Spooky and/or scary programming makes an early pre-Halloween appearance on Hulu this month. Domesticity unsuitability leads a newlywed wife in a definitely feral direction.  Nicolas Cage gets his H.P. Lovecraft on thanks to  an adaptation of one of Lovecraft’s classic horror stories.  A documentary asks if an encounter with legendary little people can lead a man to murder.  Those preferring some laughter with their scares should check out Paul Feig’s unfairly review-bombed all-female Ghostbusters movie.

Hulu also lives up to the September TV tradition of series returns and series debuts.  Among the series returns are shows ranging from “Only Murders In The Building” to “Bob’s Burgers.”  But debut of the month honors belong to Sterlin Harjo’s follow-up to “Reservation Dogs.”  It’s set in Tulsa, Oklahoma and stars Ethan Hawke as the city’s “truthstorian.”

Not in either of the above categories this month are such things as a charming anime about high school insomniacs or a documentary about the early days of the Lilith Fair music festival.  Whatever you choose, Hulu shows once again why it’s often deserving of your streaming time. 

Blood & Myth–A remote northern Alaska Inupiaq village is shaken by a string of bloody violent attacks.  The matter seems solved when the perpetrator turns out to be successful Inupiaq actor Teddy Kyle Smith.  Yet the actor claims his actions were guided by the sinister “little people” known as the Inukans.  The Western legal system dismisses Smith’s assertion as either a lie or a delusion.  But to the Inupiaq, the Inukan exist.  To find answers, the film's director will make a yearslong journey through uncharted Alaskan wilderness.

Call Me By Your Name–Luca Gudagnino’s ravishing adaptation of Andre Aciman’s novel made Timothee Chalamet a household name.  It’s the story of an eventful summer spent by precocious 17-year-old teen Elio Perlman (Chalamet) at his family's Italian villa in Lombardy.  Joining the Perlmans at their villa is handsome doctoral student Oliver (Armie Hammer), who’s working as an intern for Elio’s father.  As the days pass, desire grows between Elio and Oliver.  Whether it’ll become a full-blown relationship may depend on factors Elio isn’t aware of…yet.

Evil Dead Rise–Director Lee Cronin helms this return to the world of the iconic film “Evil Dead.”  How does Jessica go from vacationing in a lakeside cabin with her boyfriend Caleb and her cousin Teresa to slaughtering her companions and suddenly levitating?  The answer begins with a Los Angeles earthquake which reveals the existence of a volume of the Naturom Demonto.  Soon people in the apartment building where the buried book is discovered must soon fend off an attack by demonic entities known as Deadites.

The New Boy–In 1940s Australia, a nine-year-old Aboriginal orphan is captured and taken to a remote monastery dedicated to raising orphaned Aboriginals.  The monastery is run by Sister Eileen (Cate Blanchett), who’s dedicated herself to erasing her charges’ indigenous roots and embracing Christ.  But what does it mean when the new orphan starts displaying mysterious powers including Christ-like stigmata on his hands?

O Brother, Where Art Thou?--The Coen Brothers’ loose musical comedy re-telling of  “The Odyssey” turns 25 this year.  In Depression-era Mississippi, convict Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney) convinces fellow chain gang convicts Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) to join him in escaping and taking part in a treasure hunt.  But the trio’s path to the “treasure” leads to such perils as a sinister one-eyed Bible salesman (John Goodman) and a near-fatal hanging.  The three escaped convicts also find time to record (incognito) what will become a hit song.

School Of Rock–When guitarist Dewey Finn (Jack Black) gets kicked out of his band No Vacancy for one too many wild stage antics, he desperately needs a way to raise the money to pay off his months overdue back rent.  Salvation comes via an intercepted phone call offering his roommate Ned Schneebly (Mike White) a substitute teacher gig, Finn originally posed as his friend so he can raise money.  What happens when he realizes he now has the raw materials to challenge his treacherous ex-bandmates in No Vacancy?  Richard Linklater helmed this film, which wound up inspiring a popular musical and a TV show.

Only Murders In The Building Season 5–The hit mystery comedy series returns as our true-crime podcaster friends/detectives must now solve the mystery of who killed their apartment building’s doorman.  Guest star suspects this season include a high society arbiter of good taste in decor (Renee Zewelleger), an AI advancement wizard obsessed with life extension (Christoph Waltz), and a nepo baby from an insanely wealthy NYC family (Logan Lerman). 

Sister Midnight–Uma and Gopal may be newlyweds through an arranged marriage.   Living  together in Gopal’s shack in the Mumbai slums soon reveals cracks in the marriage.  Uma finds the housewife’s life boring, and Gopal is too much of a wimp to be useful.  Uma’s quest for stimulation leads her to associate with people as marginalized as her.  More importantly, she winds up embracing her feral side with violent results.      

