Crackle has carved out a solid niche in the world of streaming services. It won’t be overtaking Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon anytime soon, but it’s still worth your time—especially if you’re on a budget. Crackle movies change monthly, so flicks are constantly rotating in and out. That means there’s always something fresh to watch, even if it won’t stick around for long.
The best part about Crackle movies is that they’re free. The only catch is that there are commercial breaks, but hey, those interruptions don’t have to be a bad thing. You can run to the bathroom or grab a snack. Make the breaks work for you. Here are our picks for the best free movies on Crackle for July 2020. Watch ’em while you can.
The best free Crackle movies in July 2020
1) Bernie
Richard Linklater’s account of an East Texas murder is a curio, even by his standards. He mixes real interviews with locals of Carthage, Texas, into his fictionalized account of Marjorie Nugent’s murder at the hands of her assistant, Bernie Tiede. Jack Black’s vocal and physical affectations walk the line of caricature, but he never crosses it. He does the best work of his acting career here. Shirley Maclaine matches, and even surpasses, Black’s work as Marjorie. The film is darkly funny and a fascinating look at a relationship gone horribly wrong.
2) Coherence
Few experiences are more joyous than watching a smart sci-fi mindbender that actually holds up and doesn’t collapse under the weight of its contrivances as it reaches the third act climax. Coherence takes a simple high concept (parallel realities) and runs with it, turning it around and around, keeping its characters (and its audience) intrigued and confused but never fully disoriented, all the way to a fulfilling ending that doesn’t cheat.
3) 10 Cloverfield Lane
For most of its runtime, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a taut locked-room thriller. It’s about a woman (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who wakes up after a car crash in bunker belonging to a mysterious man (John Goodman). There’s another man stuck with them (John Gallagher Jr.) whose allegiances are hard to peg. The movie is a showcase for its cast and talented young director (Dan Trachtenberg). The ties to Cloverfield proved to be divisive among audiences, but everything leading up to that is too good to miss out on.
4) I Saw the Devil
This South Korean thriller pits two of the country’s most well-known actors (Choi Min-sik and Lee Byung-hun) as a cop and a serial killer, respectively. It’s a cat-and-mouse story, or maybe cat-and-cat is more appropriate, as Byung-hun relentlessly tracks and tortures the man (Min-sik) who killed his wife. The film is directed by maestro Kim Jee-woon, so you’re in good hands. I Saw the Devil is brutal and provocative, and if you have the stomach for it, it’s well worth a watch.
5) Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser
If God made dirt and dirt don’t hurt, and God also made David Spade, does that mean Joe Dirt 2 is touched by the divine? You’re going to have to see for yourself to find out. But if you liked the original Joe Dirt, most likely you’ll be on onboard this goofy go-round too. Joe and his mullet transport back in time, and Joe has to make his way back to the present. Joe Dirt 2 is a Crackle exclusive, which made it the first movie sequel to be produced for a streaming outlet.
6) The Love Witch
The Love Witch is the kind of movie that many people will dismiss as an homage to an era and genre of film long gone, but it’s more than that. Beyond the bright colors, intentionally stilted line readings, and incredible set decoration lies a movie that engages with thorny ideas about gender roles and relationship dynamics. Written and directed by Anna Biller (who also handled producing, scoring, editing and art design duties), The Love Witch is about a woman using spells and magic to make men fall in love with her, with deadly consequences. —E.S.
7) Office Uprising
The corporate world meets the undead in Sony Crackle’s zombie comedy Office Uprising. Desmond (Brenton Thwaites) is a typical young 20s slacker type, whose corporate ineffectiveness comes in handy when his coworkers are turned into zombies. With the help of two friends Desmond have to fight their way throughout their building, taking on bosses, brown-nosers, jargon, and, of course, zombies along the way. The movie plays fast and loose with zombie tropes, generally for the movie’s benefit. Office Uprising is silly, very silly, but also quite entertaining.
8) REC 2
The first REC film gets most of the acclaim, but REC 2 is the stealth pick for the found footage franchise’s best installment. REC 2 expands on the first film by telling its story concurrently to REC’s. REC 2 helps explain the story of REC, but also expands the story in interesting ways. For a film built around zombies in a barricaded apartment complex, REC 2 spins a lot of gold from its premise. REC 2 is a blast, the exact kind of thing you want in a horror movie. It’s fast-paced, bloody, and doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s more fun than it is scary, but it offers its fair share of creepy moments.
New to cord-cutting? Here are our picks for the best movie streaming sites of 2019 and free live TV apps and channels. If you’re looking for a specific channel, here’s how to watch HBO, Showtime, Starz, ESPN, AMC, FX, Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, FS1, TBS, Golf Channel, and NFL RedZone without cable, as well as free movies on YouTube.
Still not sure what to watch? Here are the best new comedies and documentaries you can stream right now, and the scariest movies of all time—and how to stream them, and the best serial killer movies of all time.