July is that special time of year when romantic notions of summer excursions meet the brutal reality of the thermometer. It’s hot out there, y’all. The good news is that those of us who wage war against the sun like a cartoon supervillain can stay inside and enjoy a surprisingly strong slate of genre releases coming to streaming this month.
If you’re looking for the best genre new releases this month, we’ve got you covered elsewhere. But if you need a little help sorting through the hundreds of movies and shows added to every streaming service each month, you’ve come to the right place. From the good kind of summer ticks to games of death and Arthurian legends, here are the best sci-fi, fantasy, and horror movies and shows streaming this month.
The Tick (2016)
(Netflix — July 15) The addition of The Tick to Netflix is kind of a big deal to some longtime fans. The cult classic Prime Video series has long been considered one of the great unsung comedies of the (relatively) modern streaming era.
Before The Boys did its thing, The Tick dissected the superhero genre with a fundamentally silly wit that may be familiar to those who grew up on the other Tick shows (or have seen any of the Deadpool movies) but which is otherwise a breath of fresh air to those who remember that superheroes are supposed to be fun above all. There is genuine hope this show’s Netflix debut may stir up enough interest for a revival.
Sliders
(Tubi — July 1) Sliders is, at the very least, the perfect sci-fi show for those who prefer their genre entertainment to be as ‘90s as humanly possible.
The series follows a group of people who are able to move (“slide”) between parallel versions of Earth. Though they are primarily using that technology to try to find their way back to their version of Earth, they naturally must do what they can to help the inhabitants of other universes along the way. The (largely) episodic nature of the series allowed its writers to have a ton of fun exploring the various possible versions of our planet that could have come to pass if only something had gone slightly differently.
And while Sliders’ first two seasons are undoubtedly its best, the show remains an often underappreciated attempt to explore the depths of an incredible concept.
The Long Walk
(HBO Max — July 10) Horror fans really have been eating well in recent years. The only downside to this golden age for the genre is that some truly great works sometimes fall through the cracks. And while The Long Walk was a modest box office success, this movie will almost certainly find the larger audiences it deserves on streaming.
Set in a dystopian future (which, I’m told, is different from a dystopian present), The Long Walk follows a group of teenage boys who must participate in a brutal annual event. Basically, they have to keep walking until only one of them remains.
Though based on the novel by Stephen King (technically Richard Bachman), The Long Walk makes several changes to its source material that ultimately result in one of the rare “game of death” stories that are worth the trauma.
Every Hunger Games Movie
(Netflix — July 14) Speaking of games of death, we’ve got a new Hunger Games movie coming out later this year: the prequel film The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. And while there is plenty of time to re-watch the original Hunger Games movie before that prequel release in November, the addition of those movies to Netflix this month is a good enough reason to volunteer as tribute.
Along with the first four Hunger Games movies, Netflix users will also have the chance to give The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes a second (or quite possibly first) look. Though met with a mixed (largely negative) reception at the time of its 2023 release, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has held up surprisingly well and may just be the most complete “movie” of the series.
Interestingly, Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was also directed by The Long Walk director Francis Lawrence. One supposes there are worse things than being Hollywood’s go-to name for games of death movies.
The Wild Robot
(Prime Video — July 26) One of the greatest animated films of the last several years, The Wild Robot may have been produced by DreamWorks, but it really is the closest thing we’ve gotten to a golden age Pixar movie in quite some time.
The film follows a robot named Roz who must survive a harsh island with help from its various animal inhabitants. You can probably tell from that description that this movie is going to tug at your heartstrings, and you wouldn’t be wrong. It’s a lovely, lovely movie, especially if we’re talking about its wonderful visuals that you will almost certainly have to admire through tears.
Every Evil Dead Movie
(HBO Max — July 1) In celebration of the release of Evil Dead Burn on July 10, HBO Max is adding every Evil Dead movie released so far to its library. That’s pretty excellent news given that there has never been a bad Evil Dead movie and there are no signs that Evil Dead Burn will break that streak.
However, I’d like to spotlight the unlikely black sheep of the Evil Dead franchise: the original film. Evil Dead II is rightfully considered to be one of the greatest horror movies of all-time, but since that sequel is a soft reimagining of the original film that changed the series’ tone and lore forever, the debut movie sometimes gets lost in the shuffle.
That’s a shame, because 1981’s The Evil Dead remains one of the most powerful and visceral horror experiences ever crafted by devious hands. It’s also one of the movies that helped solidify an indie horror boom period in the early 1980s, which is especially important to consider as we appear to be on the cusp of another, similar period at the moment.
Paprika
(Tubi — July 1) It’s not entirely fair to call director Satoshi Kon’s works (which include Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers, and Millennium Actress) love-or-hate affairs. They’re all widely acclaimed for their wonderful animation and complex themes. It’s just that you do need to steel yourself to really enjoy their often bleak, heavy, and complex subject matter.
Well, the addition of Paprika to the always-wonderful Tubi library offers the perfect chance to bite the bullet and dive into the wonderful, weird world of Satoshi Kon if you haven’t already done so. For those who don’t know, Paprika revolves around a stolen machine that allows therapists to enter their patients’ dreams. Yes, this has been widely cited as one of the likely inspirations for Christopher Nolan’s Inception, but comparisons aside, Paprika remains an emotionally and intellectually challenging tribute to the wonderful power of animation.
The Green Knight
(Tubi — July 1) Now, The Green Knight most certainly tends to be a love-or-hate affair. This David Lowery film was practically defined by its divisive reaction when it was released in 2021. And while the reception to The Green Knight has certainly veered towards the more positive side of the divide in the years since its release, there is never a bad time to either challenge your initial read or simply see what all the fuss was about.
This adaptation of the 14th-century poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” achieves the remarkable feat of dissecting and re-imagining those classic legends while also offering one of the most effective portrayals of such a legend that we’ve ever seen on the screen. At the heart of this incredible revisionist fantasy is Dev Patel giving the kind of performance that will once again force you to ask why he is not one of the most in-demand, indisputable leading men in film today.
Talk to Me
(Netflix — July 1) As Backrooms and Obsession send studios scrambling for the next YouTuber turned filmmaker sensations, it’s important that we both pay homage to and keep an eye on the works of Danny and Michael Philippou. The twin brothers helped kick off this exciting era of new creators with the release of their surprise 2022 horror hit, Talk to Me.
Talk to Me’s premise revolves around a severed hand that can supposedly summon spirits. The hand soon becomes the centerpiece of a party for a group of kids who treat it like an especially effective Ouija board, and… well, I’d better not say more here if you haven’t already had the pleasure of discovering this one for yourself. For now, it’s enough to say that anyone who found themselves gripped by the absurd, violent creativity of Obsession’s premise absolutely owes it to themselves to check out Talk to Me.
