Tubi is my go-to. I will happily admit that.
It’s what I turn on almost every day when I’m tired of the TV grind, and apparently Tubi knows me pretty well by now. At night, it will faithfully serve up Scooby-Doo for my bedtime routine even after I’ve spent the evening clicking on something bizarre like Demon Seed for the hundredth time or wandering into something called Wereshark because…well, WTF is Wereshark?
It’s almost like Tubi is saying, “We know you like weird shit, but we also know it’s bedtime. Here’s Scooby.”
Tubi is my FAST TV king.
So whenever the service announces what’s coming next, I get a little excited. Sometimes it really is something new. Sometimes it’s something old that’s new to Tubi. Sometimes I swear something was already there and Tubi apparently took it away for seventeen minutes so it could triumphantly announce its return. And sometimes it’s something I already found on Roku or somewhere else, but I’m still happy to see it land on Tubi because now more people can find it.
October’s lineup is especially ridiculous.
This isn’t everything coming to Tubi in October. If you want the complete list, I’ve got that too. These are the things that made me stop scrolling — movies and shows I love, things I’ve been meaning to get back to, stuff I’m genuinely curious about and at least one thing I may watch again solely because I remember hating it.
In other words: welcome to my October watchlist.
The Ones I’ll Watch for the 10,000th Time
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Are you serious?
Do you know how many times I’ve seen this movie? I own the damn thing on DVD. It’s one of my all-time favorites. And if you’ve never seen it, what the f*ck is wrong with you? Now’s your opportunity. No excuses.
What makes this particular Tubi appearance fun is that they’re listing the Director’s Cut. There are scenes and moments that weren’t part of the original theatrical version, and extended cuts can always go one of two ways: Oh, THAT’S why they put this back in or Why the f*ck is this scene seventeen minutes long?
Here, most of it works.
There’s more of Roy’s obsession, more of the government/UFO cover-up material, and more room for the whole thing to breathe. Some of it mucks up the pacing a little, but it’s Spielberg’s Director’s Cut. He can do whatever the f*ck he wants.
I’m still watching.
Close Encounters has something that a lot of alien movies lose while they’re busy blowing shit up: wonder. It’s an adventure. It’s mysterious. It’s huge. You look at that ship and feel like you’re staring at something you weren’t supposed to see.
Then Spielberg made E.T., made me cry, and I never watched it again. Close Encounters never went on that shelf.
The Terminator
Arnold.
Really, that should be enough.
But The Terminator has gotten even more interesting now that we’re all living in an AI- and robot-obsessed world. This is the future everybody immediately imagines when the subject comes up: the machines get too smart, decide we’re the problem and — boom — Arnold Schwarzenegger is naked in an alley.
I actually think an obscure little 1985 show called Otherworld may have stumbled closer to the kind of mess we’d really create.
Not giant Terminators marching over human skulls. Humans building technology to fix their problems, f*cking it up, trying to control what they created and creating entirely new problems in the process.
That doesn’t take anything away from Arnold, Sarah Connor, the action, the tension or the sheer badassery of The Terminator. It’s still one of the best sci-fi action movies ever made.
Just don’t get too attached to the idea that this is how the machines get us. We might be perfectly capable of coming up with something much stupider ourselves.
Monster House
And who the f*ck cares if it’s a kids’ movie?
Monster House is another one of my favorites, and it deserves way more respect than it gets.
It sells itself as a haunted-house movie about three kids, but underneath all the spooky shenanigans is a story about friendship, grief, guilt and letting go. The house has a backstory that hits much harder than you’d expect, and by the end you realize the movie was never really just about the scares.
It’s creepy. It’s clever. It’s funny. And then it sneaks up and sucker-punches you in the feelings. Underrated as hell.
We’re all kids at heart anyway. Don’t believe me? Go watch Coin Operated on YouTube.
Don’t ever let the dream die, baby.
Movies I’ve Seen — And Apparently I’m Not Finished With
Late Night with the Devil
Now we’re talking.
Late Night with the Devil originally came through Shudder, and holy hell, this thing is a mind f*ck.
The setup alone was enough to hook me: a 1970s late-night talk show broadcasts a Halloween episode that goes spectacularly, supernaturally wrong. It plays with that old broadcast-TV feeling where the more seriously everyone on screen takes what’s happening, the creepier the whole thing becomes.
