Scholars and archaeologists of cheesy movies, where do you dig to find the next cheap thrill?
Some of my current favorites:
Tubi - Big and diverse library. A good place to find sludge both new and old.
Plex - I don’t see this one mentioned much, but it has the most impressive movie library I’ve seen on a free service. Tons of genuinely good flicks along with the cheese.
Paramount+ - Cheap subscription for a significant chunk of the Paramount movie library. Contains many movies that have been riffed in their raw form.
B-Movie TV - As far as I can tell, this is Roku only. Out of several 24/7 TV-style B-movie streamers this appears to be the sole survivor (RIP Zom-Bee TV). It’s still actively maintained and updated and has been a treasure trove of new finds. But be aware, it streams all types of genre movies so sometimes it airs some pretty rough stuff. They don’t publish a clear schedule so you don’t know what you’ll get until you’re seeing it. Only recommended to grownups with a strong constitution.
Amazon Prime - Beneath the big releases is a nearly bottomless pit of garbage.
Roku has a metric ton of channels dedicated to B- (and worse) movies. In addition to the above-mentioned B-Movie TV, I have Comet, Filmrise SciFi, Midnight Pulp, Dust Sci-Fi, Fawesome Sci-Fi, Raygun, Otherworlds, Monster Movies, Classic Horror and Sci-Fi, Creature Features, Sci Fi Collection, Sci Fi Favorite Classics, Beta Max TV, Troma NOW!, SciFi Flix, OSI 74 (Praise Bob!), Sword-n-Scandal, Skunky Cinema, Retro Science Fiction and Horror, Essential Sci Fi, Creature Features… and many more that I can dig up.
Before I got my set last year, I stated that I watched very little TV – hadn’t had cable since about 2005, and didn’t miss it.
While it isn’t “the next thing”, if you have a “live tv” channel on your smart tv - also, if you have a smart tv - there is an MST3K channel. All MST3K, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Ammendment: they do also claim Rifftrax and a couple of the other spinoffs, but I’ve never caught any of those on there
I frequently have the 24/7 stream up on the Shout Factory app. They infrequently play some Rifftrax, Cinematic Titanic, and Film Crew. SF is also my go-to for on-demand experiments.
Paramount Plus has Epix and they have a lot through their Drive In channel. Speaking of Paramount, Showtime has some through TMC’s weekly Splatterday on Saturday double features. I saw Andy Warhol’s Dracula on there many years ago.
Shout Factory has recently started another 24/7 channel featuring uncut horror movies … so far I’ve caught bits & pieces including Witchboard, (featuring David Coverdale’s ex-girlfriend and Patch from Days of Our Lives), Nosferatu (it’s maxschreckalicious) and a Corman-produced dud called Forbidden World.
Dud?! Dud?!?! It won three Saturn awards and grossed $4M on a $1M budget.
I mean, yeah, it’s leftover Galaxy of Terror props with Battle Beyond The Stars archive footage and it was produced, written and directed in a fortnight…but dud?
Valid. And truth be told, I only caught about 15 minutes in the middle that featured several nude people, some epilepsy-inducing editing, heinous synth horns and about five total lines of dialog, so I’m not qualified to judge. Suffice to say: appeared duddish from what little I saw.
Justwatch used to be a good place to find the free stuff, but their discovery changed and now it’s a big hassle. They don’t list movies. They list sources. Pretty lame.