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They were in many ways the earliest precursor of home video, and one of the films I convinced my mom to purchase was Hammer Films’ Taste the Blood of Dracula. While the format really prevented me from making much sense of the narrative, certain imagery–Dracula’s face emerging from beneath a cracking caul of dust, two beautiful young women driving a stake into the heart of an older gentleman, a younger man drinking a cup of blood and choking as it poured out of his mouth–stayed firmly with me....

Ranking the episodes by “best,” though, is a fool’s errand; they’re all gems in their own eerie way. So, instead – and in anticipation of season 13’s upcoming “Apple Gore-chard! (But Not Gory)” – let’s take a look back at the ten spooktacular installments so far, ranked from merely Halloween-y to the absolute Halloween-iest. 10. Season 10 Episode 4: Pig Trouble in Little Tina Trying to fit in with her friends, Tina (Dan Mintz) insults the dead pig she’s dissecting in class, only to find herself haunted by the spectral swine afterwards....

This first edition covers Masashi Kishimoto’s global phenomenon Naruto and its direct sequel Naruto Shippuden. With 750 episodes of high-octane ninja action to sort through, these 10 fights are chock full of intense ninjutsu, flying kunai, and of course, extremely emotional moments that always hit just right. In general, Netflix has the best user experience, with skippable intros and the ability to switch between dubs and subs on the fly....

All nine seasons of NBC’s The Blacklist are now streaming on Netflix. This genre-busting series premiered on Sept. 23, 2013 and is slated to release its tenth season in early 2023 (official NBC premiere date TBA). The Blacklist is a crime drama and action thriller that often dips into science fiction. The stamina of the show’s mysteries lends to the series’ staying power and high place in the hearts of fans and new streaming viewers alike....

Seven weeks later, we are turning to the final chapter of The Book of Boba Fett. Will there be more to this book after the season finale or will the book be closed for good? That remains to be seen. What we do know is that there’s plenty of unfinished business yet to be resolved in this week’s finale. Will Boba Fett and Fennec Shand defeat the Pyke Syndicate and claim Mos Espa for the new daimyo?...

To say that The Devil’s Hour packed a lot in to its six-hour story would be an understatement. There was a serial killer thriller, a ghostly horror, a child abduction mystery, a love story, a gangland crime tale and a family drama… all wrapped up in existential Nietzschean philosophy. By the end, it was a little of Life After Life plus a little of The Time Traveler’s Wife plus a little of Quantum Leap plus a little of Marcella plus a lot of other ideas given not quite enough room to breathe....

With The Wheel of Time set to premiere on Prime Video, some fantasy fans may decide they’d like to dip their toes into the waters of the Robert Jordan novels upon which the show is based, and although Book 1, The Eye of the World, may seem daunting at nearly 800 pages, it’s fittingly (and intentionally) the most accessible story in the 14-book series. Jordan based the book’s early story structure on that of J....

In the aftermath of Avengers: Endgame, Chris Evans has finished up his role as Captain America and Steve Rogers has been given his much-needed retirement. Now there is a void, which can hopefully be filled in by his two best friends. Sam Wilson, the titular Falcon (played by Anthony Mackie), has been in six movies as of this point. Not everyone can check out every MCU flick, so a refresher course is in order on who Sam is and why he’s been hand-picked to be the next Captain America....

The Flash Season 8 Episode 4 Almost anyone who has watched The Flash for any length of time knows there really three certain things in life: Death, taxes, and the Reverse Flash. By far the most iconic of Barry Allen’s foes, Eobard Thawne is guaranteed to turn up every few seasons like clockwork, in an attempt to kill The Flash, steal his speed, or just generally ruin his life. The danger, of course, lies in the risk of repeated Reverse Flash appearances becoming stale or boring, even repetitive at certain points....

The Flash Season 8 Episode 19 Few things are certain in the world of The Flash and several are downright inexplicable (you try coherently describing how the Forces of Nature are meant to function as both people and physical places, is what I’m saying). But one thing is always true: No matter what timeline or time period we’re talking about, The Reverse Flash will do his best to bring down Central City’s hero....

