‘Hellcat’, ‘Queens of the Dead’ and More Arrive on Shudder in August

Shudder is turning August into a month of wounded travellers, vengeful teenagers, possessed assassins and Brooklyn zombies, with three new original and exclusive films leading the streaming service’s latest UK and Ireland schedule. The line-up begins on 1 August and continues through the end of the month, combining fresh premieres with several additions to the platform’s existing horror library.

Tina Romero’s feature debut Queens of the Dead arrives first on 7 August as a Shudder Exclusive Film. Set during a large warehouse party in Brooklyn, the film follows a group of drag queens, club kids and feuding friends after a zombie outbreak interrupts the night. With the surrounding city collapsing, the group must put aside its personal conflicts and use whatever skills it has to survive the brain-hungry undead.

The film previously screened at the 2025 Tribeca Festival and now receives its exclusive streaming premiere on Shudder and AMC+.

One week later, Shudder Original Film Hellcat premieres on 14 August. Dakota Gorman stars as Lena, who wakes inside a moving camper trailer with a severe wound and little understanding of how she got there. The driver tells her they have only one hour to reach medical help before she suffers an unimaginable fate, but the situation becomes increasingly uncertain as her pain intensifies and her grasp on reality begins to fail.

The month’s final original premiere is Penny Lane is Dead, arriving on 28 August. Set in Australia during the summer of 1986, the film centres on 17-year-old Penny Lane as she celebrates gaining a place at college with her closest friends. The night changes after her jealous cousin introduces a cruel prank involving spiked cupcakes, setting off a chain of violence and retaliation.

Bailey Spalding, Alexandra Jensen and Ben O’Toole lead the cast, with the film moving from teenage celebration into revenge horror over the course of a single night.

Shudder will also expand its film library throughout August. On 1 August, the service adds What Happened to Dorothy Bell?, which follows Ozzie Gray as she records an investigation into childhood trauma connected to her late grandmother.

Also arriving that day is Meanwhile on Earth, about a 23-year-old woman contacted by an unknown life form that claims it can return her brother after his disappearance during a space mission. The post-apocalyptic drama Deadland also joins the service, following a man crossing territory reshaped by global war and martial law in an attempt to find his missing wife.

The 1975 possession film Exorcismo follows on 3 August, telling the story of a young woman who unknowingly takes part in a satanic ceremony and becomes possessed by the spirit of her dead father.

Two further titles arrive on 7 August. Ghost Killer centres on a college student possessed by the ghost of murdered hitman Kudo, who recruits her to complete his unfinished revenge. Frankie Freako, meanwhile, follows a work-obsessed man who responds to a strange party hotline hosted by a dancing goblin, a decision that sends his quiet life sharply off course.

Shudder’s August 2026 schedule begins on 1 August, with Queens of the Dead streaming from 7 August, Hellcat from 14 August and Penny Lane is Dead from 28 August. Viewers in the UK and Ireland can subscribe through Shudder’s official website.

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