Another month has passed, and that means quite a few movies are disappearing from streaming platforms. To make sure you don’t miss any of the excellent films hitting the streaming services this month, we’ve selected a few of our favorites, including some horror films in honor of Halloween.
This month’s selection includes a horror classic, an underrated murder mystery film, a thriller that turns into a pots and pans horror movie that’s scarier than you might think, and a film that might keep you from ever going into your basement again.
Here are the best movies streaming in late October.
Editor’s Choice: The Last of Sheila
Director: Herbert Ross
Stars: Richard Benjamin, James Coburn, James Mason
Exit criterion channel: October 31
That serves as inspiration for Rian Johnson’s Glass onion, Sheila’s last is an excellent whodunit, with laughs, twists, danger and death at every turn. The film follows a group of friends who are invited to a scavenger hunt party by their wealthy friend, whose wife Sheila died in a car accident the year before. Of course, it turns out there’s more to the invitation than they bargained for, as things quickly start to turn deadly.
Even if Sheila’s last wasn’t one of the best whodunnit films ever (which it is), it would still be worth watching thanks to the absolutely unique screenwriting duo. The film was co-written by Anthony Perkins, who played Norman Bates Psycho and is the father of Long legs director Osgood Perkins and famed composer Stephen Sondheim. It was the only film Sondheim ever wrote. —Austen Goslin
Director: Todd Haynes
Stars: Mark Ruffalo, Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins
Leave Netflix: October 31
Todd Haynes’ 2019 legal thriller is a realistic horror story. Mark Ruffallo plays the lead role Dark waters as Robert Bilott, a corporate lawyer who – after being approached by a farmer from Parkersburg, West Virginia – begins to suspect that something terrible is happening to the town’s water supply.
Upon further investigation, Bilott discovers the shocking truth: the DuPont company, known for its production of Teflon devices, has been secretly dumping toxic “forever chemicals” from its processing plants into landfills across the city. Haynes’s film depicts the consequences of corporate malfeasance and greed in grotesque, unflinching detail: children with blackened teeth and gums and the desiccated corpses of poisoned livestock. Dark waters is a compelling thriller that will disturb and shake you to the core. —Toussaint Egan
Movies leaving Prime Video
Director: Zach Cregger
Stars: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård, Justin Long
To leave Prime Video: October 31
Barbarian was one of the best breakout horror films of 2022 and, more than two years after its release, it remains one of the most shocking and memorable films I’ve seen in recent memory. The greatest strength of Zach Cregger’s film lies in the way it turns an otherwise mundane experience (renting an Airbnb in an unfamiliar city) on its head in a harrowing descent into the depths of unrepentant depravity and evil.
That it does all this while remaining surprising, penetrating and incredibly funny, right up to the shocking conclusion, is a testament to a smart filmmaker with an instinctive understanding of his audience’s expectations and, more importantly, how to subvert them. That said, the problem with pricing Barbarian is that the best parts of it are it’s better to experience it in the moment, rather than be prematurely discussed and dissected. If you’re looking for a surprising, haunting, and extremely entertaining horror experience to end the month of Halloween, you owe it to yourself to give this one a shot. —AT
Director: Richard Donner
Stars: Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, Harvey Stephens
Leaving Hulu: October 31
An absolute horror classic, and rightly so, The Omen tells the story of a family in Washington, DC, who adopts a child named Damien. At first it seems that Damien’s strange behavior is merely the result of him having difficulty adapting to his new environment, but it soon becomes clear that the child is not what he seems, and that there may be a much darker force is at work behind his behavior. strange actions.
The Omen doesn’t quite have the same power to terrify as it did when it was released in 1976, but for horror fans it’s still a must-watch, with some absolutely incredible sequences and scares. Like everyone else, it just happens to be an incredible family drama, led by a great performance from Gregory Peck. —AG