Every October I watch people start a horror movie challenge with real joy, and by the middle of the month it looks like a cable bill. Night four is on Shudder. Night nine needs Max. Three movies are rentals, one only exists on a Blu-ray you don’t own, and at two in the morning you’ve somehow signed up for Screambox with a card that expired in 2023.
So this one has a single hard rule. Every movie has to be legally free to stream in the United States. No subscriptions, no rentals, no free trials you’ll forget to cancel, no library card. Ads are allowed. Horror fans sat through commercial breaks for decades of late-night creature features, and we can survive a few more.
31 nights. 31 horror movies. No paid streaming subscription required.
This isn’t a greatest-hits list either. There’s a silent vampire and a Barbara Steele witch. There are Korean priests, Mexican folklore and a Japanese cyborg who can’t stay in one piece. There are queer vampires, a Black succubus movie from 1990 and at least one film made by a fertilizer salesman on a bet. Some nights are for history. Some nights are for the robots. Pick up whatever snacks you’d defend in court and let’s go.
October 1: Start at the Very Beginning
Nosferatu (1922) Free on: Tubi
F.W. Murnau’s unauthorized riff on Dracula was so unauthorized that Bram Stoker’s widow sued and a court ordered the prints destroyed. Thankfully a few survived. Before the franchises and the jump scares there was Max Schreck’s shadow climbing the stairs, and it’s still the best entrance in the genre.
October 2: The Call Is Coming From Inside the House
Black Christmas (1974) Free on: Tubi
Bob Clark built most of the slasher rulebook in one snowbound sorority house, four years before anyone had heard of Haddonfield. It has obscene phone calls and a killer we barely see. Margot Kidder is also here, drunk and hilarious, and she may be the most fun person in any slasher ever.
October 3: Something Is Wrong on the Farm
Lamb (2021) Free on: Tubi
An Icelandic couple finds a newborn in the barn and decides not to ask questions, which is how folk horror always starts. Valdimar Jóhannsson keeps it quiet, gorgeous and deeply wrong. Noomi Rapace is the mother who doesn’t want to hear any of it. Watch it early, since it leaves Tubi when October ends.
October 4: A Haunted House for Grown-Ups
The Changeling (1980) Free on: Tubi
George C. Scott plays a grieving composer who rents a mansion far too big for one sad man, and Peter Medak proves that a child’s rubber ball bouncing down the stairs can be scarier than any demon. It’s a ghost story for people who like their haunted houses slow and mean.
October 5: Found Footage That Commits to the Bit
Noroi: The Curse (2005) Free on: Tubi
Kōji Shiraishi’s fake paranormal documentary piles up interview tapes, variety-show clips and weird little clues about a demon until the whole thing snaps shut. It’s long, patient and cumulative, and you should watch it with the lights off and your phone in another room.
October 6: A Slasher Made by Women
The Slumber Party Massacre (1982) Free on: Tubi
Rita Mae Brown wrote it as a parody of slashers, and Amy Holden Jones directed it. The producers mostly wanted a slasher, so the movie plays it both ways. Pay close attention to what the killer is carrying and how it’s framed. The joke isn’t subtle, and it isn’t supposed to be.
October 7: Barbara Steele Night
The Long Hair of Death (1964) Free on: Tubi
This is Italian gothic horror from Antonio Margheriti. A woman burns as a witch, and there’s a castle, a plague and a lot of candles. Barbara Steele, the queen of ’60s horror, gets her revenge with cheekbones that should be registered as weapons. It’s pure black-and-white mood.
October 8: Monsters Under the City
C.H.U.D. (1984) Free on: Tubi
It’s a New York sewer creature feature with glowing eyes, John Heard and Daniel Stern running a soup kitchen. It turns out to be at least a little bit about who the city decides not to see. The acronym gets explained twice in the movie, and both explanations are great.
October 9: Queer Horror Night
Let the Right One In (2008) Free on: Tubi
A lonely Swedish boy meets a very old “girl” next door. Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of John Ajvide Lindqvist’s novel gives you one of the most tender queer readings you’ll ever get out of a vampire movie. Eli says “I’m not a girl,” and the movie lets that line sit there. Bring tissues and a scarf.
