’s scariest ever goats.
Thoroughbreds
Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy clearly relish the chance to play two dangerously smart teenagers in this witty noir thriller. The debut of writer-director Cory Finley, Thoroughbreds’ tale of friendship and murder deserves to find a wider audience. It’s also one of the last films to star Anton Yelchin, who tragically died in 2016.
A Tale Of Two Sisters
South Korean director Kim Jee-woon, later known for such hits as The Good, The Bad, The Weird and I Saw The Devil, is behind this slow-burning horror from 2003. About a pair of twin sisters and their singularly dysfunctional family, Jee-woon’s film unfolds as a complex tapestry of flashbacks that eventually coalesce into one particularly dark image.
Donnie Darko
A collision of John Hughes coming of age drama, 1980s nostalgia and David Lynch-style trippiness, Donnie Darko marked the debut of writer-director Richard Kelly. About a solitary teenager (Jake Gyllenhaal’s Donnie) whose invisible rabbit friend may or may not predict the end of the world, it’s an ethereal, quotable and bravely weird mix of genres. Barely given a cinema release in 2001, Donnie Darko has since gone on to become a deserved cult item.
Matinee
One of Joe Dante’s best and less widely-appreciated films, Matinee also features one of John Goodman’s finest big-screen performances. About a producer (Goodman) frantically promoting a cheesy B-movie (Mant!) in early 1960s America, Matinee is Dante’s affectionate love letter to the genre films he watched as a youth, not least the gimmicky output of William Castle. Could easily be enjoyed on a double bill with Tim Burton’s similarly-themed Ed Wood (which unfortunately isn’t on Tubi).
The Limey
Despite the presence of director Steven Soderbergh behind the camera and a superb cast, this Get Carter-esque crime thriller wasn’t a hit in 1999. It gives Terence Stamp a rare lead role as an ageing British gangster, investigating the death of his daughter in Los Angeles. Soderbergh’s nonlinear storytelling and screenwriter Lem Dobbs’ downbeat tone may have turned off wider audiences, but they’re also what make The Limey a refreshingly different genre piece.
Stir Of Echoes
In 1999, cinemas were dominated by the twin horrors of The Sixth Sense and The Blair Witch Project. Amid all the marketing jamboree for those films, writer-director David Koepp’s adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel got a bit lost. Stir Of Echoes is a superb supernatural thriller, though, atmospherically shot and featuring a superb leading performance from Kevin Bacon.
Devil
Once intended as part of a trilogy of genre films produced by M Night Shyamalan, Devil sneaked into cinemas in 2010 with little fanfare. It’s a nifty little horror thriller, directed by John Erick Dowdle and written by Brian Nelson, in which we’re asked to guess which of five people stuck in a broken lift is an incarnation of Satan himself. Lean at just 80 minutes long, Devil’s an unremarkable but enjoyable little whodunnit served up with just the right amount of goofiness. “When the Devil’s near, toast always lands jelly side down!”
Predestination
Before she leapt to wider attention with the hit TV series Succession, Sarah Snook turned in a remarkable turn in 2014’s Predestination. Written and directed by the Spierig Brothers, it’s a complex yet soulful thriller about a New York bartender (Ethan Hawke), one of his regular customers (Snook), a mysterious terrorist and what connects them all together. The way time twists and folds in on itself as the story unspools is borderline intimidating, but Snook’s moving performance serves as an essential anchor.
Podcast | Outbreak (1995) and Predestination (2014)
The Endless
Director duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s 2017 sci-fi horror is a masterpiece of low-budget filmmaking. It’s a sequel to their own Resolution from 2012, but you don’t need to have seen that movie to appreciate The Endless. About two brothers who find themselves drawn back to the UFO cult they escaped as children, it’s a tense, absorbing time loop yarn. Benson and Moorhead are charismatic in the two leads, and their direction is dreamily imaginative. Two of their other films – Spring (2014) and Synchronic (2019) – are also on Tubi, and are well worth watching. For this writer, The Endless is their finest work to date.
Rec
Directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza’s 2007 found footage horror is one of the best and most intense in the found footage subgenre. A virus breaks out in a Barcelona tenement building, and roving reporter Angela Vidal (Manuela Valesco) and her cameraman pay witness to the unfolding nightmare. Unfortunately, the three sequels (which arguably peak with 2009’s equally scary Rec 2) aren’t on Tubi at the time of writing.
Night Of The Living Dead
George A Romero’s 1968 film changed genre cinema, and it’s still compulsory viewing over 50 years later. Gnarly and vicious for its time, the zombie horror has a downbeat concussion that still has the power to shock. An entire genre of movies got its start here.
Invasion Planet Earth
A labour of love for writer, director and producer Simon Cox, his low-budget sci-fi film was shot over the course of 10 years and finally emerged in 2019. It’s an impressive-looking invasion thriller, given its budget, and it’s refreshing to see aliens menace good old Great Britain rather than the usual landmarks across the USA.
