All The Cool Stuff Coming To Hulu In October 2022
Of course October being Halloween month means Hulu offers scary tales or other stories honoring the season. So this month includes a Halloween special featuring the “Solar Opposites” crew, a remake of “Hellraiser” with “Sense 8”’s Jamie Clayton as Pinhead, and the long-awaited anime version of “Chainsaw Man.”
Among the non-scare-oriented offerings on Hulu this month are several intriguing treats. Pedro Almodovar fans new and old can check out several of the director’s classics, including “All About My Mother.” American viewers who mainly associate actor Peter Capaldi with his memorable turn as “Doctor Who” can see a different side of his talents as he plays gay embittered anti-war poet Siegfried Sassoon. Or learn from a docuseries co-executive produced by Tracee Ellis Ross and Oprah Winfrey why Black women’s concern about their hair involves far more than apparent vanity.
So whether you feel like “doing The Time Warp” or finally seeing “Schitt’s Creek,” Hulu’s October offerings promise to surprise you in a good way.
Broken Embraces
October 1
Berserk–The Golden Age Arc Complete Season 1—This new adaptation of Kentarou Miura’s medieval dark fantasy manga covers the same material as the 1997 anime TV series. Lone-wolf warrior Guts winds up being forced to join the mercenary group The Band Of The Hawk Griffith, leader of the group, fights on behalf of the Midland Empire in its Hundred Years War against the Tudor Empire. Guts slowly goes from hostility towards the Band’s leader to doing whatever it takes to become Griffith’s friend. Yet how true is a demon’s claim that Griffith will bring doom to Guts?
Broken Embraces–Why does former film director (and now blind writer) Mateo Blanco take the name of Harry Caine? Why does Caine hate film producer Ernesto Martel with a passion? What role does former prostitute Lena (Penelope Cruz) play in what happened to Blanco? Who is the mysterious Ray X who hires Caine to write a screenplay? If you like director Pedro Almodovar’s cinematic nod to Hitchcock, why not check out some of his other films screening this month on Hulu, including “All About My Mother” and “The Skin I Live In?”
Dear White People–Justin Simien’s critically acclaimed indie dark comedy takes a look at race relations at the predominantly white Winchester College. The film’s title is the name of a radio show hosted by Samantha “Sam” White (Tessa Thompson) where she regularly reads white people for racist filth. But it’s when Sam runs to become head of a traditionally Black residence hall that racial tensions at Winchester begin spiraling out of control. Soon, Black classism, colorism, and even some good old fashioned white racism start rearing their unwelcome heads. A sign of the effectiveness of Simien’s film is its having an IMDB score showing the marks of white snowflake racist review-bombing.
I Saw The Devil–This Korean revenge drama begins with a night-time encounter between Joo-Yun and the very creepy Kyung Chul (Choi Min-sik, “Oldboy”) that ends with Joo-Yun being brutally murdered. So-Hyun, a National Intelligence Service agent and Joo-Yun’s fiance, learns of her death and swears he’ll inflict 1000x worse pain on the person who did this. And the agent does find his fiancee’s killer and beats him unconscious. So why does Kyung Chul wake up later still very much alive and with a cash-filled envelope nearby? Perhaps So-Hyun’s revenge is actually just beginning…
I Saw The Devil
The Rocky Horror Picture Show–The movie musical that’s a Midnight Movie classic. Watching this alone at home may be far less fun than singing along to its songs in a roomful of fellow weirdos. The least memorable part of this film may be its storyline of “clean cut Brad and Janet (Susan Sarandon) get deliriously corrupted by a night spent with Dr. Frank N. Furter (Tim Curry) and his band of merry ‘degenerates.’” But all is forgiven since the film contains such immortal pop culture songs as “Science Fiction/Double Feature” and “The Time Warp.” .
October 3
RBG—The late Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had a career that went from courtroom trailblazer on gender equity issues to pop culture icon. If all you know about the Notorious RBG is based on Kate McKinnon’s “Saturday Night Live” impressions of her, let Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s cinematic biography fill you in on the life and career of this revered judge. Where else will you learn that Ginsburg’s adult children kept count of the number of times their mother laughed?
Schitt’s Creek–If you’ve never seen the hit comedy co-created by Eugene and Dan Levy, what are you waiting for? Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy) heads the highly successful Rose Video store empire, which has made his family incredibly wealthy. That is, until their business manager defrauds the Roses and steals practically all their assets. The only thing the Roses have left is the provincial Ontario town known as Schitt’s Creek, a joke birthday gift Johnny bought for his son David (Dan Levy). The formerly wealthy family moves into adjoining rooms in the town’s run-down motel. But how much friction will result from the Roses’ entitled attitudes clashing with the town residents’ more provincial behavior?
