The scares are heating up on Crackle and Redbox in August, which is great. Fear leads to chills, making Crackle and Redbox’s free August horror movies a perfect escape.
As far as Crackle goes, Oppenheimer’s Cillian Murphy stars in Retreat. Crackle also has several chapters from the Bunker of Blood series. And if you’re looking to put yourself in a fall frame of mind, Crackle also has the original Halloween.
Collider recently shared that Terrifier 3 is in production, scheduled to release sometime in 2024. Terrifier 2 is on both Crackle and Redbox this month.
Redbox is also offering the first three V/H/S movies (with staggered releases, as noted below). But it’s timely because V/H/S/85 is due out sometime in 2023. (However, its release may or may not be impacted by the writers’ and actors’ strikes.)
But both Crackle and Redbox offer so much more horror in August. Let’s look at some of their new and featured horror titles this month. All movies are available on August 1 unless otherwise specified.
Crackle August 2023 Free Horror
Retreat
Taking an isolated break on an uninhabited island, Martin and Kate are about to find that their island retreat is about to become a prison of unimaginable terror, when a blood-soaked stranger stumbles through their door claiming an apocalyptic virus is sweeping across Europe.
Cast: Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), Thandie Newton (2012), Jamie Bell (The Adventures of Tintin)
The Intruders
Every town has its secrets, as college student Rose Halshford learns when she and her dad move into a musty, old house. When Rose discovers that the previous tenant mysteriously disappeared, leaving her possessions behind, she suspects her unfriendly neighbour know more than they let on. When Rose reports strange noises coming from inside the house, no one, not even her father believes her, insisting that it’s all in her head. As Rose’s suspicions grow, she begins to fear that she may be the next victim of whatever or whomever has infiltrated her new home.
Cast: Miranda Cosgrove (School of Rock), Donal Logue (Blade), Austin Butler (Elvis)
Halloween
Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.
Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis (Knives Out), Donald Pleasence (The Great Escape), Tony Moran (Death House)
Vacancy 2: The First Cut
Three young people check into the Meadow View Inn for a night’s rest, fully unaware of the inn’s sick-minded employees and their nefarious intentions.
Cast: Agnes Bruckner (Murder By Numbers), David Moscow (Big), Scott Anderson (Titanic)
Detention
As a copycat killer named after movie villain Cinderhella stalks the student body at Grizzly Lake High School, a group of co-eds band together to survive while serving detention.
Cast: Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games), Shanley Caswell (The Conjuring), Spencer Locke (Cougar Town)
Terrifier 2
After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to Miles County where he begins to target a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween.
Cast: Lauren LaVera (Dispatches From Elsewhere), David Howard (Gotham), Thornton Elliott Fullam (The Calling)
The Cottage
Forced into hiding after their kidnapping plan goes awry, two rival siblings, David and Peter, find themselves fighting for their sanity while they hole up in a secluded country cottage. Weighed down by a hostage who refuses to stay quiet, or tied down, they are soon held captive by their own victim. But everyone’s problems go from bad to worse when they come face-to-face with their psychotic axe-wielding neighbor.
Cast: Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring), Reece Shearsmith (Shaun of the Dead), Jennifer Ellison (The Phantom of the Opera)
Pumpkin Head IV: Blood Feud
As long as they can remember, the Hatfields and the McCoys have been at each other’s throats. Reprisal after reprisal have mired their once idyllic town in a bloody cycle of violence and retribution. Yet a light shines in the midst of these families’ hatred: the forbidden love between two members of the next generation, Jodie Hatfield and Ricky McCoy. But now Jodie Hatfield and Ricky McCoy have confessed their love for one another and their families are not happy about it.
Cast: Lance Henriksen (Aliens), Rob Freeman (Saving Private Ryan), Amy Manson (The Nevers)
The Signal
A horror film told in three parts, from three perspectives, in which a mysterious transmission that turns people into killers invades every cell phone, radio, and television.
Cast: AJ Bowen (You’re Next), Anessa Ramsey (DeathRace 2050), Justin Welborn (The Final Destination)
Puppet Master: Blitzkrieg Massacre – Available August 3
In an unknown dystopian future, a drifter with an unusually high-tolerance to pain is held captive in a horrific hospital by The Circle of Psycho Surgeons, a clandestine crew of M.D.’s (that’s medical deviants) who are experimenting with human suffering.
Cast: William Hickey (The Nightmare Before Christmas), Guy Rolfe (Dolls), Steve Welles (The Addams Family)
Deadly Dolls: Deepest Cuts – Available August 3
A man is captured by a sinister being and is forced to watch death scenes from various Full Moon Features movies that involve killer dolls.
