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      Diving Into ‘The Exorcist: Believer’

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      We knew Ellen Burstyn would be back. But what else? A discussion of some of the spoiler moments in the new sequel to the 1973 horror classic.The spooky season has arrived and among this year’s crop of horror franchise resurrections is “The Exorcist: Believer,” the first in a planned trilogy of sequels to William Friedkin’s 1973 classic “The Exorcist.” If you know anything about this revamped version, you’ll know it’s not just one little girl who’s hacked by Satan, but two. For everything else, keep on reading — meaning spoilers ahead.Like the director David Gordon Green’s previous trilogy of “Halloween” reboots, “The Exorcist: Believer” has been critically panned. Given the two movies set to follow — the second installment “The Exorcist: Deceiver” is scheduled for spring of 2025 — it’s a bad start for Green and company. Though I imagine they’re not banking on good reviews so much as the divine power of nostalgia and brand recognition.David Gordon Green narrates a sequence from his film, featuring Leslie Odom Jr. and Lidya Jewett.Eli Joshua Adé/Universal PicturesFor nearly two hours, the film tracks the possession and eventual exorcism of two 13-year old gal pals: Angela (Lidya Jewett), who is Black, and Katherine (Olivia O’Neill), who is white. “Believer” starts out in Haiti with a portentous prelude that hearkens back to the original, in which a Catholic priest stumbles upon satanic heirlooms in a very sinister-looking part of Iraq. Angela’s parents are on vacation in the island country when an earthquake hits, gravely injuring the mother and forcing the father, Tanner (Leslie Odom Jr.), to choose between saving his pregnant wife or the baby inside of her.In the present, Tanner is an affable single dad suggesting that he chose the babe. This assumption makes up the film’s emotional backbone. After the girls go missing and return three days later with their feet mangled and eyes tweaky, they hit a monstrous form of puberty. It’s teenage rebellion made sacrilegious, razed of all of the truly crass and nasty edges that made Linda Blair’s Regan, the possessed girl in the original movie, so shocking to behold.The film pivots away from the girls to focus on feels, courtesy of the original cast-member Ellen Burstyn’s Chris MacNeil (Regan’s mom), now the author of a book about Regan’s possession. Chris isn’t a final girl, and she’s not uniquely skilled at fending off the baddie. But because she’s a legacy character, “Believer” treats her with an air of reverence that gives her a preternatural connection to the devil — and it makes him, a supposedly omnipotent, unknowable being, a lot less scary. The demonic version of Katherine jabs a crucifix through Chris’s eyes, blinding her for the rest of the movie — a condition that parallels the film’s ideas about belief in the indemonstrable. Chris has long been estranged from Regan, who supposedly cut contact with her mother after the release of her book. Chris holds on to the possibility of Regan’s return, which she does, in a final-act cameo by Blair herself.“The Exorcist,” a master class in grief and dread, is quite unlike the formulaic fun of, say, slasher movies that easily breed follow-ups. Famously, Friedkin (and Burstyn, at least until “Believer”) wanted nothing to do with the extended universe that spawned after its release. You don’t need to watch any of the other “Exorcist” movies to understand “Believer,” which only draws from Friedkin’s version — and offers up this extension.The film’s equal-opportunity possession encourages cooperation between racially diverse families, and the jumbo-exorcism in the end doubles as a kumbaya circle for religious harmony. Both families assemble a supergroup of believers to perform the rites: a Protestant minister, a voodoo mistress, an Evangelical speaker-in-tongues, and an ex-Catholic nun. Because believing isn’t about any one religion, it’s a collective act of faith. Circling back to Tanner’s decision in the beginning, the devil, trickster that he is, demands that the parents choose one girl to survive. Katherine’s dad, the most weak-willed of the three, screams out his daughter’s name and — just like Tanner, who had asked for the doctors to save his wife — the opposite happens. Angela survives. But given the shoddiness of the exorcism itself, and the fact that the devil seemed to be calling the shots through the end, I’d imagine Satan has more in store for her. More

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      Five Action Movies to Stream Now: ‘Bad City,’ ‘Decibel’ and More

