Shudder Original Movies You Didn't Realize Were Happening

Founded in 2015, Shudder's whole conceit was relatively simple: here was a streaming service dedicated to placating horror fans all year round. For folks who don't get enough of their scary movie fix in October, this streamer was around to help. Nearly a decade later, Shudder has garnered an incredible reputation for housing great pre-existing horror classics and new motion pictures exclusive to the platform. 

Gaze upon the 55 best movies on Shudder and one can immediately see what a staggering library this service has amassed. Thanks to films like "Late Night with the Devil" and the uber-profitable "Skinamarink" — which horrified its way to the top by making 60 times its budget – Shudder original movies are more prolific than ever. No wonder the label's begun acquiring a slew of upcoming exclusive movies to build on that hype.

Those movies range wildly in subject matter, thematic ambitions, and even country of origin. One is a sequel to one of Shudder's highest-grossing titles at the box office, another is one of the buzziest modern horror features to emerge from Ireland. Still another unites two Oscar nominees for a retirement home bloodbath, while a fourth sees a beloved "Daredevil" cast member chillingly confronting the past. Just like horror cinema itself, Shudder original movies take on endless forms, with an immense amount of potential to continue the streamer's sterling legacy. It's time to dive into the plethora of Shudder exclusive movies you had no clue were on the horizon. 

Ever since "Late Night with the Devil" shattered all box office expectations, IFC Films and Shudder have released a new horror film into theaters on a near-monthly basis. "Oddity," "Skincare," "Late Night with the Devil," and "Azrael" all immediately launched into wide release in the six months after "Devil," while "Get Away" currently stands as IFC/Shudder's final theatrical release for 2024. 

Once 2025 rolls around, there are already plans to keep this hot streak of theatrical Shudder titles alive. "Grafted," a horror film about a skin-grafting operation gone awry, is set for a January 24, 2025 theatrical launch. Whether or not it can continue the legacy of lucrative January horror movies like "The Devil Inside" and "M3gan" remains to be seen.

This production hails from indie filmmaker Sasha Rainbow and was filmed in New Zealand, a country that's been home to several famous horror movies like "What We Do in the Shadows" and "Black Sheep." Several news outlets have already begun comparing "Grafted" to another indie horror pic concerning the body images of women, "The Substance." Whether or not "Grafted" will emerge from the shadow of that 2024 Demi Moore star vehicle remains to be seen. What's clear about "Grafted" right now is both its distinctive premise and that it'll be Shudder's first big-screen title of 2025. 

Dolls never go anywhere positive in horror movies. Whether it's the ventriloquist dummy in "Magic," the titular adversary of the various "Chucky" features, or more recently, the dancing, iconic "M3GAN," dolls are a recipe for gory chaos in horror cinema. "The Rule of Jenny Pen," an indie feature written and directed by James Ashcroft, apparently continues this esteemed tradition. 

Geoffrey Rush stars as a new, largely paralyzed retirement home resident who discovers that another member of this domicile (John Lithgow) is using a dementia therapy doll for malicious means. It's a kooky-sounding premise, conceptually like a mixture of "Rear Window" and a "Night of the Living Dummy" adaptation. That's a potent combo that could provide irresistible to many horror aficionados. Plus, while previous Shudder-exclusive movies were often helmed by largely unknown actors, "Jenny Pen" is anchored by a pair of Oscar nominees. Heck, one member of the duo (Rush) even scored an Oscar win for "Shine" back in 1997. Those prestigious leading men could lend significantly more eyeballs than usual towards this feature, while the enduring popularity of puppet/doll/dummy-oriented horror fare also won't hurt.

Just before its September 2024 Fantastic Fest premiere, Shudder picked up the distribution rights to "The Rule of Jenny Pen." No concrete theatrical release date has been announced for the film yet, but one can bet Shudder plans on giving this high-profile project a significant launch.

Shudder's original film library is expansive in terms of which countries the films come from or the specific strains of horror storytelling they're informed by. However, Shudder doesn't have a ton of franchises. Given that the streamer has specialized in artsy festival acquisition titles like "Skinamarink" and "Saloum," endless horror sagas haven't been at the forefront of the company's priorities. But an intriguing exception to this emerged in 2024: "In a Violent Nature," a Sundance 2024 feature acquired by IFC Films/Shudder, became a decent box office performer at the end of May 2024. 

