The 15 best films coming to Prime Video in October 2022

Following the phenomenal success of Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976), audiences couldn’t get enough of evil children possessed by demonic creatures. For a slightly obscure entry in this surprisingly deep subgenre, check out 1977’s somewhat-cornball-but-also-kinda-creepy Audrey Rose, starring Marsha Mason and John Beck as parents who meet a strange man (played by Anthony Hopkins, no less) who becomes convinced their daughter is a reincarnation of his deceased daughter. While the film tries to present itself as a horror film, it’s really a bit more savvy than that; in fact, it was directed by Robert Wise, best known for West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965). In a review for the Los Angeles Free Press, Ruth Batchelor praised Wise’s skillful direction, saying he “supplies ample suspense, which is not easy because there can be no screaming scenes while the dialogue and explanations are taking place.”

George Stevens’ 1953 Western Shane is considered a classic Western, the story of a mysterious gunslinger named Shane (Alan Ladd) who cruises into a sleepy Wyoming town looking to change to less dangerous work by becoming a farmhand. He connects with Joe Starrett (Van Heflin) who hires Shane on before becoming embroiled in a battle between an ornery cattle baron (Emile Meyer) and the generally amicable townsfolk. One reason Shane is such an exemplary Western is that, it turns the macho tradition of the gunslinger Western on its head. Shane doesn’t want trouble, but that struggle bubbles to the surface as we, along with Shane, wonder when—and if—an ol’ cowboy can make a change. In a review for his “Great Movies” series, Roger Ebert details the issues Shane faces, observing the power in the choice for the whole movie to “build to the inescapable fact that Shane must eventually face Wilson and the other gunmen. If Shane is still alive afterward, he will have to leave town.”

While there have been horrific elements in the films of Martin Scorsese, the venerated master had never really done a full-on horror film until 2010’s Shutter Island. Upon its release critics, critics dug it but audiences were left cold and confused by the tricky narrative. That Scorsese also went full-on Val Lewton or William Castle didn’t help audiences unaccustomed to that kind of gothic classicism from him. Leonardo DiCaprio plays U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels, who is sent to Ashcliffe Hospital to investigate the seemingly impossible escape of a high-profile patient. But the investigation spirals in a different direction than Daniels—and the audience—can predict. Shutter Island is a classic case of “if you didn’t like it the first time, try it again,” as multiple viewings will be rewarded. In an A- review for The A.V. Club, Scott Tobias said, “What begins as a simple missing-person procedural slowly morphs into full-on psychological horror, as more disturbing revelations come to pass and the stress on DiCaprio starts eating away at his nerves.”

With Kevin Smith back in movie news of late with his final (or simply latest) installment of the Clerks trilogy, what better time to revisit Zack And Miri Make A Porno. It’s arguably his last decent movie before he disappeared into a haze of weed smoke which, incidentally kicked off when Zack And Miri star Seth Rogen got Smith to actually start smoking weed during the film rather than acting like it onscreen. (Thanks, Seth.) While certainly not top-tier Kevin Smith, the film has that raunchy and offbeat sensibility mixed with some real heart, the hallmarks of Smith’s beloved early work. When platonic roommates and BFF’s Zack (Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) find themselves low on cash, well, you probably can guess how they decide to raise money. The film probably isn’t going to change your life, but it manages to be a pretty sweet little rom-com. The A.V. Club’s Noel Murray gave the film a solid “B” grade and said “while its romantic-comedy elements are by-the-numbers, the romance is touching, and the sequence where the two leads shoot their big sex scene takes some touching turns as it shifts from hilarious to something richer.”

Tom Cruise reunites with Jerry Maguire writer-director Cameron Crowe, but flies a bit under the radar. here with his turn as conflicted and tormented lover David Aames in Vanilla Sky, Crowe’s adaptation of Alejandro Amenábar’s 1997 Spanish language film Abre los Ojos. Aames’ devil-may-care lifestyle comes crashing to an end (literally) after a violent car accident, sending him into a sort of dreamy, psychedelic chaos where he, and by relation, the audience reflects on love, sex, jealousy and more. It’s a great film that sticks with you well after the credits roll. In a review for The A.V. Club, Scott Tobias liked the film but said “Though Vanilla Sky doesn’t have anything close to the emotional resonance of the earlier film, it’s a great leap forward in ambition—the sort of brash, daring, and intermittently exhilarating mess that studios stopped financing after the ’70s.” This is a great point, as in many ways Vanilla Sky is in conversation with Hal Ashby’s Shampoo, a film (and filmmaker) Crowe says he adores.

