There is both scares and stars headlining new streaming titles. We have a new Goosebumps series, Brie Larson’s Lessons in Chemistry, Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones in The Burial, the VOD debut of the latest Mission: Impossible, and more!
SERIES
Goosebumps S1
Disney+ – 13 October 2023
Continuing Disney’s Halloween lineup is this new adaptation of R.L. Stine’s worldwide bestselling Goosebumps book series. This new series doesn’t appear to be as meta and comedic as the 2015 and 2018 movies, leaning harder into its PG13 horror roots. However, just like those movies, it’s not adapting one particular Stine story but rather pulling on various elements from several titles to tell a new fresh story. This one following “a group of five high schoolers as they embark on a shadowy and twisted journey to investigate the tragic passing three decades earlier of a teen named Harold Biddle – while also unearthing dark secrets from their parents’ past.”
Lessons in Chemistry S1
Apple TV+ – 13 October 2023
Brie Larson has got a rather big movie out next month called The Marvels, but if cosmic superhero blockbusters are not your thing, this new limited series from Oscar-winning screenwriter Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich) may just be more your speed. Based on Bonnie Gamus’ 2022 novel of the same name, this comedy-drama series sees Larson as Elizabeth Zott, a 1960s scientist who suddenly finds herself single, pregnant, and out of a job in a time when women are expected be married homemakers. Stumbling into a gig as the host of a TV cooking show, Zott uses her platform to educate housewives.
1923 S1
Showmax – 18 October 2023
Writer/creator Taylor Sheridan’s sprawling Yellowstone western epic just got more… sprawling-er. Arguably the franchise’s most star-powered spinoff series, this prequel – which is also a sequel to the other prequel series 1883 (please keep up!) – stars Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren as the respective patriarch and matriarch of another branch of the Dutton family. Setting it in the early 1920s, a particular miserable era in the USA with Prohibition, drought, and the Great Depression, Sheridan gives the now-famous ranching clan all sorts of new hardships to overcome. With a whole lot of critical praise, 1923 has already been renewed for a second season.
Boetie Boer S1
Showmax – 18 October 2023
Billed by Showmax as the local streamer’s “most disturbing Showmax Original true-crime series to date”, Boetie Boer: Inside the Mind of a Monster is a five-part documentary series digging into Stewart ‘Boetie Boer’ Wilken, a serial killer who terrorized Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) in the 1990s. Unique in how he chose his victims – he targeted two distinctly different types of victims – Boetie Boer was a man as fascinating as he was monstrous.
Bodies S1
Netflix – 20 October 2023
I’ve always loved me a good murder mystery, and the same goes for time travel stories. So how about a murder mystery time travel story?! Based on Si Spencer’s twisty graphic novel by Si Spencer, Bodies follows four different police detectives as they investigate the discovery of a mysterious dead body found in London’s Longharvest Lane. The twist? Each of the detectives live in a different era – 1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053 – and have somehow managed to respectively find the exact same body! How are all these oddities across the centuries linked, and what does it have to do with an enigmatic political leader (Stephen Graham) who seems to know a lot more than he should?
MOVIES
The Burial
Prime Video – 13 October 2023
I have to admit that I’ve seen almost no promo for The Burial, which is surprising given its star power and general inspirational story appeal. Starring Oscar winners Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones, this courtroom drama/comedy is based on true events following a smalltime funeral homeowner who enlists the help of a smooth-talking lawyer to sue a corporate giant after the CEO of the latter reneged on a handshake deal.
The Devil on Trial
Netflix – 17 October 2023
Very much not inspirational but keeping it in the courtroom, we have The Devil on Trial, a feature length documentary film that digs into the 1980s murder of 40-year-old landlord Alan Bono by his then 19-year-old tenant Arne Cheyenne Johnson. The twist? For the first and last time in US history, “demonic possession” was officially used as defense by the accused. There was never any doubt that Johnson killed Bono, but was the young man actually in control of his actions? Disturbing evidence and testimonies would claim no. The case would even draw the attention of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the real-world paranormal investigators that inspired the Conjuring movie franchise.
VOD RENTALS/PURCHASES
The following movies have recently become available for digital purchase/rental:
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Rental: Google Play Movies – R35 / Apple TV – R45
Purchase: Google Play Movies – R170/ Apple TV – R150
It’s time for Ethan Hunt’s final mission. Well, the first part of the final mission, that is! The latest chapter in Tom Cruise’s blockbuster Mission: Impossible film franchise brings audiences all the crazy spectacle, goofy plot twists, and jaw-dropping stunts we’ve come to expect and then some. As such, if you’ve not already bought into this franchise’s formula, this is definitely not the one to win you over (as Noelle found, in her review). But if you’re into it, like I fully am, this one is a blast! Yes, it has a few stumbles and could be a bit shorter (no, that’s not a Tom Cruise joke), but it also brings us one of the best additions to franchise with the incredible Hayley Atwell, and sets up Cruise’s Hunt for an explosive swan song when Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two drops in June 2024.