Get ready for fright nights with the new movies streaming this week on Netflix, Hulu and other streaming services. The end of spooky seasons unleashes one final wave of horror movies as The Nun II comes to Max and Exorcist: Believer hits video on demand.
This week’s new streaming movies also include less scary fare, including documentaries about Yogi Berra and the David Lynch/Oz connection. And while it’s not horror, per se, the drama Pain Hustlers starring Emily Blunt and Chris Evans is another alarming portrait of the opioid epidemic on Netflix.
Some titles are newly available via digital release, so you can purchase them for a premium price, but for others, all you need is the right streaming subscription. Here are the top new movies streaming this week. For more recommendations, see our guide on what’s new on Netflix this week.
The Exorcist: Believer (PVOD)
After rebooting the Halloween franchise, director David Gordon Green turns his attention to The Exorcist movies. Though Believer is the sixth installment, it serves a a direct sequel to the original 1973 film and is intended to be the first in a new trilogy.
Leslie Odom, Jr. stars as Victor Fielding, a photographer who is caught in a massive earthquake in Haiti with his pregnant wife. He’s forced to choose to save their unborn child over his wife. Thirteen years, his teen daughter Angela (Lidya Jewett) and her friend (Olivia Marcum) disappear into the woods, only to return three days later with no memory of what happened to them. When evil occurrences begin to happen, Victor seeks out the only person alive who has witnessed anything like it before: Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn).
Buy on Amazon or Apple starting Oct. 24
Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles
The Wiggles were the Beatles among the preschool set in the ’90s and early 2000s. Using archival footage and interviews, this documentary provides a a backstage pass to one of the world’s greatest entertainment stories — how four Australian friends who recorded a one-off album improbably became global icons. Anthony Field, Murray Cook, Greg Page, and Jeff Fatt were more famous inside their blue, red, yellow and purple costumes, known and beloved by children everywhere for their sunny attitudes and catchy lyrics.
Watch on Prime Video starting Oct. 24
Milli Vanilli
The music industry’s most famous scam is put under the spotlight in this documentary about the infamous pop duo Milli Vanilli. For a brief, shining moment, Robert “Rob” Pilatus and Fabrice “Fab” Morvan achieved stardom with their hit song “Girl You Know It’s True” and a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1990. And then, it all came crashing down in a lip synching scandal. This documentary, which features interviews with Pilatus and Morvan, digs into this dream gone bust.
Watch on Paramount Plus starting Oct. 24
The Royal Hotel (VOD)
The Assistant director Kitty Green and star Julia Garner reunite for this psychological thriller inspired by true events. Americans Hanna (Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) are best friends backpacking in Australia when they run out of money. Looking for an adventure, Liv convinces Hanna to take temporary bartending jobs at a pub called the Royal Hotel in a remote mining town in the Outback. Bar owner Billy (Hugo Weaving) and the mass of male patrons soon make the situation unnerving and downright disturbing for the young women.
Rent/buy on Amazon or Apple starting Oct. 24
Lynch/Oz (Criterion Channel)
David Lynch’s Roman empire is the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. He himself has said, “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about The Wizard of Oz.“ This documentary uses that quote as a starting point in exploring how Victor Fleming’s technicolor opus inspired and influenced Lynch’s work, from his very first short The Alphabet (1969) to the revival Twin Peaks: The Return (2017). The doc’s six chapters are narrated by a different filmmaker or critic, each with their own perspective on Lynch’s singular style of surrealism.
Watch on Criterion Channel starting Oct. 25
It Ain’t Over (Netflix)
“If you can’t imitate him, don’t copy him,” Yogi Berra once said. So this documentary doesn’t try; instead, it puts the man himself in the spotlight. Director Sean Mullin crafts a love letter to the Hall of Fame baseball catcher who was the linchpin of the 1950s New York Yankees championship teams. The doc posits that Lawrence Peter Berra was one of the best players in baseball history, yet was underrated due to his small stature and his outsized personality. The latter is what he’s best known for now — all his “Yogi-sms,” like the one in the film’s title and the one quoted earlier. But for all his charm and entertaining catchphrases, Berra could really play ball.
Watch on Netflix starting Oct. 26
Five Nights at Freddy’s (Peacock)
The terrifying horror game transforms into a nightmare-fueling movie produced by Blumhouse (Get Out, M3GAN, The Purge). Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) is a troubled security guard who starts working the night shift at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a rundown family entertainment center. One night, he discovers the venue’s four animatronic mascots – Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy – move and kill anyone that is still there after midnight. What was supposed to be a cushy gig turns into a desperate bid for survival.
Watch on Peacock starting Oct. 27
The Nun II (Max)
The eighth installment of the Conjuring Universe delivers more supernatural scares with religious vibes.In 1956, four years after the events of the first film, Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) has settled into a new convent when she’s sent by the cardinal to investigate the seeming reappearance of the demon Valak (Bonnie Aarons). Unbeknownst to Irene, her friend Maurice (Jonas Bloquet) has been possessed by Valak and has unwittingly brought her along his travels. With the help of skeptical Sister Debra (Storm Reid), Irene must confront Maurice and find a way to exorcise Valak for good.
Watch on Max starting Oct. 27
Pain Hustlers (Netflix)
The opioid epidemic has produced a number of fictionalized accounts, including Hulu’s award-winning miniseries Dopesick and Netflix’s Painkiller from earlier this year. Pain Hustlers is a film starring Emily Blunt as a blue-collar single mom who is drawn into the opioid crisis out of desperation.
After Liza Drake loses her job, she has a chance encounter with pharmaceutical sales rep Pete Brenner (Chris Evans). She ends up working for his start-up, which puts her on an economically favorable but morally dubious path. As she deals with her increasingly unhinged boss (Andy Garcia) and the worsening medical condition of her daughter (Chloe Coleman), Liza becomes aware of the devastation her company is causing and is forced to reexamine her choices.
Watch on Netflix starting Oct. 27
Susie Searches (Hulu)
True crime podcasts have been all the rage for a while now. Just look at the popularity and acclaim of Only Murders in the Building, the Hulu series. Its combination of comedy, mystery and crime is mimicked by this movie starring Kiersey Clemons as an awkward college student who hosts a little-heard true crime podcast. But when campus heartthrob and YouTube celebrity Jesse Wilcox (Alex Wolff) goes missing, Susie decides to crack the case as a way of boosting her podcast. But things take a dark turn and Susie gets in over her head.
Watch on Hulu starting Oct. 27
When Evil Lurks (Shudder)
Writer/director Demián Rugna made a name for himself with the 2017 harrowing horror flick Terrified. He’s back with this unrelentingly brutal and bleak contagion thriller. Brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jimmy (Demián Salomón) discover a local man whose body is rotting after being possessed by a demon. With the “infection” threatening their livestock, the brothers attempt to dump the man away from their land. But their actions only cause the demonic plague to spread across the community. They must call in a “cleaner” for help, though it may be too late.
Watch on Shudder starting Oct. 27
