Shudder Review

What is Shudder?

Shudder is an over-the-top video (OTT) streaming service that focuses on horror and thriller content. It’s one of four genre-based subscription services from AMC Networks. The service started beta testing in 2015 on an invite-only basis and has since become the go-to destination for horror fans.

With content that caters specifically to their interests, Shudder mostly appeals to serious horror fans. But for $5.99/mo., even casual viewers can enjoy the service without spending a fortune. 

The service offers a seven-day free trial — so you have a whole week to see whether it’s a good fit. 

Shudder plans and pricing

Shudder supported devices

Compared to other streaming services, Shudder is slightly limited when it comes to device compatibility. But the service is working to expand its list of compatible devices. For now, Shudder streaming is available on the following products either through the Shudder app or website:

• Android mobile devices
• Apple TV with iOS 9.0 or later
• Amazon Fire TV 
• iPad with iOS 9.0 or later
• iPhone with iOS 9.0 or later
• iPod Touch with iOS 9.0 or later
• Laptop or desktop using the latest web browser
• Roku devices
• VRV Premium
• Xbox One

You can also cast Shudder to your TV using Chromecast.

What to watch on Shudder

Shudder boasts over 330 horror and thriller titles and divides them into the following sub-genres:

• Comedy
• Creature features
• Crime and mystery
• Cult
• Documentary
• Exclusive and original
• International
• Killers
• Paranormal
• Psychological thrillers
• Revenge
• Shorts
• Supernatural

With such a detailed list of sub-categories to choose from, Shudder makes it easy to find the exact type of content that appeals to you. The service lets you stream some of the most popular titles in horror history, such as Audition, Ginger Snaps, The Devil’s Rejects, The Fog, The Hills Have Eyes, Train to Busan, and Secret Window.

It also offers a handful of original and exclusive content that hasn’t aired on TV and isn’t available anywhere else — one of the top perks of subscribing to the service. Some of the most enticing Shudder original movies include titles like Belzebuth, Satan’s Slaves, Terrified, The Room, The Witch in the Window, and The Wrath. Its exclusive movies come from leading creators in the horror community such as Florian Habicht, Joyce A. Nashawati, Rob Zombie, and Ryuhei Kitamura.

For those who love binging on shows, Shudder has a bunch of fascinating series and podcasts as well. This includes originals like Creepshow, Missions, and The Last Drive-In. The service also has as exclusives like Born to Kill, History of Horror, Likely Stories, and Lucky Man.

The Shudder streaming experience gets even better with curated collections from horror aficionados. These collections include topics like Trapped, which contains stories about confinement, quarantine, and home invasion. Superfans will love the Foundations of Horror collection, which celebrates landmark films that gave birth to the genre. The Shudder Collections section also features plenty of curated content.

On top of all this, the service offers subscribers a free live stream of select movies through Shudder TV. Shudder updates this 24/7 pre-programmed feed weekly — so viewers can expect freshly-curated content regularly. During special occasions — such as Halloween season — the service sometimes makes Shudder TV accessible for free even without a subscription.

Shudder features

Both the monthly and annual plans come with similar features; the only difference is in pricing. Although neither of these plans have cloud DVR storage, Shudder lets you download videos for offline viewing. You can save these videos for up to seven days, during which you can watch them even if you don’t have an internet connection.

The service hasn’t made any information available about simultaneous streaming. But Shudder specifies that registered accounts are only for individual use, so subscribers can only create one profile per subscription. 

But this changes if you get Shudder as an add-on through streaming services like Amazon Prime and YouTube TV. Since these services offer simultaneous streaming, you’ll have the ability to access Shudder content from multiple devices at a time. Both Amazon Prime and YouTube TV allow up to three simultaneous streams.

Being a service that’s only accessible if you’re 18 years or older, Shudder doesn’t come with parental controls. So if you have kids in the house, you might want to work around this by limiting the service through the parental controls on your device.

Another important thing to note is that you won’t get closed captions for every video on Shudder. The service focuses on curating a library of content that’s unavailable anywhere else. This makes it challenging to add closed captioning for every single piece of content, though the service is working on making the feature more widely available.

The final cut

With a horde of exclusive and original content in its library, Shudder is a must-have for both casual and serious horror fans. Since you get to try it for 7 days at no cost, you’ll have plenty of time to decide if it’s worth $5.99/mo. To get an even better feel of the streaming quality, try using the service on all your devices – whether it’s your laptop browser, mobile Shudder app, or Fire TV, Roku, or Xbox One devices.

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