A Sinister Halloween Scary Opposites Solar Special—Following up on its winter holiday special, “Solar Opposites” returns with a Halloween special showing the spookiness of alien life. Expect to see the series’ Shlorpian quartet (who’s stranded in American suburbia) encounter resurrected corpses, dark science fiction magic, and a secret government agency devoted to “busting ghosts.” Will viewers see the Pupa dressed as a skeleton or Korvo trying to pass himself off as a vampire? Tune in and find out.
October 5
Mob Psycho 100 Season 3–The new season of this anime adaptation of the popular manga arrives under a cloud of union hostility on the part of anime streamer Crunchyroll. For those unfamiliar with the series, Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama may look like an ordinary 8th-grader. But he secretly possesses incredible psychic abilities tied to his emotional state, leading him to suppress his emotions as much as possible to keep everybody around him safe. Inevitably, though, his inner emotions reach the 100% level, leading to his displaying incredible psychic abilities. This season, Mob’s graduated from school but isn’t sure what he wants to do with his life. Complicating matters is a strange cult which worships somebody who looks an awful lot like Mob..
October 6
Surreal Estate Season 1—Luke Roman (Tim Rozon, “Wynonna Earp”) is a real estate agent who specializes in selling haunted houses. He must exorcise these houses so they can be sold at market rate or better. But doing these exorcisms means figuring out the best way to stop these hauntings. Can Roman make a living while doing right by the people who just want a place to live?
October 7
Hellraiser
Hellraiser–This reboot of Clive Barker’s 1980s horror film franchise once again adapts the Barker tale “The Hellbound Heart.” Riley is a young woman struggling with her addiction problems. But life’s about to get a lot worse for her when she comes across an ancient puzzle box. The addict doesn’t realize solving the box’s puzzle summons to Earth the sadistic supernatural creatures known as Cenobites, who live to torture the unwary fools who call them. Leading the Cenobites is Pinhead (Jamie Clayton, “Sense 8”).
October 10
Grimcutty–What happens when an Internet meme about a monster that attacks children comes to violent life? Asha and Kamran Chaudhry are suburban teens who hear of media attention over the Internet meme known as the Grimcutty. This monster allegedly preys on children, which is information that causes more than a few parents to get paranoid about the welfare of their kids. What the adults don’t realize is their paranoia triggers the monster’s coming to life. And unfortunately, the Grimcutty’s only visible to the kids it’s attacking…
October 11
Chainsaw Man Season 1–In this hotly anticipated adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga of the same name, teenage Denji unwillingly lives with a Chainsaw Devil named Pochita. Denji’s late dad left behind a humongous debt that’s being repaid by the teen helping Pochita harvest devil corpses. Needless to say, life already sucks for Denji. Then things get worse when he’s betrayed and killed. But thanks to a deal with Pochita, the teen’s reborn as Chainsaw Man, the man with a devil’s heart. Get ready for bloody high octane action to follow.
October 14
Rosaline–Kaitlyn Dever (“Dopesick”) stars in this adaptation of Rebecca Serle’s “When You Were Mine.” Dever plays the title character, a young woman who feels she’s finally found The One in her romantic life. But that’s before Rosaline’s beau spots her cousin, dumps her, and becomes instantly obsessed with his new object of desire. Dever’s character is determined to break up this new romance and win back her beau. The only trouble is, the romance Rosaline’s trying to break up is the one between THE Romeo and Juliet.
October 15
My Friend Dahmer—This adaptation of John “Derf” Backderf’s autobiographical graphic novel tells the story of how in high school Derf and his fellow outsider nerd friends let lonely weirdo Jeff Dahmer become their group mascot. Dahmer was encouraged by Derf and his friends to amuse them by publicly pretending to have epileptic fits and freak out people. But did the cruelty of Derf and his friends help send an already weird loner over the edge and lay the pathway for Dahmer’s later notoriety as a serial killer?
My Friend Dahmer
October 16
Benediction–Writer/director Terence Davies’ (“Sunset Song”) new film is a biopic of anti-war poet Siegfried Sassoon at two points of his life. During World War I, Sassoon’s (Jack Lowden) refusal to return to the front results in his being forcibly committed to a mental hospital to treat his “breakdown.” There, the poet meets and falls in love with fellow anti-war poet Wilfred Owen. However, circumstances will doom this relationship. Years later, a far older and more bitter Sassoon (Peter Capaldi, “Doctor Who”) engages in a series of emotionally abusive love affairs with other men. But why is the married and previously agnostic Sassoon planning to join the Catholic Church?
