October is finally here to bring spooky season to the world — please ignore the Christmas decorations already on display at your local pharmacy — and that means plenty of terrifying television coming to your screen this month as well!
Don’t worry; it’s not all scares and screams, as we’ve also got some highly anticipated drama debuts, the finale of one of the most discussed superhero series in recent years, the debut of what looks to be one of the other most discussed superhero series in recent years, and much more.
So without further delay, let’s get into our list of 10 picks for movies and TV shows we can’t wait to stream this month. There’s so much good stuff, it’s… scary!
(Note: This list is presented in release date order.)
East of Eden (October 1)
While MCU fans will probably be thrilled to see Black Widow (Florence Pugh) and the new Professor X (Christopher Abbott) play opposite each other, and costume drama aficionados are feasting with this latest sumptuous literary adaptation (John Steinbeck this time), the real story of Netflix’s East of Eden is behind the scenes.
That’s because it’s created by Zoe Kazan, who you might know from her on-screen work in everything from Revolutionary Road (2008) to The Big Sick (2017). With this series, she steps into the writer’s chair — all eight episodes were written or co-written by Kazan —and provides her own adaptation of the same work her grandfather Elia Kazan famously directed in 1955.
How will Kazan update or change things? You’ll have to watch for yourself to find out. But if you’re curious about the premise, the show follows the interwoven stories of two families over the decades. Steinbeck, who also wrote Of Mice and Men and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Grapes of Wrath, considered this his greatest work. Clearly, Netflix has a lot of faith in the Kazan version: They’ve already put her in charge of a reboot of Lonesome Dove.
Read our East of Eden review.
Lanterns Season 1 Finale (October 4)
What shenanigans will brothers John Lantern (Aaron Pierre) and Hal Lantern (Kyle Chandler) get into in the final episode of the HBO series? Will they switch places to get John’s parents back together, or will their buddy Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) finally get what he deserves in front of the whole school?
We kid, but only because as of this writing, the HBO series has built up steam at a fever pitch with a time jump to the modern day, a ton of DCU references and easter eggs, searing lead performances by Pierre and Chandler, and consuming cultural conversation that’s the perfect Venn diagram of comic book and HBO Sunday Night Mystery fans.
The biggest question going into the finale isn’t any of the ongoing mysteries, but A), whether the excellently crafted Green Lantern series can stick the landing, and B), how much (if at all) it will set up Man of Tomorrow as well as a second season of the series. The other big question: Are you afraid?
Carrie (October 7)
Carrie, the new adaptation of the iconic Stephen King novel by TV’s horror maestro Mike Flanagan, is not what you think. To say more is to risk spoilers, but one aspect of the eight-episode Prime Video series we can talk about is that the show is set in the modern day, which changes things significantly.
When the telekinetic Carrie White’s (Summer H. Howell) father dies, she’s taken from home-schooling to high school. In 2026, that means social media, cell phones, school shooter drills — all the things that 1976 Carrie didn’t need to deal with, and 2013 Carrie only tangentially addressed. While you will see all the scenes you expect, from the “plug it up” scene in the shower to the iconic prom disaster, other things go in some jaw-dropping directions, from Margaret White (Samantha Sloyan) becoming an influencer to a fair amount of sympathy for teen bully Chris Hargensen (Alison Thorton).
We may not have needed another adaptation of King’s novel after four (!!!) previous movies and a stage musical, but this Carrie is relevant, surprising, has a huge twist we won’t spoil, and is another TV winner for Flanagan, showing his move from Netflix to Amazon is off to a great start.
Read our Carrie review.
Below (October 8)
The Josh Hartnettaissance continues with Netflix’s new six-episode series, which finds a small town besieged by a seeming sea monster. While it might seem like this is biting onto Widow’s Bay fever — small town, monsters, quirky — this was filmed last year, way before the Apple TV Emmy dominator was even on the radar. Based on trailers at least, Below also looks much more serious, and more in the vein of a supernatural Jaws.
Alongside Hartnett as a fisherman trying to save the Newfoundland town of Snook’s Arm, the cast also includes Mackenzie Davis, Charlie Heaton, and for a bit of Species vibes, Natasha Henstridge. Early reviews out of TIFF, where the pilot screened, are exceptionally positive, noting that while the show does play to some clichés, it’s gorgeously filmed and supremely gory.
Animals (October 9)
Speaking of great casts, Ben Affleck is putting a team together for his new Netflix crime thriller, which finds the director/co-writer/star taking on the role of a mayoral candidate named Mark Kimball whose son is kidnapped. He and his wife (Kerry Washington) have mere hours to get the money to save their son’s life, with the unfortunate additional note that all their money is tied up in Kimball’s campaign. The movie also stars Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, and more, so you know it’s going to be extremely watchable at the very least.
As a director, Affleck hasn’t crushed it every time, but from the Oscar-winning Argo to the surprisingly engaging sneakers drama, Air, if you’ve got an Affleck movie that starts with the letter “A,” you’ve got a better than average chance it’ll earn an “A” from critics as well.
