The forgotten streaming services available in Aotearoa New Zealand
Recent lists of "every" streaming service are woefully incomplete
Last month both Flicks and The Spinoff published guides to “every” streaming service available in Aotearoa New Zealand, but neither of them actually included every streaming service! This guide probably doesn’t complete the list either, a number of international streamers are available worldwide but at the same time aren’t widely advertised outside the country they operate out of, perhaps seeing limited appeal to an English speaking audience. I’m a big believer in Bong Joon Ho’s maxim that if we get over the one inch barrier of subtitles we’ll see many great movies, so I’ve included some foreign streamers in this guide, but no doubt there are more. The others on this list probably reflect my own taste in films, and there are probably services targeting niche audiences that I haven’t encountered.
Price: Free! (with ads)
This is one I was surprised not to see on the other lists. Operated by the Australian distributor Umbrella Entertainment, Brollie is full of Australian films of both the ‘Ausploitation’ genre but also more serious fare, including a lot of films showcasing Aboriginal talent. Plenty of international content too, including some of my favourites like ‘Heathers' and ‘Prisoners of the Ghostland’. While technically ad supported, if you watching in Aotearoa you’re less likely to see an ad as advertisers aren’t buying for this market (this is also often the case with Tubi)
Recommendation: Mad Heidi (2022) This Swiss splatter movie pits our hero Hedi against a fascist regime led by a local cheese magnate.
iQIYI
Price: Plans start at NZ$9.99 a month, but some free content too
With half a billion monthly users, this is the biggest streaming service you’ve never heard of. Owned by the Chinese tech company Baidu, iQIYI has its own film production division and also has produced Japanese and Korean films and TV shows through partnerships. The closeness of the company to the governing regime means you won’t find the more subversive films of China’s Sixth Generation filmmakers (which are well worth seeking out) but you will find something enjoyable to watch, especially if you like monster movies- China has embraced the creature-feature in a big way in recent years
Recommendation: Rat Disaster [aka Junkrat Train] (2021). Remember ‘Snakes on a Plane’? Well this movie is ‘rats on a train’. Also it’s a period piece.
Price: US$5.99 a month (approximately NZ$10), but with some free content too
A smaller (but still huge) Chinese streamer, this one owned by Alibaba. It began as a user generated content platform but now licenses movies and shows from a variety of content partners. Romance seems to dominate the platform but there are enough Monster movies for them to get their own category rather than just get lumped in with horror and/or sci-fi.
Recommendation: Rising Boas in a Girls School (2022). Students and security guards from a school for flight attendants survive an attack by a horde of venomous snakes (and later a giant boa) that have escaped from an illegal breeding facility. Not exactly ‘elevated horror’ but has some interesting themes about animal rights and consumerism.
Price: Plans start at NZ$5.99 a month
I picked an unfortunate time to start getting into Indian cinema, with the ideology of Hindutva influencing the film industry in recent years. Browse Zee5 and one of the categories is ‘Patriotic Watchlist’ many of these titles should be watched with a somewhat critical eye. That said, I say the same about many American films.
Recommendation: Mulk (2018) Not one you’ll find on the ‘Patriotic watchlist’, Anubhav Sinha’s courtroom drama tells the story of a Muslim family coping with the aftermath of a terrorist attack in which their own son participated (and died)
Price: Plans start at NZ$16.99 a month
The launch of VivaMax was expedited during the pandemic when cinemas closed, and it’s grown to become the largest Philippine streaming service despite (or maybe before of) a controversial reputation for their large catalogue of erotic thrillers and dramas (senator Jinggoy Estrada called out the streaming service for allegedly allowing younger audiences easy access to "sexy contents". This doesn’t mean VMX films are lacking artistic merit though, for example 2022’s ‘Virgin Forest’, about a brothel servicing illegal loggers, is a story about the exploitation of both people and nature. I’m reminded of how Stephanie Rothman “the R rated feminist” imbued drive-in fodder with progressive themes.
