Shudder Announces June 2022 Programming Lineup

Written by John Edward Betancourt

For a long time… the summer season was a terrible time to be a horror fan. For the only movies showing at the multiplex during this time of year, were big time releases with big time stars. The kind that didn’t focus on anything spooky in the slightest. Not to mention television shows were on hiatus and anything remotely spooky on T.V. really wasn’t airing during summer and to top it all off, the mantra of ‘outdoor season’ that comes with summer… only helped to keep horror down. Since no one thought anyone would want to be inside watching scary movies, when they could enjoy the wonder of nature. 
​
But the advent of streaming and peak television changed all that. Since it became apparent that people do indeed enjoy movies and shows of all genres during the summer season and not everyone wants to spend their time outside when the heat turns up. And studios and networks have responded to that revelation, by providing us with a summer television season and one particular streamer… has taken great steps to ensure that horror fans are also taken care of properly during this time of year.

For Shudder makes sure that carefully curated horror programming is available for fans of the genre when the summer season hits. So, they can have their fix and have something to celebrate with other horror fans out there and well, the wonder of Shudder and its wonderful lineups during the summer season is top of mind today… simply because Shudder has released its June schedule. And once again, they are taking good care of horror fans everywhere with another impressive lineup of movies and wonderful collections. So, without further ado, here is that epic June 2022 lineup, courtesy of Shudder.

NEW SHUDDER ORIGINAL & EXCLUSIVE FILMS

Offseason (Shudder Exclusive) – Premieres June 10

Jocelin Donahue as Marie Aldrich in the horror film, OFFSEASON, a Shudder release. Photo courtesy of Shudder.

Upon receiving a mysterious letter that her mother’s grave site has been vandalized, in Offseason, Marie (Jocelin Donahue, Doctor Sleep) quickly returns to the isolated offshore island where her late mother is buried. When she arrives, she discovers that the island is closing for the offseason with the bridges raised until Spring, leaving her stranded. One strange interaction with the local townspeople after another, Marie soon realizes that something is not quite right in this small town. She must unveil the mystery behind her mother’s troubled past in order to make it out alive. Starring Jocelin Donahue, Joe Swanberg, Richard Brake, Melora Walters, Jeremy Gardner, directed by Mickey Keating (Carnage Park). View Trailer HERE.

Mad God (Shudder Exclusive) – Premieres June 16

Mad God marks the feature directorial debut for visionary and Oscar and Emmy Award-winning stop-motion animator and special effects supervisor Phil Tippett, the creative powerhouse involved in such classics as RoboCop, Starship Troopers, Jurassic Park, and Star Wars: A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Mad God is an experimental animated film set in a world of monsters, mad scientists and war pigs. A corroded diving bell descends amidst a ruined city, settling down upon an ominous fortress guarded by zombie-like sentries. The Assassin emerges to explore a labyrinth of bizarre, desolate landscapes inhabited by freakish denizens. Through unexpected twists and turns, he experiences an evolution beyond his wildest comprehension. A labour of love that has taken 30 years to complete, Mad God combines live-action and stopmotion, miniature sets and other innovative techniques to bring Tippett's wholly unique and grotesquely beautiful vision to life. Winner — Most Groundbreaking Film, Fantasia International Film Festival. Winner — José Luis Guarner Critic's Award - Best Film & Best Visual Effects, Sitges Film Festival. Winner – Nocturno Nuove Visioni Award - Best Film, Trieste Science+Fiction Festival. View Trailer HERE. 

Revealer (Shudder Original) – Premieres June 23

Tensions rise when a stripper and religious protester are trapped together in a peep show booth and must come together to survive the apocalypse in 1980's Chicago. Starring Caito Aase (Black Mold) and Shaina Schrooten (Scare Package II: Rad Chad’s Revenge), written by popular comic authors Tim Seeley (Hack/Slash, Revival) and Michael Moreci (Barbaric, The Plot) and directed by Luke Boyce. View Trailer HERE. 

The Long Night (Shudder Exclusive) – Premieres June 30

While searching for the parents she’s never known, New York transplant Grace (Scout TaylorCompton) returns to her childhood southern stomping grounds with her boyfriend (Nolan Gerard Funk) to investigate a promising lead on her family’s whereabouts. Upon arrival, the couple’s weekend takes a bizarre, terrifying turn as a nightmarish cult and their maniacal leader terrorize the pair to fulfill a twisted ancient apocalyptic prophecy. Starring Scout Taylor-Compton, Nolan Gerard Funk, Deborah Kara Unger and Jeff Fahey, directed by Rich Ragsdale. View Trailer HERE. 

SHUDDER’S QUEER HORROR COLLECTION

Celebrate Pride with a curated collection of more than two dozen must-see LGBTQ+ horror and thriller features, series, and documentaries showcasing queer themes, characters, and creators.

This month, new to the collection, is a celebration of prolific Queer filmmaker Eloy de la Iglesia (1944-2006), a director of films in the 70s and 80s popular in his native Spain but mainly unknown to the rest of the world. Starting June 1, the Queer Horror collection will highlight these five de la Iglesia horrors and thrillers:

Cannibal Man
After accidentally killing a man, a poor butcher named Marco embarks on a murderous frenzy to cover up the crime. Marco starts disposing of the bodies in his slaughterhouse, but that alone won’t solve the problem.

