The Best River Movies on Free Services

What it's about: The classic story of English POWs in Burma forced to build a bridge to aid the war effort of their Japanese captors. British and American intelligence officers conspire to blow up the structure, but Col. Nicholson , the commander who supervised the bridge's construction, has acquired a sense of pride in his creation and tries to foil their plans.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle & IMDb TV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A few decades after the destruction of the Inca empire, a Spanish expedition leaves the mountains of Peru and goes down the Amazon river in search of gold and wealth. Soon, they come across great difficulties and Don Aguirre, a ruthless man who cares only about riches, becomes their leader. But will his quest lead them to "the golden city", or to certain destruction?

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix, Shout Factory TV & Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Fandor, Shout Factory TV & 2 others) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: Gang-du is a dim-witted man working at his father's tiny snack bar near the Han River. Following the dumping of gallons of toxic waste in the river, a giant mutated squid-like appears and begins attacking the populace. Gang-du's daughter Hyun-seo is snatched up by the creature and he and his family are taken into custody by the military, who fear a virus spread by the creature. In detention, Gang-du receives a phone call from Hyun-seo, who is not dead, merely trapped in a sewer. With his family to assist him, he sets off to find Hyun-seo.

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

What it's about: Fitzcarraldo is a dreamer who plans to build an opera house in Iquitos, in the Peruvian Amazon, so, in order to finance his project, he embarks on an epic adventure to collect rubber, a very profitable product, in a remote and unexplored region of the rainforest.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix, Shout Factory TV & Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Fandor & Shout Factory TV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: The just out of college effete son of a no-nonsense steamboat captain comes to visit his father whom he's not seen since he was little.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix, SnagFilms & Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video & Kanopy), stream on a popular TV everywhere service (Epix) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 4 services (iTunes, Google Play & 2 others).

What it's about: Mort Rainey, a writer just emerging from a painful divorce with his ex-wife, is stalked at his remote lake house by a psychotic stranger and would-be scribe who claims Rainey swiped his best story idea. But as Rainey endeavors to prove his innocence, he begins to question his own sanity.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Sony Crackle) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 6 services (iTunes, Google Play & 4 others).

What it's about: Present days. A man and his companion go on a journey to cremate the dead body of the former beloved wife, on a riverbank in the area where they spent their honeymoon.

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

What it's about: A terrifying tale of survival in the mangrove swamps of Northern Australia.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a subscription service (Tribeca Short List) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 1 service (Vudu).

What it's about: In the south of Laos, an American volunteer doctor becomes a fugitive after he intervenes in the sexual assault of a young woman. When the assailant's body is pulled from the Mekong River, things quickly spiral out of control.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Prime Video & Vudu).

What it's about: Rosa Lynn sends her druggie daughter Loretta and her children Thomas and Tracy away from the big city to live with their uncle Earl in the ancestral home in rural Mississippi. Earl puts Loretta to work in his restaurant, Just Chicken, while also telling them about the generations of their family, the Sinclairs, dating back to their time in slavery before the the Civil War.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Vudu) & rent or buy from $3.99 on 5 services (iTunes, Google Play & 3 others).

What it's about: A group of friends head out for what is expected to be a vacation of hiking, camping and a good time, but when a backwoods mama finds them on her turf, it becomes anything but a vacation.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (PopcornFlix & Tubi), stream on a popular subscription service (Prime Video, Shout Factory TV & ConTV) & rent or buy from $2.99 on 3 services (iTunes, Google Play & Prime Video).

What it's about: When a U.S. congressman's daughter passing through a small town in Mississippi dies in a mysterious triple homicide, a team of F.B.I. agents descends to investigate, the team's brilliant but jaded lead agent battling demons both past and present, as his beautiful, tough-as-nails partner tries to hold him and the case together. They find a struggling and corrupt sheriff's department, a shadowy and much-feared figure, who seems to be pulling all of the town's strings from his mansion on the edge of town and a local victim with a strange connection to a number of the town's most prominent figures.

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

What it's about: Two fathers, a Romanian searching for his daughter who was forced into prostitution in Kosovo, and a Serbian seeking the body of his son killed in a car accident in Romania, meet on the river Danube. A boatman recounts the 200 year-old legend of Romanian peasants struggling unsuccessfully to move an old wooden church up the hill to their village at a time when building Orthodox churches was prohibited.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi) & rent or buy from $1.99 on 1 service (Google Play).

What it's about: A group of American tourists heading down an African river make a brief stop at Snake Island, an island that has been virtually abandoned for years. When they end up getting trapped on the island overnight, they find thousands of deadly snakes intent on reclaiming the tropical island for themselves.

Where to Watch: Available to watch free online (Tubi & IMDb TV) & rent or buy from $5.99 on 1 service (Prime Video).