Recommendation: The Woman Who Loses Herself [Ang Babaeng Nawawala sa Sarili] (2022) Erotic horror is not everyone’s cup of tea, but if it’s yours, I recommend watching this one
Price: Free! (maybe there are ads?)
Not to be confused with the Internet Archive, this streaming service is a lot like Tubi with its eclectic mix of content that includes faith based films, concert recordings, stand up comedy and documentaries. Learning into the shlock factor with a category titled “how did this get made?”
Recommendation: But I'm A Cheerleader (1999) For a straight dude, I watched a lot of queer cinema growing up, and this was one of my favourites. Featuring a rare non-drag performance from Ru Paul and New Zealand’s own Melanie Lynsky.
Price: Get this- it’s free!
Does what it says on the tin, and while that name makes it difficult to search for you can find the app in both Google and Apple’s app stores. It’s largely- but not entirely- public domain movies from as far back as the silent era, but often in 4K restorations rather than the low resolution transfers you often find on the web
Recommendation: Horror Express (1972) I first heard of this film in Bernard Gordon’s memoir ‘Hollywood Exile, or How I Learned to Love the Blacklist’. Gordon was a blacklisted communist screenwriter who, like many in his situation, worked abroad since he couldn’t work in Hollywood. The studio he was at had spent a fair bit on a model train prop for a western, after just one movie they wanted their money's worth on the prop but suddenly westerns were no longer popular, so what do you do? Well, you fly Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing to Spain and you make a horror film that takes place aboard a train.
Price: US$6.99 a month (approximately NZ$12)
The price is a little steep given that there’s no shortage of cult films on other streaming services, and for horror fans Shudder is only eight dollars a month. But if you want to binge some old sword-and-sandals flicks or discover a video nasty then maybe it’s worth the investment
Recommendation: Dark Star (1974) John Carpenter’s sci-fi classic which predates ‘Alien’ for a working-class-in-space aesthetic, and makes the best use of a beach ball of any space flick
Price: NZ$9 a month
Full Moon was a prolific producer of straight-to-video movies in the 1990s, such as the Puppet Master, Trancers, and Subspecies series of films, at times putting out as many as a dozen films in a year. They’ve survived the death of video stores and while many of their films are available elsewhere (Tubi in particular) you can subscribe to get them straight from the source.
Recommendation: The Primevals (2023) Co-written and directed by stop motion animator David Allen and release posthumously, this adventure movie spent fifty years in development, from a script written in the late ‘60s, filming was done in the ‘90s but post-production was only completed in 2023 after a crowdfunding campaign and a lot of people donating their time and skills. The result is a movie that feels simultaneously old and new, it’s a lot of fun and features some of Allen’s best stop motion work.
Price US$5.99 a month (approximately NZ$12)
Similar to Full Moon, Troma has been making low-budget movies for half a century. The best known of which is probably 1984’s The Toxic Avenger, which spawned several sequels, a cartoon series, and most recently a 2023 remake starring Peter Dinkledge. Lots of their films are available on other services (there’s a surprisingly good selection of them on Kanopy) but their streaming service gives a lot more. Bolstered by content from the public domain, meaning a large film noir collection
Recommendation: Christmas Chaos! An Oral History of the Stabaclaus Franchise (2024) A mockumentary about a fictional slasher franchise that covers the changing economics of ‘b movie’ production from drive-ins to video stores to streaming, delightfully meta.
Price: US$9.99 a month (approximately NZ$17)
This is one that people I know would look at and say “this is weird even for you”. If the Soviet Union never fell, and launched a streaming service, my guess is that it would look something like Eternal Family. It’s where you go if you want to watch ‘Fantradroms’ a Latvian cartoon about a shape-shifting robot called Indriķis XIII, or the 1978 Checkoslovakian adaptation of Beauty and the Beast where the beast is a kind of bird creature.
Recommendation: The Point (1971) This animated fable about a boy born with a round head in a world where everyone else has pointed heads is narrated by Ringo Starr and features music by late folk-rocker Harry Nilsson set to some great psychedelic visuals