In the wake of that, it was announced at 2024's San Diego Comic-Con that "In a Violent Nature 2" was on the way. Picking this feature for the franchise treatment makes sense even beyond box office dollars. "Violent Nature" killer Johnny is very much a slasher foe in the vein of Jason, Michael, Chucky, and countless other bloodthirsty adversaries that anchored countless sequels. Even some of the most bizarre slasher movies ever made spawned follow-ups. Just because Johnny inhabited a motion picture with artsier cinematic sensibilities doesn't mean he couldn't anchor a follow-up or two.

"In a Violent Nature 2" doesn't just confirm that Johnny will eviscerate people once more on the big screen. It also gives Shudder a rare foray into the world of franchise filmmaking. Having that kind of title just solidified Shudder's expanding profile in horror cinema.

Beyond turning "In a Violent Nature" into a franchise, another recent example of Shudder's increasingly prolific nature is its acquisition of the domestic rights to the upcoming horror movie "The Cycle." Normally, Shudder picks up domestic rights to titles after their buzzy film festival premieres. Many of the best movies on Shudder have followed this procedure, including recent hits like "Late Night with the Devil" and "In a Violent Nature," both of which were completed long before Shudder purchased their distribution rights. 

But Shudder's emphasis on already completed motion pictures was upended with the acquisition of "The Cycle" months before it began shooting. Shudder was now getting on the ground floor of horror titles based on a concept, rather than festival premiere hype. This project even came with a notable actor, Deborah Ann Woll — a veteran of "Daredevil" and horror titles like "Escape Room" — in the lead role. 

The project, helmed by Jordan Downey (who also wrote the script with Kevin Stewart), follows Woll as a woman who falls down a rabbit hole concerning her dad's past once his corpse suddenly re-emerges. If all goes well, "The Cycle" could be the kind of star-driven movie that continues Shudder's recent hot streak. If it does, it'll also show the streamer being involved with such hits right away rather than well after post-production wraps up.

"Grafted" isn't the only 2025 Shudder feature that's ready to go. The studio also picked up "Menace" back in May 2024. Randall Okito makes his directorial debut with this tale of a psychologically tormented young lady who relocates to a small town where people begin vanishing. But how can she help stop this problem when her grasp on reality is so flimsy? That's where the frights come from in this feature, which is anchored by "1883" star Isabel May. 

No release date has been confirmed for "Menace," which firmly occupies the sci-fi/horror genre. That makes it an interesting departure from other horror fare Shudder has recently dropped, which has typically focused on either supernatural scares ("Late Night with the Devil") or slasher villains ("In a Violent Nature"). Picking up a feature more reminiscent of guilty pleasure sci-fi movie "Lifeforce" than best slasher movie of all time "Halloween" is a big swing for Shudder, demonstrating the eclectic array of horror cinema this label aims to house.

Unlike "Grafted" or "The Rules of Jenny Pen," "Menace" has not been screened at any film festivals to date. This adds an extra aura of mystery to the proceedings that could help accentuate unexpected scares in the final product. That uncertainty surrounding this project even extends to its current lack of a release date. All that's clear is it will be released in 2025, a year that's steadily filling up with promising Shudder theatrical releases.

Much like dolls, Satan keeps cropping up in horror movies as a go-to adversary, and has even infiltrated global horror films like the 2017 Indonesian fright-fest "Satan's Slaves," a remake of a classic 1980 Indonesian horror film of the same name from writer-director Joko Anwar. By the time Anwar delivered "Satan's Slaves 2: Communion," this franchise had taken on a life of its own well beyond just rehashing a familiar brand name. No wonder Shudder acquired distribution rights to this follow-up across countless major territories. 

Few horror franchises (save for the occasional "Happy Death Day") end with just two installments. Typically, sagas like "Paranormal Activity" and "Saw" just keep going and going until the wheels fall off the wagon. Once "Communion" hit Indonesian theaters, Anwar was very cognizant of the potential for "Satan's Slaves" to continue. In fact, Anwar openly discussed plans to do a third "Satan's Slaves" feature should folks turn out in droves for this first sequel. Given the enormous success of "Communion," a third modern "Satan's Slaves" movie now looks inevitable. 

While no further concrete information on this follow-up has emerged, this lucrative brand name can't lay dormant for long. Whenever it comes back, Shudder will inevitably continue its association with this franchise, reaffirming Satan's inescapable presence across global horror cinema. 

