In 2018, Shudder definitely experienced their most successful year yet. The AMC-owned horror movie streaming platform hit more than one home run this year. In fact, they had several major successes, establishing subscriptions to their service as a non-negotiable necessity among horror fans.
Even for the month of December, the platform kept horror fans buzzing about their massive selection of holiday horror films, according to 1428 Elm . Shudder’s exclusive Christmas-themed titles like All the Creatures Were Stirring and Christmas Presence were surprise hits and are still generating positive responses from fans and critics alike.
To celebrate their successful year, Shudder has been updating their official Twitter with some interesting statistics. To start with, they revealed the biggest movie premieres of 2018. Mandy came in at number one, followed by Summer of ’84, Hell House LLC II, Terrified , and Revenge.
To keep things interesting, Shudder also listed their five most polarizing movies, which they described as films that received scores both low and high, with little deviation in between. The films audiences either loved or hated were Night of Something Strange , which claimed the top spot. Coming in at number two was Faces of Death, then Digging Up the Marrow, We Are The Flesh , and Toad Road at third, fourth, and fifth.
Shudder also divulged other statistics, such as the movies with the highest number of member reviews, as well as the most re-watched movies of 2018.
And on the fourth day of Top 5 Lists for the Best of 2018, our Shudder community gave to us – Most Rewatched Movies of 2018!
How many times have you seen these movies? @SouthboundMovie @TheHorrorMaster @coraliefargeat @stillbornmovie @downrange_movie pic.twitter.com/e8C95x35Bt
— Shudder (@Shudder) December 20, 2018
Shudder has been expanding for years, but their growth accelerated with their decision to play hero to the horror community in bringing Joe Bob Briggs back to hosting horror movie marathons. It was such an anticipated event that when The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs finally aired on ShudderTV last July, their servers couldn’t handle the number of viewers they had. Joe Bob came back last month for Dinners of Death , which was also well-received, and on Friday, December 21, he will return once more for A Very Joe Bob Christmas .
Following that success, they announced a new Creepshow series in development for 2019, based off the 1982 classic written by Stephen King and directed by George Romero. Greg Nicotero of The Walking Dead will serve as the series’ creator.
Furthermore, Shudder acquired exclusive streaming rights to Mandy , the Nicolas Cage-starring hyper-violent, highly stylized horror movie that critics simply loved. Shudder’s original horror film Revenge is listed at number five alongside Mandy at number four in Rotten Tomatoes ‘ list of best horror films of 2018, while their original series Deadwax is also landing well with critics.
With Creepshow , a weekly Joe Bob Briggs series, and plenty of incoming original movies slated for 2019, it appears Shudder is primed to make their cement themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the world of horror.