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      This month’s picks include vengeful spouses, plenty of brawling and a little bit of cheese.‘Bad City’Rent or buy on most major platforms.Crime and corruption are rampant in the fictional Japanese metropolis of Kaiko City: The underworld kingpin Gojo (Lily Franky) is running for mayor to redevelop an impoverished neighborhood into a high-stakes nightlife denizen of gambling. The only person who can stop him is the disgraced former cop Torada (Hitoshi Ozawa). Released early from prison by desperate prosecutors to be captain of Special Investigation Division Zero, he is willing to work outside the law to get the job done.The director Kensuke Sonomura’s background as a stunt coordinator proves an asset in the pulpy confines of “Bad City.” Torada and his team spend the film chasing baddies and other mob bosses through noir-tainted streets, leading up to a mall brawl between the cops and several rival gangs: It’s a breathless scene composed on a massive scale, intertwining vast, complex choreography with a precision and visceral intimacy that is impossible to shake.‘Code of the Assassins’Stream it on Hi-Yah!Qi Junyuan (Shaofeng Feng) is an elite killer in army of hired swords from Ghost Valley. He arrived there as a child, after his parents were murdered in the search for a golden treasure map. After their deaths, the map disappeared. But now it’s back and Prince Rui Chai Kang (Jack Kao) wants it. Junyuan goes rogue to solve the mystery of his parents’ demise only to uncover a thorny conspiracy that leads back to the prince’s palace.The Chinese director Daniel Lee’s film contains many moving parts, pulling it from melodrama to espionage thriller, but what really surges it forward is showmanship. One theatrical trap sees a piece of string used to decapitate dozens of men in a kill room. A robust mix of slow motion and heavy metal needle drops add a flourish to sword fights staged on an impressive scale. The assassination scene, which employs a ceremonial dragon, is a mass of flying, careening and spinning men that transitions from bruising to poetic.‘Decibel’Stream it on Tubi.Kang Do-young (Kim Rae-won) was once a beloved submarine commander. But after his vessel took a hit from a missile, he was forced to make a difficult decision that still haunts him. A year later, a ghost from his past has come for revenge. A terrorist has planted bombs throughout the city that will explode if the sound around them reaches a certain level. And the man has picked Kang to diffuse them. The locations of these weapons are also tied to the people closest to Kang, his wife and his daughter.“Decibel,” from the Korean director Hwang In-ho, is a smart hybrid of the submarine movie, by virtue of flashbacks to the events leading up to the tragedy, and a procedural action-thriller like “Speed.” Smart set pieces tethered to the solving of complex puzzle-like bombs build a sense of dread. And the feelings of grief and remorse at the heart of Kang offer the perfect mix of action and melodrama.‘Jericho Ridge’Stream it on BET+Equipped with a cane and a moral uprightness, Deputy Tabby Temple (Nikki Amuka-Bird) arrives back to work at her quaint police station carrying a fractured family burden: The single mother’s endangered son Monty (Zack Morris) might be dealing drugs. Her personal land mine becomes part of a chain reaction when a killer in search of evidence from a drug bust arrives to raid the station. Alone and injured, Temple must survive the night defending herself, the evidence and her son.Keen eyes will notice how closely the writer-director Will Gilbey’s “Jericho Ridge” hews to “Assault on Precinct 13.” And yet, his film isn’t a full-on copy: The presence of a Black woman fighting for the precious life of her Black son, as she lays her life on the line for policing is a sly political choice that gives these choreographed shootouts in close quarters an extra layer of thematic tension and racial anxiety that thunder louder than a hail of bullets.‘Mad Heidi’Rent or buy on most major platforms.World building is an essential element to the directors Johannes Hartmann and Sandro Klopfstein’s Swissploitation epic “Mad Heidi.” It begins with Switzerland’s dystopian power structure: Nazi-inspired soldiers are ruthless strongmen for a dashing dictator (Casper Van Dien) angling to rule through mind-controlling Swiss cheese. An unassuming mountain girl named Heidi (Alice Lucy) witnesses her protective grandfather and her boyfriend (Kel Matsena), a Black pimp illegally selling cheese in cocaine packets, murdered by soldiers.Heidi’s eventual detainment by soldiers, forcing her to train as a gladiator in the Alps before she breaks for freedom, recalls the early Blaxploitation prison narratives that launched Pam Grier’s career. A dash of propulsive spaghetti western music and hilarious one-liners like “Yodel me this,” used to punctuate Heidi killing a man with an accordion, add other indelible ingredients. Also, did I mention there are cheese zombies? Every second of “Mad Heidi” is rip-roaring Gouda time. More