From the Washington D.C. mouth-rings to Emily’s bandages to Janine’s missing eye, The Handmaid’s Tale has a knack for creating indelible, horrific images. The season four finale gave us another: the headless corpse of Fred Waterford strung up on a wall sprayed with the legend ‘Nolite te bastardes carborundorum’. It’s an image, showrunner Bruce Miller told The Hollywood Reporter, that June now sees every time that she closes her eyes....

Shortly after The Haunting of Bly Manor, the followup to Netflix’s massively successful Haunting of Hill House, was announced, series creator Mike Flanagan made an intriguing promise via his Twitter. “We are already discussing how to up our hidden ghost game,” the prolific horror writer and director wrote. Flanagan was referring to the fact that The Haunting of Hill House was positively teeming with ghostly Easter eggs. In many scenes throughout the series’ 10 episodes ghosts can be seen quietly languishing away in the shadows....

The Magicians Season 2 Episode 11 The Magicians is rarely predictable, and “The Rattening” is the perfect example of the show’s ability to surprise viewers who think they’ve got it all figured out. The journey to the Underworld, the addition of Penny’s young companion, the self-realization of Senator Gaines, and the sudden fissure between Eliot and Margo all go in directions no one would expect. The stories aren’t remotely related this time around, but it doesn’t seem to matter at this point....

The Magicians Season 3 Episode 9 As the third musical episode of The Magicians in as many seasons (which implies that this might be an annual occurrence), “All That Josh” had an obligation not to hit any sour notes. Fortunately, the musical unity of the cast was accompanied by some satisfyingly triumphant moments, the combination of which was gloriously entertaining. As a result the quest for the fifth key, no matter now ridiculous the premise, was the best one since Quentin and Eliot’s alternate life in Fillory....

The assassin introduced in The Mandalorian season 1 episode “The Gunslinger” seemed like an exciting new character to add to the show’s noteworthy lineup of rogues…until she was unceremoniously killed off. Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen) was a masterful sharpshooter, known for her skills with a sniper rifle and as one of the most dangerous assassins in the galaxy, so it seemed like a waste that she was set up as a one-off character....

You can watch the trailer here: Lana Wachowski’s follow-up to the original Matrix trilogy promises to reawaken the freedom fighters from their virtual prisons in a new generation. One of the most satisfying things about the teaser, of course, is that even after several minutes of mouthwatering footage, we still don’t understand what is going on. Is this another version of Neo reincarnated as with previous Matrix cycles, or did the Neo we followed 20 years ago get literally resurrected?...

Merchant himself stars in the show alongside Rhianne Barreto, Darren Boyd, Gamba Cole, Clare Perkins, Eleanor Tomlinson and Christopher Walken as the misfit convicts. We sat down with him to chat about British humor, comic book movies, and Christopher Walken’s cooking. Where did the idea for The Outlaws come from? Were you concerned about how US audiences would react to the Britishness of the show? I think my concern is if you start to iron out the specificity and you don’t make any cultural references to specifically British things, I think it starts to exist in a no man’s land that’s not quite America or England....

There’s a lot to take in during the first two episodes of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, from the introduction of multiple cultures and people across Middle-earth (and beyond), shots of dazzling new locations, and a rapid-fire crash course in the history of the First Age and war against Morgoth. But one of the weirdest moments had to be the crash landing of what appeared to be a fiery comet, but actually turned out to be a raggedy man with no obvious identity....

The first two episodes of The Rings of Power packed in plenty of surprises for anxious Lord of the Rings fans. Not only did we learn what all of that meteor business was about but the show also set up the potential origin story of a particularly beloved Middle-earth character, all while introducing us to a whole new clan of sneaky Hobbits (or “Harfoots,” as the show calls them) and teasing the pivotal part they’ll play in the history of the Second Age....

But that’s a minor thing: The Shape of Water is simply a gorgeous dark fantasy peopled with wonderfully drawn characters, laced with a frank sexuality (something new to the del Toro playbook) and layered in rich metaphorical meanings. In customary style, it’s filmed and designed to perfection as well, with the director creating a 1962 Cold War period piece that is exquisitely detailed and also relevant to the times at hand....