Cast: Karen Black (Five Easy Pieces), Tim Thomerson (Air America)
Death Heads: Brain Dead – Available August 3
The third chapter in the splat-tastic horror ‘greatest hits’ film series spotlighting some of the studio’s strangest and sickest sequences framed by an all new narrative. This time, we follow the further adventures of a masochistic drifter trapped in the lair of “The Gore Collector”, a sadistic curator of carnage who was has chosen the drifter to be the heir to take over his evil operation.
Cast: Michelle Bauer (Beverly Hills Vamp), Chuck Connors (Soylent Green), Darcy DeMoss (Can’t Buy Me Love)
Killjoy’s Carnage Caravan – Available August 3
Now, The Gore Collector, and his multiversal traveling companions, Molly and Tape Head, have finally uncovered the whereabouts of the Psycho Surgeons and get set to exact the bloodiest of revenge. But what does this mean for the The Gore Collector himself? As he returns to where it all started – the Bunker of Blood – he will find out what this splatter-soaked road trip across a a fevered nightmarescape has REALLY done to his mind AND body!
Cast: BangTheClown (Killyoy’s Psycho Circus), Al Burke (The Wedding Singer), Douglas Cambron (Puppet Master: Axis Termination)
Redbox August 2023 Free Horror
Splinter
Trapped in an isolated gas station by a voracious Splinter parasite that transforms its still-living victims into deadly hosts, a young couple and an escaped convict must find a way to work together to survive this primal terror.
Cast: Shea Whigham (Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning), Jill Wagner (Teen Wolf), Paulo Costanzo (Designated Survivor)
Terror Eyes
Terrorized at multiple stops on a road trip to Joshua Tree, three friends realize something unexpected is pulling the strings.
Cast: Lisseth Chavez (The Rookie), Jennifer Blanc-Biehn (Dark Angel), Robert Romanus (Fast Times at Ridgemont High)
Bad Milo
A man learns that his unusual stomach pains are being caused by a demon living in his intestines.
Cast: Ken Marino (Reno 911!), Gillian Jacobs (Community), Patrick Warburton (Seinfeld)
Marrowbone
A young man and his three younger siblings, who have kept secret the death of their beloved mother in order to remain together, are plagued by a sinister presence in the sprawling manor in which they live.
Cast: George MacKay (1917), Anya Taylor-Joy (Queen’s Gambit), Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things)
Roommate Wanted
After two college students unintentionally sublease their extra bedroom to a violent escaped mental patient with multiple personalities, they find themselves battling for survival against the many faces of white male rage that manifest and threaten them in their home.
Cast: Melissa Sullivan (The Millionaires), Carol Stanzione (Deliver Us From Evil), Michael Connors (Law & Order)
Terrifier 2
After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to the timid town of Miles County where he targets a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween night.
Cast: Lauren LaVera (Dispatches From Elsewhere), David Howard Thornton (Gotham), Elliott Fullam (The Other Two)
Monster
Based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, a Daytona Beach prostitute who became a serial killer.
Cast: Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road), Christina Ricci (Wednesday), Bruce Dern (The Hateful Eight)
Sunset on the River Styx – Available August 4
A chance meeting of two morose lovers sends them spiraling down a surreal rabbit hole. Their relationship is challenged by their pasts, their futures, their perception of time, and a vampire death cult.
Cast: Phillip Andre Botello (The Art of Self Defense), Jakki Jandrell (Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders), Avery Kristen Pohl (General Hospital)
V/H/S – Available August 4
When a group of misfits are hired by an unknown third party to burglarize a desolate house and acquire a rare VHS tape, they discover more found footage than they bargained for.
Cast: Calvin Lee Reeder (Harbor Island), Lane Hughes (Halloween II), Adam Wingard (Godzilla vs. Kong)
V/H/S/2 – Available August 11
Searching for a missing student, two private investigators break into his house and find collection of VHS tapes. Viewing the horrific contents of each cassette, they realize there may be dark motives behind the student’s disappearance.
Cast: Lawrence Michael Levine (All the Light in the Sky), Kelsy Abbott (Reporters), Adam Wingard (She Dies Tomorrow)
V/H/S: Viral – Available August 18
A Los Angeles police chase sends a fame-obsessed man on a wild ride to save his girlfriend from a cybernetic terror.
Cast: Garrett Bales (The Neighborhood), Emilia Ares (Bosch), Steve Berens (Thank You For Your Service)
Murder Party – Available August 18
A random invitation to a Halloween party leads a man into the hands of a rogue collective intent on murdering him for the sake of their art, sparking a bloodbath of mishap, mayhem and hilarity.
Cast: Chris Sharp (I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore), Stacy Rock (Blue Ruin)
Monsters – Available August 22
Six years after Earth has suffered an alien invasion, a cynical journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the U.S. border.
Cast: Scoot McNairy (Argo), Whitney Able (We Won’t Forget), Annalee Jefferies (Queen Sugar)
For More Info
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Which of the Redbox and Crackle August 2023 horror movies would you want to watch?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.