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      Five Children’s Movies to Stream Now: ‘Elemental,’ ‘Spy Kids: Armageddon’ and More

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      This month’s picks include a splashy Pixar creation, an Adam Sandler comedy and the newest installment in the “Spy Kids” franchise.‘Elemental’Watch it on Disney+.The concept of star-crossed lovers takes on new meaning in this Pixar creation about a fiery lass (literally) named Ember Lumen (voiced by Leah Lewis) who meets Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie), an emotional softy made of water. They live in Element City, a place where fire, earth, air and water reside despite being divided into four socioeconomic classes — each taught to stick to its own kind. When Ember and Wade start to fall in love, she does everything in her power to keep her distance. It doesn’t help that her proud father, Bernie (Ronnie del Carmen), strives to keep his daughter away from Wade. At first glance, the character animation might appear off-putting or even, dare I say, ugly. But once the story gets going, children should be swept up in the visual world created by the director Peter Sohn and his team. The script — by Brenda Hsueh, John Hoberg and Kat Likkel — plays out like any good romantic comedy should: You root for Ember and Wade to ignore the naysayers and risk it all for love. During his second viewing of the film, my headphone-wearing son screamed, “This is my favorite movie!” That’s coming from a kid who is typically more into ninjas fighting than rom-coms.‘You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah’Watch it on Netflix.Playing a father who’s befuddled by his teenage daughters, Adam Sandler is light-years from the neurotic jeweler with a gambling addiction he played in “Uncut Gems.” Tween girls with overprotective dads might recognize his portrayal of Danny Friedman, a guy who helplessly watches his 13-year-old daughter Stacy (played by Sandler’s real-life daughter Sunny Sandler) seek to finally become popular by having a banger of a bat mitzvah. This is a family affair for the Sandler clan: His wife, Jackie, is in the film, as is his older daughter, Sadie. Idina Menzel plays Danny’s wife, Bree. The story is based on a 2005 novel by Fiona Rosenbloom about the friendship between Stacy and her BFF, Lydia (Samantha Lorraine), and what happens when that friendship unravels (because of a cute boy, of course). Directed by Sammi Cohen (Hulu’s “Crush”) and written by Alison Peck (“UglyDolls”), it’s a charmer about friendship, family and the drama (and comedy) that goes along with growing up.‘Spy Kids: Armageddon’Watch it on Netflix.After writing and directing the first four “Spy Kids” movies, which began in 2001, Robert Rodriguez returns with this reboot of the franchise for a new generation. For “Spy Kids: Armageddon,” he shares the writing and producing credit with his son Racer to tell the story of Tony (Connor Esterson) and Patty (Everly Carganilla), young siblings whose parents are James Bond-level secret agents, played by Gina Rodriguez and Zachary Levi. When an evil video game developer, Rey “The King” Kingston (Billy Magnussen), unleashes a virus that gives him the power to take over the world, Tony and Patty have to save their mom and dad — and the universe. The kids have a field day exploring a “safe house” full of spy suits and cool gadgets that many elementary-age children will pine for. There are plenty of generational jokes about the youngsters knowing more than their parents (at least when it comes to video games), and the action and quick pacing should entertain those who dream of donning a super spy suit of their own.‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’Watch it on Max.We haven’t seen the embattled foster child Billy Batson (Asher Angel) since 2019, when he first uttered the word “Shazam!” and morphed into the DC superhero of that same name (played by Zachary Levi). The director David F. Sandberg returns for the sequel, which has the same cheeky humor and wacky tone as the first installment, but this time the kids are older and they’re battling the enraged daughters of Atlas: Hespera (Helen Mirren hamming it up in a pointy crown) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu). The daughters are hellbent on revenge because they believe Shazam stole the power of the gods, and they also want to control everyone on Earth, of course. It’s up to Billy/Shazam and his foster buddies Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), a.k.a. Captain Everypower (Adam Brody), and Anthea (Rachel Zegler) to stop them. There’s also a secret third daughter of Atlas to keep viewers guessing, and plenty of all-out battle scenes laced with humorous one-liners and punchy reactions. Djimon Hounsou is back as the ancient wizard who granted Billy his powers, and the writers Henry Gayden (who co-wrote “Shazam!”) and Chris Morgan (the “Fast and the Furious” franchise) do a good job of creating a teen superhero who constantly battles his own insecurities and anxieties, but always pulls through. It’s the friendship binding Billy, Freddy, Anthea and the others, though, that holds the movie together. That, and the big old computer-generated battle scenes.‘Belle’Watch it on Max.If your little one isn’t into the whole superhero-action thing, “Belle” might be a better fit. The Oscar-nominated Japanese director Mamoru Hosoda (“Mirai”) wrote and directed this cyber-age retelling of the classic “Beauty and the Beast,” and the vibrant, fantastical — and sometimes eerily hyper-real — animation will transfix viewers who appreciate gorgeous visual storytelling. Here, the fairy-tale heroine is Suzu (voiced by Kaho Nakamura, who also sings the tunes), a lonely, painfully shy teenager living in a rural village with her widower father. When she discovers a virtual world called U, which allows her to live through a pink-haired avatar called Belle, who has no problem belting out songs onstage in front of millions, Suzu finally allows herself to escape the grief and insecurity that plague her IRL. The beast here is the Dragon, a horned, caped creature who captures Belle’s heart, even as he tries his best to intimidate her and keep his true identity secret. Hosoda’s gentle handling of teen angst, the blissful terror of first crushes and the insecurities that we all have had to grapple with at that age should resonate with older kids and teenagers. They’ll also likely recognize Suzu’s silent thrill as she watches her online follower count soar. More