October 10: Exorcism, but Make It Seoul
The Priests (2015) Free on: Tubi
Kim Yoon-seok and Gang Dong-won play two Korean priests working one very bad possession case with no backup, a pig and a lot of Latin. It’s the pick for when you’ve seen The Exorcist too many times and want the ritual to feel new again.
October 11: Horror in Spanish, Part One
32 Malasaña Street (2020) Free on: Tubi
In 1976 a family leaves the countryside for a Madrid apartment and a fresh start. Within days the apartment makes it very clear it was here first. Albert Pintó’s haunted-flat movie takes its jump scares seriously, and it’s a good reminder of how much a hallway can hide.
October 12: Horror in Spanish, Part Two
México Bárbaro (2014) Free on: Tubi
Eight Mexican filmmakers, including Gigi Saul Guerrero and Isaac Ezban, raid their country’s folklore for an anthology that takes its monsters personally. Some segments are nasty and some are sly. As with any good anthology, you’ll pick a favorite and fight someone over it.
October 13: Family Dinner
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Free on: Tubi
Tobe Hooper’s original is the loudest, sweatiest dinner party in horror history. It looks like it smells. If you’ve only seen the remakes and sequels, tonight is your homework. Grandpa is at the table, and he’s doing his best.
October 14: Aliens Among Us
The Faculty (1998) Free on: Tubi
Robert Rodriguez turns high school into an alien-invasion zone, because teenagers already suspected the adults around them weren’t entirely human. Kevin Williamson’s script swipes from Invasion of the Body Snatchers and says so out loud. The cast is ridiculous, and the drug test scene is one of the best horror tests of the ’90s. It leaves Tubi when the month ends.
October 15: Root for the Monsters
Nightbreed: The Director’s Cut (1990) Free on: Tubi
Clive Barker’s hidden city of monsters was mangled by its studio in 1990. The 2014 director’s cut, which is the version on Tubi, restores much of what Barker intended. Midian is where every horror kid who felt like an outsider was supposed to end up, and the human beings are the real villains here.
October 16: Glorious Garbage
Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966) Free on: Tubi
Fertilizer salesman Harold P. Warren made a horror movie on a bet, and we’re all still paying for it, lovingly. Torgo’s knees alone deserve a documentary. Mystery Science Theater 3000 made it famous in 1993. Watching it straight is its own endurance sport.
October 17: POC Horror Night
Def by Temptation (1990) Free on: Tubi
James Bond III wrote, directed and stars in this story of a divinity student who meets a succubus working the New York bar scene. Ernest Dickerson, Spike Lee’s longtime cinematographer, shot it. Yes, that’s Samuel L. Jackson. It’s sexy, preachy, funny and far too rarely discussed.
October 18: Late Night at the Mall
Chopping Mall (1986) Free on: Tubi
Security robots, teenagers who stay after closing and a head explosion that has earned its reputation. Jim Wynorski had 77 minutes and zero interest in wasting any of them. It’s here because watching killer mall robots in October is fun, and that’s all the justification it needs.
October 19: The Sequel Nobody Warned You About
The Exorcist III (1990) Free on: Tubi
William Peter Blatty adapted and directed his own novel Legion. George C. Scott plays Kinderman and Brad Dourif delivers monologues like a man who hasn’t blinked since 1975. One hallway shot has been ruining people’s nights for thirty-six years. You’ll know it when it happens.
October 20: Witch, Please
The Love Witch (2016) Free on: Tubi
Anna Biller wrote, directed, produced and designed this 35mm Technicolor-style fever dream down to the costumes and sets. Elaine wants love and gets men who can’t handle it, then disposes of them. It’s sticky, funny and sharper about desire than most movies that brag about being sharp.
October 21: The Ending Everyone Argues About
Sleepaway Camp (1983) Free on: Tubi
Robert Hiltzik’s summer camp slasher is goofy, mean and full of spectacular ’80s shorts, and then that final shot happens. Trans critics and fans have spent decades arguing over what the ending means, what it gets wrong and why the movie still matters. Watch it, then go read them.
October 22: Sometimes Dead Is Better
Pet Sematary (1989) Free on: Tubi
Mary Lambert directed it from Stephen King’s own script. Fred Gwynne’s neighbor gets the line on tonight’s prompt, and Zelda is still under the bed of everyone who saw this young. Grief makes people do terrible math. Catch it before it leaves Tubi at the end of the month.
