October 17, 2024
Provided image/Chuck Zlotnik/Disney+
Aubrey Plaza stars as Rio Vidal in 'Agatha All Along.' The witchy Disney+ series is one of our streaming picks for Halloween.
Halloween movies exist on a spectrum. On one end are the slashers, psychological thrillers and monster flicks that make up the horror genre. On the other are the not exactly scary, but vaguely eerie tales of witches, vampires and ghosts that even the easily spooked can enjoy.
Because everyone vibes with a different brand of Halloween movie — or show! — the PhillyVoice staff recommended a few picks with varying degrees of thrills and chills. All of them are available to stream or rent in time for Oct. 31. Here's our special holiday-themed streaming guide:
This thriller opens on a terrified, bleeding woman sprinting away from an angry man. You might assume, based on this scene, that you know what's going on here. But then the movie rewinds to the previous evening to a motel parking lot, where the same man and woman are flirting shamelessly.
How and why did things go south? "Strange Darling" continuously upends expectations with its nonlinear storyline, keeping viewers guessing until the very end. It features a fantastic lead performance from Willa Fitzgerald, who starred in the excellent, gone-too-soon USA series "Dare Me." And if you love behind-the-scenes gossip, this movie's production history is a roller coaster read. Rent "Strange Darling" for $6 on YouTube, Apple TV, Google Play or Prime. - Kristin Hunt
Spooky season means it's finally time to sink my teeth back into one of my favorite shows: "What We Do in the Shadows," which returns to Hulu on Oct. 21.
The mockumentary-style comedy follows four vampires and one goofy human rooming together on Staten Island. Having come to life centuries ago, the vampires often clash with modern society and technology and team up with other creatures of the night — usually an A+ guest star such as Tilda Swinton, who's the head of the Vampiric Council.
This season, the show follows Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) on a stint in corporate America as her husband Laszlo (Matt Berry) attempts a Frankenstein-style resurrection experiment. Meanwhile, Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) finally moves out and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) accidentally hypnotizes Nandor (Kayvan Novak) into Richard Nixon while he mounts a modern-day conquering spree.
It's camp, it's vamp, you'll laugh so hard you might get a ... cramp? (Sorry.) - Michaela Althouse
Marvel isn’t usually a brand one associates with spookiness, but "Agatha All Along" injects a fear factor into the usual fun of the MCU. Jumping off the Emmy-winning "WandaVision," this show stars Kathryn Hahn as the morally ambiguous witch Agatha Harkness after she loses her powers.
The cast that includes heavy hitters like Aubrey Plaza and Patti LuPone as members of Agatha’s new coven make the show feel more like "Hocus Pocus" than "Captain America." Each Disney+ episode has its own style, with the first dominated by an extended "Mare of Easttown" and "True Detective" parody. Subsequent episodes invoke the styles of different time periods through costume and set design. Like with "WandaVision," there are several fun mysteries to speculate about, the biggest being the identity of a character played by "Heartstopper" star Joe Locke.
Plus, you get music from songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and EGOT winner Robert Lopez, with "The Ballad of the Witches’ Road" in episode 2 featuring some chilling harmonies from the cast. - Chris Compendio
I may not be the best person to give Halloween-themed streaming recommendations — I try to steer clear of gore and jump scares at all costs. But I recently watched the new Netflix rom-com "Girl Haunts Boy," and while it was certainly very corny — with many head-scratching plot holes to go around — it offered a lighthearted, fun viewing experience that definitely gave spooky season vibes.
The film follows Cole (Michael Cimino), a teen who moves with his mom to an old house in a new town after his beloved father dies. He soon discovers there's a ghost sharing his bedroom: Bea (Peyton List), who died as a teenager in the '20s and is now trapped as a ghost in her old house due to the curse of an ancient ring. Cole and his ghostly companion quickly hit it off, sharing a love of music and adventure, and romance blooms between the unlikely pals. But complications arise when Cole finds a way to reverse the curse, which would mean losing Bea for good.
The whole time I was watching I was thinking, "How could this possibly end well for them? Surely, Cole has to stay in the living world while Bea should move on to the great beyond." But, let's just say, the ending totally surprised me and I walked away with a smile. Cimino, who previously charmed audiences in "Love, Victor" and "Never Have I Ever," shows off his pipes with multiple original songs. And List, who also stars in "Cobra Kai," once again proves her talent for playing a ghost girl trapped in purgatory, like she does in the thriller-mystery series "School Spirits" — another great Halloween season watch on Netflix, by the way. - Franki Rudnesky
If you were a kid in the '90s, “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” is canon. The spooky intro with the creaky blinds and matchstick probably played a huge part in millennials’ obsession with Halloween and mysterious tales in general.
The anthology series, available on Paramount+, spans 10 seasons, including three from a Nickelodeon reboot in recent years. It’s the perfect show to fire up while decorating, getting in costume or pregaming for a Halloween party. One of the must-watch classics is Season 5's “The Tale of the Chameleons,” which stars young Tia and Tamera Mowry. One of the twins gets a lizard bite at a pet store and then plots to take over the world.
The suggestion to revisit this show comes after a recent watch of Jane Schoenbrun's "I Saw The TV Glow," a movie whose plot revolves around a fictional series that has eery similarities to "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" It’s a weird story, but also worth a watch on Max — especially for the scene built around Caroline Polachek’s soundtrack standout "Starburned and Unkissed." - Michael Tanenbaum