Color Out Of Space–In this adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s famed horror tale, Nathan Gardner’s (Nicolas Cage) moving his family to his late father's farm may not have been the wisest move.  A mysterious brightly colored meteor crashes near the farm’s well, and something in the meteor has contaminated the land’s groundwater.  Unfortunately for the Gardners, they’ve already ingested the groundwater, which changes their behavior in strange ways.  Accidental severing of fingers, time mysteriously passing instantaneously, and phone communication trouble are just some of the weird phenomena bedeviling the family's members.  Will it take a painful ritual from the Necronomicon to set things right?

Swallow–Lower working class Hunter thinks she’s hit the jackpot by marrying wealthy Richie Conrad.  Yet married life turns out to be stifling and isolating for Hunter thanks to Richie’s emotional distance.  One day, she impulsively eats a marble.  This turns out to be the first of many inedible objects the pregnant woman will enjoy consuming.  Pica is the name of the mental disorder Hunter has.  But what solution will work for her?  

Tempest–Who tried to assassinate a South Korean presidential candidate?  When respected diplomat Mun Ju finds links between the incident and both North and South Korea, she gets sucked into a dangerous web of secrets.  An unexpected ally comes in the form of taciturn elite mercenary San Ho.  But what happens when the trail of guilt points all the way to the White House?

Werewolves Within–This horror comedy adapts Red Storm Entertainment’s titular video game.  Shortly after arriving at his new posting in the small Vermont town of Beaverfield, new forest ranger Finn Wheeler gets trapped along with Beaverfield’s other residents in the village’s motor/hunting lodge by a blackout and a snowstorm.  However, it soon turns out the blackout wasn’t an accident, and one of the people in the lodge is secretly a werewolf.  Can Finn find the predator among the residents?  Or will long-simmering bad blood lead to all of them getting killed?

The Shallows–Blake Lively stars in this taut suspense thriller directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (“Orphan”). Medical school dropout Nancy Adams (Lively) tries to process her athletic mother’s recent death by surfing at a “secret” Mexican beach visited by her mother decades ago.  But the bliss Nancy’s wrapped in from surfing alone soon turns to terror when she gets bitten by a great white shark.  The good news is she finds safety on a giant rock, and her medical training helps her deal with her shark bite injuries.  The bad news is Nancy is stranded alone 200 yards from shore, and the shark keeps circling her rock hoping to make a full meal of her.

Drumline–When talented Harlem street drummer Devon Miles (Nick Cannon) gets recruited for the Atlanta A&T marching band, his raw talent gives the school a feasible chance of beating longtime rival Morris Brown University at an annual marching band competition.  However, MIles’ hotshot showboating soon makes enemies out of the wrong people and even threatens his relationship with dance major Laila (Zoe Saldana).

Insomniacs After School—Nanao high school student Ganta Nakami’s irritability at school has a simple cause.  He’s an insomniac who needs a place for a daytime nap.  An abandoned observatory once used by the now-defunct school Astronomy Club makes the perfect napping spot thanks to school rumors of the observatory being haunted.  It turns out free-spirited Isaki Magari is both an insomniac and also uses the observatory for the same purpose as Nakami.  However, school authorities deeply frown at what they consider an unsanctioned use of school property.  So if the duo want to keep their hideout, they’ll need to restart the Astronomy Club.

Futurama Season 13–Unlike previous seasons, the new season of Hulu episodes will drop all at once.  For the newbies, lowly delivery dweeb Fry winds up in the future, where the world in some ways offers new spins on present day problems.  This new season will see Bender trying to make himself gigantic, people suddenly floating up into the sky, and a conspiracy theory about the local pizzeria’s basement.  

High Potential Season 2–Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson) may look like an ordinary cleaning lady and single mother with three kids.  When it’s discovered by the LAPD that she has genius-level IQ, she becomes a consultant to their Major Crimes Unit.  As the new season begins, the hunt is really on for the brilliant and elusive criminal known as the Game Maker, now that he might have targeted Morgan and her family.  There’s a lead on the whereabouts of Morgan’s ex-, daughter Ava’s long-absent father.  And a new captain leads the unit, somebody who’s less judgmental of Morgan’s presence.  

Reasonable Doubt Season 3–After the events of season 2 (dealing with an affair’s fallout and trying to save her best friend from life in prison), criminal defense attorney Jax Stewart feels she’s earned some peace in her life.  Boredom from a drama-free environment compels Stewart to take a new case involving a former child star named Ozzie who’s gotten into a lot of trouble.  But that’s to be expected, as the lawyer unfortunately discovers Ozzie’s personal life is filled with tabloid fodder drama.  On top of the Ozzie problem. there’s a charismatic associate who’s gunning to usurp Stewart’s place at the firm…

Lilith Fair: Building A Mystery—Back in the 1990s, it was considered “conventional wisdom” (read: institutionalized sexism) that audiences would not sit through or listen to two female artists in a row.  Canadian superstar artist Sarah McLachlan strongly thought otherwise.  After a successful dry run tour with Paula Cole, McLachlan debuted in 1997 the all-female artist music festival known as Lilith Fair.  For three years, audiences were treated to performances by such legendary artists as Tracy Chapman, Pat Benatar, and Sheryl Crow.  As Ally Pankiw’s riveting documentary shows, those shows left an impact that hasn’t dimmed despite the passage of decades.