Family vacations are often a bit of a nightmare. When people who love each other are all crammed into one tight space for a few days, things can inevitably get hostile. For the family at the heart of "Get Away," however, this vacation is especially dangerous. The film chronicles a family gradually realizing that they've ended up staying on an island that's home to unfriendly locals and a serial killer. That just might elevate this excursion to being slightly more harrowing than your typical family outing. The movie comes courtesy of director Steffen Haars and the creative mind of Nick Frost, who not only stars in the project as the family patriarch, but also wrote the screenplay.

Frost's experience as a writer of feature-length movies is solely restricted to being one of the writers of "Paul," so "Get Away" sees the "Shaun of the Dead" star venturing into relatively fresh creative territory. Whether or not "Get Away" lives up to the promise of previous beloved horror-comedies anchored by Frost, die-hard horror fans won't have to wait long to see the fruits of Frost's labor. Shudder has set an early December domestic theatrical release for the movie, so horror devotees can expect to spend part of their holiday season cozied up with "Get Away." Hopefully that experience will be more enjoyable than most family vacations.

If you enjoyed the single-take conceit of "1917" but wished it could be applied to a horror movie, prepare for some good news. Writer-director David Moreau's new horror film "MadS" is captured in that exact same way, as the project follows a teen whose trip to his local drug dealer takes a turn for the bizarre once he picks up a random woman. Now the newly-minted high school graduate must deal with all kinds of mayhem on what was once a routine summer night. It sounds like a recipe for a frightening time at the movies, as well as potential fodder for a 1980s anti-drug PSA.

One interesting facet about "MadS" is it doesn't hail from a totally unknown filmmaker, like so many Shudder original horror movies. Instead, Moreau is a horror genre veteran and even helmed the high-profile 2008 remake "The Eye." This French artist has been toiling away in various capacities in the film industry for over 25 years and is now taking his visual ambitions to a new level with "MadS." 

So far, the response to "MadS" from its screenings at events like Fantastic Fest has been generally positive, though this audacious project has inevitably drawn equally bold negative reactions as well. Soon, Shudder subscribers can throw their own hats into the discourse ring and chime in about how they felt shooting a horror movie in one take went. 

It's quite common for streamers to time certain high-profile original movies to holidays, when people are more likely to have some free time to watch stuff on those services. Netflix has launched costly titles like "Bird Box" and "Don't Look Up" close to Christmas, for example. Prime Video, meanwhile, debuted "The Tomorrow War" over 2021's Fourth of July weekend. For Thanksgiving 2024, Shudder's equivalent to that phenomenon will be the debut of director Jayro Bustamante's "Rita." 

A historic first-time collaboration between Guatemalan and American studios, "Rita" concerns a 13-year-old girl (Giuliana Santa Cruz) evading an abusive father and ending up in an institution populated by various fantasy creatures. These inhabitants have some prophetic plans, involving Rita, to defeat nefarious forces controlling the world. 

Bustamante's film reportedly dovetails real-life horrors with the terrors of classic fantasy literature. It's a bold concept involving children in peril that won't be for everyone. However, those provocative qualities could also certainly make "Rita" stand out among new horror movies in 2024's final two months. It's also commendable that Shudder is making its big Thanksgiving original horror movie an international title from a filmmaker totally unknown to domestic audiences rather than something tied into a pre-existing franchise. While its competitors launch safe titles over significant holidays, Shudder is shining a spotlight on something totally idiosyncratic like "Rita."

After bringing the Irish horror movie "Oddity" to movie theaters everywhere in July 2024, Shudder plans to once again turn to the Emerald Isle for one of its 2025 horror titles. The streamer has recently acquired distribution rights to "Frewaka" for multiple territories (including North America) after its successful film festival run. "Frewaka" will also join the growing list of movies released in the 2020s, following "The Quiet Girl" and "Kneecap," that are told largely in Ireland's native language. This once nearly-extinct form of communication is now thriving on the silver screen. 

This particular title concerns beings out of Irish folklore called the Na Sidhe and one woman who struggles with her own demons as she grapples with the possibility that these entities could be real.Like other dark fantasy movies that are actually scary, "Frewaka" has the potential of combining horror and fantasy into one chilling cinematic dish. That already offers the film a rich tableau to build on while the various stunning backdrops of Ireland means this movie won't be deprived of potentially gorgeous imagery. 

It doesn't hurt that the movie hails from director Aislinn Clarke, who garnered largely positive notices for her 2018 feature "The Devil's Doorway" (which was distributed domestically by Shudder sister company IFC Midnight). There are lots of promising elements at play in "Frewaka," the latest product of Ireland's thriving horror scene, which will terrorize Shudder subscribers sometime in 2025.