Best of Midnight Pulp, Asian Crush, and similar streaming services?
June 25, 2022 5:23 PM Subscribe
I've noticed there are services like Midnight Pulp and Asian Crush that have a pretty big collection of the kinds of movies and shows I would have killed to have easy access to in college -- foreign, low budget, outsider art, genre films, that sort of thing.
But I'm old now, and so that means I don't have as much time to experiment with crappy media and I'm a bit less satisfied with complete garbage (but sometimes still enjoy it). I'd love to be pointed to the better stuff that's available.
For some taste calibration: The 70s Wicker Man is one of my favorite films. I think it's strange, captivating, and moving in a way that few movies are. I enjoyed Attack the Gas Station (Korea), Shaolin Soccer (Hong Kong), and grew up watching good bad horror like The Re-Animator, and bad bad horror like Bloodsucking Pharaohs of Pittsburgh. I like Seijun Suzuki (or at least the stuff that made it into Criterion), and have enjoyed the small number of classic Wuxia films I've seen like A Touch of Zen and Come Drink With Me. I tend to enjoy giallo films, as long as they are beautifully shot or deeply strange (Death Laid an Egg was the most recent one I enjoyed). I liked Audition a lot, but some other Takeshi Miike films didn't grab me at all.
When I scroll through what they have, it's just too much. I don't want to spend hours going title by title and looking up reviews on letterboxd to see what looks good.
- Do you have any recommendations?
- Are there specific review sites that I should be looking at?
But I'm old now, and so that means I don't have as much time to experiment with crappy media and I'm a bit less satisfied with complete garbage (but sometimes still enjoy it). I'd love to be pointed to the better stuff that's available.
For some taste calibration: The 70s Wicker Man is one of my favorite films. I think it's strange, captivating, and moving in a way that few movies are. I enjoyed Attack the Gas Station (Korea), Shaolin Soccer (Hong Kong), and grew up watching good bad horror like The Re-Animator, and bad bad horror like Bloodsucking Pharaohs of Pittsburgh. I like Seijun Suzuki (or at least the stuff that made it into Criterion), and have enjoyed the small number of classic Wuxia films I've seen like A Touch of Zen and Come Drink With Me. I tend to enjoy giallo films, as long as they are beautifully shot or deeply strange (Death Laid an Egg was the most recent one I enjoyed). I liked Audition a lot, but some other Takeshi Miike films didn't grab me at all.
When I scroll through what they have, it's just too much. I don't want to spend hours going title by title and looking up reviews on letterboxd to see what looks good.
- Do you have any recommendations?
- Are there specific review sites that I should be looking at?
I'm also a Letterboxd user, and ever since I first coughed up for a Pro account (just $19/yr, which unlocks some great power-user features) my favorite feature is its integration with JustWatch, which allows you to filter large lists of movies (up to and including their entire film database) by streaming service to see exactly what's on a given one at any time.
I've been using it to compile lists for my own cult and horror movie marathons for the last few years, and it removes 99% of the guesswork for where I can find movies fitting specific genres and themes. You can also feed it a list of all the services you subscribe to and then you can filter a huge watchlist down to what you're able to easily access. Easy as pie!
One of my favorite Letterboxd pastimes is finding interesting movie "challenges": Curated lists built according to specific themes, with the idea that you'll use it as your watchlist for a given month or even a whole year. It's a fun way to explore different genres and fill in holes in your movie viewing history. This year I'm doing:
The 2022 Cult Movie Challenge: Weekly themes ranging from Sonny Chiba Week to Svengoolie Week to Robert Z'Dar Week, just to name three from this year.
The Criterion Challenge 2022: Similar to the above, 52 weeks of Criterion Collection/Channel movies, picked according to the provided themes.
The Podcast Macabre 2022 Horror Challenge: A challenge created by the terrific horror-discussion podcast, with weekly horror themes chosen by the hosts.
