Halloween thrills and The White Lotus returns: Here’s what to stream on Netflix, Crave and more this week

With so many different streaming platforms and cable offerings to navigate, choosing what to watch has never been harder. To make things easier, here are our best tune-in tips for the week ahead.

TUESDAY

Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities

From the mind of horror specialist and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro and just in time for Halloween comes this eight-episode creep fest that promises to “challenge our traditional notions of horror” with “genre-defining stories.” Some notable actors involved in the project include Andrew Lincoln (“The Walking Dead”), Rupert Grint (“Harry Potter”) and Crispin Glover (“American Gods”). The series doesn’t appear to be serialized with all of the episodes served up as standalones. Apparently, each chapter features someone who has the misfortune of crossing paths with a monster, a murderer or something else entirely.

Netflix

WEDNESDAY

Barbarian

The pick of the week is one of the best movies of 2022, available to stream despite only being theatrically released in September. With only a $4-million budget, the film has already drawn $41 million at the box office and is widely regarded as the top sleeper film of the year. To say too much about the movie would ruin the surprise, but a young woman discovers that the Airbnb she booked is already housing another renter when she arrives. Let’s just say that is the least of her problems. The movie is absolutely fantastic; scary but not terrifying, surprising, shocking and incredibly original. The best treat for you this Halloween, but please don’t watch it with the kids.

Disney Plus

The Good Nurse

After debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, this gripping thriller is available to stream. It’s about nurse and single mother Amy (played by Jessica Chastain) who suffers from a heart condition and finds solace in the arms of a new co-worker named Charlie (Eddie Redmayne) in the ICU where she is employed. After a friendship sparks, a series of mysterious deaths in the hospital reveal a sinister scheme with Charlie as the main suspect.

Netflix

FRIDAY

Drink Masters

If you have been waiting for a reality show about mixology, the wait is over. And that’s not even the best part. This cocktail competition is Canadian. “Drink Masters” invites 12 contestants from across North America to complete time-based challenges. While the series invites bartenders from New York City, San Francisco and Las Vegas to compete, it is entirely shot in Hamilton, Ont.

Netflix

I Am a Stalker

Netflix is known for timing the releases of disturbing scripted series with documentary-style “real” versions. It did it with Zac Efron playing Ted Bundy in “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile” and “Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes”; and, more recently, “Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” and “Conversations With A Killer: The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes.” Now, after releasing “The Watcher” earlier this month, a true story of a family in New Jersey dealing with a stalker who sent them horrifying letters, new series “I Am a Stalker” profiles some of the most notorious examples of this type of criminal, who tell the audience what turned their love into a deadly obsession.

Netflix

Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues

This new documentary offers an intimate look at the man long regarded as one of the founding fathers of jazz music. The film shows how Louis Armstrong lived through the shift from the Civil War to the civil rights movement and how his music served as a lightning rod during an uncertain time.

Apple TV Plus

The Devil’s Hour

Jessica Raine plays Lucy in this new series about a woman who is wakened by frightening visions every morning at 3:33 a.m. (during what’s known as the devil’s hour). Lucy’s eight-year-old son becomes increasingly withdrawn while Lucy’s mother begins to talk to empty chairs. The mystery becomes clearer when Lucy is linked to a series of murders.

Prime Video

Across and Down

Crossword puzzles have been around for more than 100 years. Despite that, women, Indigenous people, minorities and LGBTQ communities have often been ignored in puzzle bylines, clues and solutions. This new film follows a group of passionate crossworders (known as cruciverbalists) as they fight to improve representation in the puzzle. What’s a 10-letter word for activism? Crosswords.

9 p.m. EDT, CBC & CBC Gem

SUNDAY

The White Lotus

Fresh off its recent Emmy dominance (it won 10 awards including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series), HBO’s “The White Lotus” returns for its sophomore season. The latest instalment of the vacation-based satire is set at an exclusive Sicilian resort. Emmy winner Jennifer Coolidge reprises her role as Tanya McQuoid but is likely the only regular returnee from the first season (barring a few surprise cameos). New cast members include Michael Imperioli, Aubrey Plaza and Theo James.

9 p.m., Crave

Murtz Jaffer is a Toronto-based entertainment writer and a freelance contributor for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @murtzjaffer

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