Avatar: Seven Havens (October 9)
Where to start with this new animated Paramount+ series? It’s the third show in the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise, and the first since The Legend of Korra completed its run in 2014. In the intervening time, there’s been a lot of behind-the-scenes controversy generated by the live-action series on Netflix and the stumbling release of the sequel movie Avatar Aang (though thankfully that turned out to be pretty good).
Seven Havens takes place after Korra (Janet Varney) did something very bad; now everyone hates the Avatar. Enter Pavi (Saheli Kahn), a young Earthbender who finds out she’s the next Avatar — the one who can control all four elements (earth, air, fire, water). She’s also got a twin sister Nisha, and together they may be able to save the Seven Havens, which is all that’s left of civilization after whatever Korra did in the past.
With a new animation style and a seemingly darker tone than the franchise has had before, can Seven Havens succeed where other extensions of Avatar have… well, not failed, but definitely not gone as smoothly as one might have hoped? With 13 episodes in Season 1 and a second (and final) season already in the works, we’ll have plenty of time to find out.
Matchbox: The Movie (October 9)
The extraordinarily weird premise of Matchbox: The Movie, based on the Mattel toys of the same name, is that John Cena is a superspy reunited with his childhood friends when they’re drugged and kidnapped by a villainous group searching for a nuclear warhead. The rest of the gang — played by Jessica Biel, Sam Richardson, Arturo Castro, and Teyonah Parris — are all normal folks in over their heads, except for one crucial detail: They all played with Matchbox cars as kids. So the gang will use the skills they developed playing with tiny toy cars in their backyard to drive real cars, steal a nuclear warhead, and clear their names.
…Uh, what? In practice, the movie looks just like Fast and the Furious, but more comedic. Cena, at least, has a knack for choosing projects that show off his comedy chops in surprising ways; see the recent Coyote vs. Acme for one example. But — and we must repeat — what? Not that this movie needed to have everyone shrinking down to drive toy cars, but the Matchbox connection seems as tangential as a bunch of folks who bought a zoo because they used to play Hungry Hungry Hippos.
The Barbie film (based on another Mattel property) worked because Greta Gerwig turned the lens back on the cultural impact of the iconic toy and used the premise to delve into our relationship with toys and the legacy of feminism in culture. Does anyone have the same relationship with Matchbox cars? And will the director of Extraction, Extraction 2, and Extraction 3 (Sam Hargrave) bring the same analytical lens to Matchbox that Gerwig did to Barbie and Ken? Vroom vroom — let’s drive on over to Apple TV to find out!
VisionQuest (October 14)
The modern MCU era of Marvel live-action TV began with WandaVision, and it sure looks like it’s going to end with VisionQuest, the third chapter after Agatha All Along. If so, things are going out with a bang. Taking over to finish out the trilogy is Terry Matalas of the superb 12 Monkeys series and the excellent third season of Star Trek: Picard; he’ll be bringing the new version of Vision (Paul Bettany) face to face with his somehow alive son Tommy (Ruaridh Mollica).
But the even more anticipated match-up is Vision and Ultron (James Spader), who’s back thanks to a group of marvelous AIs that Vision has stored in his head, including (all in human form) F.R.I.D.A.Y. (Orla Brady), E.D.I.T.H. (Emily Hampshire), J.A.R.V.I.S. (James D’Arcy), and more. They’re all hunted by the villainous Paladin (Todd Stashwick) and his associate, Philomena Cunk… sorry, actress Diane Morgan.
There’s lots going on here, but the MCU on Disney+ has always been at its best with shows like WandaVision and Agatha All Along, which feature great actors playing characters we love while fueling wild fan theories that invariably turn out not to be true… except when they do. We see the vision for this show; now it’s time to quest for answers.
Crystal Lake (October 15)
The Young Jason Chronicles? The long-in-development Friday the 13th prequel series has seen an incredibly rocky road to screen, but now the A24 production is finally here — or almost here — on Peacock, with Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees… aka the most murderous lunch lady known to screen.
Now helmed by showrunner Brad Caleb Kane — the singing voice of Aladdin (look it up) — who is making his name with prequel TV series about iconic movie monsters (look IT up), the show expands on the scant info we have about Pamela in the original slasher movies as well as opening up more about the town of Crystal Lake and the infamous camp that resides there. Plus, there are plenty of teases of game-changing mythology for the Friday the 13th franchise.
Is Friday the 13th on the same level as Nightmare on Elm Street or Halloween? Not really. So injecting any sort of sense into the nonsense could help flesh out the Jason Universe (no relation to Steven Universe). Add in Cardellini, who’s fresh off an Emmy win for DTF St. Louis, and you’ve got a meaty stew of ideas you’ll want to machete your way into.
Yaga (October 23)
Ever heard the tales of Baba Yaga, the witch who lives in a chicken house and steals children, and thought, “what if this was hella sexy?” Have we got the TV series for you! Premiering weekly on AMC+, Noah Reid stars as Rapp, a man investigating a disappearance in his small fishing town when he meets Katherine (Carrie Anne-Moss), a teacher who may or may not be Baba Yaga.
Also on the Canadian series is Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams in not one but two roles, as well as other folks you will likely recognize from Canadian productions. Canada: It’s large, but there don’t seem to be a lot of actors!
Short version: If you want some blood sex magic with your witchy season (aka October), then Yaga might very well be your thing.
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