Hi, everyone! My name is Brennan Klein and I’m the newest writer at Horror Press. For my inaugural outing as an It Came From Streaming guru, I thought I’d put together a list of titles that will help you get to know me and my tastes a little bit better. If you feel like these picks align with your tastes, great! We’ll be fast friends. If not, we can still be friends. Whenever I share my picks you can just treat it as a What Not to Watch guide instead.
The Best Movies to Stream in August 2023
This month’s list is all about new August titles, whether they’re titles making their streaming premieres, transitioning to a new service, returning to an old service, joining an additional service, or anything in between. That’s a lot to process so, if you’ll allow me, I’ll cut some wheat from that chaff and show you where to watch some fun stuff, new and old alike!
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
Wes Craven is one of my favorite directors (the other is Pedro Almodóvar, thank you for asking), and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare is in contention with Scream and the original A Nightmare on Elm Street for being my favorite movie of his. New Nightmare is a dazzling display of meta cinema, ridding itself of the burden of being the seventh Elm Street movie by removing itself from continuity entirely and setting itself in the real world. Plus, franchise star Heather Langenkamp provides an excellent portrayal of herself, which is a surprisingly tricky thing to do.
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare is streaming on Max.
The Faculty (1998)
You can’t just have a Wes Craven-directed title without throwing on a Kevin Williamson-written title, too, can you? The Faculty isn’t exactly underrated in the horror sphere, but it deserves every shot it can get to become just as beloved as other more prominent 1990s Williamson horror titles like the Scream movies, and I Know What You Did Last Summer. And what a cast! Elijah Wood, Clea DuVall, Salma Hayek, Robert Patrick, and that’s just barely scratching the surface!
The Faculty (1998) is streaming on Paramount+.
The Blob (1958)
The American B monster movie of the 1950s doesn’t get better than this. Boasting an original creature brought to life with fabulous special effects, The Blob is pure cotton candy fun from top to bottom.
The Blob (1958) is streaming on Tubi.
Bones and All (2022)
What’s weird is that Bones and All is not a movie I would have said I loved if you had asked me immediately after leaving the theater. But the more I sat with it, the more its weird fantasia of gore and Americana grew on me, especially whenever I thought about those career-best performances from Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance, and Suspiria icon Jessica Harper.
Bones and All (2022) is streaming on MGM+, and coming to Prime Video on August 8.
Marry My Dead Body (2022)
I’m fully expecting this movie not to align with Western standards of progressive storytelling, so be warned. However, this Taiwanese title, which is making its streaming debut, is a fascinating intersection between my interests in world cinema, queer horror, and genre mashups, following a homophobic cop who accidentally marries the ghost of a gay man, with whom he teams up to figure out the cause of his death.
Marry My Dead Body (2022) is coming to Netflix on August 10.
The Outwaters (2022)
I was disappointed I wasn’t able to get out to see this in theaters, and now that it’s joining Tubi alongside Screambox, there’s really no excuse for not catching up with it this month. I love found footage, and I love it even more when the format does right by me by actually being good. I’ve heard very good things about The Outwaters in that regard. The trailer promises a disturbing but low-key simmer, so don’t expect a roller coaster ride. But I’m very keen to take a look.
The Outwaters (2022) is streaming on Screambox, and coming to Tubi on August 15.
Bonus: Over the Garden Wall (2014)
OK, I cheated a little. This one has been on Max for a while, but I had to let you know to check it out before it vanishes! This Cartoon Network miniseries (featuring the voice of Elijah Wood) is an eerie masterwork of modern children’s storytelling, combining the family-friendly with the uncanny in a way that people just don’t really do anymore. Plus, it’s only ten 12-minute episodes, so you could knock it out in less time than it takes to watch the latest Marvel movie.
Over the Garden Wall (2014) leaves Max on August 31.