Did you also get sucked into the Robert Pattinson hype machine when, on the heels of The Drama and The Odyssey, the first trailer for Primetime dropped? From director Lance Oppenheim and writer Ajon Singh, Primetime follows the rise and fall of the controversial NBC show To Catch a Predator with host Chris Hansen (Robert Pattinson) and his team (featuring Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Xavier Von Erck, and Phoebe Bridgers). Primetime is an uncomfortable film with outstanding performances and striking camera and lighting work that bring out the shades of grey in the subject matter and the imperfect people behind the show. As Hansen tries to hunt an “ancient evil,” it is unclear if he can overcome his own demons, a theme sometimes delivered heavy-handedly but also with subtle nods to Moby Dick. Although Pattinson and Wever give complex performances, I was more moved by Skyler Gisondo’s performance as Decoy Dan, an aspiring actor cast on Predator. Dan has more character development than Chris Hansen does, and seeing the show, its host, and its producer through his eyes helps convey how predatory the production was in its own way. I will remember his work most vividly. As I do each October, I have prepared a roundup of the best new horror movies that have hit streaming services since last Halloween. To cover everything, I am splitting the roundup into two parts. This week includes Amazon and Shudder, HBO Max, and Netflix. Amazon provides a range of horror with a Prime subscription or through add-ons, such as Shudder, the first home of Oddity, the Irish horror film that remains my favorite new scary movie in recent years. I think the best new film on the platform is Mārama from Taratoa Stoppard and starring Ariāna Osborne, which explores colonial violence and cultural theft in New Zealand through a slow-burning Victorian Gothic story. Later this month, the service will also release The Cycle, a serial killer thriller starring Deborah Ann Woll and Jeffrey Donovan, which looks promising. Also on Amazon, you can watch The Devil’s Mouth, a stupid but entertaining film about a group of young travelers who get stuck in a cave with a shark. You might be better off just watching Jaws. Time of Death stars Michael Kelly as a detective trying to find an escaped prisoner in a suspenseful mystery with spooky vibes. Forbidden Fruit, available via Sundance on Amazon, is a witchy office horror-comedy with Lili Reinhart, Victoria Pedretti, and Alexandra Shipp as shop girls who might be in a cult, and Lola Tung as their new coworker who dangerously disrupts the dynamic. This film pulses with fun riffs on other films and a wicked sense of humor. Pedretti gives a surprisingly deep performance in a character so vapid that I was not sure it was her at first. The Cure is like a sci-fi version of Munchausen by proxy, as a teenager (Samantha Cochran) suspects her philanthropist parents are making her sick. The acting is uneven, and the screenplay stilted, but the intriguing story kept me watching. HBO Max has one of the more robust catalogues for horror, including classic slasher films, the Final Destination franchise, Turner Classic Movies, and the A24 catalog. It also owns several great new films, many of which I reviewed earlier. The Bride!, a feminist take on the Bride of Frankenstein, was kind of messy and divided critics, but I thought it was creative and fun. Undertone, starring Nini Kiri as a podcaster who starts having eerie experiences while caring for her dying mother, is one of the most atmospheric films of the year. Dust Bunny blends horror with fantasy and brings Bryan Fuller’s signature whimsy to monster hunting. I hated Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, but it offers fans of gross-out horror plenty of gore. Backrooms, written and directed by Kane Parsons and starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, takes place in a mysterious, seemingly endless structure a furniture store owner finds on the other side of his building. I found this film nauseating and a little tedious, but it showcases a memorable visual style, an intriguing premise, and stellar work by its talented cast. In the horror-action-comedy They Will Kill You, Zazie Beetz plays a mysterious woman who must survive a night with a deadly cult (led by Heather Graham and Patricia Arquette). It’s a surprisingly funny battle royale with sometimes absurd choreography and stylized violence. The Netflix Chills section of the streaming giant makes it easy to browse their extensive catalog of scary movies and wonderful series by Mike Flanagan. New this year, Netflix also has The Last House and HIM. The Last House stars Greta Lee and Wagner Moura in a story about a family who suddenly finds that they cannot leave their house; it is an interesting setup that the film fails to deliver on suspensefully. HIM is one of the stranger films on the list, about a rising football star (Tyriq Withers) who is invited to train with the GOAT (Marlon Wayans). Produced by Jordan Peele and directed by Justin Tipping, the film leans hard into messiah imagery and clearly wants to make a point about the cult-like role of sports in our culture, but the motifs fail to really come together coherently. For football fans like my husband, though, it offers that rare combo of horror and sports. ...read more read less