Read more about the best movies coming to Apple TV+ in April 2023
Read more about the best movies coming to AMC+ in April 2023
Coming soon to aShuddernear you, these are the best of the best that the streaming platform has on offer in April. Quite a few slashers on this list are surprisingly fitting, given that 3 of the original Friday the 13th’s came out in an April-May release window. While there’s a lot to be said about how that franchise made its mark on horror, what’s sometimes interesting to see is how the lesser-known movies of the same genre were also shaped and molded by the decade they were set in. The zeitgeist isn’t always just what everyone remembers. In fact, more often, it’s the opposite. The little idiosyncrasies that made the ’80s, the ’80s.
As any horror fan knows, the line between scary and funny often runs close together. A man could be getting his head ripped off, but if he screams in a weird way before that happens, it’s suddenly slapstick. The joy of these movies is just that. You never really know what you’re going to get, only that it’s typically going to be pretty entertaining.
From Black (Apr. 28)
Starting the list with a Shudder premiere, this one has a great premise from a first-time fictional director. Director Thomas Marchese previously madeFallen,a documentary you may watch on Netflix which covers the deaths of police officers and how it affects those around them. This film stars Anna Camp ofPitch Perfectfame in a role as a recovering drug addict who’s been given a chance to find out how her son disappeared a few years back. Thewrinkle, though, is something darker at play, namely the supernatural. The visuals so far have been engaging, taking a very flat angle to some nightmarish scenes like the one featured. While not a wholly original plot, it sounds as if the execution could be fairly interesting and hopefully unnerving.
Related:20 Lesser-Known Horror Movies That Deserve More Love
The Slumber Party Massacre (Apr. 3)
What a time capsule of history this one is. AfterFriday the 13th,many people caught on to the basic idea. Put in $10, give a guy in a mask some weapon, shoot a few risqué sequences, make it nice and gory, and viola, you’ve just made yourself a cool $30 million. It was a bit like alchemy, certainly as close as studios will ever come to it with the low risk, low investment, high payoff. There are no real stakes or anything; just enjoy the kills. Not going to win any inventiveness awards, but it’s certainly entertaining enough for an hour or so. Moreover, it was popular enough for them to cash in on aremake, so it’s ripe for a comparison and contrast.
Magic (Apr. 3)
On the surface, this one looks like a clone ofChild’s PlayandPuppet Master,but it has much more in common withTaxi Driverthan a supernatural piece about a killer doll. What starts as an innocent ventriloquism hobby for a man trying to make it in show biz turns into something more dangerous. His puppet manifests our main character’s severe mental problems that he increasingly leans into as the movie progresses. So where does one start and the other begin? Well, they’re perhaps just two sides of a very troubled man.
This one is also interesting in that it’s directed by Mr ‘Spared no Expense’ John Hammond. It also stars a then-unknown Anthony Hopkins proving that you really can start anywhere. What’s crazy is watchinghow seriously he takes the role. Seriously impressive what is, on the surface, a somewhat goofy premise. Long beforeSilence of the Lambs,Hopkins was redefining what it meant to be a psycho on screen. If you’re on edge, watch the sequence ‘5 Minutes’ and see if it piques your interest.
Don’t Panic (Apr. 4)
Watch the trailer on this one. It has a killer 80s synth beat, mullets, blood, and some pretty blatantEvil Deadinfluences, what with the sacrificial knife and gore focus. It’s campy and goofy, and it was probably made on a $5 budget. Even the possessed people look a lot like Deadites with weird voices and bloodshot eyes. If you’re a follower of Red Letter Media, you’ll recognize this from the Halloween Best of the Worst 2021, along withPrimal Ragenext up on the list.
Related:Sam Raimi Says Evil Dead Wasn’t the Original Title of the Horror Film Franchise
Primal Rage (Apr. 17)
So this could be calledFlorida Man: The Motion Picture. The story goes that a professor in Florida ends up creating a rage virus that starts spreading to the college students on campus. Before you know it, you’ve got people going crazy trying to attack anything in sight. Everything angers them, and they want to bite what they can see, much like an average Florida news nightly headline. It also features some cool-looking wolf effects.
Bog (Apr. 10)
The last one on this list is a trip to Wisconsin. Perhaps the strongest contender on this list for the best ofbad movie night. It opens with a man fishing in a small pond with nuclear-powered firecrackers. This is just before he gives one of the worst death screams in movie history after getting pulled in by a bog creature off-screen. If you need more incentive, it also features extreme close-up screams and chainsaw sound effects when the monster attacks. There are even guys deep sea diving into this swamp because they wanted to look more like the originalGodzillamovie. The audio is unbelievably bad, with lots of natural sounds left in, like objects slamming together loudly in the background. This is definitely a bad movie you don’t want to miss.
Best Movies Coming to Major Streaming Services in April 2023
