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Catch two horror movies based on Joe Hill stories

Image: Marvel Studios

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps jumps from Earth 828 to Disney Plus, offering another chance to do your MCU homework ahead of Avengers: Doomsday*. *Meanwhile, Frankenstein movies are often Halloween fare, but Guillermo del Toro treats the story of a mad scientist building a monster as a deeply emotional Gothic fairy tale. After a limited theatrical run, Netflix releases the Creature onto streaming this weekend.

If you’re looking for real horror, The Black Phone 2* *is much scarier than the original, and it’s calling for you to rent it. Keanu Reeves gets the chance to relax and smile as a guardian angel in Good Fortune, which descends onto VOD.

Here’s a rundown of the most notable new releases on streaming and VOD, including the biggest, best, and most popular new movies you can watch at home right now.

New on Netflix

Frankenstein

• **Genre: **Gothic science fiction
• **Run time: **2h 30m
• **Director: **Guillermo del Toro
• **Cast: **Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth

Guillermo del Toro offers a lavish, Gothic spin on Mary Shelley’s classic novel. Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) is an idealistic perfectionist who builds a beautiful Creature (Jacob Elordi). The film becomes a soulful melodrama as the Creature grapples with his own existence and his feelings towards his creator, but also discovers love.

Wick Is Pain

• **Genre: **Documentary
• **Run time: **2h 6m
• **Director: **Jeffrey Doe

Filmed over the course of a decade, Wick Is Pain chronicles the creation of the John Wick franchise through the efforts of Keanu Reeves and stunt performers turned directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch. Like a feature-length DVD extra, it also dives into the making of some of the series’ biggest action sequences.

New on Disney Plus

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

• **Genre: **Superhero
• **Run time: **1h 54m
• **Director: **Matt Shakman
• **Cast: **Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Julia Garner, Ralph Ineson

Four astronauts were exposed to cosmic rays and returned to a retro-futuristic version of Earth with incredible abilities. They become The Fantastic Four and use their powers to establish world peace. But when an alien visitor (Julia Garner) declares that their world will be devoured by the ancient being Galactus (Ralph Ineson), the team desperately tries to protect their family and the planet.

From our review:

Apocalyptic stakes are nothing new for the MCU, though this film can at least milk some tension from the fact that since its setting is an alternate Earth, it doesn’t actually need to survive for the franchise to continue. The bigger problem is the tonal disconnect of inserting a galaxy-spanning threat into a movie that’s at its best as an intimate story about family bonds.

New on Paramount Plus

The Cut

• **Genre: **Psychological thriller
• **Run time: **1h 36m
• **Director: **Sean Ellis
• **Cast: **Orlando Bloom, Caitríona Balfe, John Turturro

A boxer (Orlando Bloom) is given a chance to restart his career with a championship match, but he has just six days to lose enough weight to be in fighting shape. With a brutal and dangerous regimen designed by his coach (John Turturro), he puts his health and sanity on the line for a chance at redemption.

New on Shudder

Abraham’s Boys: A Dracula Story

• **Genre: **Horror
• **Run time: **1h 30m
• **Director: **Natasha Kermani
• **Cast: **Titus Welliver, Jocelin Donahue, Judah Mackey

Abraham Van Helsing (Bosch star Titus Welliver) has always been a strict and overprotective father, but when he becomes paranoid that a terrible evil is coming to attack his wife, the Van Helsing sons wonder if their dad is losing his mind. The reimagining of the story of Dracula as a family drama is based on a short story by Locke & Key* and The Black Phone *author Joe Hill.

New to rent

Black Phone 2

• **Genre: **Supernatural horror
• **Run time: **1h 54m
• **Director: **Scott Derrickson
• **Cast: **Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Ethan Hawke

Writer-director team Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill get much more ambitious with their sequel to the 2021 low-budget horror hit The Black Phone. Four years after he was abducted by a masked serial killer (Ethan Hawke), Finn (Mason Thames) and his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) are grappling with their psychic abilities and what they owe to the dead people who keep calling.

From our review:

The sequel loses the small-scale, intense focus in favor of The Conjuring-level supernatural effects and action. At its best, it’s much scarier than the first movie. But it also comes with a level of full-on action-goofiness that Derrickson and Cargill avoided in Black Phone.

Boys Go to Jupiter

• **Genre: **Adult animation
• **Run time: **1h 30m
• **Director: **Julian Glander
• **Cast: **Jack Corbett, Janeane Garofalo, Tavi Gevinson

Julian Glander wrote, directed, and produced the unabashedly weird animated film Boys Go to Jupiter, which follows Billy (Jack Corbett), a brilliant 16-year-old whose delivery job leads him to encounter all sorts of strange people. When Billy discovers an alien creature, he has to decide whether to turn it over for some quick cash.

Good Fortune

• **Genre: **Supernatural comedy
• **Run time: **1h 37m
• **Director: **Aziz Ansari
• **Cast: **Seth Rogen, Aziz Ansari, Keanu Reeves

Gabriel (Keanu Reeves), a minor guardian angel, tries to do more good by swapping the lives of the down-and-out Arj (Aziz Ansari) and rich tech mogul Jeff (Seth Rogen) to teach both men a lesson. But Arj isn’t in any hurry to get back to his difficult life, and Gabriel’s experiment gets him fired from his divine job and turned into a human.

Killing Faith

• **Genre: **Supernatural Western
• **Run time: **1h 49m
• **Director: **Ned Crowley
• **Cast: **Guy Pearce, DeWanda Wise, Emily Ford, Bill Pullman

A young girl (Emily Ford) living in 1849 seems to kill everything she touches. Searching for answers, her mother (DeWanda Wise) enlists an ether-addicted physician (Guy Pearce) to take the girl to a faith healer (Bill Pullman) who might be able to help. But their journey across the frontier is filled with horrors.