If you don’t mind commercials—and frankly, most streaming services these days have them—Tubi has one of the most vast libraries of genre films and TV, including horror, cult favorites, and sci-fi. Here are 10 picks to get you started, including all-time classics and more recent releases.
The legacy of this 1976 classic has lived far longer than the characters in his world, who believe life ends at age 30... until a pair of rebels (Michael York, Jenny Agutter) go on the run and discover the truth. It’s a provocative story given further visual pizzazz by its retro-futuristic production design and sleek, scanty costumes. Watch on Tubi.
Some people hate this movie, while others claim it as an all-time comedy favorite. While certain elements of Mike Judge’s 2006 satire starring Luke Wilson and Maya Rudolph do feel like punching down, some of its predictions about life in a far-future, extremely dumbed-down America feel eerily prescient already. Watch on Tubi.
Writer-director Nacho Vigalondo’s 2016 release imagines that an American woman who’s going through a rough patch realizes her drunken behavior is being mirrored by a giant monster whose destructive rampages are terrorizing Seoul. Anne Hathaway plays against type, quite endearingly, as the writer whose emotional rollercoaster anchors this wild narrative. Watch on Tubi.
When’s the last time you watched this colorful, energetically bonkers 1997 sci-fi favorite? If your most vivid memory of it is seeing people dressed as Milla Jovovich’s red-haired Leeloo at fan conventions, it’s high time to revisit the source. Watch on Tubi.
Brandon Cronenberg’s trippy 2020 thriller follows a woman (the chameleonic Andrea Riseborough) with a very strange job: she’s an assassin who uses weird-science tech to insert herself into other people’s brains and mind-control them into carrying out her hits. Things get complicated when she starts to lose track of her own identity—and then get worse when she botches an important assignment. Watch on Tubi.
In this freaky 1973 release, Julie Christie stars as the estranged wife of a scientist who becomes trapped in her home by a rogue AI. That would be awful already... but then the program becomes obsessed with impregnating her. Demon Seed is both icky and provocative, two elements that’ve made it a cult classic in the years since. Watch on Tubi.
Has enough time passed since the height of the pandemic to make you want to watch... a pandemic horror movie? Note that this is the 1973 original written and directed by George A. Romero, not the 2010 remake; though you won’t find the zombie master’s signature monster in The Crazies, you will find some similar themes of people losing their minds while trying to avoid a dangerous infection. Watch on Tubi.
Again, this is the 1975 original, not the 2004 remake. The Stepford Wives has become a shorthand reference for any suburban situation where things are a bit too picture-perfect and idealized, but the original film takes a particular interest in its feminist themes, a newly prominent part of the cultural zeitgeist at the time. It’s based on the book by Ira Levin, who also wrote Rosemary’s Baby. Watch on Tubi.
Shoplifters, beware! The mall has a new squad of security robots who don’t take kindly to crooks. These crime-prevention tools turn from merely dystopian to deadly thanks to an errant lightning strike, which is very bad news for the teenage employees who’re having an after-hours party. The end result is a very fun sci-fi slasher that oozes gore and the totally awesome spirit of 1986 out of its pores. Watch on Tubi.
Watching Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent sci-fi masterpiece on your TV or computer with commercial breaks is not ideal, but until you can get yourself to a theatrical screening, preferably with live musical accompaniment, it’s still an enjoyable lesson in film history. Watch on Tubi.