Best Movies Streaming in October 2023: Haunted Mansion, Fair Play

Chloe Domont’s feature directorial debut “Fair Play” rocked the Sundance Film Festival at the start of the year, where it earned critical acclaim and sold to Netflix in a massive $20 million deal. “Bridgerton” breakout Phoebe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich play co-workers at a hedge fund who are in a secret relationship. Their bond is tested as Dynevor’s career takes off, much to the disgruntlement of Ehrenreich’s struggling finance bro. Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman called the film “riveting,” adding: “It’s a very smart finance drama, set inside a cutthroat New York hedge fund, but it’s also a romantic thriller that takes a probing look at sexual passion (and sexual politics) in the post-#MeToo age. It’s one of the rare Sundance movies that could break through in the real world.”

Disney’s “Haunted Mansion” reboot didn’t exactly set the box office on fire when it opened in theaters over the summer (the film earned $66 million domestically and only $112 million worldwide), but it should find new life as it debuts on Disney+ this month just in time for Halloween. Rosario Dawson plays a single mother who moves into a haunted house and recruits a tour guide, a psychic, a priest and a historian to exorcise it of the ghosts still living there. The ensemble cast includes LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Dan Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jared Leto. Variety film critic Peter Deburge called the film a “creative, post-‘Pirates’ reboot of the Disneyland attraction” with “spooky illusions” and “decent laughs.”

David Yates directs Emily Blunt and Chris Evans in the Netflix original “Pain Hustlers.” Blunt stars as Liza Drake, a struggling mother who lands a job at a pharmaceutical start-up to make money for her sick daughter. However, Liza has no idea the company is a failing, fully-fledged illegal business, and she swiftly finds herself stuck in the middle of a racketeering scheme. Andy Garcia, Catherine O’Hara, Jay Duplass, Brian d’Arcy James and Chloe Coleman co-star. After directing seven “Harry Potter”-related movies, Yates turns his attention to the real world, taking cinematic revenge on the rare fentanyl-dispensing pharma company punished for breaking the rules.

William Friedkin’s final film, “The Caine Mutiny Court Martial” centers on a naval court-martial (Jason Clarke) who reluctantly agrees to defend a first officer of the Navy (Jake Lacy) after he took control of a ship from its domineering captain (Kiefer Sutherland) during a violent sea storm. The ensuing trial forces the court-martial to question whether the events aboard the ship are true or not.

From Variety’s review out of the Venice Film Festival: “It’s the definition of no frills: one set, head-on lighting, shot language and editing that walk the line between elegant and minimal. The play, which Herman Wouk originally adapted from his own 1951 novel, has been reworked by Friedkin, who transplants the setting from World War II to post-9/11 America. Yet ‘The Caine Mutiny,’ for all the tinkering, remains a warhorse of a play. And that’s both a good and a limited thing.”

Paramount+ is giving Stephen King fans a Halloween treat with the exclusive release of “Pet Sematary: Bloodlines,” a prequel movie starring “Tell Me Lies” breakout Jackson White and Forrest Goodluck. From Paramount+’s official synopsis: “In 1969, a young Jud Crandall has dreams of leaving his hometown of Ludlow, Maine behind, but soon discovers sinister secrets buried within and is forced to confront a dark family history that will forever keep him connected to Ludlow. Banding together, Jud and his childhood friends must fight an ancient evil that has gripped Ludlow since its founding, and once unearthed has the power to destroy everything in its path.”

“One Direction” veteran Louis Tomlinson gets his own feature-length documentary courtesy of “All of Those Voices,” which explores his personal struggles with loss and his journey from an iconic boy band member to a solo artist through the release of his debut “Walls” in 2020 and his follow-up “Faith in the Future” in 2022. The documentary is directed by Charlie Lightening, who helmed Liam Gallagher’s “As It Was,” and is produced in partnership with 78 Productions and Trafalgar Releasing.

“This has been something I’ve been working on for years, I’m really excited to finally put it out into the world,” said Tomlinson in a press release at the time of the film’s announce. “I’ve said it a million times but I’m lucky enough to have the greatest fans an artist could wish for, and as they always go above and beyond for me, I wanted to share my story ‘in my own words.’”

“Milli Vanilli” tells the story of Robert “Rob” Pilatus and Fabrice “Fab” Morvan, who became fast friends during their youth in Germany and joined forces to become one of the most infamous pop duos in music history. Luke Korem’s documentary tracks the rise and infamous fall of Milli Vanilli in riveting and captivating style. From Variety’s review: “It tells the Milli Vanilli story from the point-of-view of Rob and Fab themselves…As a documentary, ‘Milli Vanilli’ brings off something at once strategic, artful, and humane: It presents what happened to Milli Vanilli so that we empathize directly with these two young men who were drawn, like sacrificial virgins, into the pop maelstrom.”

Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” has called both Max and Hulu its streaming home throughout the last year (ever since it controversially debuted in theaters and on streaming at the same time in 2021), but now it arrives on Netflix several months before Villeneuve’s “Part 2” arrives in theaters. From Variety’s review: “‘Dune,’ a majestically somber and grand-scale sci-fi trance-out, is full of lavish hugger-mugger — clan wars, brute armies, a grotesque autocrat villain, a hero who may be the Messiah — that links it, in spirit and design, to the ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’ films, though with a predatory ominousness all its own.”

Comedian Bill Burr directs and stars in this R-rated Netflix comedy that puts a vulgar riff on the likes of father comedies such as “Daddy Day Care.” Burr, who also co-wrote the film’s script with Ben Tishler, stars opposite Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine. The trio star as three best friends who become fathers later in life and find themselves battling preschool principals, millennial CEOs and anything created after 1987. Katie Aselton, Reign Edwards, Miles Robbins, Jackie Tohn and Rachael Harris co-star.

Edgar Wright’s classic zombie comedy “Shaun of the Dead” arrives on Hulu this month just in time for Halloween. Simon Pegg plays an aimless salesman in London who becomes an unexpected hero during a zombie outbreak. From Variety’s review: “A sense of purpose and creative cohesion is evident from the first, very funny scene…The film is a classic example of a clever idea that could easily have run out of steam halfway. However, co-scripters Pegg and Wright structure it as a classic three-acter (set-up, journey, finale) with enough twists, character development and small set pieces to keep the comedy boiling.”

With Mike Flanagan’s latest Netflix horror series “The Fall of the House of Usher” launching this month, perhaps the time is right to revisit his “The Shining” sequel, “Doctor Sleep.” The film tanked at the domestic box office with just $31 million, but that might be because Flanagan delivered a more slow-burn horror trip than your standard Blumhouse creeper or jump scare-filled “It” movie.

As Variety’s Owen Gleiberman wrote in his review: “I still don’t know if ‘The Shining’ needed a second act, but ‘Doctor Sleep’ presents one that’s fresh and unsettling enough to justify its existence. The film runs on for an unnecessarily extended 151 minutes, and that’s undoubtedly a by-product of the success of ‘It,’ the lengthy 2017 adaptation of the first half of King’s killer-clown novel. But in this case the contrast only serves to heighten how ‘Doctor Sleep,’ unlike the whack-a-demon ‘It’ films, at least uses its length to sink into a mood of genuine contemplative dread.”

“A Quiet Place” writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and “Dashcam” director Rob Savage serve up a Stephen King adaptation that is effectively scary with “The Boogeyman,” which stars “Yellowjackets” breakout Sophie Thatcher as a grieving teenager haunted by a sadistic entity. From Variety’s review: “The film delivers scares that surpass its PG-13 rating… Writers Beck and  Woods graft the psychological and thematic shorthand of unresolved trauma onto a creature feature, while director Savage papers over the seams between the two with copious style and a bold, clear-eyed lead performance from Thatcher.”

Paul Schrader follows “First Reformed” and “The Card Counter” with “Master Gardener,” starring Joel Edgerton as a horticulturist whose devotion to tending the grounds of his employer’s estate (Sigourney Weaver) is tested by his own self-destructive forces. From Variety’s review: “Edgerton’s taut, contained, unsmiling performance is the film’s most live, unpredictable element… Green or not, this ‘Master Gardener’ is all fingers and thumbs for much of its running time, kept sporadically in order only by the stern, trusty presence of Edgerton himself.”

Filmmaker Scott Derrickson reunites with his “Sinister” star Ethan Hawke for “The Black Phone,” a horror hit at the box office last year with nearly $90 million domestically. Hawke stars as a child serial killer who abducts a 13-year-old boy. The film has a supernatural twist as the kidnapped boy has access to a telephone where he can talk to the killer’s previous victims. Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman called “The Black Phone” a “grungy, dread-soaked nightmare” in his review, adding, “Derrickson has made a serial-killer movie that feels like a dark cousin to the comic-book world, with supernatural elements that drive the story, even as they get in the way of it becoming any sort of true nightmare.” 

“Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken” barely made it past $40 million at the worldwide box office, making it a summer bomb for Universal Pictures, but family audiences may discover it more when it arrives on Peacock this month. Lana Condor voices the title character, a teenage kraken girl desperate to fit in during her freshman year at Oceanside High. The voice cast also includes Toni Collette, Annie Murphy, Colman Domingo and Jane Fonda. From Variety’s review: “The film is a reasonably clever myth-twisting toon. The creative team’s high-concept take suggests ‘Twilight’ as a (literal) fish-out-of-water comedy, wherein a family of blue-skinned squid-things attempt to pass as human.”

