Anna Daniels
The world is very scary right now, but that’s not preventing more and more people from enjoying scary movies. While it’s perfectly understandable to distance yourself from all-things-horrific at this time, Shudder – the horror streaming service – is reporting a surge in subscriptions. And subscribers are actually demanding more pandemic-themed programming.
We could all use some good news these days, so here’s some: People are loving Shudder. The horror streaming service may not be the most well-known streamer out there, but if you’re a horror fan, it’s essential. It’s also among the cheapest services – $4.99 a month. They’re also currently offering a month free with the promo code SHUTIN, and that seems to be paying off. Because as EW reports, Shudder subscriptions are up during the time of coronavirus.
“This is obviously a terrible time,” Shudder general manager Craig Engler said. “But Shudder is having a moment. We are signing up record numbers of subscribers and our viewership is through the roof. For sure people are turning to Shudder during the pandemic to watch more horror movies.” Engler added:
“A couple of weeks ago we launched a 30-day promo because a lot of people were stuck at home, looking for things to watch. Normally, our promo code is for seven days — you can do a seven day free trial — we extended that for thirty days thinking that there’s a lot of people who are not only stuck at home, but maybe out of work, don’t have the resources. It has taken off like wildfires. It is by far the most successful promo code in Shudder history.”
Shudder’s head of press Sean Redlitz added: “In the second half of March we were seeing sign ups that exceeded what we tend to see in October, which is Halloween season, our busiest season. We were seeing above Halloween-level interest in horror.”
It’s quite interesting that in this time of fear and panic more and more people are turning to horror. But horror can be a great release valve – a way of escape where you can witness things that scare you while remaining perfectly safe. And perhaps most fascinating of all is Engler’s claim that Shudder subscribers are craving more pandemic-themed horror right now.
Shudder does have three collection sections that seem appropriate right now: “Trapped,” featuring “error tales of confinement, quarantine, home invasion and more,” with titles like Escape From New York; “Gross Anatomy,” offering “gag-inducing stories of medical malevolence” like Brian Yuzna’s absolutely bonkers Society; and apocalyptic titles in “The End is Night”, like In the Mouth of Madness.
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