Terrifier 1 and Terrifier 2
Damien Leone’s splatter fests won’t be for everyone, but if you’ve heard about the Terrifier 3 hype and have thought about dipping your toe into his grisly slasher universe, then the filmmaker’s first two efforts are here on Tubi. For this writer, the leaner, more economical first movie is more effective than the second, which runs for an indulgent 138 minutes. But as technical exercises, they’re both showcases for Leone’s skill as a makeup effects designer, and like him or not, Art the Clown (played by David Howard Thornton) is now horror’s latest mascot.
16 Blocks
The great Richard Donner’s last film, 16 Blocks could also be regarded as a Die Hard sequel in all but name. Bruce Willis brings all his scruffy charm to Detective Jack Mosley, an alcoholic New York cop who’s tasked with shepherding star witness Eddie Bunker (Mos Def) across Manhattan for a pivotal court hearing. From a familiar premise, Donner wrings a thriller that leans more on suspense than action, while Willis puts in a genuinely committed turn as the worn-down, regret-filled Mosley.
Monsters
Hollywood soon came calling when British director Gareth Edwards made his feature debut, Monsters. Shot with handheld cameras with a minimal cast and VFX courtesy of Edwards himself, Monsters is a quiet travelogue of sorts, following a photographer Scoot McNairy) and a wealthy publisher’s daughter (Whitney Able) as they journey across a Mexico overrun by giant creatures. Anyone looking for a hectic kaiju-fest will be disappointed; go in expecting poignantly romantic drama punctuated by the odd monster, though, and you’ll find a cracking piece of indie storytelling.
Forbidden World
It’s a pleasant surprise to find several Roger Corman-produced movies on Tubi, including this 1982 schlock horror from director Alan Holzman. It’s one of several Alien rip-offs that emerged from Corman’s New World Pictures in the early 1980s, and while it isn’t the best (this writer more highly recommends 1981’s Galaxy Of Terror), it still offers plenty of tacky genre thrills, including one of the most fascinating bad-taste endings of any film of its type.
Chopping Mall
Another film made under the watchful eye (and tight purse strings) of Roger Corman, this killer-robots-in-a-shopping centre horror is as tackily enjoyable as the premise implies. Said killer robots blow up heads and set people on fire, while the mall setting makes the whole thing feel like a lost episode of Stranger Things. Chopping Mall was co-written and directed by Jim Wynorski, who’s perhaps one of the most prolific filmmakers working in the United States; he’s directed at least a film a year since the 1980s, with titles including Ghoulies IV, The Witches Of Breastwick and The Hills Have Thighs.
House
A Vietnam veteran turned novelist moves into his late aunt’s house, which turns out to be positively stuffed with monsters and ghouls. Featuring William Katt as the traumatised hack, House has lots of fun with its haunted mansion premise – it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and its rubbery creatures are as likely to show up in broad daylight as they are on gloomy nights. This was a sizable hit for Steve Miner, something of a specialist when it came to genre films – though not as massive a hit as Forever Young, his Mel Gibson-starring romantic drama written by a young JJ Abrams. Now that was a weird career segue.
Black Christmas
Recently celebrating its 50th anniversary, this slasher’s cult status is such that it’s been remade twice since its release in 1974. Directed by Bob Clarke (who later had a big hit with the sleazy sex comedy, Porky’s), Black Christmas is a proto-Halloween horror with a surprisingly great cast, including Olivia Hussey, Kier Dullea, Art Hindle, John Saxon and Margot Kidder. As Stefania Sarrubba wrote in her retrospective, it’s a relevant genre film with its pro-choice theme.
Read more: Black Christmas at 50 | In praise of the original pro-choice slasher
The House Of The Devil
If you’ve enjoyed director Ti West’s recent X trilogy (which concluded with this year’s MaXXXine), then you may want to visit the low-budget maestro’s earlier work. Hailing from 2009, The House Of The Devil is, like MaXXXine, set in the 1980s ‘satanic panic’ era. It sees Jocelin Donahue’s student travel to a remote mansion to look after an elderly woman, and in the process uncovering all kinds of horrendous secrets. West gamely plays around with genre conventions, even roping in Tom Noonan (the original Hannibal Lector) and Dee Wallace (of The Hills Have Eyes and The Howling fame) for his slow-burning horror. West and his crew’s weird experiences during the making of The House Of The Devil inspired 2011’s The Innkeepers, which you’ll also find on Tubi.
Society
If the social commentary and grue of this year’s The Substance left you hankering for more horror with a social conscience, then Brian Yuzna’s Society is a must-watch. About a privileged teenager who begins to suspect that something isn’t quite right with his well-heeled Beverly Hills family and friends, the film slowly builds to a third act in which it’s revealed that the rich truly are a breed apart from the rest of us. Screaming Mad George’s makeup effects are still gasp-inducing today.
