One month down and only 5 more to go before it’s Halloween time!
The month of May is filled with lovely things like flowering trees, the smell of freshly mowed grass, and the stench of 1,000 corpses. Shudder has released a new lineup of several movies and new episodes of Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs to keep everyone entertained as we creep closer to the summer months. This article will help you find your next favorite nightmare-inducing watch to check out on days when you just can’t bear to enjoy the nice weather!
‘Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever’ (2023)
Available on: |
May 17 |
Director: |
Ole Bornedal |
Runtime: |
110 minutes |
Sub-Genres: |
Mystery-Thriller |
Cast: |
Fanny Leander Bornedal, Nikolaj Coster-Waldeau, Alex Høgh Andersen |
Nearly 30 years after the original Nightwatch came out, the sequel, Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever, has been created! In the original, Nikolaj Coster-Waldeau stars as Martin, a law student who works nights as a security guard at the Department of Forensic Medicine, where he has access to the morgue. When a serial killer starts to target women, Martin gets mixed up in the events and becomes the main suspect. He then has to figure out the identity of the killer to clear his name. In the sequel, Coster-Waldeau is joined by his daughter, Emma (Fanny Leander Bornedal), who takes up a night watch job to find more information on the events from the first film. At the same time, the killer from the 1994 film wakes up from the coma he has been in and escapes captivity, once again forcing Martin to find a way to stop him.
‘Stopmotion’ (2024)
Available on: |
May 31 |
Director: |
Robert Morgan |
Runtime: |
93 minutes |
Sub-Genres: |
Psychological, Suspense |
Cast: |
Aisling Franciosi, Stella Gonet, Tom York, Caoilinn Springall |
After the death of her mother, the stop-motion animator Ella (Aisling Franciosi) is determined to finish the film that she and her mother have been working on for so long. Her boyfriend, Tom (Tom York) worries about her state of mind as she seems to be unraveling quickly, so he offers to let her move in with him, but she decides to rent a studio apartment instead. There, she meets a young girl (Caoilinn Springall) who shows an interest in storytelling through stop-motion films. The girl insults her work, saying the current story isn’t good enough, and instead offers a new story for Ella to create. The girl becomes increasingly pushy and insists that Ella use the body of a dead fox to create new puppets “to bring to life” as she creates the horrifying story of the “Ash Man,” an unknown creature that is chasing a young girl through the woods. The further the story progresses, Ella begins to hallucinate and believe that the Ash Man is chasing her in real life.
‘Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs’ (2018-)
Available on: |
May 10, 24 |
Director: |
Austin Jennings |
Runtime: |
N/A |
Sub-Genres: |
Variety, Comedy |
Cast: |
John Bloom, Diana Prince, John Brennan |
Just like last month, this season of Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs continues with the new changes to the format. Instead of a double feature, the show will have two separate episodes focusing on one featured movie each. The episodes will be available to watch live starting May 10 and May 24 and available to stream on Shudder on May 12 and May 24, respectively. It’s hard to guess which movies will be selected, but the official Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs account on X usually drops a few not-so-subtle clues roughly a week before each episode airs, so if you’re a big fan of the show keep an eye on that account for updates!
‘The Toxic Avenger’ (1984)
Available on: |
May 1 |
Director: |
Michael Herz and Samuel Weil |
Runtime: |
82 minutes |
Sub-Genres: |
Comedy, Slasher |
Cast: |
Mitch Cohen, Mark Torgl, Andree Maranda, Jennifer Babtist |
The Toxic Avenger is about a janitor at a health club who is routinely bullied for his size and timid demeanor. After he accidentally falls into a vat of toxic waste, he is reborn as The Toxic Avenger. Although the waste burned his skin and mutilated him, he also gained superhuman size and strength. With his newfound abilities, he sets out to seek vengeance on criminals and murderers throughout the city of Tromaville. In addition to the original Toxic Avenger, the three subsequent movies, The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989), The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989), and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (2000) will also be added to Shudder on the same day. A fifth movie was just made in 2023, starring Peter Dinklage as the titular character, but it’s not clear if or when that movie will make its way to Shudder.
‘Mother’s Day’ (1980)
Available on: |
May 8 |
Director: |
Charles Kaufman |
Runtime: |
91 minutes |
Sub-Genres: |
Slasher, Revenge |
Cast: |
Nancy Hendrickson, Debra Luce, Tiana Pierce, Beatrice Pons, Gary Pollard, Michael McCleery |
Mother’s Day comes to Shudder just in time to enjoy the holiday of the same name with your mother, although she might not be too interested in watching this one with you. Set in the deep woods of rural New Jersey, Mother’s Day follows three women who have been friends since college as they travel from New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago to meet up for a weekend getaway. They are captured and tortured by two brothers who commit heinous atrocities on unsuspecting victims to please their sadistic mother. After they make a daring escape, one of the women dies from her injuries and the remaining two women return to the cabin armed and ready to reap vengeance on the inbred assailants. The Mother’s Day episode of Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs will also be available to stream on Shudder this month.
‘The Jester’ (2023)
Available on: |
May 1 |
Director: |
Colin Krawchuck |
Runtime: |
90 minutes |
Sub-Genres: |
Supernatural, Mystery |
Cast: |
Michael Sheffield, Lelia Symington, Delaney White, Matt Servitto |
Based on a 2016 short film of the same name, The Jester follows the story of a malevolent entity known as “The Jester” (Michael Sheffield) who terrorizes the inhabitants of a small town each year on Halloween. Following the recent death of their father, estranged sisters Emma (Lelia Symington) and Jocelyn (Delaney White) must find a way to set aside their differences to defeat the evil being. The Jester is similar to Art the Clown from the Terrifier franchise in that he never speaks and wears a mask while performing theatrically savage attacks on his victims throughout the film. How do you stop a creature that can cause you to hang yourself without ever touching you?
‘Deathdream’ (1974)
Available on: |
May 24 |
Director: |
Bob Clark |
Runtime: |
88 minutes |
Sub-Genres: |
Supernatural, Thriller |
Cast: |
John Marley, Lynn Carlin, Richard Backus, Henderson Forsythe, Anya Ormsby |
Inspired by W. W. Jacobs’ short story, “The Monkey’s Paw,” Deathdream is about a Vietnam War American soldier Andy Brooks (Richard Backus), who dies while in combat. Just before he dies, he hears his mother’s voice in his head, telling him that he has to come home because he promised he would. The day that the military personnel show up at the Brooks household to inform Andy’s relatives of his death, his mother, Christine (Lynn Carlin), goes into denial. That night, Andy arrives home without a mark on his body. However, his behavior is slightly off, and becomes increasingly violent, causing concerns for his father and other members of the community. How far will a mother go to protect her son, even when he’s clearly displaying vampire-like qualities?
Stay tuned here next month to see what will be coming to Shudder in June!
This article was originally published on collider.com