​In the week before Halloween, Vlad Shepesh, released 8 years ago, has entered the list of the most popular feature films on Netflix, the box office surprise is dominating the streaming platforms in the US and, as every year, there are options for all tastes of those , who wants to see something terrible.

Launched in 2014, Dracula is untold (Dracula: The Untold Story) came out of nowhere this week and climbed as high as eighth on Netflix’s list of top-grossing films in the United States, before similarly disappearing before the start of the weekend when it was overshadowed by other feature films.

Even more surprisingly, it managed to grab the number one spot on Netflix in Brazil, Chile and Italy, as well as being in the streaming platform’s top 10 movies in Ireland, France and Argentina. If Halloween is around the corner, a Dracula story must be in high demand.

And when I wrote that there is a movie about Vlad Shepesh in the title and at the beginning of the article, it was not for the sake of clickbait, but because this is, in fact, what it is, as the title suggests: an “origin story” that revolves around a Romanian ruler and his battles against the Turks before he becomes a vampire in the collective imagination of the West.

It’s a less conventional choice for a Halloween movie, as it’s more of a fantasy drama with light horror elements. I have to admit that when it came out in 2014, it completely slipped under my radar and I don’t remember hearing about it after that, even though it didn’t do badly at the box office when it came out: $217 million budget 70 millions

However, based on the trailer, I’m not sure I’d recommend it, because I can see that even excluding the phase where Tepes becomes a vampire, it’s full of phantasmagoria and historical inaccuracies that would annoy me. Also, despite the fact that we have Luke Evans in the main role, the critics’ ratings on specialized sites are not exactly high either (to say the least), and on IMDb, where everyone can vote, he has a 6.2/10.

But maybe such a light version of the film, which does not make you think, will do, but I don’t know what to say. However, I’m more convinced by another film about the famous count that can be seen on Netflix: a miniseries Dracula launched in 2020.

It’s only 3 episodes, just under an hour and 30 minutes long, so it’s easy to watch during Halloween, and I think Danish actor Claes Bang did a great job as Dracula. Please, my colleague Eugene Istodor was not so convinced at the time of its release.

It’s true that the dialogue feels forced at some points, and the last episode has an unexpected plot twist (I don’t know if it’s necessarily in a good way), but overall I thought it was cool. Critics also scored well on Rotten Tomatoes (71% approval) and Metacritic (75 out of 100), though fans didn’t seem as convinced.

“Barbarian” – from box office surprise hit to broadcast star

While it’s no exaggeration to say that this year was a good one for fans of the horror genre, it came out among many other and newer films from the franchise. Halloween and Hellraisera week before Halloween, streaming platforms in the US are dominated by a feature film that no one expected to be so successful.

It is about Barbarianthe horror thriller starring Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgård and Justin Long, which debuted directly at No. 1 at the North American box office after its September 9 release.

I caught up with him the following week Woman Kinga feature film that waited 6 years to see the light of day, but remained in the top 10 grossing films in North American theaters until last weekend, when it dropped to the 11th position.

But this week, after being released on multiple streaming platforms, it has regained popularity, topping the charts on HBO Max and Amazon in the US and in the top 10 in 16 countries on Disney+.

“A woman staying at an Airbnb discovers that the house she’s renting is not what it seems,” reads the IMDb synopsis, which I’m sticking to because “The Barbarian” is the movie to watch , without even knowing it. much in advance. But watch the trailer, because it doesn’t contain any spoilers:

Halloween series and movie on Netflix

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that Netflix customers can enjoy a real feast this Halloween, as the American streaming platform recently released several horror series that delighted fans of the genre and beyond.

The Watcher mini-seriesremains the most watched English-language series on the streaming platform after its meteoric rise since its October 13 release. In the last week for which Netflix published traffic data, it was watched at least 148,240,000 hours.

The mini-series, based on real events, tells the terrifying story of a family that moves to an idyllic US suburb, which begins to be terrorized by a psychopathic neighbor who calls himself “The Watcher”.

Of course, Dahmer – Monster: The Story of Jeffrey Dahmerlimited series about one of the most notorious serial killers in US history, would make any list of must-see Halloween shows, although I don’t think it’s worth writing too much about given the buzz it’s generated.

But if this is the new Halloween, something cannot be missing from the American director Mike Flanagan, and this year Netflix launched on October 7 Midnight Clubits latest flagship series.

Having built his reputation precisely on the series of horrors of the type The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and Midnight Massnow Flanagan offers another interesting story, based on the novel of the same name by the American writer Christopher Pike.

Midnight Club tells about eight terminally ill young people who live in a treatment center under the guidance of a mysterious doctor. They meet every night to tell each other horror stories and make a deal that the first of them to die of the disease will return to talk to the rest from beyond the grave.

Okay, so maybe Netflix’s official description doesn’t sound exactly terrible at first glance, but remember how friendly it was to Midnight mass and how it started before kicking into high gear. The trailer is a bit more suggestive:

This year, Netflix outdid themselves and released Mexican director Guillermo del Toro’s eponymous horror magnum opus before Halloween: Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (“Guillermo del Toro’s Closet”).

The series is a collection of hour-long horror stories, each of which has a different director. Two episodes are original scripts by a director known for his iconic visual style, two are classic stories from EP Lovecraft, the master of the macabre, and all had generous budgets.

The script for all 8 episodes of the anthology was written personally by del Toro, who was also a producer of the series, although this time he preferred to let others occupy the director’s chair. It’s Guillermo del Toro, it’s horror, it’s Halloween, I don’t know what else to say.

But if you want something less graphic or just to see in one viewing session, this might be it A good nurse (“Good Nurse”) may be the right option for you. As in the case Dracula is untoldit’s not exactly horror, but that doesn’t mean it’s not terrifying, especially since it’s another true story of a serial killer.

Netflix released a thriller A good nurse this Wednesday, so we don’t have official traffic figures released by the company yet. But Flix Patrol, a site that tracks data from all the major streaming platforms in real time, shows that it has already become the most popular movie on Netflix. More details in the trailer:

Romanian movie for Halloween, in the cinema

If you’re in the mood to see a movie in a theater this weekend, in addition to all the usual American options, this year we have a domestic version, and not just any, but a feature film shot in Romania, starring Maia Morgenstern in one of the two lead roles and based on one of the most famous Romanian stories.

Described by director Viktor Kanash as “horror light”, A goat with three kids It premiered in cinemas this Friday after being presented at TIFF in the summer, where it won the Audience Award as the most popular Romanian film.

Given that the feature film has received a lot of publicity in recent weeks, I don’t think it’s necessary to tell you more about it, I’ll just leave it as described by Maja Morgenstern in an interview with HotNews.ro:

“This is an exciting, intense, mysterious, daring film. I think I would say a lot to him because he’s talking about a topic that’s not relevant today, it’s always relevant.”

As always, you can find more news from the world of film and series in this weekend’s Nerd Alert column:

• Is Mark Zuckerberg trying to become immortal? / House of the Dragon responds to critics / New chip can transfer the entire Internet in a second

PS: With the offers, I focused on what can be comfortably seen on the streaming platforms we have launched. If you’ve already seen them or something didn’t necessarily catch your eye, you can find other good suggestions in Rotten Tomatoes’ best horror movies of the year.