Filmmaker Robert Eggers exploded onto the film scene fully formed with 2015’s Gothic creeper The Witch, and followed it with the bizarro lighthouse horror-drama The Lighthouse. After that, Eggers got a shot at a much bigger budget with 2021’s Viking actioner The Northman—and, results were mixed. The storyline for The Northman is a pretty basic one of a man (Alexander Skarsgård) on a lifelong mission to avenge his father’s (Ethan Hawke) death. These things never go as planned because, if they did, it would be a pretty short movie. Along the way to revenge, Skarsgård’s character, Amleth, meets all sorts of interesting folks, including witches, sorceresses, and oodles of sundry Viking types. The cast is buoyed by Nicole Kidman and Björk, as well as The Lighthouse holdover Willem Dafoe. Tomris Laffly reviewed the film for The A.V. Club and called it “an unapologetic, non-stop adventure that dispenses everything, everywhere, all at once.”

The year was 1995 and this newfangled invention called “The Internet” was all the rage. Its possibilities were endless, leading preteen hacker Dade “Zero Cool” Murphy (Jonny Lee Miller) to jack up the stock market with a computer virus—and subsequently getting caught and banned from computers until he’s 18. Showing you can’t keep a smart hacker down, Murphy plays it cool by staying off the government radar by simply changing his hacker name to “Crash Override” before engaging in a quick online hacking battle with a mysterious figure named “Acid Burn.” As the film progresses, Murphy lands at a new high school where he befriends foxy and enigmatic Kate (Angelina Jolie) who, Murphy soon finds out, is Acid Burn. Did we mention the film is also a sort-of classic paranoia espionage thriller? Look, Hackers isn’t a truly great movie but it’s zippy and entertaining. It’s also fun to look back at how people thought the computer age would go and, better, how studios tried to look like cool kids by making films that were pretty flimsy because they had zero idea what the subject matter was about. In his review of the film, Roger Ebert gave it three stars, calling it “smart and entertaining.”

When you look at the credits for the 1978 hit film Heaven Can Wait, you’ll see it was co-directed by Buck Henry and Warren Beatty. That’s because Beatty, undoubtedly the biggest star of that era simply, would not let directors do their job without buzzing around like a fly on a corpse. For another example, ask Hal Ashby how his collaboration with Beatty went on 1975’s hit Shampoo. While Ashby got to keep sole credit, the negative effect on his psyche would never recover. Still, Heaven Can Wait is a very good film that manages to combine Beatty’s gorgeous looks, cocky charm and fragile man/boy personae into a memorable character. Beatty plays Los Angeles Rams quarterback Joe Pendleton, who is accidentally brought to heaven too soon due to an overzealous angel (played by Buck Henry) who inadvertently punches Pendleton’s ticket in an auto accident. Owning up to his mistake, the angel sends Pendleton back to earth but in the form of a wealthy, greedy industrialist. Adapted from the 1941 film Here Comes Mr. Jordan, the film also stars Julie Christie, who was rarely better than when she was working onscreen with then real-life beau Beatty. In a piece for The A.V. Club detailing Ignatiy Vishnevetsky said the film has a “surplus of winning charm.”

Barry Sonnenfeld directed the massive hit Get Shorty all the way back in 1995. Well, maybe it wasn’t all that surprising of a hit given that the stellar cast (at that time) was lead by John Travolta, Rene Russo, Gene Hackman, and Danny DeVito, and the film was based on a novel by Elmore Leonard. When mob enforcer Chili Palmer (Travolta) heads to Los Angeles to collect a debt, he tracks film producer Harry Zimm (Hackman) who owes his boss money—and craziness ensues. Soon Palmer forges a way into the filmmaking business, while also appeasing his increasingly annoyed mobster boss (Dennis Farina), who already does not like him. The film is fast moving and fun, and best of all reminds us of what a great leading man Travolta could be when he wasn’t just collecting a paycheck. It’s also always great to see Gene Hackman stretching those comedy wings. In a Washington Post review praising Travolta, Desson Howe said, “This comic potboiler about gangsters in Hollywood would be a great piece of fun even without Travolta.”

