Spooky Offerings Abound in October Streaming Recommendations

by Julian Spivey

Photos: Netflix, Universal & Amazon

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Halloween Ends – Peacock – Premieres: Friday, Oct. 14
Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) has seemingly spent all of her adult life running from and haunted by Michael Myers. Their decades-long battle is coming to a finale in the aptly named “Halloween Ends,” directed by David Gordon Green, which drops on Peacock and in movie theaters on Friday, Oct. 14. Who’s going to win this battle of good versus evil? Or will it end on a cliffhanger, as ‘Halloween’ movies are wont to do?  

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The Curse of Bridge Hollow – Netflix – Premieres: Friday, Oct. 14
“The Curse of Bridge Hollow” looks like the type of film you would’ve seen in the late ‘90s or early ‘00s on the Disney Channel. Thus, it’s probably not all that great, but it’ll likely be a fun evening spent around the TV with your kids. The film stars Marlon Wayans as a teacher who must team up with his teenage daughter (Priah Ferguson) to save their town when a mischievous spirit brings all the local Halloween decorations to life. 

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The School for Good and Evil – Netflix – Premieres: Wednesday, Oct. 19
“The School for Good and Evil” definitely appears more fantasy than spooky, but there’s more to the Halloween spirit than just frights and jump scares. Director Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids”) brings the beloved children’s fairytale-fantasy books by Soman Chainani to life for Netflix following the tale of best friends Sophie and Agatha who are brought to the titular school to determine their fates. The film co-stars Kerry Washington, who seems to be a good teacher, and Oscar-winner Charlize Theron, who seems to be chewing up the scenery as an evil teacher. 

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The Good Nurse – Netflix – Premieres: Wednesday, Oct. 26
Some of life’s most real and worst monsters are the kind you wouldn’t find in an old Universal Pictures monster flick – like killer nurses. “The Good Nurse” isn’t a horror film per se, but one you should be horrified by. Based on a true story, the film directed by Tobias Lindholm, stars Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne as a nurse suspected of killing his patients at multiple jobs and Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain as a nurse tasked with trying to help bring him down. With the acting caliber of Chastain and Redmayne, this should be a must-watch for film buffs. 

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Wendell & Wild – Netflix – Premieres: Friday, Oct. 28
I’ve been hoping to see a re-teaming between Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, whose sketch comedy series “Key & Peele” is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. It might only be as the voices behind two demons in Netflix’s “Wendell & Wild,” a stop-motion animated flick directed by Henry Selick, but it’s better than nothing. In “Wendell & Wild,” the two titular demons enlist the help of a young teen (voiced by Lyric Ross of “This Is Us” fame) to help summon them to the Land of the Living where they can wreak their havoc. It looks like it might be a fun watch for the family, but I will point out it’s rated PG-13, so it might be too much for younger kiddos. 

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The Devil’s Hour – Amazon Prime Video – Premieres: Friday, Oct. 28
Amazon Prime Video’s “The Devil’s Hour” is the only television series to make this month’s cut, but it looks like it could be one of the spookiest offerings of the month just by looking at the intensity of Peter Capaldi’s eyes as Gideon, a reclusive nomad who’s the prime suspect in a murder spree. The series comes from former “Doctor Who” and “Sherlock” producer Steven Moffatt along with Tom Moran and co-stars Jessica Raine as a woman woken up every night between three and four a.m., regarded as a time with the unexplainable can happen known as ‘the devil’s hour.’