We get two big literary adaptations this week in the form of Mike Flanagan’s TV series version of Stephen King’s Carrie and the Florence Pugh-led miniseries rendition of John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. Plus, there’s the VOD debut of dinosaur blockbuster The End of Oak Street, and more!

SERIES

East of Eden

1 October 2026 – Netflix

Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck’s classic 1952 novel, East of Eden, gets a fresh new retelling in this seven-episode limited series adaptation by exec producer Zoe Kazan. Oscar nominee Florence Pugh stars as Cathy Ames, Steinbeck’s indelible antihero who, in the early 1900s, in spurred on by her fierce independence to drive a rift between two brothers – Adam (Christopher Abbott) and Charles Trask (Mike Faist) – igniting a saga that unfolds across two generations. Bookended by the American Civil War and World War I, East of Eden is both a portrait of a family as well as a rapidly changing society in which men and women must navigate difficult decisions. Ciarán Hinds, Hoon Lee, Martha Plimpton co-star.

Small Prophets S1

7 October 2026 – Apple TV+

Weird and bittersweet, Small Prophets is a comic tale of the eccentric Michael Sleep whose darling Clea disappeared seven years ago. One day, his father shares an old recipe involving rainwater, horse manure and more than a little alchemy. With recipe in hand, Michael sets out to create homunculi – magical spirits that can predict the future – in the hope they have the answer to his question: “will I ever see Clea again?”

Carrie S1

7 October 2026 – Prime Video

For many people, the name Mike Flanagan is enough to get them to watch something. I would know. I am them. With the likes of The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, Doctor Sleep, Gerald’s Game, and more, Flanagan has proven his himself above and beyond when it comes to telling horror stories that also pack an emotional wallop. And now, he’s back with another adaptation of a classic Stephen King novel in the form of Carrie. King’s 1974 novel already has one famous adaptation in director Brian De Palma’s 1976 feature film starring Sissy Spacek as the titular bullied high schooler who discovers she has mental powers. This time around Carrie is getting the full series treatment as Flanagan’s effort is an eight-episode miniseries that modernizes King’s tale. Summer H. Howell stars as the timid Carrie White, while frequent Flanagan collaborator Samantha Sloyan stars as her overprotective mother Margaret White. Siena Agudong, Alison Thornton, Joel Oulette, Josie Totah, Arthur Conti, Thalia Dudek, Amber Midthunder, and Matthew Lillard co-star.

Below S1

8 October 2026 – Netflix

There’s something in the water and I’m not just talking about the microplastics. Josh Hartnett stars in Below, a new horror-thriller series set in a small coastal town in Newfoundland. Hartnett plays Calvin Penney, a big-hearted but stubborn local fisherman who’s still haunted by his father’s mysterious death from decades ago. When an unidentified sea creature begins terrorizing his hometown, Calvin must fight to hold his close-knit community together. Determined to keep his son Wade (Charlie Heaton) and the rest of his family safe, he teams up with a visiting marine researcher (Mackenzie Davis) to confront the creature and reveal the island’s buried secrets before it’s too late.

MOVIES

Livestream from Hell

1 October 2026 – Prime Video

If you’ve had enough of streamers and want to see them get their comeuppance, then Livestream from Hell may just be the movie for you! This mockumentary style horror comedy sees Kevin Hart teaming with fellow comedian Druski and streamer Kai Cenat to play fictionalized versions of themselves in a scary whodunnit. When the trio host a record-breaking livestream at Hart’s teched-out mansion, filled with pranks on unsuspecting guests, the mirth quickly turns to murder though when things go completely off the rails as a killer strikes among them… all caught on camera.

RENTALS/PURCHASES

The following movies have recently become available for digital purchase/rental:

The End of Oak Street

Purchase: Apple TV – R200

Rental: Apple TV – R170

I wasn’t sure what to expect from David Robert Mitchell after the filmmaker’s breakout horror hit It Follows, but a full-on Spielbergian action adventure that’s arguably the best dinosaur movie since the original Jurassic Park trilogy was certainly not on my Bingo card. Starring Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway, The End of Oak Street follows Greg and Denise Platt, happily married with two kids in 1980s American suburbia. But while everything may look great for the Platts, behind closed doors there all kinds of familial drama bubbling just under the surface. All of that has to pushed aside though when the family and their entire corner of their neighbourhood find themselves inexplicably transported back in time to the age of dinosaurs. What ensues is “the movie equivalent of a theme park ride” as Noelle put it in her 8/10 review, adding that while it’s “not always smart”, The End of Oak Street “delivers the entertainment goods in a refreshingly efficient, impactful and back-to-basics way”.