Zombie Flesh Eaters
This 1979 horror began life as an unofficial sequel to George A Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead, but Italian director Lucio Fulci is far too imaginative a filmmaker to make a valueless cash-in. The tropical island setting and maggot-ridden makeup effects give the film a disquietingly sweaty sheen, and the contrasting final shot in Manhattan is one of the best of its era. Also, the sequence where a zombie wrestles with a real shark is truly mind-blowing. You don’t get stuff like this in a Blumhouse flick.
Contamination
Of the parade of Alien knock-offs that emerged after 1979, Contamination, directed by Luigi Cozzi, is arguably among the gooiest. A trove of eggs is discovered in a New York harbour, which when approached have a tendency to explode in a shower of green liquid. Anyone spattered with said liquid then explodes in a chain reaction of body parts and goo. Frankly, we’re surprised nobody’s made a videogame out of this premise. Contamination (original title: Alien Arrives On Earth) was directed by Luigi Cozzi, of Starcrash fame, so rest assured you’re in for a classy evening’s entertainment.
The Stuff
What happens if you take the limb-mangling body horror of The Thing and apply it to a quintessentially 1980s fable about anti-commercialism? You get Larry Cohen’s wonderfully offbeat horror The Stuff. The titular substance is funnelled out of the ground and sold in colourful tubs like ice-cream; the company selling it is seemingly unfazed by both its addictive qualities and its tendency to turn people into mindless zombies. Michael Moriarty is great as a former FBI guy sent to investigate the origins of The Stuff, and the whole movie is a captivating, joyously unsubtle jab at Reagan-era corporate greed.
Pulse
One of the earliest internet-based horror films that actually works, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 shocker is deservedly regarded as a cult classic. The tech may have dated in the years since its release, but its premise – that ghosts roam the internet, with nightmarish plans to emerge in the real world – remains a potent one. Kurosawa’s weird imagery is also some of the most indelible of the late 90s/early 2000s peak J-horror era.
Daniel Isn’t Real
A superbly-made psychological thriller, Daniel Isn’t Real should have gotten wider attention when it came out in 2019. Miles Robbins plays a troubled young man whose increasingly volatile imaginary friend, Daniel (Patrick Schwarzenegger) follows him into adulthood. Moving between the everyday harshness of New York and the internal world of its protagonist, Daniel Isn’t Real marks writer-director Adam Egypt Mortimer as a true filmmaking talent.
Ganja And Hess
Duane Jones (Night Of The Living Dead) plays the title role of Dr Hess in this smartly-written vampire chiller. Directed with quintessentially 1970s verve by Bill Gun (who also wrote the screenplay), Ganja And Hess is one of the key films in the black horror genre; in 2014, Spike Lee paid it the ultimate compliment by directing a remake, Da Sweet Blood Of Jesus.
Basket Case
Made in 1982 for almost no money at all, Basket Case introduces a New York loner named Duane (Kevin Van Hentenryck) who has a psychic connection to a strange creature he keeps hidden in a wicker basket. Exactly why Duane lives with the critter is a revelation we won’t spoil here. One of those movies that seemed ubiquitous in video stores in the 1980s, Basket Case launched director Frank Henenlotter’s career as a wayward genre filmmaker; two sequels followed, along with the similarly grotesque Brain Damage (1988) and Frankenhooker (1990).
100 Monsters
To this writer’s knowledge, this is the first time 100 Monsters, a comparatively obscure Japanese horror film, has appeared on any British streaming platform. Directed by Kimiyoshi Yasuda and released in 1968, it sees a greedy landowner justifiably scared into oblivion by a host of spectral beings. Full of darkly imaginative practical effects, this one’s worth seeing just as an insight into the unique spooks (or yokai) of Japanese myth. With any luck, the other two films in the Yokai Monsters trilogy, Spook Warfare (also 1968) and Along With Ghosts (1969) will emerge on Tubi soon.
The Little Shop Of Horrors
No, not the 1986 musical, but rather the 1960 horror comedy that inspired it. Directed by Roger Corman, and shot on a minimal budget with recycled sets, The Little Shop Of Horrors is charming in its rushed goofiness. Given the limited resources, the killer plant at the centre of the whole piece looks remarkably good, too.
The Street Fighter
One of Quentin Tarantino’s favourite genre films, and prominently namechecked in his screenplay for True Romance, The Street Fighter was one of the most violent martial arts films of its era. Directed by Japan’s Shigehiro Ozawa and starring a fearsome Sonny Chiba, the tone is markedly different from the 1970s kung fu films hailing from Hong Kong around the same time; it’s grittier, more sombre and often spectacularly bloody. Brilliantly, the version on Tubi is the subtitled, uncut version rather than the heavily-edited, badly-dubbed release put out on VHS. Second sequel The Street Fighter’s Last Revenge and spin-offs Sister Street Fighter and Return Of The Sister Street Fighter are also on Tubi.