Blumhouse’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s” remake is opening in theaters on the same day it debuts on Peacock. Directed by Emma Tammi, the horror film follows a security guard who experiences a series of terrors at the pizza joint/arcade he’s taken the night shift at. The film stars Josh Hutcherson, Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio, Kat Conner Sterling, Mary Stuart Masterson and Matthew Lillard, as well as animatronic designs and technology by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. A day-and-date horror release has become an annual affair for Universal and Blumhouse. This will mark the third time the studios have set a hybrid debut for an October horror tentpole. “Halloween Kills” (2021) and “Halloween Ends” (2022) landed on Peacock the same day that they opened in theaters as well.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s” isn’t the only new Blumhouse offering this Halloween movie season. Nahnatchka Khan directs the studio’s horror-comedy “Totally Killer,” coming exclusively to Prime Video. “Mad Men” and “Sabrina” favorite Kiernan Shipka leads the time travel storyline about a girl facing off against a serial killer in the past. From Prime Video’s synopsis: “Thirty-five years after the shocking murder of three teens, the infamous Sweet Sixteen Killer returns on Halloween night to claim a fourth victim. Jamie (Shipka) ignores her overprotective mom’s (Julie Bowen) warning and comes face-to-face with the masked maniac and, on the run for her life, accidentally time-travels to 1987, the year of the original killings.” The supporting cast includes Olivia Holt, Charlie Gillespie, Lochlyn Munro, Troy L. Johnson and Randall Park.

Nicolas Cage’s Dracula movie “Renfield” arrives on Prime Video this month at no extra cost to subscribers after making its streaming debut on Peacock over the summer. The horror-comedy disappointed at the spring box office with just $17 million domestically. From Variety‘s review: “It’s a scattershot lark jam-packed with ideas,’ none of which really take hold…The filmmakers know that an action film will be bigger at the box office than something that’s just an oddball Nick Cage vampire film. But the hypomanic violence of ‘Renfield,’ even as it will help sell the movie, detracts from what the movie is.”

Jamie Foxx earned rave reviews out of the Toronto Film Festival for Maggie Betts’ “The Burial,” in which he plays a smooth-talking attorney who is hired by a funeral home owner (Tommy Lee Jones) to help save his family business. From Variety’s review: “Demonstrating talents far beyond her 2017 indie debut, ‘The Novitiate,’ director Maggie Betts has a rousing old-school crowd-pleaser on her hands with this truth-based (albeit strategically embellished) drama featuring the most entertaining performance yet from Jamie Foxx, who makes a day in court feel like going to church.”

Variety film critic Peter Debruge named “Polite Society” one of the best films of 2023 so far, writing: “‘We Are Lady Parts’ creator Nida Manzoor samples from a dozen different genres to create a wholly original coming-of-age action-comedy, about a spunky Pakistani British girl named Ria (Priya Kansara) who’s determined to derail her older sister’s marriage to a super-rich, super-hot mama’s boy. Why? Well, Ria hates to see her idol give up on her dreams, so she sets out to dig up dirt on the guy, who — in a twist that would be right at home in a Jordan Peele movie — turns out to have very macabre motives indeed. Manzoor mixes martial arts with silly teen-movie tropes and Guy Ritchie-esque shenanigans (there’s even a musical number) in such a way that puts sisterhood above the patriarchy.” 

It whiffed in theaters ($133 million worldwide) and made its streaming debut on Max in May, and now Zachary Levi’s “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” arrives on Prime Video at no extra cost to subscribers. It’s hardly the best comic book movie ever made, but it’s another fun and serviceable body-swapping fantasy comedy about a teen-turned-superhero. Levi stars opposite Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Rachel Zegler, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, Meagan Good, Lucy Liu, Djimon Hounsou and Helen Mirren. Given the film’s lackluster performance at the box office, “Fury of the Gods” is likely to be Zachary Levi’s final outing in the DC Universe on the big screen.

Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen and Mary Steenburgen reunite for “Book Club: The Next Chapter,” coming to Prime Video this month at no extra cost to subscribers. The film finds the four lifelong friends jetting off to Italy to celebrate a bachelorette party. From Variety’s review: “When ‘The Next Chapter’ hits that destination wedding, it uncorks a scene that just about makes the whole movie worth it. Vivian pours herself into getting married but in a stubbornly independent way, which is Fonda’s way of winking at her own experience. The scene is more than a cute resolution — it’s about longevity and identity and anxiety and generosity. And love, actually.”