It immediately made me think of Ghostwatch.
The BBC pulled a similar trick back in 1992 by presenting a fictional paranormal investigation like a real live broadcast, and viewers absolutely lost their shit. Late Night with the Devil isn’t Ghostwatch, and I don’t think it tops it, but they scratch some of the same uncomfortable itch.
You know something is wrong. Everybody on television should probably stop.
Nobody stops. And neither do you.
If you missed this one behind the Shudder wall, its move into the FAST world gives you a very good reason to fix that.
Midsommar
What the f*ck is this movie? Seriously.
I just watched the first episode of HBO’s The Third Day, and it reminded me all over again of Midsommar: beautiful scenery, deeply weird people and outsiders making choices that repeatedly make me want to yell at the screen.
Why are you still there?
Why are you following these people?
WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?
I remember Midsommar as one of the weirdest f*cking movies I’ve watched, and not always in a good way.
Naturally, I’m going to watch it again.
It’s prime hate-watch material, but enough time has passed that I’m curious whether I’ll still hate it as much. Sometimes separation changes your opinion.
And sometimes you hit play again and discover that, no, you were right the first time and everybody is still an idiot.
Either outcome works for me.
Human. F*cking. Centipede.
I can’t even remember whether I watched one of these movies or watched about a minute and shut it right the f*ck off.
That seems like information my brain may have deliberately deleted.
The series popped back into my head recently because of a Hollywood Reporter piece about creator Tom Six, and my immediate reaction was basically: Who the f*ck even wants to watch this shit?
Body horror generally isn’t my thing, and The Human Centipede isn’t exactly easing you into the genre. The guy is literally sewing people together into a human centipede.
There’s a certain amount of aversion built right into the title.
Will I try one again because Tubi, savior of everything apparently, put the movies in front of me?
Probably.
Will I shut it off after ten minutes?
Also probably.
But I’ve surprised myself before. I went into Cannibal Holocaust thinking there was no way in hell I’d make it through the thing, and I did. I have plenty to say about that one — and another infamous animal-killing movie — but that particular nightmare is still sitting in the PTC hopper.
So maybe Human Centipede gets another shot.
But Tubi, if you really want to give me bizarre body horror, PUT SOCIETY ON THERE.
Now there’s some body horror I want to see again.
I Found Them Somewhere Else — But Welcome to Tubi
Voyagers!
Yes, I’ve already watched Voyagers! on Roku.
And now that it’s coming to Tubi, I’ll probably watch more.
This NBC series premiered in 1982 and was made specifically with younger viewers in mind. Phineas Bogg and a kid named Jeffrey Jones travel through history with a device called an Omni, popping into different eras and trying to make sure history happens more or less the way it’s supposed to.
The first episode throws pirates, Moses, World War II and the Wright brothers at you like somebody dumped a history textbook into a blender.
Critics apparently had issues with how freely the show played with history. Fair enough.
But I’m also the person who runs a historical Mafia site, so believe me, I understand the irritation of watching television turn historical fact into Silly Putty.
Here’s the thing: if some kid watched Voyagers! on Sunday night, went to school Monday and asked the teacher, “Hey, was that Wright brothers thing actually true?” — isn’t that a win?
Television can make you curious.
Jaws didn’t get every detail of Quint’s famous USS Indianapolis speech historically right either. Does that destroy one of the greatest scenes in movie history? Of course not. It might make you look up what actually happened.
Voyagers! even ended with Jeffrey encouraging kids to go to the library and learn more about the people they’d just seen.
The first episode is goofy. Phineas somehow knows how to travel through time while occasionally knowing less history than the kid traveling with him. And Jeffrey accepts the whole I’m going to disappear through time with this strange adult who just crashed through my window situation remarkably quickly.
But I watched the whole thing. It’s fun.
And Jon-Erik Hexum, who played Phineas in his first acting role, has a tragic story of his own that I’ll get into when I return to the series.
UPDATE: Wait. There’s also a 2021 movie called Voyagers. Is that the one Tubi means? Apparently not, but so what. I got a little excited, and you got a little off-road information. Either way, the Voyagers coming to Tubi is actually the movie. It’s too bad, but I’ll take a dive into this movie too.
