The Best Psychology Movies and TV Shows on Shudder

What it's about: On a black and unholy Halloween night years ago, little Michael Myers brutally slaughtered his sister in cold bold. But for the last fifteen years, town residents have rested easy, knowing that he was safely locked away in a mental hospital – until tonight. Tonight, Michael returns to the same quiet neighbourhood to relive his grisly murder again…and again…and again. For this is a night of evil. Tonight is Halloween!

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Philo, fuboTV, Shudder & 1 other), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (AMC) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: A musician witnesses the murder of a famous psychic, and then teams up with a fiesty reporter to find the killer while evading attempts on their lives by the unseen killer bent on keeping a dark secret buried.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Plex, Vudu & PopcornFlix), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shudder, Hoopla & 1 other) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: A dedicated student at a medical college and his girlfriend become involved in bizarre experiments centering around the re-animation of dead tissue when an odd new student arrives on campus.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (fuboTV, Showtime & Shudder), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Showtime) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: Three teenagers are confined to an isolated country estate that could very well be on another planet. The trio spend their days listening to endless homemade tapes that teach them a whole new vocabulary. Any word that comes from beyond their family abode is instantly assigned a new meaning. Hence 'the sea' refers to a large armchair and 'zombies' are little yellow flowers. Having invented a brother whom they claim to have ostracized for his disobedience, the uber-controlling parents terrorize their offspring into submission.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (Shudder, Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Henry likes to kill people, in different ways each time. Henry shares an apartment with Otis. When Otis' sister comes to stay, we see both sides of Henry: "the guy next door" and the serial killer.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (IMDb TV), stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Hoopla) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A reporter and a promiscuous young woman try to solve a series of child killings in a remote southern Italian town rife with superstition and a distrust of outsiders.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Shudder) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: Seeking shelter from a relentless rainstorm and landslides in a remote region of Wales, five travelers are admitted to a large foreboding old house that belongs to the extremely strange Femm family. Sepulchral Horace Femm and his obsessive, inhospitable sister Rebecca are the group's peculiar hosts. The house also holds surprises - and a brutish mute manservant named Morgan.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A young girl, with an amazing ability to communicate with insects, is transferred to an exclusive Swiss boarding school, where her unusual capability might help solve a string of murders.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & PopcornFlix), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: Scream, Queen! examines the infamous homoerotic subtext and the special place the film holds in the Nightmare franchise as well as the gay film canon. Partly in thanks to evolving social mores, Nightmare on Elm Street 2 – which was considered controversial at the time of its release – is now being looked back upon with a new appreciation and fondness by horror aficionados and fans of the series.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Spain, 1950s. Montse's agoraphobia keeps her locked in a sinister apartment in Madrid and her only link to reality is the little sister she lost her youth raising. But one day, a reckless young neighbor, Carlos, falls down the stairwell and drags himself to their door. Someone has entered the shrew's nest... perhaps he'll never leave.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: Schizophrenic housewife, engulfed by terrorizing apparitions, kills off each, unknowing if these demons are merely figments of her hallucinatory imagination or part of reality.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shudder, The Criterion Channel & 1 other) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: Juha has lost his wife in an accident. Years after, he still feels numb and unable to connect with people. Meeting Mona, a dominatrix, changes everything.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A Beverly Hills teen (Billy Warlock) discovers his parents are part of a gruesome orgy cult for the social elite.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: A mother of two inherits a home from her aunt. On the first night in the new home she is confronted with murderous intruders and fights for her daughters’ lives. Sixteen years later the daughters reunite at the house, and that is when things get strange . . .

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Two teenage couples traveling across the backwoods of Texas searching for urban legends of serial killers end up as prisoners of a bizarre and sadistic backwater family of serial killers.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu & 1 other) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: A reporter and a blind retired journalist try to solve a series of murders. The crimes are connected to experiments by a pharmaceutical company in secret research. The two end up becoming targets of the killer.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A normal, average guy who lives in New York City becomes dependent on an evil, disembodied brain.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 1 service (iTunes).

What it's about: The dark legend of the young woman Albrun and her struggle to preserve her own sanity, and tries to explore the fine line between ancient magic, faith and madness at a time when pagan beliefs in witches and nature spirits spread fear and terror in the minds of the rural population.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Vudu).

What it's about: Desperate to repay his debt to his ex-wife, an ex-con plots a heist at his new employer's country home, unaware that a second criminal has also targeted the property, and rigged it with a series of deadly traps.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Plex & 2 others), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shudder, Hoopla & 2 others) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A Nazi doctor who had a fetish for young boys feels guilt after torturing and murdering his latest victim, and throws himself off a roof. Some years later, the doctor, confined to an iron lung, accepts as his nurse a boy who secretly witnessed that killing.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi) & stream on a subscription service (Shudder).

What it's about: After barely surviving a furious shootout with the police, Baby Firefly, Otis Driftwood and Captain Spaulding are behind bars. But pure evil cannot be contained. Teaming up with Otis’ half-brother Winslow, the demented Firefly clan escape to unleash a whole new wave of murder, madness and mayhem.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: A psychotic man, troubled by his childhood abuse, loose in NYC, kills young women and takes their scalps as trophies. Will he find the perfect woman in photographer Anna, and end his killing spree?

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Vudu), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Epix & Shudder) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Google Play).

What it's about: A group of hobos begin melting into multicolored piles of goo after drinking sixty-year-old liquor. At the same time, the psychotic Vietnam War vet who rules the hobo camp snaps and begins killing at random. Two brothers set out to stop the liquor and the killer.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder).

