10 Horror and Sci-Fi Movies That Make MGM+ Worth Having
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When you think of streaming services, MGM+ doesn’t come to mind until you’ve already listed the likes of Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, and Peacock. But that doesn’t mean you should overlook this arm of Amazon MGM Studios, which offers original programming and live TV option, as well as a small but intriguing library of features. Here are 10 sci-fi and horror picks to get you started.
The Satan Bug
This 1965 thriller has a tantalizingly ominous title but is definitely more “Cold War frights” than the Satanic freak-out you might suspect it to be. Legendary director John Sturges (Bad Day at Black Rock, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape) oversees an excellent cast (Dana Andrews, Richard Basehart, George Maharis, Anne Francis) in a story about a dangerous bioweapon that—despite being kept in a top-secret facility—somehow falls into the wrong hands. It’s sci-fi, but it feels like it could happen, which makes it even more alarming. Watch on MGM+.
The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre
This 1964 release was actually a made-for-TV movie, written and directed by Joseph Stefano—who’d adapted Robert Bloch’s novel into Hitchcock’s Psycho script, and produced and co-wrote classic sci-fi anthology series The Outer Limits. The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre was intended as the kick-off for a horror anthology series that never came to fruition, which is too bad—but at least we have this creepy feature-length tale starring Martin Landau, Judith Anderson, and Diane Baker, about a paranormal investigator who agrees to help a heiress who’s convinced she’s being harassed by a ghost. Watch on MGM+.
The Burning
When this 1981 tale of gory revenge at a summer camp turned 40 a few years back, io9 took another look and realized it’s still “a potent slice of slasher horror.” Special effects master Tom Savini performs blood-spurting illusions galore, and the cast is speckled with future stars Holly Hunter, Jason Alexander, and Fisher Stevens. Watch on MGM+.
There’s Something Wrong With the Children
Roxanne Benjamin’s 2023 release tackles the spooky-kid trope from a genuinely unsettling perspective, following a childless couple (played by The Fall of the House of Usher’s Zach Gilford and Raising Dion’s Alisha Wainwright) whose cabin-in-the-woods getaway with another couple turns terrifying when it becomes clear that their friends’ two kids are... well, see movie title. Watch on MGM+.
Disturbing Behavior
What if The Stepford Wives, but instead of suburban housewives it was rebellious teens who were being forced to conform by the powers of weird science? Released in 1998, when teen genre movies (Scream, The Faculty) were all the rage, Disturbing Behavior marries social commentary with a perfect time capsule of the era. Katie Holmes plays the smart-cookie bad girl, and James Marsden (who was 25 at the time, and in no way resembles a high-school student) plays the new kid in town who starts to suspect something very, uh, disturbing is afoot among his peers. Watch on MGM+.
Event Horizon
Watch it once, watch it 100 times: delightfully gruesome haunted-house-in-space movie Event Horizon never gets old. Watch on MGM+.
Landscape With Invisible Hand
This offbeat, thoroughly original take on an alien-invasion narrative was one of io9's top “movies you might have missed” from 2023. We first caught it at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and io9's review called the film, which stars Tiffany Haddish, “constantly surprising and entertaining.” Watch on MGM+.
The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant
Important: not to be confused with 1972 comedy The Thing With Two Heads, which stars Ray Milland as Kirshner, a racist who’s appalled to awaken from an experimental surgery to find his head has been grafted onto the body of Jack (Rosey Grier); as you might guess, Jack’s none too thrilled either, and shenanigans ensue. No, The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant actually came out a year earlier, and it’s about a mad scientist (Bruce Dern) who makes the questionable decision to put two heads—a man with the mental abilities of an eight-year-old, and a psychotic murderer—on a single hulking body. Legendary radio personality/voice of Scooby-Doo’s Shaggy Casey Kasem has a supporting role, as does Pat “Marilyn Munster” Priest. Watch on MGM+.
Saint Maud
Before she rose to prominence playing Galadriel on Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Morfydd Clark dazzled in this 2019 psychological thriller from Rose Glass, whose buzzed-about follow-up, Love Lies Bleeding, just hit theaters. Saint Maud is about a troubled Catholic nurse who develops, shall we say, a disturbing obsession with her terminally ill patient. Watch on MGM+.
The Crow
We’re still processing those images of Bill Skarsgård’s Joker-esque take on Eric Draven for The Crow reboot arriving in June. In the meantime, Alex Proyas’ 1994 original, which arrived with instant notoriety after star Brandon Lee died in an on-set accident, is well worth re-watching. It’s ostensibly a tale of beyond-the grave payback, but what makes it memorable—other than its association with a real-life tragedy—is the way it oozes the kind of ‘90s goth-grunge vibes filmmakers in 2024 desperately wish they could recreate. Watch on MGM+.