El Pico
Paco is the son of a conservative law enforcement officer. His best friend is Urko, whose father is a progressive socialist politician. Both young men are heroin addicts. EL PICO is the intricately woven story of Paco and Urko trekking ever deeper into the seedy world of the illicit drug trade in early-‘80s Spain. It chronicles a period of upheaval in the lives of these unlikely friends, as their addiction leads them to escalating criminal activity, kicking off a chain reaction of bloodshed and tragedy. EL PICO shines an unforgiving light into the dark corners of the drug underworld and explores the complexities of family lives that straddle the line between both sides of the law.

El Pico 2
El Pico 2 continues the criminal saga of Paco, a troubled heroin addict who escaped sordid entanglements of murder and overdose, thanks to the actions of his law enforcement officer father. Under the watchful eyes of his father and grandmother, Paco struggles to free himself from the tightening grip of addiction. But salvation proves as elusive as ever, and he soon finds himself drawn back into his old life. From the dark corners of the illicit drug trade to prison and back again, EL PICO 2 is a glimpse into the hellish depths of heroin addiction and the tragedy it visits upon its victims and their families.

Navajeros
Navajeros chronicles the life of Jaro, the leader of a juvenile delinquent gang in late-'70s Spain, depicting his rise from street urchin to outlaw anti-hero on the way to his inevitable end. The child of absentee parents, Jaro has amassed an impressive rap sheet before reaching his 16th birthday, but still finds life unfulfilling. Ambition drives him to take up a sawed-off shotgun and lead his gang on a crime spree that will paint a bloody swathe across the city and drive Jaro closer and closer to violent tragedy. Unflinching and often brutal, the film also treats its subject with genuine humanity.

No One Heard the Scream
One year after his international breakthrough with Cannibal Man, defiant Basque filmmaker Eloy de la Iglesia co-wrote and directed this twisted thriller that instantly made him “the father of Spanish giallo” (Spanish Fear): When a woman spies her neighbor disposing of his wife’s corpse, she will cross the line from witness to accomplice to something far more depraved.

On June 13, for the first time on SVOD, the 2010 black comedy All About Evil will be available in a new restoration.

This over-the-top black comedy is about a mousy librarian who inherits her father’s beloved but failing old movie house, The Victoria. To save the family business, she discovers her inner serial killer – and a legion of rabid gore fans – when she starts turning out a series of gruesome shorts. Unfortunately, her fans don’t realize yet that the murders in the movies are real. The directorial debut of Midnight Movie impresario Joshua Grannell (better known as ‘Peaches Christ’), All About Evil stars Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll), Thomas Dekker (Swimming with Sharks), cult icon Mink Stole (Serial Mom), and Cassandra Peterson (Elvira: Mistress of the Dark).

Also joining the Collection on June 1:

Daughters of Darkness
In this 1971 erotic Euro-horror classic, a pair of newlyweds become the targets of the vampire Countess Bathory and her female lover, who’ve been draining local vixens of their blood for centuries. But the Countess has bigger plans for the couple, and so she begins cleverly pitting them against each other until she can strike.

What Keeps You Alive
On the eve of their one-year wedding anniversary, Jules and Jackie become embroiled in a merciless fight for their lives when they find themselves pitted against the most unexpected of adversaries: each other.

And premiering June 6:

The Demons of Dorothy (short)
Dorothy's a film director and a bit of a loser. To avoid sinking to the deepest depths of despair, Dorothy seeks comfort in her favorite TV show, Romy the Vampire Slayer. Unfortunately, her own demons show up. From Alexis Langlois, director of Terror Sisters.

The Wild Boys
The debut feature from Bertrand Mandico tells the tale of five adolescent boys (all played by actresses) drawn to crime and transgression. Punished to board a boat with a captain hell-bent on taming their ferocious appetites, they arrive on a lush island with dangers and pleasures and start to transform in both mind and body. 

NEW ADDITIONS TO SHUDDER’S MOVIE LIBRARY

June 1

Eye of the Cat
Penned by Joseph Stafano, author of the horror classic Psycho, Eye of the Cat tells the macabre and suspenseful tale of a young man who plots murder after his wealthy aunt announces that she intends to leave her fortune to her cats

In the Mouth of Madness
Imagine a novel so overwhelmingly hypnotic, so tremendously horrifying that it paralyzes its audience with fear and turns its most sensible readers insane. When the author disappears, an insurance investigator hired to find the horror writer discovers far more than he could ever imagine in this spellbinding thriller.

Poltergeist
Late one night, 10 year-old Carol Anne Freeling hears a voice coming from the inside of the television set. At first, the spirits that invade the Freelings' home seem like playful children. But then they turn angry. And when Carol Anne is pulled from this world into another, Steve and Diane Freeling turn to an exorcist in the horror classic.

