Scary and Smart Films to Watch This October
Five movies for any mood to stream on Peacock this month
Autumn is the season to break out the apple cider and stay indoors to watch a good movie, so don't let decision fatigue get in the way of your fall plans. This October, Peacock has movies to match any and all of your moods and tastes.
From political dramas to Halloween favorites, here are five great viewing options to stream this month.
Nick Frost and Simon Pegg in Hot Fuzz
In the mood for a hilarious action film? | Hot Fuzz
Rated one of the 25 best British comedies of all time by Complex and the best cop film ever made by Screenrant, Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz offers the best of both worlds. Simon Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, an over-achieving top cop shuffled off to the backwater village of Sandford where he’s paired with a bumbling bobby, Danny Butterman (Nick Frost). This unlikely pair proves their mettle when they stumble into a diabolical conspiracy. With a remarkable cast that includes Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman, Olivia Colman, and Timothy Dalton, Wright makes both the action and jokes razor-sharp. For AV Club, Hot Fuzz is “everything an action-comedy should be. It achieves through parody what most films in the genre can't accomplish straight.”
The official trailer for Hot Fuzz
Michael Douglas in Traffic
In the mood for a hard-hitting political drama? | Traffic
In Traffic, Steven Soderbergh dives into the war on drugs in a remarkable cinematic tapestry that stretches from Tijuana to D.C. The film—which won four Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay—centers on Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), a newly appointed Drug Czar whose own daughter (Erika Christensen) is struggling with addiction. A stellar ensemble cast—including Don Cheadle, Benicio Del Toro (who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor), Dennis Quaid, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Topher Grace—brings this international story to life. The Chicago Tribune writes, “It's a thriller that really thrills, a drama that really engages, a portrait of a world and system out of joint that is painfully convincing and totally engrossing from the first simmering minute to the last explosive second.”
Traffic | Benicio Del Toro's Incredible Performance
Sara Klimoska and Anamaria Marinca in You Won’t Be Alone
In the mood for an eye-opening horror film? | You Won’t Be Alone
According to The Guardian, Goran Stolevski’s You Won’t Be Alone, pushes the limits of horror by exploring the idea of “what it means to be human.” After kidnapping a baby, Old Maid Maria (Anamaria Marinca) hides the infant away, raising her to be a witch like herself. As a young woman, Nevena (Sara Klimoska) learns about life by taking over the bodies of strangers and seeing the world through their eyes and experiences. The film captures the strange, sometimes awful beauty in the world around us as Nevena shape-shifts into a young mother (Noomi Rapace), a young man (Carloto Cotta), a child, and even a dog. The film, according to The New York Times, “moves so hypnotically between dream and nightmare, horror and fairy tale that, once bound by its spell, you won’t want to be freed.”
The official trailer for You Won't Be Alone
Nick Frost and Simon Pegg in Shaun of the Dead
In the mood for a rom-zom-com? | Shaun of the Dead
With Shaun of the Dead, Wright created the rom-zom-com, a new genre with a delightful mix of comedy, horror, and romance. When Shaun (Pegg) and his best mate Ed (Frost) notice zombies are taking over the world, they rescue Shaun’s girlfriend (Kate Ashfield) and mom (Penelope Wilton) and barricade themselves in their favorite pub to defend the future of mankind and down a quick pint. “If the zombie genre steadfastly refuses to die,” writes The Washington Post, “we can be grateful to Shaun of the Dead for breathing fresh, diverting life into the form, with subtle visual humor and a smart, impish sense of fun.” Naming Shaun of the Dead as his favorite Halloween film, Collider’s Adam Chitwood writes how it “is one of those rare films that refuses to get old.”
Stream Shaun of the Dead on Peacock!
The official trailer for Shaun of the Dead
Song Kang-ho and Mercedes Cabral in Thirst
In the mood for vampires? | Thirst
With Thirst, acclaimed filmmaker Park Chan-wook gives the vampire story an unexpected twist. When an experimental vaccine trial goes wrong, a young priest (Song Kang-ho) discovers a new lust for life as a vampire while still clinging to his faith. Even as he hungers for blood, he yearns to save souls. Park explains in Electric Sheep, “I wanted to tell the story of a character who…is torn between these two different worlds, and about the dilemmas that creates.” Thoughtful and thrilling, Thirst, according to The Globe and Mail, “is juicy filmmaking—psychologically rich, cathartic, kinky, visually engaging and almost free of vampire-movie clichés.”
Thirst |“Vampires are Cuter Than I Thought”