October is finally here to bring a spooky season to the world – please ignore the Christmas decorations already on display at your local drugstore – and that means plenty of terrifying TV shows will be hitting your screen this month too!
Don’t worry; it’s not all scares and screams, as we also have a highly anticipated dramatic debut, the finale of one of the most talked about superhero series in recent years, the debut of what appears to be one of other most talked about superhero series in recent years, and much more.
So without further ado, let’s get into our list of 10 picks of movies and TV shows we can’t wait to stream this month. There are so many good things, it’s… scary!
(Note: This list is presented in order of release date.)
East of Eden (October 1)
While MCU fans will likely be thrilled to see Black Widow (Florence Pugh) and the new Professor
That’s because it was created by Zoe Kazan, who you may know from her on-screen work in everything from Revolutionary Road (2008) to The Big Sick (2017). With this series, she takes the place of the writer – the eight episodes were written or co-written by Kazan – and offers her own adaptation of the same work that her grandfather Elia Kazan produced 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 series follows the intertwined 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 confidence in the Kazan version: they’ve already given him the helm of a Lonesome Dove reboot.
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 reunite John’s parents, or will their friend Sinestro (Ulrich Thomsen) finally get what he deserves in front of the whole school?
We’re joking, but only because as of this writing, the HBO series has gained momentum with a time jump to modern times, a ton of DCU references and Easter eggs, searing performances from Pierre and Chandler, and an all-consuming cultural conversation that is the perfect Venn diagram of comic book fans and HBO Sunday Night Mystery.
The biggest question heading into the finale isn’t one of the ongoing mysteries, but A), whether the perfectly crafted Green Lantern series can stick the landing, and B), to what extent (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 from TV 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 have can what’s being talked about is that the series is set in modern times, which changes things significantly.
When telekineticist Carrie White’s (Summer H. Howell) father dies, she moves from homeschooling to high school. In 2026, that means social media, cell phones, school shooting drills — all the things that 1976’s Carrie didn’t need to deal with, and 2013’s Carrie only touched on tangentially. While you’ll see all the scenes you’d expect, from the “hook him up” scene in the shower to the iconic prom disaster, other things go in jaw-dropping directions, from Margaret White (Samantha Sloyan) becoming an influencer to a healthy dose of sympathy for teenage bully Chris Hargensen (Alison Thorton).
We may not have needed another adaptation of King’s novel after four (!!!) previous films and a musical, but this Carrie is relevant, surprising, has a huge twist that we won’t spoil, and is another TV winner for Flanagan, showing that his move from Netflix to Amazon is off to a good start.
Read our review of Carrie.
Below (October 8)
The Josh Hartnettaissance continues with Netflix’s new six-episode series, which finds a small town under siege by a semblance of a sea monster. While it might seem like it’s biting the Widow’s Bay fever – small town, monsters, original – this movie was filmed last year, path even before the dominator Apple TV Emmy was on the radar. Based on the trailers at least, Below also seems a lot 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 from TIFF, where the pilot screened, were exceptionally positive, noting that while the series plays on some clichés, it is beautifully filmed and supremely bloody.
Animals (October 9)
Speaking of great casting, Ben Affleck is assembling a team for his new Netflix crime thriller, in which the director/co-writer/star takes on the role of a mayoral candidate named Mark Kimball whose son is kidnapped. He and his wife (Kerry Washington) have only hours to obtain the money needed to save their son’s life, with the unfortunate added 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’ll at least be extremely watchable.
As a director, Affleck hasn’t crushed it every time, but from the Oscar-winning Argo to the surprisingly engaging sneaker drama Air, if you have an Affleck movie that starts with the letter “A,” you have a better than average chance of it also getting an “A” from critics.
Avatar: Seven Havens (October 9)
Where to start with this new Paramount+ animated series? It is the third series in the Avatar: The Last Airbender franchise, and the first since The Legend of Korra ended its run in 2014. In the meantime, there has been a lot of behind-the-scenes controversy generated by the live-action series on Netflix and the stumbling release of the Avatar movie sequel Aang (although, thankfully, this turned out pretty good).
Seven Havens takes place after Korra (Janet Varney) does something very bad; now everyone hates the Avatar. Enter Pavi (Saheli Kahn), a young Earthbender who discovers she is the following Avatar — one who can control the four elements (earth, air, fire, water). She also has a twin sister, Nisha, and together they may be able to save the Seven Havens, which is all that’s left of civilization after everything Korra has done in the past.
With a new animation style and a seemingly darker tone than the franchise has previously had, can Seven Havens succeed where other Avatar expansions have…well, not failedbut surely it didn’t go as well 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 strange premise of Matchbox: The Movie, based on the Mattel toys of the same name, is that John Cena is a super-spy reunited with his childhood friends when they are drugged and kidnapped by a villainous group looking for a nuclear warhead. The rest of the gang – played by Jessica Biel, Sam Richardson, Arturo Castro and Teyonah Parris – are all normal people 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 little toy cars in their backyard to drive real cars, steal a nuclear warhead and clear their name.
…Uh, what? In practice, the film resembles Fast and Furious, but more comical. Cena, at least, has a knack for choosing projects that showcase his comedic talents in surprising ways; see the recent Coyote vs. Acme for an example. But – and we must repeat this – What? Not that this movie needs everyone to shrink down to drive toy cars, but the Matchbox connection seems as tangential as a group of people who bought a zoo because they were playing Hungry Hungry Hippos.
The Barbie Movie (based on another Mattel property) worked because Greta Gerwig turned her gaze to the cultural impact of the iconic toy and used the premise to deepen 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 move to Apple TV to find out!
VisionQuest (October 14)
The modern MCU era of live-action Marvel television 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 with a bang. To complete the trilogy, Terry Matalas from the superb 12 Monkeys series and the excellent third season of Star Trek: Picard takes over; it will present the new version of Vision (Paul Bettany) face to face with his son Tommy (Ruaridh Mollica), somehow alive.
But the most anticipated matchup is Vision and Ultron (James Spader), who is back thanks to a group of wonderful AIs that Vision has stored in his head, including (all in human form) FRIDAY (Orla Brady), EDITH (Emily Hampshire), JARVIS (James D’Arcy), and more. They’re all being hunted by the evil Paladin (Todd Stashwick) and his associate, Philomena Cunk…sorry, actress Diane Morgan.
There’s a lot 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 crazy fan theories that invariably turn out…
Gn entert
