There’s nothing quite like spooky entertainment to get in the Halloween spirit but with many of the usual Halloween parties and events cancelled, a scary movie marathon could be the next best thing.
If a socially distanced Halloween night is on the agenda, here are all the new shows on Netflix, HBO and more to catch while huddled under the safety of your covers.
If Train To Busan and the like get your pulse racing and wanting more, here’s another Korean zombie apocalypse flick to satiate your appetite for the undead – #Alive.
Protagonist Oh Jun-u (Yoo Ah-in) wakes up one day to find a note from his mom that says his family went on vacation, leaving him behind. Turning on the news, he realises that there’s a mysterious nationwide outbreak, with the infected showing signs of cannibalism. His father, however, leaves him a message to stay alive, as his WiFi disconnects.
Locked in his apartment for over two weeks, he then discovers another survivor Kim Yu-bin (Park Shin-hye) on the other side of his apartment complex, who’d shot a laser beam at his window. They then try to communicate using hand signals, determined to find ways to escape from an apartment complex which is now packed with zombies.
#Alive is now available on Netflix.
A modern remake of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 gothic novel, the psychological thriller follows the story of a newly married young woman (Lily James), who arrives at Manderley, her new husband’s imposing family estate after a whirlwind romance in Monte Carlo with handsome widower Maxim.
Naive and inexperienced, she begins to settle into the trappings of her new life but finds herself battling the shadow of Maxim’s first wife, the elegant and urbane Rebecca, whose haunting legacy is kept alive by Manderley’s sinister housekeeper Mrs Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas).
It’s rated PG-13, with notable adult themes as well as dark elements, but is ultimately about two people in love.
Rebecca is now available on Netflix.
Here’s one for the little ones.
After taking on a babysitting gig, teenager Kelly Ferguson (Tamara Smart) finds herself recruited into an international secret society of babysitters who protect kids with special powers from monsters.
She finds out her latest charge Jacob is in need of protection and teams up with other members of the secret society to defeat a Boogeyman known as “The Grand Guignol” (Tom Felton), a glamorous witch named “Peggy Drood” (Indya Moore) and their legion of mysterious monsters.
A Babysitter’s Guide To Monster Hunting is now available on Netflix.
If you’re looking to get in the Halloween mood without the kids (or you) getting nightmares for weeks, put Hubie Halloween on your to-watch list.
Funnyman Adam Sandler plays Hubie Dubois, who thanklessly spends every Halloween making sure the residents of his hometown, Salem, celebrate safely and play by the rules. But this year, an escaped criminal and a mysterious new neighbour raise Hubie’s suspicions.
When people start disappearing, Hubie faces an uphill battle to convince the police (Kevin James and Kenan Thompson) and townsfolk that the monsters are real, and only he can stop them.
Hubie Halloween is now available on Netflix.
Altogether bizarre, whimsical, scary and a whole lot of fun, this Netflix original fantasy K-drama revolves around a high school’s new nurse, Ahn Eun-young (played by actress Jung Yu-mi). Her supernatural ability to see ‘jellies’ or monstrous ectoplasm that others can’t see leads her on a quest to save the school and its students from these creatures.
Using her toy sword and BB gun to take on the jellies, she later meets teacher Hong In-pyo (Nam Joo-hyuk), who has a protective aura and aids her in her fight.
It’s based on the award-winning novel School Nurse Ahn Eun-young by author Chung Serang.
The School Nurse Files is now available on Netflix.
If psychological thrillers send chills up your spine, you’ll want to catch The Undoing starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant. Based on the 2014 novel You Should Have Known by author Jean Hanff Korelitz, HBO’s new miniseries centres around successful New York therapist Grace Fraser (Kidman) and her devoted husband, Jonathan (Grant), and their young son who attends an elite private school in New York City.
On the eve of publishing her first book, however, Grace’s seemingly perfect life takes a turn: a violent death, a missing spouse and a chain of terrible revelations.
The Undoing is available on HBO.
This new supernatural comedy-drama series sees Nick Frost as broadband installer and part-time paranormal investigator Gus Roberts on the hunt for ghosts and other spectrals.
Joined by newbie and a rather reluctant Elton, they chase after ghost sightings across the UK, and begin to realise that they’ve bitten off more than they can chew. As the sightings become more frequent and deadly, a chilling conspiracy begins to unravel.
Expect plenty of laughs and sudden scares.
Truth Seekers is available on Oct 30, 2020, on Amazon Prime Video.
Although not new, it’s a new release on The Projector Plus, the online platform of local independent cinema, The Projector.
The 2014 American western vampire film is set in Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place inhabited by underworld figures, drug addicts and pimps. The townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire – and a skateboarding one at that.
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night is available for rent on The Projector Plus.
If there’s anything that gets us hiding under the safety of our blankets, it’s shows that are based on true stories.
Volume two of Netflix original docuseries Unsolved Mysteries presents more unexplained disappearances, tragic events, and bizarre occurrences with six new episodes: Stolen Kids, Lady in the Lake, Washington Insider Murder, Tsunami Spirits and Death Row Fugitive.
Details haven’t been revealed but the titles alone are enough to give us the heebie-jeebies.
Unsolved Mysteries: Volume 2 is now available on Netflix.
By The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan and producer
Trevor Macy, The Haunting of Bly Manor is the next highly-anticipated chapter of The Haunting anthology series, set in 1980s England.
After an au pair’s (helper from a foreign country) tragic death, Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas) hires a young American nanny (Victoria Pedretti) to care for his orphaned niece and nephew (Amelie Bea Smith and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) who reside at Bly Manor with the estate’s chef, groundskeeper and housekeeper.
However, it’s not all as it seems at the manor, with centuries of dark secrets of love and loss waiting to be unearthed in this chilling gothic romance. At Bly Manor, dead doesn’t mean gone.
The Haunting of Bly Manor is available on Netflix.