Between increasing subscription costs and rental fees, it can become costly to watch movies at home.
But if you only know how to watch movies on sites like Netflix and HBO Max, then you aren’t paying attention. Streamers like Tubi, Pluto TV and even YouTube offer a huge selection of movies at no cost — except having to watch a few ads.
This April, Watch With Us wants to highlight some of the best free movies streaming now.
Our first selection is Shaun of the Dead, a hilarious classic horror comedy that’s still funny in 2026.
‘Shaun of the Dead’ (2004) — YouTube
Shaun (Simon Pegg) lives an easy, unchallenging existence, content to work a mundane job and live with his best friend Ed (Nick Frost), much to the chagrin of his fed-up girlfriend, Liz (Kate Ashfield). But Shaun’s life gets an unexpected shot of adrenaline when a zombie virus spreads across London, infecting innocent civilians with an unquenchable desire for human flesh. While an unfortunate situation, the outbreak ultimately forces Shaun to rise and be a hero for both Liz and his mother (Penelope Wilton).
Shaun of the Dead has a superb blend of hilarious gags, gross-out gore and even some genuinely suspenseful moments, courtesy of confident direction from Edgar Wright and a smart script co-penned by Wright and Pegg. The film has endured as one of the most popular horror comedies of all time by how well it both embraces and pokes fun at the tropes of zombie movies. And what’s more, Shaun of the Dead has substantial emotional depth, allowing you to connect with the characters, even the undead ones.
‘It Follows’ (2015) — The Roku Channel
After teenager Jay (Maika Monroe) has sex for the first time with her boyfriend Hugh (Jake Weary), he reveals to her that he has actually passed on a curse — she’ll be stalked by an entity that can take on any human shape and which she can only see. The only cure is that she has to pass along this curse to someone else via sex. Suddenly consumed with paranoid fear of the figures that are slowly creeping toward her, Jay seeks help from her friends, who dismiss her fears as entirely in her head — that is, until they manage to see it for themselves.
It Follows is buoyed by a fantastic original premise that is both simple and terrifying. The movie does a terrific job at building relentless dread through atmospheric cinematography and psychological tension, favoring effective mind tricks over gore and jump scares. Director David Robert Mitchell‘s camera utilizes wide shots to make the audience constantly scan the frame for threats and be in a perpetual state of vulnerability and unease.
‘Scary Movie’ (2000) — Tubi
Before Scary Movie 6 drops later this year, be sure to catch up with where it all began with Scary Movie. This iconic horror movie satire doesn’t just poke fun at films like Scream, The Sixth Sense and I Know What You Did Last Summer but also blockbusters like The Matrix and various other viral movie, TV and commercial moments while lampooning tropes of teen movies in general. Directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans, Scary Movie features legendary performances from Regina Hall, Anna Faris, and Shawn and Marlon Wayans.
Among the glut of parody films of the 2000s, Scary Movie (and some of its sequels) is the only one that still manages to hold up all these years later. (A reboot/sequel, also called Scary Movie, is scheduled for release later this summer.) While not all the film’s jokes land, most of them do, and Scary Movie serves as a nostalgic time capsule to the best kind of raunchy humor. Its unforgettable catchphrases and embrace of slapstick humor keep things highly entertaining, but the movie wouldn’t be quite what it is without the performances from Hall and Faris.
‘The Big Short’ (2015) — Pluto TV
Director Adam McKay uses humor and unconventional narrative techniques to illustrate exactly what happened during the 2008 financial crisis in the United States — and how it can happen again. When Wall Street hedge fund manager Michael Burry (Christian Bale) discovers that the U.S. housing market has become incredibly unstable, he bets against the housing market — otherwise known as “shorting” — which subsequently attracts the attention of several opportunists, including banker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) and hedge fund specialist Mark Baum (Steve Carell). That sets the stage for the market to become vulnerable to investors with bad credit and banks willing to turn a blind eye to maximize their profit margins.
Giving immense care to detail and historical accuracy, The Big Short manages to blend complicated financial jargon, an entertaining script, impressive performances and laugh-out-loud humor into a true-to-life account of one of the most consequential financial crises in U.S. history. The film was nominated for a slew of awards, including Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor for Bale, Best Director for McKay and Best Picture.
