The Best Movies and TV Shows on Max in October

There are a ton of interesting shows and movies coming out on Max this month. Along with original horror, like a new version of Salem’s Lot and M. Night Shyamalan-produced Caddo Lake, there’s The Franchise, a series that lampoons superhero movies, and even a reality show about competitive roller skating.

The Franchise

The Franchise takes superhero movies to another level by focusing on the cast and crew of flea-bitten superhero franchise that’s falling out of public favor. While their movie counterparts are saving the world, the actors that play them are trying to save the movie series they star in. If you’re into a workplace comedy that skewers Hollywood blockbusters, The Franchise might become your favorite show.

Starts streaming October 6.

Caddo Lake

HBO original movie Caddo Lake tells the story of the mysterious disappearance of an 8-year-old girl at spooky Caddo Lake. The search uncovers a series of past deaths and disappearances that shakes the girl’s family to their core. Directed by Celine Held and Logan George, Caddo Lake was produced by horror auteur M. Night Shyamalan.

Starts streaming October 10.

Salem’s Lot

This reimagining of Stephen King’s 1975 novel takes us back to the haunted town of Jerusalem’s Lot, Maine, which has a long-running problem with vampires. Lewis Pullman plays Ben Mears, a writer who returns to his hometown to learn about himself. Instead, he learns that a blood-sucking freak and his familiar just bought a notoriously haunted house in town.

Starts streaming October 3.

Tuesday

Put on your crying shoes for this one. In Tuesday, Julia Louis-Dreyfus plays a single mother whose teenage daughter has a terminal illness. Death and dying are given the magical realism treatment here, when Death itself shows up in the form of a sentient parrot. There aren’t many quirky movies about the death of a child, but there is now at least one.

Starts streaming October 11.

Roller Jam

Did you know that, in 2024, there are people out there for whom high-level roller skating is lifestyle? Roller Jam takes viewers into their hidden world. Singer/songwriter and actress Jordin Sparks hosts this reality competition in which 10 teams of roller skaters create a different number each week and perform it in front of a live audience and a judges panel that includes two-time U.S. Olympian and figure skating champion Johnny Weir and “roller-skating legend Terrell Ferguson.” The winning team gets $150,000.

Starts streaming October 10.

MaXXXine (2024)

In MaXXXine, the third and final installment in Ti West’s X trilogy, Mia Goth reprises her role as Maxine Minx, the adult-film actress from X. With the unpleasantness on the farm behind her, Minx moves to Hollywood to make it big. But there is more unpleasantness in store in the form of a psycho killer who targets people connected to her. West established himself as one the most original and ferocious directors in horror with X and Pearl, and MaXXXine more than lives up to its predecessors.

Starts streaming October 18.

Nightmare on Elm Street mania!

It’s not October in my house without a screening of 1984’s Nightmare on Elm Street and 1987’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. This year, I’m having a Freddy Krueger festival because Max is streaming the first five Elm Street movies, plus Freddy vs. Jason. Sadly, the final movie of the original run, 1991’s Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare is not available on Max. Happily, the 2010 remake isn’t either.

Here are all the Elm Street movies streaming on Max in October:

• A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

• A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)

• A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

• A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

• A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child (1989)

• Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Doctor Sleep (2019)

If you don’t judge 2019’s Doctor Sleep against 1981’s The Shining, it’s an effective, scary, and interesting movie that somehow manages to be respectful to both Kubrick’s movie and King’s novel. It’s one of those sequels that feels like seeing relatives at a family reunion: “There’s the elevator full of blood! There are the spooky twins saying ‘hello, Danny! Oh my god! Room 237!” The “new elements” are pretty good too.

Starts streaming October 1.

Four Christmases (2008)

If you’re sick of all this Halloween crap and would rather look ahead to a real holiday, Four Christmases is for you. It’s not a great movie, but it’s a comfortable one. Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon’s charisma and this movie’s non-threatening “ain’t my family crazy?!” vibe is the perfect thing to wash the taste of ghosts and zombies out of your mouth for good.

Starts streaming October 1.

Last month’s picks

The Penguin 

This super-villain origin story details how Batman’s nemesis The Penguin came to be. The Penguin takes place in the gritty Matt Reeves’ Batman universe and features Colin Farrell reprising his role from The Batman as Oswald Cobblepot, a street thug whose plan for taking over Gotham’s underworld involves dressing up as a bird and, I assume, killing the Batman.

Starts streaming September 19.

Wise Guy David Chase and The Sopranos 

The Sopranos expanded what audiences can expect from a television series forever when it came out 1999, and Wise Guy, an HBO original docu-series, digs into why this show was so much better than every other show. Packed with interviews with The Soprano’s cast, crew, and especially its creator David Chase, Wise Guy is a must-watch for fans of The Sopranos and anyone interested in the creative process behind a TV show.

Starts streaming September 7.

Born Evil: The Serial Killer and The Savior

Executive Producer Michael Bay’s first true-crime documentary series goes to some very dark places. It tells the story of Hadden Clark, cross-dresser, cannibal, and serial killer. Born Evil digs into Clark’s crimes and personal history, because you don’t end up this messed up without coming from a very messed up place. Fans of grisly true crime should not miss it.

Starts streaming September 2.

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Animation master Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron was universally lauded by critics and won an Academy Award for Best Animation when it was released, so if you’re into quality films, you have to stream it. The lush, hand-drawn art is breathtaking, and that Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli magic is packed into every frame of this masterpiece.

Starts streaming September 6.

Cabin in the Woods

Anyone who has ever seen a horror movie knows that nothing good happens in a cabin in the woods, and this Max/Investigation Discovery series proves that the rule applies to real life too. The atrocities and murdered featured in each episode of this true crime show all happened in creepy, woodsy shacks.

If Cabin in the Woods isn’t enough true crime for you, ID and Max are also premiering How (Not) to Get Rid of a Body and The Real Murders on Elm Street in September.

Starts streaming September 9.

I Saw the TV Glow (2024)

Director Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) continues her examination of the dread and terror that hide behind the pixels in the digital world with I Saw the TV Glow, a psychological horror film about a sinister late-night television show called The Pink Opaque. Produced by A24, I Saw the TV Glow is one of those “elevated” horror movies, so if you’re a horror fan with more than two brain cells to rub together, give it a shot.

Starts streaming September 20.

Harry Potter-mania

Put on your robe and wizard hat: Max is overloading its digital streams with Harry Potter in September, offering all eight Harry Potter movies, plus the “magical movie mode” version of Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone that contains directors’ commentary, deleted scenes, trivia quizzes and more.

Here’s the full list of films:

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)

• Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone: Magical Movie Mode (2001)

Starts streaming September 1.