All that said, my top 3 streaming services for the kinds of movies you're looking for are (in no particular order):
1) Tubi -- an absolute gem of a free service, lots of great exploitation and B-grade genre films of the kind you used to see at the mom & pop video shops of old. Quality control on prints can be iffy at times for certain foreign genre films, but the same was true in the VHS days.
2) Hoopla -- JohnnyGunn mentioned Kanopy above, Hoopla is another library-connected streaming service that has a similarly eclectic selection. If your local library supports either one, they're both worth a try.
3) Shudder -- excellent horror and other exploitation curation, costs a few bucks a month but I like it enough to have switched to the yearly plan. Their exclusives like ONE CUT OF THE DEAD and MANDY and COLOR OUT OF SPACE and HOST and PG: PSYCHO GOREMAN (and many others) are pretty terrific and hard to find elsewhere.
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:38 PM on June 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
I've been using it to compile lists for my own cult and horror movie marathons for the last few years, and it removes 99% of the guesswork for where I can find movies fitting specific genres and themes. You can also feed it a list of all the services you subscribe to and then you can filter a huge watchlist down to what you're able to easily access. Easy as pie!
One of my favorite Letterboxd pastimes is finding interesting movie "challenges": Curated lists built according to specific themes, with the idea that you'll use it as your watchlist for a given month or even a whole year. It's a fun way to explore different genres and fill in holes in your movie viewing history. This year I'm doing:
The 2022 Cult Movie Challenge: Weekly themes ranging from Sonny Chiba Week to Svengoolie Week to Robert Z'Dar Week, just to name three from this year.
The Criterion Challenge 2022: Similar to the above, 52 weeks of Criterion Collection/Channel movies, picked according to the provided themes.
The Podcast Macabre 2022 Horror Challenge: A challenge created by the terrific horror-discussion podcast, with weekly horror themes chosen by the hosts.
All that said, my top 3 streaming services for the kinds of movies you're looking for are (in no particular order):
1) Tubi -- an absolute gem of a free service, lots of great exploitation and B-grade genre films of the kind you used to see at the mom & pop video shops of old. Quality control on prints can be iffy at times for certain foreign genre films, but the same was true in the VHS days.
2) Hoopla -- JohnnyGunn mentioned Kanopy above, Hoopla is another library-connected streaming service that has a similarly eclectic selection. If your local library supports either one, they're both worth a try.
3) Shudder -- excellent horror and other exploitation curation, costs a few bucks a month but I like it enough to have switched to the yearly plan. Their exclusives like ONE CUT OF THE DEAD and MANDY and COLOR OUT OF SPACE and HOST and PG: PSYCHO GOREMAN (and many others) are pretty terrific and hard to find elsewhere.
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:38 PM on June 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
Mubi is another service worth your consideration. They've been around for a while now, and they curate as much horror weirdness as they do arthouse/foreign.
Films are well-organized and contain not only a standard plot summary, but also Mubi's review and personal reasoning for selecting the film. They have a 7 day free trial if you're curious.
posted by nightrecordings at 6:28 AM on June 26, 2022
Films are well-organized and contain not only a standard plot summary, but also Mubi's review and personal reasoning for selecting the film. They have a 7 day free trial if you're curious.
posted by nightrecordings at 6:28 AM on June 26, 2022
Can't help w/ review sites, but you should probably add Kino Cult to your list of streaming options. (And their collection feels a little more "curated for quality" to me than some of the others, and not quite as overwhelming in quantity, though I could be completely wrong about that, ymmv)
posted by Bron at 8:07 AM on June 27, 2022
posted by Bron at 8:07 AM on June 27, 2022
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From their website: Kanopy is the best video streaming service for quality, thoughtful entertainment. Find movies, documentaries, foreign films, classic cinema, independent films and educational videos that inspire, enrich and entertain. We partner with public libraries and universities to bring you an ad-free experience that can be enjoyed on your TV, mobile phone, tablets and online.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 8:14 PM on June 25, 2022 [1 favorite]