In case it crept up on you like it did me, dear reader, we’re already in October, which means the streaming services, just like the theatrical studios, are unveiling bloody buckets’ worth of horror films in the lead-up to Halloween. We could focus this entire column just on the gruesome and tingly genre, but at some point you’re going to need some levity. This month’s “Stream These” report has plenty of both.
ON NETFLIX
Available Now
Mr. Harrigan’s Phone
The horror tastemakers at Blumhouse and Ryan Murphy Productions have gifted Donald Sutherland with one of his most flavorful roles in years—as a avenger from beyond the grave, although not in the way you might think. Based on a Stephen King story, it stars Jaeden Martell as Craig, a bullied high schooler who befriends an elderly (and tough) neighbor, the titular Mr. Harrigan, even going so far as to buy the man an iPhone. After Mr. Harrigan expires, Craig continues to call his phone number, leaving voicemails about his schoolyard tormenters, and how wouldn’t it be great if they would just disappear? When they start to wind up dead—and when Craig starts receiving calls from the dead man’s phone—he begins to wonder if he’s an accessory to a paranormal murderer. This all proves what we already suspected: that Donald Sutherland will always be a badass, even after he’s shed this mortal coil.
Luckiest Girl Alive
School shootings and our collective obsession with true crime documentaries inform this anticipated thriller penned by Jessica Knoll, who adapted the screenplay from her own best-selling 2015 mystery novel. When we meet Ani Fanelli (Mila Kunis), she seems to have won the game of life, hence the movie’s title: She’s set to wed the perfect guy, and she’s just landed a plum editing job with the New York Times Magazine. But her ideal life begins to unravel when the director of a true-crime film about a tragedy from her past forces her to confront traumas she prefers would stay buried. Mike Barker directs a cast of first-rate character actors, which includes Finn Wittrock, Scott McNairy, Connie Britton and Jennifer Beals.
Starts Oct. 26
The Good Nurse
I suppose if you’re a psychopath bent on indiscriminate mass murder, the ICU of a hospital might not be a bad place to look for victims; perhaps you could slip a little something into their IV bags that would do the trick pretty easily. That’s the chilling concept behind the fact-based thriller “The Good Nurse,” in which Charles Cullen, played against type by the often-saintly Eddie Redmayne, appears to be doing just that. This comes to the chagrin of Jessica Chastain’s Amy Loughren, an overworked fellow ICU nurse and single mother with a heart condition, who embraces her new colleague in Charles, only to gradually uncover his diabolical secret. Danish filmmaker Tobias Lindholm, who knows his way around a taut, razor’s-edge brand of cinema (“A Hijacking,” “The Hunt”), directs.
ON AMAZON PRIME
Available Now
Catherine Called Birdy
Finally, some comic relief in this terrifying month! The latest feature from prolific auteur Lena Dunham, and adapted from a beloved 1994 children’s novel, “Catherine Called Birdy” is set in medieval England, where the title character (Bella Ramsay) attempts to avoid the parade of ill-suited men her father suggests she marry. But the plot is secondary to the witty repartee; aside from filmmakers such as Whit Stillman and Terence Davis, few writer-directors approach Dunham’s ability to inject modern humor and sensibilities into such potentially stodgy period settings. This film has already opened in theaters, and has accrued a more-than-respectable 87-percent Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Starts Oct. 28
Run Sweetheart Run
There are bad online-dating meetups, and then there’s this guy. Another Blumhouse production just in time for Halloween, “Run Sweetheart Run” follows shy single mother Cherie (Ella Balinska) as she re-enters the dating pool at the encouragement of her co-workers. At first, her online match Ethan (Pilou Asbæk) appears to be charming, funny, sophisticated and all the rest. But as their night together progresses, his temperament changes, and she eventually becomes little more than prey, navigating the nocturnal streets of Los Angeles while he pursues her with apparently paranormal ease. Co-starring Clark Gregg and Betsy Brandt, the movie’s premiere is a long time coming; it debuted at Sundance in January 2020 and has been pandemic-shuffled for more than two years.
ON HULU
Starts Oct. 14
Rosaline
William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is, for all its tragic and literary bona fides, perhaps the first canonical entry in the teen romance genre. With that in mind, Karen Maine’s “Rosaline” simply adds a comedic twist and contemporary diction to Shakespeare’s tale of doomed lovers, turning it into an unabashed teen rom-com with cult potential, a la “Clueless” or “Ten Things I Hate About You,” another shrewd Shakespeare update. In Maine’s film, the title character is Romeo’s ex-girlfriend, whom he left three days before falling smitten with Juliet, and Rosaline spends much of the movie trying to break the couple up. It’s all for her vengeful benefit, but it would have the side effect, of course, of preserving the star-crossed lovers’ lives. For better or worse, depending on the viewer, there doesn’t seem to be any Shakespearean contractions or iambic pentameter in the screenplay.
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