Screamify: First Impressions of the New Indie Horror Streaming App
What to expect when you sign up for the new streamer.
Recently I saw an ad promoting a new indie horror movie released earlier this month titled Spirit Springs. I try to keep up with as many new horror releases as I can, but this one got past me. Looking into it, Spirit Springs was released on a streaming app I’d never heard of before: Screamify. So, I decided to take a look at Screamify. Here are my first impressions.
The Screamify Mission Statement
Looking at the “About” section on Screamify.com, they’re saying almost all the right things for a fan like me. Screamify is focused on promoting independent horror filmmakers, and they say that a “significant portion” of their app’s subscription fees go directly to funding new indie horror projects. I can totally get behind that. The more indie horror, as in true low-to-no-budget indie horror, the better.
In their bullet-point list of what sets Screamify apart from other streamers, I’m completely supportive of three out of four items. They say they’ll put on a film festival showcasing indie horror, they will directly fund independent productions, and they will use their streaming platform to promote undiscovered filmmakers directly to a dedicated audience. All good things.
The point I’m much less enthusiastic about is their plan to hold “online contests featuring cutting-edge AI filmmaking.” This article isn’t the place for me to lay out all the reasons I’m not at all enthusiastic about generative AI in creative spaces, so I’ll just say that I’m skeptical about the idea. Also, I don’t really want a portion of my subscription dollars going towards it. However, I’d already subscribed for a month before I read that, and I do want to support indie horror, so I went ahead and signed into the app.
Available Platforms
As of now, Screamify is only available on select platforms. I watch movies either through Roku, through one of my gaming consoles, or on my laptop. None of those support Screamify at the moment. So even though you can sign up for an account through a web browser on a computer, you can’t watch movies through one. However, their page says they’re working on Roku and web applications.
Currently, you can download the Screamify app on iOS and Android mobile, and on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV. Despite that, I managed to get it working on one of my devices, so there are workarounds if you don’t use anything officially supported.
Available Films
Looking at their social media posts, it looks like Screamify launched in late 2024. So, they’re a new app and are currently building their library. That said, the Screamify library is very small right now. I counted six new feature films, four short films, and nine older movies which are in the public domain. Here are the six features, all of which were released this year:
- Dreamland Awaits
- Lechuza
- The Black-Eyed Children
- Spirit Springs
- The Forest Through the Trees
- The Arkansas Pigman Massacre
It’s a modest selection for sure, but if their plan is to build their library through new-release independent films, then I support that. Of the six features released in 2025 on Screamify, I only found one that was streaming on other sites. The Arkansas Pigman Massacre is available for rent on Prime Video and Fandango at Home.
Extra Incentives
Screamify has a Community page that allows users to write reviews. It’s rather sparsely populated, but it’s there if you want to use it.
As part of a subscription, Screamify also offers podcasts. Two titles are available now, including a true-crime podcast titled Horrific Murder, and a horror film podcast called The Fear Feed. I haven’t had the time to listen to either long enough to review the actual content of the shows, Horrific Murder sounds suspiciously like AI. The Fear Feed definitely is not AI. It’s made by a horror fan, @themovieginger, and I’ll probably give it a listen.
The Price & The Verdict
Screamify is only $2.99 a month right now. The “About” page says $4.99, so the price might change at some point. My welcome email says that I’m “locked” at $2.99 though, so that’s nice.
The price for a month is about the same price it would cost to rent any one of the six feature films individually on a different site (if they were even available on other sites, which only one is). So, for me, the $2.99 is worth it since I wanted to watch one of the films anyway and planned to rent it before I knew it was exclusive to Screamify. Whether or not I keep that subscription going will depend on how many new movies they add week to week and month to month.
If you’re not as heavily invested in seeing new micro-budget horror movies as soon as they come out, I’m not sure a subscription is worth it yet. It’s cheap enough to try it out, but a site like Tubi has tons of independent horror for free which will keep most fans busy for a long time. Screamify’s biggest draw is new indie horror not available anywhere else, but the library might need to be bigger before a strong recommendation can be made. It might also be worth waiting to see how they’re going to use and promote AI content if that’s important to you (as it is to me), and to see what form their commitment to funding new productions actually takes.
