Horror streaming service Shudder offers 30-day free trial to new members

Shudder, the streaming service dedicated to all things horror, is offering a 30-day free trial to new members with the promo code SHUTIN. Typically, the Shudder free trial is only a week long, but on Monday, the company announced that, since everyone is spending a lot more time at home these days, it’s extending the trial to a full month. “Staying at home doesn’t have to be boring,” the official Shudder account tweeted.

For horror fans, Shudder is a veritable treasure trove of spooks and scares. From genre classics to newer indies, the library includes Halloween and The Hills Have Eyes, alongside The Love Witch and The Void. Shudder is also the exclusive streaming home of the bonkers Nicolas Cage vehicle Mandy and the excellent documentary Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. And The Walking Dead producer Greg Nicotero revived the George A. Romero and Stephen King horror anthology Creepshow for the platform.

If you’re new to horror and are overwhelmed by the choices available, Shudder is tweeting one recommendation a day, “as a public service.” Using the hashtag #ShudderShutIn, so far the company has highlighted the zombie comedy One Cut of the Dead, The Room (not to be confused with the Tommy Wiseau masterpiece), the service’s original series The Dead Lands, Magic (starring Anthony Hopkins as a ventriloquist with an evil dummy), and an Irish double feature, Citadel and Wake Wood, for St. Patrick’s Day.

In addition to the library of movies and shows, Shudder offers a livestreaming experience called Shudder TV. Rather than cycling through the library, users can click the TV option and check out whatever happens to be streaming at the moment. It’s a great way to see a movie you might not have heard of, a callback to easier days of media consumption. For anyone who suffers from choice-paralysis or can’t handle the additional mental load of picking the “right” movie, Shudder TV is a huge relief.

As events are cancelled and postponed due to concerns around COVID-19, some media companies have been adjusting streaming plans to accommodate social distancing. Last week, Disney dropped Frozen 2 onto Disney Plus and released Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on digital platforms ahead of schedule.