The Royals
This one’s already sitting on my Roku watchlist too.
But now Tubi wants to put Elizabeth Hurley back in front of me as a fictional Queen of England?
Okay.
I haven’t gotten around to properly digging into The Royals yet, but everything about it looks like exactly the kind of glossy, ridiculous, scandalous television that can either become wildly addictive or an absolute train wreck.
Either way, Queen Bitch Elizabeth Hurley awaits.
A Couple More That Made Me Stop Scrolling
Informant!
I’ll admit exactly what happened here. I saw the word Informant! and thought: Mob?
Apparently, no. It’s about a whistleblower and corporate shit.
Do I care? Not particularly.
The word informant got me through the door, and now I need to know what this thing is.
Occupational hazard.
House of Gucci
Have I seen House of Gucci?
Did I think House of Gucci was a series?
Did I simply absorb Lady Gaga wearing Gucci through cultural osmosis for several years until my brain constructed memories of watching it?
I genuinely don’t know anymore.
But it looks deliciously trashy, so I’m going to watch it again, for the first time, or whatever the f*ck this is.
And Now We Enter Tubi Territory
This is where things get dangerous.
Because Tubi doesn’t just acquire weird movies. Tubi makes weird movies, and over time it’s developed its own particular flavor of originals — horror anthologies, slashers, thrillers and movies with titles that make you stop scrolling and say, There is no f*cking way that’s real.
October has several that got me.
Bite Size Terror
It’s a horror anthology.
Need I say more? Probably not, but I will.
Tubi has become a great place for anthology weirdness, whether it’s older material, movies like Circle City Supernatural, or the endless horror nuggets scattered throughout the service. October is also bringing Creepshow, but Bite Size Terror has my attention because it’s a Tubi Original.
And Tubi knows its particular brand of horror. Low Lifes. She Came From the Woods. Terror Train. Buzzkill.
I have absolutely no idea whether Bite Size Terror is going to be fantastic or completely deranged.
That’s why it’s on the list.
Psycho Side Chick and One Night Stand
Now these titles know exactly what service they’re on.
Psycho Side Chick involves a woman dumped by her married lover who decides she isn’t taking rejection particularly well — and apparently anybody standing between her and getting him back should start running.
One Night Stand gives us a married man who sleeps with a serial killer and then has to protect his family when she comes after his entire life.
Come on.
These kinds of wild-ass thrillers have become part of the Tubi experience. They’re the movies where you’re ten minutes in thinking, This is ridiculous. I should shut this off.
And then somehow you’re still there an hour later because you need to know just how much crazier it’s going to get.
Obviously both are going on the list.
R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2
And finally, another Pumpkinhead. Not that Pumpkinhead.
The 1988 Lance Henriksen cult movie occupies its own strange little shelf for better or worse.
I’m talking about the R.L. Stine flavor.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first one. Kid’s movie or not — did you miss the part where Monster House is one of my favorite movies?
These movies scratch the same itch as ridiculous seasonal horror like Carved, which unfortunately remains trapped behind Hulu’s wall, There’s Something in the Barn, which I loved, and Cucuy: The Boogeyman, another favorite that you can still find on Tubi.
This time, a new Pumpkinhead curse is threatening the town of Redhaven, and two kids have to stop it.
That’s enough for me.
Bring on the pumpkins.
Welcome to My October Watchlist
Yes, my taste is weird. Have you met PTC?
These aren’t necessarily the “best” things Tubi is adding in October. I’m not promising to finish every one, I’m definitely not promising to like every one, and there’s a reasonable chance one of them gets thirteen minutes before I start reaching for the remote.
They’re simply the things that made me stop and think:
Yep. I’m watching that.
Some will probably turn into reviews. Some may end up in Streaming Roulette. Some will send me down completely unrelated rabbit holes. And at least one may make me wish I’d just put Scooby-Doo on and gone to bed.
Tubi supplied the October shelf. I supplied the questionable judgment.
What’s going on yours?
- ➝ 🔎 Keep Digging: More strange history, forgotten stories, and pop-culture rabbit holes are waiting in our Features Archive.
- ➝ 📇 Hit the Rolodex: Looking for something to watch instead? Browse the TV Rolodex or Movie Rolodex and see where you end up.
