Q Wave’s Watchlist: October 2022
"There's nothing to watch" is not a phrase that should exist in a world drowning in content. Join us every month to get curated content - from the latest and greatest to revisiting oldies - we'll help you avoid the dreaded “Netflix Block” and find something to watch! This month we have a very special Halloween themed edition!
The Midnight Club (Netflix)
It’s October, which means Halloween is on its way - so, of course, we have a new horror series from Netflix’s go-to guy for scares, Mike Flanagan.
Flanagan seems to be making this somewhat of a tradition, with his previous shows (The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Midnight Mass) all debuting just before Halloween, and The Midnight Club is no exception with an October 7th premiere date.
Based on a 1994 novel of the same name, The Midnight Club centres on a group of seven terminally-ill patients at a hospice. The group meets at midnight every night to swap scary stories. One night they make a pact that the first to pass away from their condition must communicate with the others from beyond the grave. Sure enough, one of the group members passes away, and wouldn’t you know it, some spooky occurrences start to befall the group.
The original book was written by best-selling author, Christopher Pike, who specializes in supernatural thrillers with more than 50 credits to his name. The series will deviate from the book slightly in that it will be an anthology series, exploring more books written by Pike.
You'd like this if you enjoyed: The Haunting of Hill House, Stranger Things
Runtime: 10 episodes
Genre: Horror, thriller
My Best Friend’s Exorcism (Amazon Prime)
Keeping the ‘popular-novel-turned-streaming-content’ trend going, Amazon Prime contributes to the spooky season with its newest poppy supernatural horror flick, My Best Friend's Exorcism.
Based on a 2016 book of the same name, My Best Friend’s Exorcism is an ‘80s set horror comedy about a girl named Abby, played by Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade), a student at a Christian high school who is best friends with a girl named Gretchen, played by Amiah Miller (The Water Man). One night, the pair decide to explore a supposedly haunted cabin in the woods, and things go awry, with Abby ultimately suspecting that Gretchen has been possessed by a demon.
The film is produced by Christopher Landon, who has directed other fun horror movies like Happy Death Day and Freaky. Although he’s just producing and based on the trailer, Landon’s style of poppy, fun-infused horror is abundant throughout the film. Grady Hendrix, the original novel’s author, describes the story as Beaches meets The Exorcist. My Best Friend’s exorcism hit Amazon Prime on September 30th and is available to stream now.
You'd like this if you enjoyed: Fear Street, IT
Runtime: 96 minutes
Genre: Horror, comedy
Let the Right One In (Crave)
If this title sounds familiar, it’s because there have been several iterations of this story. Starting as (you guessed it) a best-selling Swedish novel in 2004, it became a Swedish film in 2008 and was adapted into an American movie in 2010, directed by Matt Reeves, who would go on to direct The Batman. This time though, Let the Right One In is being told via television series, with the premiere hitting Crave on October 9th.
Demian Bichir (The Midnight Sky) plays Mark, father to Eleanor, played by Madison Taylor Baez (a former America’s Got Talent finalist). The pair’s lives were irrevocably changed ten years ago when Eleanor was turne
d into a vampire, seemingly freezing her in time at 12 years old. As a result, Eleanor has lived a closed-off life, only able to go out at night. Mark does his best to support his daughter by providing her with the human blood she needs to live. The show revolves around their return to New York City and their desperate search to find a cure for Eleanor’s condition.
The series has been in development for several years, bouncing around networks and going through several different versions, at one point being centred around a young boy who finds friendship with a classmate who happens to be a female vampire. The original book was obviously well received, and the subsequent film adaptations were hits with critics. The series is seemingly trending in that same direction, with early reviews for the show being strong. The first episode debuts on Crave on October 9th, with ten episodes total in the inaugural season.
You'd like this if you enjoyed: True Blood, Interview with a Vampire
Runtime: 10 episodes
Genre: Horror, drama
Hocus Pocus 2 (Disney Plus)
At long last, the Sanderson sisters are back! It’s been 29 long years since the Halloween cult classic Hocus Pocus hit theatres, and on September 30th, the sequel Hocus Pocus 2 is coming to Disney Plus!
Bette Midler, Kathy Najimy, and Sarah Jessica Parker all return, resuming their roles as the Sanderson sisters. The sequel is set 29 years after the events of the first film when three high school students accidentally bring the Sanderson sisters back to present-day Salem and must now work together to stop the child-hungry trio as they seek revenge.
When the original Hocus Pocus film came out in 1993, it was hardly a success. Receiving mixed reviews and losing money at the box office, it was initially written off as a swing and a miss on Disney's part. However, after many annual airings on the Disney Channel throughout October over the years, the movie continually found new audiences leading to a yearly spike in home video sales every Halloween season helping it achieve cult classic status.
Fans are excited about the release of the new film. There were even ‘Hocus Pocus 2 Experiences’ set up at multiple shopping malls across Canada in the lead-up to the premiere, with fans able to step inside a creepy haunted house and chant an incantation from the film’s spell book and snap a photo with a bubbling cauldron.
You'd like this if you enjoyed: Hocus Pocus, Practical Magic
Runtime: 106 minutes
Genre: Supernatural, comedy
Werewolf by Night (Disney Plus)
With so much Halloween-themed content on its way, you just know Marvel isn’t content missing the party. Seemingly never afraid to flirt with different genres, and with their film ‘Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness’ ever so slightly dipping its toe into the horror genre earlier this year, the MCU is dropping its first-ever one-off special on October 7th titled, Werewolf by Night.
Gael Garcia Bernal (Station Eleven) plays Jack Russell, AKA the Werewolf by Night, a man who has been cursed with a condition that turns him into a werewolf while holding on to his human intellect. When a secret group of monster hunters gather at Bloodstone Manor following the death of their leader, they engage in a mysterious and deadly competition for a powerful relic that brings them face to face with the Werewolf by Night.
A Werewolf by Night film was planned all the way back in 2001, looking to ride the positive reception of Wesley Snipes’ horror-themed superhero, Blade. Twenty-one years later, Marvel is dropping it on its service as a Halloween special, the first of two holiday-themed specials this year, the other being The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday special coming December.
Early reviews tout the special as a refreshing and fun horror one-off that serves as a love letter to monster movies of the past.
You'd like this if you enjoyed: Werewolves Within, The Wolfman
Runtime: 53 minutes
Genre: Horror, fantasy