I’m in Love with Tubi, and I Don’t Care Who Knows It

I don’t know about you, but I am up to my eyeballs in streaming services these days. Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Paramount+, Disney+, of course Shudder… all of the usual suspects. I had the brilliant — and absolutely incorrect — idea that I could ditch cable and just use a streaming device for all of my home entertainment needs to save a little cash. Clearly, I’m paying about the same with all of these subscriptions, so it is a delight to find actual DECENT quality content for FREE for a change, even if it requires a few commercial breaks.

Enter Tubi.

I admit, I was skeptical, but I’ve found much to my delight that Tubi is full of great content at an even better price: free. Yes, there are forced commercial breaks, but my reliance on streaming wasn’t to escape the occasional pause for advertising. I just wanted to save money, and to have a great library of films and television at my fingertips. Tubi more than delivers!

The horror selection is amazing. As a Shudder subscriber, I’ve often found myself a little disappointed in their offerings and even more so in their interface. It seems no matter what streaming option I’m using, be it on a Flex box, a Roku, an Xbox, or anything else, the tiny text and clumsy menus are difficult to navigate. Though they serve up a good deal of original content — as do most streaming services as of late — they are completely missing the point of streaming to begin with, which was to have a large catalogue ready and waiting. 

During a recent “where can I stream…” Google search, I noted that a film I had previously paid to rent via another service was streaming free of charge on Tubi, and decided to dive in. I’m so happy that I did!

Tubi has a wide array of horror films, ranging from the usual suspects that have fallen free of copyright to recent independent releases, all in one place. Some titles of note I’ve been binging through as of late should be familiar: Waxwork, Slaughter High, Shivers, Re-Animator, Rubber, Basket Case, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, and on and on! No, you won’t find any of the big name slasher franchises here — no Freddy, no Jason — but the huge selection of classic horror films (and, yes, there are other genres, but clearly I have a preference) is beyond compare.

Black Christmas. Audrey Rose. Dead Birds. Witchboard. May. American Mary. Needful Things. Class of 1999. Even interesting horror-themed documentaries, such as The Making of Puppet Master II, Vampire and Me, and The 50 Best Horror Movies You’ve Never Seen.

I’ve even discovered a great haunted house film that I’d never heard of before and will soon be reviewing for this site: The Nesting.

Great films? Check. Free of charge? Check. What else could you ask for?

We talk to so much about breaking free of cable lately but we soon find ourselves bogged down by a half dozen or more subscription fees and, let me tell you, they add up! That $10 a month, $6 dollar a month, $12 dollar a month fee may look small when you click Subscribe, but when you have several different services just to watch that one show or that one film series, you’re soon paying just as much as a cable television subscription.

Tubi is a breath of fresh air: all that entertainment, and at no cost! Give it a chance and check it out for yourself — you won’t be disappointed.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a bowl of popcorn waiting and Castle Freak all queued up to watch!