8 New Horror Movies Began Streaming This Week (April 12-18)

This week, eight new horror movies hit streaming across multiple platforms. A few are big theatrical releases new to streaming (or new to subscription-based streaming), and the rest are brand-new, getting their first wide release this week. My recommendations? If you missed Companion in theaters, it finally started streaming on a subscription service this week, so watch it on Max. Also, Dead Mail on Shudder looks dark and disturbing, just the way I like.

For new movies in theaters including Sinners and The Ugly Stepsister, I’ve written a separate theatrical release article. And for even more new horror movies, always check my New & Upcoming Horror Movies tracker which has a full year of new films with streaming links and reviews as I try to watch them all.

With a gritty aesthetic and a time-hopping chronological structure, Dead Mail tells the disturbing story of a captor, a captive, and the dead-letter (i.e. undeliverable and unreturnable) investigator trying to find them both.

Josh (Jack Quaid) and Iris (Sophie Thatcher) are deeply in love. Well, Iris is deeply in love. Josh seems less attached, and when the couple visit friends for a weekend getaway at a lavish house, the reasons for their lopsided relationship come to light in violent ways. Companion blends genre thrills with smart writing to craft a completely engaging thriller.

When Blake’s (Christopher Abbott) father is declared dead after being missing for years, Blake takes his wife Charlotte (Julia Garner) and daughter Ginger (Matilda Firth) with him to see about his father’s old house in the woods. On their way, an accident leaves Blake with a wound caused by a mysterious beast. Barricading themselves inside Blake’s father’s house, Charlotte and Ginger grow increasingly worried as Blake gets sick and begins a terrifying transformation.

Cynthia (Ashley Greene) is a psychic psychiatrist, but she is hesitant to help Riley (Shayelin Martin) with her problem. Riley claims that an evil entity has attached itself to her, and when Cynthia’s daughter is put in danger, she realizes she must help Riley get rid of the supernatural menace.

ROB1N looks like a mashup of M3GAN and Pinocchio. A robotics expert named Aiden (Simon Davies) creates an android in the shape of a boy after losing his real son, Robin, at a young age. When Aiden’s nephew comes for a visit with his fiancé, ROB1N the android proves in violent ways that he won’t share his “father” with anyone.

A bunch of teens drive one of their classmates to harm himself after cyber-bullying him in an online video game. The bullies are then kidnapped and forced to kill each other in a real-life version of the game. From the official writeup, it sounds a little like a low-budget spin on Battle Royale (2000), or, you know, the battle royale genre of games.

Moray (Caitlin Carver) travels out to a cabin in the woods for some peace and quiet, but that quiet is disturbed by the arrival of a group of musicians next door. Then, after a hike into the woods with the band members, Moray’s grip on what is actually happening begins to slip away.

The Woman in the Yard takes place during a day and night in the life of a family of three. Isolated in their country home which has lost power, they are disturbed to find a woman draped in black sitting in their yard. Over the following hours, the reasons for the woman’s dark presence are revealed, changing everyone’s life in the process.