If you have a library card, you likely have access to one of the best streaming platforms available. Kanopy, like Hoopla, offers thousands of films for free without ads by partnering with public libraries and universities. What’s even more impressive is the sheer scope of titles available, new and old alike.
You can find recent titles like The Life of Chuck or The Carpenter’s Son, along with genre cult classics like Possession or Ringu, and everything in between. Keeping up with new releases is a Kanopy specialty, including plenty of recent horror releases that have flown under the radar.
For those looking beyond the theatrical studio slate in search of hidden horror favorites, here are seven recently released films currently available to stream for free on Kanopy.
Animale
French filmmaker Emma Benestan quietly contributed to the recent body horror renaissance with a searing slowburn centered around professional bull runner Nejma Chokri (Oulaya Amamra), who seemingly begins to undergo a strange metamorphosis after a harrowing encounter. Soon, Nejma’s male counterparts begin dying, one by one. The violent nature of bullfighting is put on graphic display, a brutal metaphor for Najma’s horrific plight. It’s disturbing French horror with an emotionally devastating purpose.
The Girl with the Needle
Director Magnus von Horn (Sweat, The Here After) helms a haunting gothic portrait of one of Denmark’s most heinous serial killers. It follows a young factory worker who, while struggling to survive in post-WW1 Copenhagen, gets taken under the wing of a woman running an underground adoption agency. When the worker discovers the harrowing truth behind the agency, it puts them on a crash course with catastrophic consequences. Realism meets nightmarish expressionism in The Girl with the Needle, a stunning biopic that dabbles with psychological horror and horror techniques to present a grim yet timely tale of society’s discarded and the disturbing lengths they’re forced to undergo to cope and survive.
Found Footage: The Making of the Patterson Project
This meta mockumentary, directed by Max Tzannes and produced by Tyler Friesen with Radio Silence, follows a budding filmmaker’s attempt to produce a found footage movie about Bigfoot. Framed from the perspective of the documentary crew, the story follows his unlikely band of misfits as they struggle to keep the production afloat on a shoestring budget. That’s when they discover they’ve stepped foot into a real-life horror movie. Expect laughs over scares in this comedy that draws inspiration from Christopher Guest films like This is Spinal Tap.
Primitive War
PRIMITIVE WAR, 2025. © Fathom Entertainment / courtesy Everett Collection
Writer/Director Luke Sparke adapts author Ethan Pettus‘ novel about a recon squad’s discovery of rampaging dinos during the Vietnam War, starring Ryan Kwanten and Tricia Helfer. Primitive War, despite its B-movie setup, takes its dinosaurs and soldiers as seriously as its action. The action horror movie already has a sequel in the works, with Sparke promising to escalate the budding war between prehistoric beasts and the military.
Rabbit Trap
Folk horror gets an eerie auditory twist in writer/director Bryn Chainey’s feature debut. Married couple Darcy (Dev Patel) and Daphne (Rose McEwen) recently moved to a remote countryside cottage to further their artistic pursuits, which entail recording ambient sounds from the nearby wood. But in opening themselves up to listening to the land, they unwittingly become receivers of something otherworldly. It’s as stunningly crafted as it is oblique in storytelling; this cryptic folk horror operates on compelling atmospherics over narrative.
The Shrouds
David Cronenberg explores grief in a genre bender that includes his body horror signatures. Vincent Cassel stars as a tech-entrepreneur who develops a new software that will allow the bereaved to bear witness to the gradual decay of loved ones dead and buried in the earth. His sanity will be tested when a string of grave vandalisms puts his new endeavor at risk, compounding his fragile mental state over the loss of his wife (Diane Kruger) and the bizarre sexual relationship he subsequently developed with his wife’s sister (Kruger). Cronenberg’s thought-provoking meditation on death is as personal as it is deeply weird.
Sister Midnight
Radhika Apte stars as Uma, a young woman horrified to find herself transformed into a disturbing and ruthless figure after entering into an arranged marriage. What begins as a domestic comedy, with Uma begrudgingly navigating her new housewife role, slowly unfurls into an unexpected journey involving stop motion, zany night encounters, and vampirism. Writer/Director Karan Kandhari’s energetic, genre-bending feature debut fully embraces magic realism, but isn’t afraid to lean into horror when the occasion arises.