What it's about: After their car breaks down, a group of young travelers find themselves stranded at a roadside museum run by the mysterious Mr. Slausen and populated by his collection of supernatural mannequins.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Full Moon) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: This slasher movie follows a relentless killer who is out to avenge the death of a young girl who died after being bullied and teased by four of her classmates. Now high-school students, the guilt-ridden kids have kept their involvement a secret, but when they start being murdered, one by one, it's clear that someone knows the truth. Also coping with the past are members of the dead girl's family, most notably her prom-queen sister, Kim Hammond (Jamie Lee Curtis).

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, PlutoTV, Peacock & 4 others), stream on a subscription service (Shudder, Hoopla & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: Twenty-three years after her hooker mother tried to kill her in the womb Helen remains damaged psychological goods. A mindset that gets worse when she suffers a traumatic head injury in an accident. Awakening in hospital, it’s discovered Helen has a tumour growth in her brain causing her to experience dark visions, disembodied voices and the omnipresence of a strange young woman. Soon, lost in a walking nightmare, in which nothing is what it seems, and her vicious actions barely remembered, it becomes crystal clear that whatever is inside her cracked psyche will stop at nothing to get out.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi, Plex, Vudu & 2 others), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Shudder) & rent or buy from $4.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Presumed dead after a shoot-out with the Haddonfield police, Michael Myers is secretly nursed back to health -- and returns a year later to kill again and once more targets his young niece, Jamie. Jamie is now recovering in the local children's hospital after attacking her stepmother and losing her voice. Her mental link with her evil uncle may be the key to uprooting her family tree.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Philo, fuboTV, AMC Premiere & 1 other), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (AMC) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 2 services (iTunes & Vudu).

What it's about: A haunting exploration of the mind of Sam, a teenager who's on the verge of acting out hidden psychopathic desires.

Where to Watch: 4 episodes (100%) are available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Sundance Now). 2 episodes (50%) are available to rent or buy from $1.99 on 2 services (Google Play & YouTube).

What it's about: A family intervention goes horrifically awry within the snowy confines of an isolated lake house.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & Vudu), stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 2 services (Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: Taking place thirty years before the events of Ringu, Ringu 0 provides the shocking background story of how the girl on the video became a deadly, vengeful spirit.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: At a summer camp for youths, cocky pre-teen calls out the name of mass serial killer "Madman Marz". Suddenly, counselors are being maimed and slaughtered in various ways by the backwoodsman who has returned when his name was called.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (Shudder, Hoopla & ConTV) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: While doing undercover work in a mental hospital, Emanuelle discovers a girl who seems to have been raised by a tribe of amazonian cannibals. Intrigued, Emanuelle and friends travel deep into the Amazon jungle, where they find that the supposedly extinct tribe of cannibals is still very much alive.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder).

What it's about: Sardu, master of the Theatre of the Macabre, and his assistant Ralphus run a show in which, under the guise of 'magic', they torture and murder people in front of their audience. But what the punters see as a trick is actually real.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: In the near future, after an unspecified holocaust, survivors are herded into prison camps. There, they are hunted for sport by the leaders of the camp. Paul, one of the newest prisoners, is determined not to go down as quietly as the others.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix) & stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shudder & 2 others).

What it's about: A naïve young boy unknowingly becomes the pawn of a serial killer.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: A strange man named Karl Rhamarevich dies shortly after discovering a way to become even more powerful in death through telekinesis. On the night of his burial in a crypt, Julie is to spend the night there as part of an initiation rite, supervised by two other girls. The crypt becomes a scene of horror as Raymar returns to life and deploys his horrifying telekinetic powers.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & PlutoTV), stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A story of Eliska and her daughter, starting a new life in a remote house with the 'father away on business', as the mother claims. After the lie is disclosed, their relationship begins to wither. At that time, the mythical Noonday Witch begins to materialize. She is coming closer and closer and the question is poised: is the danger real or is it all in the mother's crumbling head?

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: Christie Parson has constant nightmares of her father's death whom died in a swimming pool. Christie's mother thinks it was an accident, but Christie believes in was murder. Christie then see's an unknown figure dressed in a cape following her and harassing her. But still nobody believes her, until her boyfriend sees the figure himself. The figure hides in the town mortuary which is owned by Hank Andrews and his demented son, Paul and both are trying to form rituals to bring back Dr. Parson's spirit. But who is this figure and why is he harassing Christie?

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (Shudder) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).

What it's about: Thomas, a very intelligent and resourceful child, is left alone with his beloved and fragile granddad on Christmas Eve, when a psychopath dressed as Santa Claus breaks into their mansion and starts chasing them. Thomas will do whatever he can to save himself and his granddad, leaving much of his childhood innocence behind.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder).

What it's about: In what appears to be an inexplicable incident, a man drives up to a resort hotel in midwinter, throws away his car keys, enters, and proceeds to agitate everyone he meets with his urgency -- a message he is somehow unable to communicate. Then he leaves, disappearing in the snow. Later, the people he appeared to have upset have gathered to search for him and find him frostbitten, but alive. Visiting him at the sanatorium to which he has been taken, they gradually discover what was really happening.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder).

What it's about: A woman is pursued by her murderous, psychopathic twin sister in the days leading up to their birthday.

Where to Watch: Available to stream on a subscription service (Shudder & Kanopy) & rent or buy from $0.99 on 1 service (iTunes).