Doc Season 2–Thanks to a severe car accident, chief of internal medicine Amy Larsen (Molly Parker) loses her memories of the last eight years of her life. She’s forced to start over again as an intern because she’s no longer qualified to be a doctor.  On top of all that, she’s forgotten that both her ex-husband and current lover work at the same hospital.  As the new season begins, Larsen’s mentor Dr. Joan Ridley (Felicity Huffman) takes over Larsen’s old position on a supposedly temporary basis, but there are signs she wants the arrangement to be more permanent.  Meanwhile, has Larsen’s amnesia also resulted in the re-kindling of her feelings for her ex-husband? 

FX The Lowdown–Sterlin Harjo, creator of “Reservation Dogs,” debuts his neo-noir follow-up series set in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke) calls himself a “Tulsa truthstorian.”  He may operate out of a used bookstore, but he’s also a local investigative reporter.  His newest investigation begins with the supposed suicide of Dale Washberg (Tim Blake Nelson), the black sheep of the powerful and wealthy Washberg family.  Raybon’s already reported on the Washbergs’ shady past.  Dale’s death comes as suspiciously good news for Donnie Washberg’s (Kyle MacLachlan) campaign to plant his behind in the Oklahoma governor’s mansion.  Yet Dale Washberg’s death turns out to be a McGuffin for the series’ real focus on depicting Tulsa and the oddballs who call it home.  

Murder In A Small Town Season 2–Karl Alberg is a big city detective who’s taken a new job as  police chief of Gibsons, British Columbia.  But it doesn’t mean he’s stopped dealing with murders and other capital crimes.  Fortunately, he’s helped in his investigations by librarian Cassandra Lee (Kristin Kreuk).  In this new longer season, a long buried murder case in the town gets revealed to be connected to other murders taking place over the last ten years.  Meanwhile, Lee’s decision to run for the town council complicates both her crime-solving partnership and her personal relationship with Alberg.  One of the episodes features the last performance by the late Michael Jamal-Warner.  The show is adapted from L.R. Wright’s novel series.

Ghostbusters: Answer The Call–Paul Feig’s entertaining take on the classic supernatural comedy unfortunately got review-bombed by sexist man-babies.  That’s because the titular characters are all played by women: Melissa McCarthy, Kristin Wiig, Kate McKinnon (the film's hilarious scene-stealer), and Leslie Jones.  The general premise is the same: a pair of physicists try to prove ghosts exist in Manhattan, and chaos erupts in the course of their efforts to contain these spectres.  Watch such great moments as an Ozzy Osbourne cameo, Kristin Wiig futilely telling NYC’s mayor not to be the mayor from “Jaws,” and Kate McKinnon kicking supernatural ass and taking names.

The Man In My Basement–In this adaptation of Walter Mosley’s titular novel, lonely and unemployed Charles Blakey’s in danger of losing his family's old Sag Harbor home.  Financial salvation comes via Anniston Bennet (Willem Dafoe), who wants to rent Blakey’s basement for a huge sum of money.  When Blakey discovers some possible antique African tribal masks in the basement, is there a connection between his find and Bennet’s unusual tenancy?

Bob’s Burgers Season 16–It’s a new season of animated misadventures for the Belcher clan, who run the titular burger business.  In the new season, expect to see a forced family walk and a wild night at a casino.  The kids strike it rich in the school’s illegal snack business.  And Linda learns much more about her late grandfather than she wanted.

Death In Apartment 603: What Happened To Ellen Greenberg?--This true crime docuseries revisits the 2011 demise of 27-year-old teacher Ellen Greenberg.  She was found dead on the kitchen floor of her Philadelphia apartment with 20 knife wounds and 11 bruises.  A reasonable person would suspect murder, yet the Philadelphia police officially labelled Greenberg’s death a suicide…twice.  Greenberg’s parents fight to re-open the investigation.  But an equally pertinent question is who benefits from the Philadelphia police declaring the teacher’s death a suicide and why?

Vermeil In Gold–In this anime series, student Alto Goldfield opens a centuries-old book used to imprison “the greatest calamity in the world.”  That “calamity” turns out to be a devil known as Vermeil, whom Goldfield wants as his magical familiar.. But is this female devil truly a force for evil who destroyed her childhood home?  Or is she someone traumatized for centuries by the consequences of her past mistakes?

Chad Powers—Russ Holliday (Glen Powell) was once a star college football player until a mistake he made after some public showboating allowed the other team to win a crucial game.  With his football career torched, Holliday drops out of sight for eight years.  One day, the disgraced former player learns that South Georgia is holding team tryouts.  Determined to fulfill his “thwarted” college potential, Holliday disguises himself as newbie Chad Powers to try out for the team.  Will Holliday’s plan succeed?  Or will some reasonable person notice that Powers is wearing a very obvious prosthetic disguise?