The season for cozy movie nights is creeping closer, which means there's no better time to find plenty of great films on the best free streaming services.
Several of this week’s free streaming picks feel especially timely as we edge toward spooky season. Sure, Halloween is still over a month away. But let’s be honest, now that summer’s wrapped what else are we counting down to? It’s the perfect time to start adding unsettling fairy tales, eerie cult classics and even some witchy vibes to your watchlist.
Below, you’ll find five of the best free movies to stream on Tubi, Samsung TV Plus, Pluto TV, and more this week. From dark fantasies and family-friendly action to sexy spell craft and psychological horror.
1) Pan’s Labyrinth (Tubi)
Release date: 2006
Rotten Tomatoes score: 95%
Length: 120 minutes
Director: Guillermo del Toro
Main cast: Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Ivana Baquero, Doug Jones, Ariadna Gil, Álex Angulo
This haunting fairy tale from director Guillermo del Toro is still one of the most beautiful and brutal movies of the 21st century.
Set in Spain, Pan’s Labyrinth follows Ofelia, a young girl who escapes into a world of fauns, monsters and labyrinths while her stepfather commits atrocities above the ground. It’s a dark fantasy and a devastating war drama somehow rolled masterfully into one. It's the kind of film that proves fairy tales were never meant to be safe bedtime stories.
2) The Road (Fawesome, Hoopla, Kanopy, Plex, Roku)
Release date: 2009
Rotten Tomatoes score: 74%
Length: 110 minutes
Director: John Hillcoat
Main cast: Viggo Mortensen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Robert Duvall, Guy Pearce, Charlize Theron, Molly Parker, Garret Dillahunt
Based on author Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Road is incredibly bleak (you’ve been warned) but also incredibly mesmerizing too.
Viggo Mortensen stars in the leading role here as a father traveling with his son through an ash-covered America after the collapse of civilization. There are flashes of violence but the film is also a poignant look at how we might carry hope when the world offers very little of it. Do only watch it when you’re feeling particularly resilient though.
3) The Love Witch (Fandango at Home, Kanopy, Plex, Pluto TV)
Release date: 2016
Rotten Tomatoes score: 95%
Length: 120 minutes
Director: Anna Biller
Main cast: Samantha Robinson, Gian Keys, Laura Waddell, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Jared Sanford, Robert Seeley, Jennifer Ingrum
Anna Biller’s retro movie The Love Witch is unlike anything else you’ll find streaming and it’s a perfect watch in the lead up to spooky season.
Shot to look like it’s from the 1960s, the movie tells the story of a modern witch (played by Samantha Robinson) who uses potions and spells in her quest for love. But often with unexpected and deadly results.
It’s quite camp, weird and leans into satire, but it’s a film that will make you laugh, cringe and convince you that you’ve stumbled across a lost classic.
4) Rosemary’s Baby (Hoopla, Kanopy, Pluto TV)
Release date: 1968
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97%
Length: 137 minutes
Director: Roman Polanski
Main cast: Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer, Maurice Evans, Ralph Bellamy
Rosemary’s Baby is one of the best psychological horror movies of all time. Mia Farrow plays Rosemary, a young wife who becomes increasingly paranoid that her husband and neighbors have sinister plans for her unborn child.
It’s stylish, unsettling and highly influential. And even though it's nearly 60 years since it was first released, nothing can dull the sheer dread of its final act. If you’ve somehow missed it, now’s the time to fix that. If you’ve already seen it, get it on your must-watch list in the run-up to Halloween.
5) Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Samsung TV Plus)
![Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | Official Final Trailer [HD] | PLANET OF THE APES - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/DpSaTrW4leg/maxresdefault.jpg)
Release date: 2014
Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%
Length: 130 minutes
Director: Matt Reeves
Main cast: Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, Toby Kebbell, Kodi Smit-McPhee
The sequel to 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes takes the franchise to another level.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is set in a post-pandemic San Francisco, it pits a fragile community of humans against Caesar (played by Andy Serkis) and his growing ape followers. The motion capture performances here are really jaw-dropping, there are some fantastic action scenes and Reeves manages to make a blockbuster about talking apes feel genuinely profound.
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