Mary, Mary Bloody Mary
Mary (Cristina Ferrare), a beautiful American artist living in Mexico to more easily gratify her growing lust for blood. While her horrific appetites are fueled, her life becomes further fraught with the investigation into the grisly murders, love for a handsome young American ex-patriot (David Young), and by the sudden, terrifying appearance of her like-minded father (John Carradine), intent upon satisfying his own heinous hungers as well as his legacy of compulsion. As Mary continues to cut a bloody swath across the country, investigators and her pursuing parent close in--the suspense and nightmarish drama gather to a final chilling confrontation."

June 2

Available for the first time on SVOD, cult favorite creature features Alligator (1980) and Alligator II: The Mutation (1991) come to Shudder in stunning new prints scanned from the original camera negatives.

Alligator
From director Lewis Teague (Cujo) and screenwriter John Sayles (The Howling) comes an unstoppable thriller with bite. A family returning from Florida decides their pet baby alligator is too much to handle and flushes him down the toilet. Meanwhile, Slade Laboratories is conducting secret experiments with animals and disposing of them in the sewer. The alligator, fending for itself, begins to feed on the dead animals, and grows. Now, twelve years later, after several mysterious murders, David Madison (Robert Forster, Jackie Brown) is on the case to find out who ... or what ... is killing people.

Alligator II: The Mutation
Deep in the sewers beneath the city of Regent Park, a baby alligator feeds on the experimental animals discarded by Future Chemicals Corporation. Nourished by the toxic growth hormones and other mutating chemicals, the gator grows immense in size ... and voracious in appetite. Now, it must kill to survive! It's a classic confrontation between man and beast. This sequel stars Joseph Bologna (Transylvania 6-5000), Steve Railsback (Lifeforce), Dee Wallace (The Howling), Richard Lynch (Bad Dreams) and Kane Hodder (Jason X).

June 6

Backcountry
An urban couple go camping in the Canadian wilderness - where unimaginable beauty sits alongside our most primal fears. Alex is a seasoned outdoorsman while Jenn, a corporate lawyer, is not. After much convincing, and against her better judgment, she agrees to let him take her deep into a Provincial Park to one of his favorite spots - the secluded Blackfoot Trail.

A Lonely Place to Die
A group of climbers make a grim discovery high up in the mountains: buried amongst the peaks is an eight-year-old girl, terrified, dehydrated and unable to speak a word of English. Alison (Melissa George, TV's Grey's Anatomy, 30 Days of Night), the group leader, convinces her group to rescue her. But as they attempt to take the girl to safety, they become involved in an elaborate kidnapping plot and soon must fight for their lives as they re pursued by both the girl s kidnappers and a group of hired mercenaries sent to return the girl to her war criminal father. With danger all around them and mountainous terrain to navigate, Alison and her party are in for a grueling ordeal in order to save both the girl and themselves.

The Wild Boys
The debut feature from Bertrand Mandico tells the tale of five adolescent boys (all played by actresses) enamored by the arts, but drawn to crime and transgression. After a brutal crime committed by the group and aided by TREVOR – a deity of chaos they can’t control – they’re punished to board a boat with a captain hell-bent on taming their ferocious appetites. After arriving on a lush island with dangers and pleasures abound the boys start to transform in both mind and body. Shot in gorgeous 16mm and brimming with eroticism, gender-fluidity, and humor, The Wild Boys will take you on journey you won’t soon forget.

June 13

The Clovehitch Killer
Tyler's a good kid, a boy scout, raised by a poor but happy family in a small, religious town. But when he finds his dad, Don, has disturbing pornography hidden in the shed, he starts to fear that his dad might be Clovehitch, an infamous serial killer that was never caught. Tyler teams up with Kassi, a teenage outcast who's morbidly obsessed with the Clovehitch legend, to discover the truth in time to save his family.

June 20

The Freakmaker
Professor Nolter, a college science professor who believes it is man's destiny to survive an uncertain future by evolving into a hybrid plant/human mutation. To test his theories, Nolter supervises the abduction of young co-eds and fuses them with mutant plants he has developed in his laboratory, placing his rejects in a neighboring freak show (which stars such real-life oddities as the Alligator Lady, the Frog Boy, the Human Pretzel, the Monkey Woman, the Human Pincushion and the unforgettable "Popeye".

Grizzly
An enormous grizzly bear embarks on a murderous rampage in a national park, killing campers, hunters, and anyone else who gets in its way. But when rangers push to close the park, craven officials decide to keep it open. Sound familiar? A year after JAWS broke records, director William Girdler set out to cash in with a knockoff - and guess what? It worked. Grizzly became the top independent hit of 1976, grossing nearly $30 million dollars and inspiring many more animal attack thrillers - including Girdler's semi-sequel Day of the Animals the following year.

Day of the Animals
A group of animal lovers are hunted by killer critters during a camping trip in this over-the-top cult classic from B-movie maestro William Girdler. Leslie Nielsen, Lynda Day George and Ruth Roman are among the campers whose hike turns into a death march when bears, birds, bugs and more start attacking. Though the campy attempts at staging the kills often induce more laughter than fear, especially the scene in which Nielsen fights a bear rug, DOTA still offers jolting thrills for all fans of the animal attack genre.