What better month to watch Tim Burton’s all-time great Edward Scissorhands? Wait, that’s a trick question because, there is no bad time to watch Tim Burton’s all-time great Edward Scissorhands. The film is completely unique but also shares so many things Tim Burton loves, with nods to classic horror films like the German Expressionist classic The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari, and casting Vincent Price as the lonely scientist who creates his scissor-handed friend. This film is also a painful examination of “the other” as well as the unfairness of bullying and the scary nature of groupthink. Plus there’s outstanding performances by Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder and … we could go on and on. The film is simply wonderful. In a review for Empire, Jo Berry said “It remains an ambitious and quite beautifully conceived fairy tale.”

Eli Roth’s 2005 film Hostel really shook people up. It’s always a good thing when a film can start a major discourse outside of just the moviegoing circles, and, boy oh boy did Hostel ever start a dialogue as horror fans felt attacked by folks who were raising pitchforks to condemn and possibly even ban the film. In the film, two Americans travel to Europe with an Icelandic friend, ending up at a seemingly legendary hostel in Slovakia. From there, things quickly become terrifying, as the hostel serves as a place to gather victims for wealthy people who pay to torture human beings. While certainly less philosophical than say Michael Haneke’s Funny Games, Eli Roth brings on the bloody mayhem in non-stop spurts. Scott Tobias likens Hostel more to something like Takashi Miike’s films in his review for The A.V. Club.

Back in 1985 Michael J. Fox broke out of his TV stardom cage in a massive way dropping both Back To The Future and Teen Wolf in the same year. These films (and the subsequent Back To The Future sequels) basically cemented Fox as a superstar, because how great are those commercial hits?! In Teen Wolf, Fox stars as super normal high schooler Scott Howard, who aspires to go beyond his allotted place on the social scale by dating the hottest girl in school, and seeking more minutes on the basketball court. When a moment of puberty reveals that the Howards are a family of lycanthropes, Scott’s anger unleashes his inner werewolf, making him big man on campus—but, to what end? In a review for The Hollywood Reporter, Duane Byrge called the film “an amiable teen film and gets a pleasing performance from Fox in the title role.”

After becoming a critical and audience darling following Requiem For A Dream (2000), The Wrestler (2008) and Black Swan 2010, writer/director Darren Aronofsky went crazy with his massive biblical epic Noah. Aronofsky puts all of his biggest budget to date on screen with stars Russell Crowe in the lead, supported by Jennifer Connelly, Anthony Hopkins, and Emma Watkins. Granted, the film is a divisive—and for good reason—which makes it ripe for a rewatch, especially removed from the buzz surrounding it in 2014. In a B- review of the film for The A.V. Club, A.A. Dowd said “Noah, in other words, belongs to that rare class of auteuristic religious opus, in which (often secular) filmmakers twist Scripture to suit their own artistic obsessions.”

Thanks to the popularity of Apple TV’s excellent show Severance, now is a good time to check out this underrated and underseen 2008 workplace dramedy Visioneers. Directed by first timer Jared Drake, the film stars Zach Galifianakis as George Washington Winsterhammerman, a level-three employee at the Jeffers Corporation, the biggest and most successful business in the history of man. George seems to have it all with a solid job, a nice house, a boat and a lovely wife (Judy Greer), but sometimes all the material things are not enough. Making matters worse, a recent spate of employees literally exploding from the pressure of denying their feelings. Obviously, Visioneers is a dark comedy/satire, and it’s pretty far ahead of its time considering our current state of consumer monopolies. In a review for The A.V. Club in which he gave the film a B, Josh Modell posits that Visioneers “sits somewhere between the ugly futures of Brazil and Idiocracy, leaning less fantastical than the former and less goofy than the latter, while putting across a message they share: Things are getting bleaker and stupider, and something should probably be done about it.”

Alien abductions stories have been around in various forms for so long, it’s almost become hard to pay attention—or worse, to even care. But 1995’s Fire In The Sky is most definitely an exception to that notion, because it’s damn affecting. Based on a true story (aren’t they always), the film stars a who’s who of mid-level ’90s stars including D.B. Sweeney, Robert Patrick, and Craig Sheffer as Arizona loggers who witness a bright, fiery light in the sky. After going to check it out, one of them goes missing for five days. When he is finally found, he has no idea where he’s been the whole time but he, and we, soon discover a truly creepy recollection of his apparent abduction. Again, Fire In The Sky is very effective, and what makes the film work is a quietly complicated storyline and the genuine likability of Sweeney, who plays the abducted logger. Roger Ebert was mixed on the film, but did say “The scenes inside the craft are really very good. They convincingly depict a reality I haven’t seen in the movies before, and for once I did believe that I was seeing something truly alien, and not just a set decorator’s daydreams.”