It may only be the first week of October, but spooky season is well and truly underway on streaming services.
Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes is perhaps the most gruesome of this weekend’s new arrivals, but Werewolf by Night, Hellraiser, The Midnight Club and Luckiest Girl Alive all boast their fair share of bloody thrills on Disney Plus, Hulu and Netflix, respectively.
Below, we’ve rounded up seven of the biggest new movies and TV shows to stream on Netflix, Prime Video, HBO Max and more over the next few days.
Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes (Netflix)
For all its recent shortcomings, Netflix sure knows how to drum up interest in its content.
The streamer’s latest success, Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, was catapulted to popularity after a spate of pre-release controversy – and just two weeks later, Netflix taps the same morbid curiosity with Conversations With a Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes.
This three-part documentary series from director Joe Berlinger (Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile) recounts Dahmer’s heinous crimes through real-life footage and newly-unearthed interviews with his legal team. As with Monster, The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes isn’t likely to be a pleasant watch – but you knew that already.
Now available to stream on Netflix.
Hellraiser (Hulu)
Plenty of horror franchise reboots have made their way onto screens this year – Scream, Prey and Texas Chainsaw Massacre among them – but one new horror movie we didn’t expect to see grace streamers in 2022 was a fresh take on Hellraiser.
This new adaptation of Clive Barker's 1986 novella (which itself was turned into a 1987 film) is actually the 11th installment in the Hellraiser franchise, but is intended as a reboot of Barker's original story. The movie follows a young woman who, using an ancient puzzle box, accidentally summons the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings from another dimension.
Hellraiser is streaming exclusively on Hulu in the US right now, but director David Bruckner has promised to share news about the film's international release (likely on Disney Plus) “in the next week or so.”
Now available to stream on Hulu.
Werewolf by Night (Disney Plus)
Who says Marvel has run out of creative steam?
Werewolf by Night, a new one-off Disney Plus special, is unlike anything the superhero studio has done before. Directed by composer-turned-filmmaker Michael Giacchino (the maestro behind the sounds of Ratatouille and The Batman), it follows a secret group of monster hunters who engage in a deadly competition for a powerful relic following the death of their leader, Ulysses Bloodstone.
Of course, there’s much, much more to Werewolf by Night’s story, and rest assured that it’s one worth sticking around for. In our review of the special, we described Marvel’s quirky horror project as a “satisfying, suspenseful and spooky monster-filled romp that further explores the MCU's supernatural side.”
Now available to stream on Disney Plus.
The Midnight Club (Netflix)
Midnight Mass grew into a critically and culturally beloved horror series following its release on Netflix this time last year, and creator Mike Flanagan will be hoping his latest project, the similarly-titled The Midnight Club, is equally well-received.
An adaptation of Christopher Pike’s 1994 novel of the same name, the show centers on seven terminally ill teenagers who, to pass the time in their shared hospice, attempt to out-spook one another with various scary stories.
In our review, we said: "The Midnight Club doesn't aim to dazzle with twists, turns or insomnia-inducing frights. Its message boasts a more straightforward alchemy – the relevance of storytelling in our mortality." By most accounts, then, it looks like Flanagan has another winner on his hands. All 10 episodes are available to stream now.
Now available to stream on Netflix.
Catherine Called Birdy (Prime Video)
In refreshing contrast to her role as Ellie in HBO’s upcoming The Last of Us TV show, Game of Thrones alumnus Bella Ramsey gets to show off her comedy chops in Prime Video's new period movie, Catherine Called Birdy.
Based on Karen Cushman's award-winning children's novel of the same name, the film follows the misadventures of Lady Catherine (Ramsey), a 13th-century duchess who resists her father's attempts to marry her off to a wealthy suitor. Andrew Scott, Billie Piper, Russell Brand and Joe Alwyn also star in this Lena Dunham-directed comedy.
Critical reception to Catherine Called Birdy has been near-universally positive so far, with many reviewers calling it a witty and hilarious medieval romp. Girls fans, take notice.
Now available to stream on Prime Video.
Luckiest Girl Alive (Netflix)
Netflix is no stranger to pitch-black character dramas, and the streamer’s latest movie, Luckiest Girl Alive, continues its penchant for dark and twisty storytelling.
An adaptation of the 2015 novel by Jessica Knoll (who also serves as the film’s screenwriter), Luckiest Girl Alive follows a successful New York businesswoman (Mila Kunis) whose perfect life begins to unravel when a documentary filmmaker digs deeper into her checkered past.
Critics are divided over the movie’s quality, but in our own review, we said Luckiest Girl Alive “stands out from obvious comparisons Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train by virtue of its nuanced depiction of trauma, survival and recovery, and impressively subtle lead performance from Mila Kunis."
Now available to stream on Netflix.
Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman's Butler season 3 (HBO Max)
Having added The Origin of Batman's Butler to its title, former Epix series Pennyworth heads to HBO Max for its third season.
Continuing the early-life adventures of the Caped Crusader's loyal confidante (played here by Jack Bannon), the series’ latest outing will jump five years into the future to delve deeper into the origins of Martha Kane, Thomas Wayne, Bet Sykes, Lucius Fox and the rest of Pennyworth's main cast of characters.
Given the ongoing fallout of Warner Bros’ merger with Discovery Inc, Pennyworth was at serious risk of cancellation – but the series’ ties to the former studio’s biggest intellectual property (Batman) appears to have saved it from extinction.
Now available to stream on HBO Max.
