When spooky season and cool fall weather converge, there’s nothing we love more than getting cozy in front of a spooky (and/or spooky) TV show or movie. We’ve rounded up some of the spookiest dishes to help get you in the mood as Halloween approaches.
Mike Flanagan, who has run various hauntings (“Hill House,” “Bly Manor”), takes us to Brightcliffe, a mysterious hospice for terminally ill teenagers in this story based on Christopher Pike’s novel of the same name. The 10-episode series follows Ilonka (Iman Benson), whose plans to attend Stanford University are put on hold by a cancer diagnosis. Beware of creepy leaps, but like most of Flanagan’s work, the underlying themes here run deeper than things that happen in the night. At its core, “The Midnight Club” is about taking control of your life as it slips away and having the strength to face death head-on. (Streams on Netflix)
2. “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities”
The horror author behind ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and the upcoming ‘Pinocchio’ curates this chilling anthology — think ‘Black Mirror’ meets Hitchcock — which features stories penned by del Toro and others, including Jennifer Kent (“The Babadook”), David Prior (“The Empty Man”) and Ana Lily Amirpour (“A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night”). The first episode stars Tim Blake Nelson (“Watchmen”) as a white supremacist who makes a living buying up storage units abandoned by deceased people and encounters more than he bargained for in a single transport. Another features Kate Micucci (“The Big Bang Theory”) as a lonely taxidermy enthusiast who undergoes a disturbing transformation after using a face cream touted by informants. (Streams on Netflix)
3. “Interview with the Vampire”
AMC’s serial adaptation of Anne Rice’s 1976 gothic novel leans heavily on the gay subtext that the popular 1994 film starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise largely avoided. In this tale, Louis (Jacob Anderson) is a wealthy black man living in 1900s New Orleans, making his immortal companionship with Lestat (Sam Reid), his lover/vampire mentor and co-parent to teenage girl Claudia ( Bailey Bass, in the role created by Kristen Dunst), all the more complicated. (Streams on AMC Plus)
If you haven’t yet discovered this network gem about a married couple who inherit a very haunted country house – and decide to continue living there because New York real estate is no joke – we highly recommend you check out Sam and Jay Arondekar (Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar). Their lively group of ghost housemates, who are only visible to Sam after a near-death experience, include an affable scout leader who took an arrow to the neck, a flower child who was mauled by a bear, and a jazz singer. from the prohibition era that met its match moonshine (read: death by poison). A binge-watch to catch up on the CBS show (airing Thursdays at 8:30 p.m. EST) will help you find a Halloween costume while laughing out loud. (Streams on Paramount Plus. Anglophiles can also enjoy the BBC One original, which is streaming on HBO Max.)
Serial killer Sam (Domhnall Gleeson) kidnaps his therapist, Alan (Steve Carell), in this disturbing, critically acclaimed drama that’s just as compelling in its exploration of a wounded man’s darkest impulses as it is in handling of grief that Carell’s character navigates after the death of his wife and estrangement from his son. Former Washington Post TV reviewer Inkoo Kang, who praised the show’s “really fresh premise” and “emotional naturalism”, noted that the drama is unique in the way it “makes us we care much more about why Sam kills than how he does it”. (Streams on FX on Hulu)
Aisha Dee (“The Bold Type”) plays Cecilia, a social media influencer who finds herself stuck in a secluded cabin for a bachelorette party (hen weekend, in Aussie parlance) with her former best friend Emma (co-director Hannah Barlow) and Alex (Emily De Margheriti), the bully who came between them as teenagers. As Cecilia plots her revenge, the carefully curated life she has created online unfolds in bloody, darkly comic chaos. Honestly, we were afraid of “bachelorette”. (Streams on Shudder)
The movie that made us never want to stand in front of a mirror with the lights off gets an update from director Nia DaCosta and producer Jordan Peele, who knows a thing or two about combining social commentary and gender of horror. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II plays Anthony McCoy, a visual artist who becomes obsessed with the urban legend of Candyman, which looms large in Chicago’s gentrification. (Streams on Amazon Prime)
Imagine showing up to your Airbnb in the middle of the night to find that the rental home is already inhabited by a supposedly double guest and other terrors. That’s the nightmarish greeting Tess (Georgina Campbell) faces in Zach Cregger’s gory thriller, which Variety recently named the second-best horror film of the year. Bill Skarsgard and Justin Long also star. (Streams on HBO Max)
If you need a family viewing option (or a palate cleanser), may we suggest this sequel to the 1993 Halloween classic? Come for the nostalgia, stay for the brilliantly cast backstory about the Sanderson sisters. Fret not: Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy reprise their adult trio roles, and there are still musical numbers and plenty of noise to eat the souls of the kids. (Streams on Disney Plus)
A teenage girl, voiced by “This Is Us” star Lyric Ross, must confront her (literal) demons – voiced by Peele and Keegan-Michael Key – in this stop-motion treatment co-written by Peele and Henry Selick ( director of “Coraline” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas”). Angela Bassett and Ving Rhames also lend their voices to the animated horror-comedy that explores the trauma of a parent’s death. (Streams on Netflix, starting October 28)
11. ‘Atlanta: Crank Dat Killer’
The entire final season of “Atlanta,” currently airing Thursdays at 10 p.m. on FX, is worth your attention, but if you only have time for one episode, make it the one that imagines a serial killer inspired by the rapper. Soulja Boy, best known for his meme-worthy proclamations and the must-see 2007 single “Crank That.” And if you haven’t seen Season 2’s “Teddy Perkins” yet, about a mysterious man with childhood trauma and a skin condition that makes her face powdery white, crank too. (Streams on FX on Hulu)
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