This Apple TV Trick Turns Streaming Into the Curated Horror Sections at Your Old Video Store

Remember what Halloween was like back when you were in college? You’d go to the independently-owned video store with your crew in search of something truly bizarre to watch, the older and weirder and bloodier the better. If your local shop was anything like my college town’s—Video Culture in Murfreesboro, TN—then they had sections curated by individual in addition to genre. And since horror is a genre ruled by a cadre of actors and auteurs, those sections were vital during Halloween. Maybe there’s a John Carpenter movie you’ve never seen before, or maybe a creepy movie with Peter Cushing that you caught the end of on cable. Searching by director or actor made it easy to find weird stuff you’ve never seen before.

Streaming has taken that ritual away from Halloween, which is a major bummer. There are so many streaming services and those services cycle through content all the time. What was streaming on Hulu last year might be on HBO Max this year. You truly never know, and searching through all of those apps is such a time waste.

That’s why I’m here to share this tip with all of you out there who have an Apple TV. Thanks to the Apple TV’s TV interface, you can search through all of your streaming services at once. You can pull up an actor’s entire filmography in one place and then scroll through all the titles like you’re browsing a curated section at your old video store. For instance, maybe you’ve just heard about #SamNeilloween and want to know which horror movies starring Sam Neill are available to stream. This trick is for you! How does this sorcery work? Let’s take it step by step.

First, go to settings and click on apps.

Then scroll down to TV and click on it.

This is where you control which streaming services are connected to Apple TV’s Watch Now aggregation feature. Make sure that they’re all turned on, or at least the ones you want to use. Note that Netflix does not connect to the TV app because billionaires have to feud over something.

Now go into the TV app and scroll over to the search icon. Also, wow, seeing someone’s up next carousel is a peek into their current state.

In the search field, type the name of a horror actor or director. I chose Vincent Price because why wouldn’t I choose Vincent Price?

As the search results populate, you can scroll down below movies and TV shows to the Cast & Crew section. Hey, it’s a li’l Vincent Price button. Click on it.

Now you’re in the Vincent Price section! You’ll see all the movies and shows featuring Vincent Price that are available to stream or purchase across all streaming platforms.

When you click on a title, it takes you to that film’s home screen. Here it shows you where the film is streaming. The Bat, a campy Vincent Price thriller about a serial killer named The Bat co-starring Agnes Moorehead, is streaming on a streaming service called Classix that I downloaded last year because I thought they had all of Mr. Ed available to stream (they only have one episode).

If you’re not feeling the streaming service that Apple chose by default, you can scroll down to the How to Watch row and see all the other options. The Bat is also on Tubi, Prime Video, Pluto TV, and more.

The same works for directors, too! Let’s check out the Wes Craven section.

Same deal as before: click on a movie and it’ll show you where you can stream it.

And if you want to see where else it’s streaming, scroll down to How to Watch. Also—who knew the Bravo App had a horror section?

And that’s that! I’ll reiterate that this is a great way to discover random movies and hidden gems in any actor or director’s filmography all year long. You’d never think to look for a film like The Bat, and you definitely wouldn’t know that it’s on Prime Video unless you were specifically searching for it.

So yeah—take this information and use it to surface the deepest cuts in your fave’s filmography or to track down your all-time faves that may be hidden on a random streamer you downloaded years ago. Who knows—maybe there’s a James Wan short hiding out on somewhere on Crackle?