October 17
The Paloni Show! Halloween Special!–Animator Justin Roiland (“Solar Opposites”) dusts off and revamps an old rejected Fox Animation Domination show pitch. The Palonis host a comedy variety show out of their home’s living room. However, Leroy (Roiland) has his hosting duties constantly disrupted by fast-talking little brother Reggie. Middle child Cheruce (Pamela Adlon, “Better Things”) isn’t particularly willing to help maintain the peace given that her brothers ignore every suggestion she has for the show. In between the show’s bizarre comedy bits, the Palonis offer spooky shorts from up-and-coming animators.
October 20
Annabelle: Creation–This prequel to the horror film “Annabelle” takes viewers to 1957, when a couple’s act of charity sparks terror for a group of orphan girls. When the St. Eustace orphanage closes, former toy maker Samuel Mullins and his wife Esther offer their farm house as a place to stay for Sister Charlotte and her six charges. However, a sinister secret supposedly safely sealed away in a locked bedroom has come back to life, and it’s now targeting the orphans.
Bitterbrush–In Emelie Mahdavian’s low-key documentary, friends Hollyn and Colie are two young women who’ve taken on the seasonal job of herding cattle off a mountain range. Why would these two women take on this hard and lonely job? It’s in the quiet moments that the viewers will get such clues as a mother lost to an aneurysm, a deep connection to the land, and their own sense of isolation.
October 22
The Hair Tales–”Every Black woman has a personal and defining story that involves her hair.” In this docuseries executive produced in part by Tracee Ellis Ross (“Black-ish”) and Oprah Winfrey, the viewer will get a layered personal and universal look into the complex culture of Black hair. How is it tied to Black women’s self-acceptance and societal contributions? Helping to answer this question are such guests as Winfrey herself, Issa Rae, and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.
October 24
Beba
Beba–In director/subject Rebecca Huntt’s unusual personal documentary, her uncovering of her family’s troubled past and her own personal pain proves key to moving into her future. Through recounting of such things as her father’s narrow escape from ethnic cleansing and encounters with clueless white liberals, Huntt uses her film as a medium for personal healing. October Hulu’s under the radar must-see.
October 25
The French Dispatch–Wes Anderson’s newest star-studded comic anthology film is an offbeat homage to the days of The New Yorker magazine under editor Harold Ross’ direction. The title refers to a magazine published by the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun out of the small French town of Ennui-sur-Blase. When editor Arthur Howitzer, Jr. (Bill Murray) dies suddenly of a heart attack, his will requests that one final farewell issue of The French Dispatch be assembled and published. The articles making up this “issue” are “The Cycling Reporter” (Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson) takes the reader on a cycling tour of Ennui-sur-Blase), “The Concrete Masterpiece” (Imprisoned mentally disturbed artist Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio del Toro) becomes an art world sensation….just as he’s hit a humungous creative block), “Revisions To A Manifesto” (Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand) becomes a little too intimately involved in her coverage of the local students’ Chessboard Revolution), and “The Private Dining Room Of The Police Commissioner” (Lt. Nescaffier’s (Stephen Park) culinary skills at creating working police officers haute cuisine proves key in foiling the kidnapping of the police commissioner’s son);
October 31
Crimes Of The Future–David Cronenberg’s newest film is set in a future where humanity has gained the mutant ability to grow unknown organs and tumors inside the body, but at the cost of losing the ability to feel pain. Some people have used this situation to turn surgery into the new sex. Others have used this mutational process to develop an ability to eat industrial waste. But for rebel artist Saul Tenser (Viggo Mortensen) and creative partner/ex-trauma surgeon Caprice (Lea Seydoux), they’ve turned this situation into public performances where Tenser pushes and molds his body via Caprice’s surgery into a bizarre form of art.
The Way Way Back–Yes, this is a coming of age film in the subgenre The Summer That Changed Everything. What makes it work are performances by such actors as Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, and Alison Janney. Teenage Duncan is extremely self-conscious about how he appears to others. A summer vacation with his divorced mother Pam (Collette) and her quietly domineering boyfriend Trent (Carell) promises to be an endurance exercise. That’s when Duncan gets his first job at the Water Wizz water park, run by the funny and flaky Owen (Rockwell). It will be Owen’s goofy mentorship that slowly allows Duncan to feel more comfortable in his skin.
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