October 23: A Game Nobody Should Be Playing
Braid (2019) Free on: Tubi
Mitzi Peirone’s debut follows two women on the run who hide out with a childhood friend who never stopped playing their old game of pretend. The house has rules, and they’re enforced. It’s candy-colored, confusing on purpose and entirely unwilling to explain itself.
October 24: Body Horror, Tokyo Edition
Pinocchio 964 (1991) Free on: Tubi
Shozin Fukui’s Japanese cyberpunk follows a memory-wiped cyborg who can barely stay inside his own body, and the movie can’t either. It’s loud, messy, sweaty and relentlessly physical. If Tetsuo is on your shelf, this is its unhinged cousin.
October 25: Genuinely Weird Night
(1989) Free on: Tubi
Alejandro Jodorowsky gives you circus trauma, a cult devoted to an armless saint and a funeral for an elephant, and that’s just the setup. Axel Jodorowsky plays the son who grows up to become his mother’s arms. It premiered at Cannes in 1989, and Tubi lists it as 1990. Either way it’s the strangest night of the month.
October 26: Salute Your Horror Host
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark (1988) Free on: Tubi
Cassandra Peterson’s horror host inherits a house in a small Massachusetts town full of prudes and wins on every front. It’s a salute to every late-night creature feature you ever fell asleep watching. Yes, the tassel scene is exactly as advertised.
October 27: Vincent Price Night
The Haunted Palace (1963) Free on: Tubi
Roger Corman sold it with a Poe poem, but underneath it’s pure H.P. Lovecraft, adapted from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Price gets to play both the warlock and the descendant he possesses. Lon Chaney Jr. shows up too, so tonight you get two horror dynasties for the price of none.
October 28: The Movie Everyone Told You Was Bad
Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) Free on: Tubi
Wes Craven, Eddie Murphy and Angela Bassett made a vampire romance that critics hated. Murphy plays the vampire plus a couple of extra characters in heavy makeup, and Bassett takes the whole thing seriously. It’s time you decided for yourself. It leaves Tubi when October ends.
October 29: Haunted Attraction Season
Hell House LLC (2015) Free on: Tubi
Stephen Cognetti’s found-footage movie follows a crew opening a haunted-house attraction in a very bad building. The clown mannequin does not stay where they left it. After this you’ll never walk through a Halloween maze the same way, which is the best compliment we can give it.
October 30: Devil’s Night Party
Night of the Demons (1988) Free on: Tubi
Teenagers throw a Halloween party in an abandoned funeral home called Hull House, which is a great party idea until the demons show up. Kevin Tenney’s movie has an animated opening credits sequence, Linnea Quigley doing something unforgettable with lipstick and the loosest possession rules in the ’80s.
October 31: Where Modern Horror Started
Night of the Living Dead (1968) Free on: Tubi
We end the month where so much of it started. George A. Romero and a group of Pittsburgh friends made a movie about neighbors turning on neighbors. Duane Jones played Ben, the calm, capable hero at the center of it, in 1968. The dead are only part of the problem. Let that last scene hit you, then sit with it a minute before you turn off the lights.
The Rules
- One movie a night. That’s the whole deal.
- Miss one? Tomorrow’s a double feature. No shame, only snacks.
- Rewatches count, especially if you’re showing a movie to someone who hasn’t seen it.
- If a movie disappears from streaming, swap in anything that fits the prompt. The prompt matters more than the title.
- Subtitles count as reading and watching at the same time, so that’s two hobbies in one night.
- Horror arguments are encouraged. Gatekeeping isn’t.
- Share your picks, your hot takes and your worst snack decisions with #31NightsWithLuna.
A Note on Streaming
Every title was checked on September 30, 2026, against its own Tubi page for U.S. viewers. The Faculty is scheduled to arrive on Tubi on October 1. Lamb, The Faculty, Pet Sematary and Vampire in Brooklyn are set to leave on October 31, after their challenge nights. Free streaming catalogs change without much warning, so if a title vanishes, the substitution rule is there for a reason.
Watch along with me, argue about my picks and swap in your own when you have to. Tell me which night broke you.
See you tomorrow night.
