The Greatest Horror Films Streaming This Month Get Romantic For Valentine’s Day (February 2025)

It is February! The month of chilly climate, the Tremendous Bowl, and naturally, Valentine’s Day! Sure, Valentine’s Day, probably the most ridiculous of holidays, one which seemingly solely exists to promote overpriced heart-shaped packing containers of disappointing candies. If the onset of Valentine’s Day has you in a romantic temper however you are still craving the blood and guts of the horror style, you are in luck! This month’s horror streaming column is dedicated to romance-tinged horror flicks you possibly can watch along with your vital different, or all by your lonesome. 

Streaming on Shudder, The Criterion Channel, Tubi, Kanopy.

It is most likely truthful to say that “Audition” is the movie that basically launched filmmaker Takashi Miike to a wider Western viewers. On this nasty piece of labor, a middle-aged man named Shigeharu Aoyama (Ryo Ishibashi) who misplaced his spouse seven years in the past groups up together with his buddy, a movie producer, to assist him discover a new bride. Slightly than go about this in a standard, wholesome means, the 2 prepare dinner up a scheme that sees girls (all of them significantly youthful than Shigeharu) are available in to audition for a movie. In fact, the movie does not truly exist: the ladies are as an alternative being tricked into auditioning to be Shigeharu’s new spouse. The “winner” of this course of is Asami (Eihi Shiina), and it rapidly turns into clear to the viewers (however not Shigeharu) that there is one thing … irregular about this younger lady. “Audition” has crossed into the popular culture consciousness, so even if you happen to’ve by no means seen the movie, you seemingly know the place it is headed. However even if you happen to do, the movie’s finale nonetheless has the ability to shock and disturb. 

Streaming on Peacock.

Folks nonetheless speak about “Name Me By Your Identify,” however for my cash, the very best Luca Guadagnino/Timothée Chalamet collaboration is “Bones and All.” This lovely, bloody love story introduces us to Maren (Taylor Russell), a younger lady with a secret: she has an urge to eat folks. Sure, Maren is a cannibal, however “Bones and All” treats cannibalism as nearly a supernatural drive; an unbeatable urge that sure folks should fulfill, like a vampire looking for blood. After getting in hassle at residence, Maren hits the highway, and her journey finally leads her to Lee (Chalamet), one other cannibal, or “eater” as he calls them. The 2 find yourself in a tragic romance, with hazard and loss of life lurking across the edges (Mark Rylance makes an actual influence as but one other cannibal who appears useful and pleasant at first, solely to rapidly reveal himself to be a terrifying menace). Ugly and poetic, “Bones and All” feels prefer it deserves extra consideration than it acquired (it was a field workplace failure). 

Streaming on Shudder, Pluto TV.

Panos Cosmatos’s psychedelic freak present “Mandy” begins out with the love story of Pink (Nicolas Cage) and Mandy (Andrea Riseborough), two broken souls who simply wish to be left alone to reside off the grid within the woods. Sadly for them, cult chief Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache) is smitten with Mandy, and orders a gang of satanic bikers to abduct her. However when Mandy rejects this silly goon, Sand has her murdered — and Pink needs revenge. Violent, trendy, and unusual, “Mandy” is a lot of issues, together with a reminder that Nicolas Cage actually is a good actor when he has the correct materials to sink his tooth into. 

Streaming on Tubi, Pluto TV.

Few movies perceive the crushing weight of loneliness like Fortunate McKee’s “Might.” Angela Bettis performs the title character, a painfully lonely younger lady who simply needs somebody, anybody, to like. Might also has a little bit of a fetish for varied physique components — fingers, legs, she does not discriminate. The issue is, these physique components are all connected to completely different folks, and most of those folks reject her. Would not it’s excellent if she may, say, lower off all these components and assemble them into the proper associate? A depraved, darkly humorous riff on “Frankenstein,” “Might” is romantic in a grotesque means. 

Streaming on The Criterion Channel.

Should you’re nonetheless reeling from the loss of life of David Lynch (I do know I’m), why not revisit one in every of his best movies? “A love story within the metropolis of goals,” because the tagline states, “Mulholland Drive” tells the story of aspiring actress Betty (Naomi Watts, in her breakout efficiency), who involves Hollywood and meets Rita (Laura Harring), who’s affected by amnesia. As these two girls try to search out out who Rita actually is and what occurred to her, additionally they find yourself falling for one another. However ah, that makes it sound like “Mulholland Drive” has a lower and dry narrative, and that is clearly not the case. Lynch frequently pulls the rug out from the viewer, introducing new characters and storylines that every one really feel threatening, dream-like, and downright scary. I am not an Oscars man, however this actually ought to’ve landed Lynch a Greatest Listing trophy (the award went to Ron Howard for “A Stunning Thoughts” as an alternative, which, lmao, lol, and so forth.). 

