Shudder is nothing if not a goldmine of content, with basically something to watch for everyone, and today we are making a list of the best 5 new movies on Shudder in August 2023 that you can watch right now. The movies included in this list are Shudder’s exclusives and resurrected. The titles are ranked according to their availability dates.
The Communion Girl (August 1)
Synopsis: Spain, 1980. Newcomer Sara tries to fit in with other teens and goes out with her extroverted friend. On their way home, they come across a little girl with a doll, dressed for her First Communion. And that’s when the nightmare begins.
Elizabeth Harvest (August 14)
Synopsis: Nothing is as it seems in this brain-bending plunge into our darkest desires. Elizabeth (Abbey Lee), a beautiful young newlywed, arrives at the palatial estate of her brilliant scientist husband Henry (Ciaran Hinds). Ensconced in modernist luxury with an obedient—if slightly unsettling—house staff (Carla Gugino & Matthew Beard), she has seemingly everything she could want. But one mystery tantalizes her: what is behind the locked door to Henry’s laboratory that he has forbidden her to enter? When an inquisitive Elizabeth dares to find out, everything she thought she knew about her husband—and about herself—will change. Elizabeth Harvest casts a spell of creeping Gothic menace as it unravels a disturbing tale of identity, obsession, and twisted love.
A Dark Song (August 14)
Synopsis: An unholy alliance between two damaged souls leads them on a disturbing descent into the depraved realms of black magic. Sophia (Catherine Walker) is a grieving mother desperate to make contact with her murdered son. Joseph (Sightseers’ Steve Oram) is an anti-social, alcoholic expert in the occult who reluctantly agrees to help her. Holed up in a remote house amidst the desolate wilds of Northern Wales, the two embark on a grueling six-month series of dark rituals that will push them both to the physical and psychological breaking point. The debut feature from rising horror auteur Liam Gavin sustains an air of quietly creeping dread as it builds towards one hell of a payoff.
Sea Fever (August 18)
Synopsis: Sea Fever is a tense and original Irish sci-fi thriller reminiscent of cult classics The Thing and The Abyss, starring Hermione Corfield (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) and Connie Nielsen (Wonder Woman). For marine biology student Siobhan (Hermione Corfield), it was supposed to be a research excursion with a trawler crew fishing the West Irish seas. But when they hit an unseen object and become marooned, a mysterious parasite infects their water supply. Soon the oozing force infiltrates the entire vessel and turns Siobhan’s journey into a claustrophobic fight for survival. Can they stop the mysterious water borne parasite from spreading before it’s too late? Sea Fever also stars Dougray Scott (Hitman) and Jack Hickey (Game of Thrones). Written and directed by BAFTA© winning Irish filmmaker Neasa Hardiman (behind BBC triumph Happy Valley and Netflix hit Jessica Jones).
Bad Things (August 18)
Synopsis: For a group of friends in the Northeast, a weekend getaway at a snowy resort sounds like just what the doctor ordered. An opportunity to reconnect, relax, and recuperate among serene, snow-capped mountains and trees. But peace doesn’t last long as the ghosts of guests past and relationships long buried come to light. Soon enough, their trip transforms into a psychological tailspin and bloody nightmare, as both long-deceased guests and the space itself come to life, and the group turn on each other in a race to stay alive.
In this haunting thriller, a new variation of psychological horror invites audiences to question the limitations of our contemporary relationships with people and spaces, and the implications of undealt trauma. Gayle Rankin gives a blistering lead performance as she battles forces within both the rundown resort and her own mind in an attempt to save her friends, who are brought to life by rising talents Hari Nef, Annabelle Dexter-Jones, and Rad Pereira.––Casey Baron