Streaming on Shudder, Pluto TV.

In “My Bloody Valentine,” a bunch of miners get trapped in a mine shaft in a small Canadian mining city. When rescue crews have been lastly capable of get into the mine, they have been horrified to search out that the one survivor, a man named Harry Warden, resorted to cannibalism to outlive. Harry additionally went on to homicide the supervisors he felt have been liable for the entire ordeal — as a result of they left their posts to attend a Valentine’s Day dance. Now, twenty years later, the city is ready to throw the Valentine’s Day dance for the primary time in 20 years, and the physique rely is about to climb. Somebody wearing a miner outfit is on a killing spree, and sexy Canadians are in severe hazard. Is it Harry Warden again for blood? Nobody is aware of for positive, however the dance is in charge, which sort of makes “My Bloody Valentine” like a slasher riff on “Footloose” once you actually give it some thought. 

Streaming on Prime Video, Tubi.

The “My Bloody Valentine” remake, which is often known as “My Bloody Valentine 3D,” is surprisingly good, all issues thought of. It ramps up the gore and violence, throws in Tom Atkins, and  — because it was shot in 3D — is loaded with scenes the place blood (and in a single case, a severed jawbone) flies straight on the display. The premise is kind of just like the primary movie: after a mining tragedy, a slasher decked head to toe in mining gear picks up a pick-axe and begins killing folks round Valentine’s Day. Whereas it does not fairly have the scuzzy grindhouse charms of the unique, “My Bloody Valentine” 2009 is loads of enjoyable, and makes for good Valentine’s Day horror viewing. 

Streaming on Shudder, Kanopy.

“Possession” is as wild and loopy as you’ve got heard, after which some. Andrzej Żuławski’s flick has gained loads of notoriety over time for its completely weird materials, however I do not wish to provide the impression that that is some impenetrable oddity — it is a legit nice film filled with among the most annoying scenes you may ever witness. It lives as much as the hype, after which some. Because the movie begins, a spy named Mark (Sam Neill) returns residence from a mission and is nearly instantly instructed by his spouse Anna (Isabelle Adjani) that she needs a divorce. Mark does not take this information very properly, and issues solely develop worse from there, because it’s quickly revealed that Anna has not one however two completely different lovers: a man named Heinrich (Heinz Bennent), and an ooey, gooey Lovecraftian tentacle monster. Would not that sound romantic? Adjani’s efficiency is probably probably the most exceptional factor right here — an unhinged, terrifying little bit of performing that has closely influenced numerous different horror performances over time.

Streaming on Tubi.

The “Return of the Dwelling Lifeless” franchise went right into a bizarre new path with the gross-out extravaganza “Return of the Dwelling Lifeless 3.” On this installment, teenager Curt (J. Trevor Edmond) is distraught when his beloved girlfriend Julie (Melinda Clarke) is killed in a bike accident. As (dangerous) luck would have it, Curt’s father is a Colonel stationed on a army base experimenting with a poisonous gasoline that has the ability to reanimate corpses (the army needs to make use of this to create zombie troopers, naturally). Curt is ready to deliver Julie again from the lifeless, and whereas Julie is not a senseless, speechless shuffling ghoul, she is hungry for brains, which ends up in all types of issues (and deaths). The one factor that may preserve her insatiable starvation for human flesh at bay is self-mutilation, and shortly Julie decks her physique out with spikes and glass and different grotesque paraphernalia (and it is someway very popular). The top result’s a movie that is suitably unusual and nasty, leading to one of the crucial unconventional zombie films ever made.

Streaming on Tubi. 

A mix of Lovecraft and the “Earlier than” trilogy, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s “Spring” is likely one of the most romantic horror films ever made, and a reminder that Benson and Moorhead can push a small funds to nice heights.. After the grief over the loss of life of his mom results in a violent altercation, American man Evan (Lou Taylor Pucci) flees to a small Italian city, the place he immediately falls for native lady Louise (Nadia Hilker). However whereas Louise could also be lovely, she additionally has a darkish secret: she’s an historical amphibious monster that feeds on people at any time when she morphs again into her creature type. Do not you hate it when that occurs?