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      Watch a Scene From ‘The Exorcist: Believer’

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      The film’s director and co-writer, David Gordon Green, narrates a sequence featuring Leslie Odom Jr. and Lidya Jewett.In “Anatomy of a Scene,” we ask directors to reveal the secrets that go into making key scenes in their movies. See new episodes in the series on Fridays. You can also watch our collection of more than 150 videos on YouTube and subscribe to our YouTube channel.A light switch clicking on and off is at the center of an unnerving sequence in “The Exorcist: Believer.”Leslie Odom Jr. stars as Victor Fielding, a father whose daughter (Lidya Jewett) had been missing and only just returned, quite different from when she left. Narrating this sequence, the director David Gordon Green said, “I’m starting to establish the unnerving quality of a father that can’t quite explain the behavior of his daughter.”He does this by using a continuous timeline, with the scene playing out as if in real time even though there are numerous shots.“That slow burn,” he said, “that time where there’s no gimmicks that you can process as a viewer, it adds a strange expectation of when something is going to happen.” The scene’s eerie conclusion helps to set up the mayhem that will soon follow.Read the “Exorcist: Believer” review.Sign up for the Movies Update newsletter and get a roundup of reviews, news, Critics’ Picks and more. More

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      ‘Colette and Justin’ Review: The Colonized Speak Up

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      In a new documentary, a filmmaker turns his lens on his grandparents during a pivotal moment in the history of the Democratic Republic of Congo.In “Colette and Justin,” directed by Alain Kassanda, the French-Congolese filmmaker uncovers a tangled and pivotal era in Congolese history and the central role his grandfather had in the country’s path toward independence in 1960.The titular protagonists are Kassanda’s grandparents, Colette Mujinga and Justin Kassanda, both born and raised in Zaire, what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, under Belgian rule. In the film, which relies heavily on photographs and footage created by the Belgians, Kassanda asks: “How do you make a film from the oppressor’s archives?” And his answer in the film both complicates and deepens our understanding of the way history is documented.Kassanda interweaves interviews with his grandparents and archival footage and images, often superimposing his own thoughts on colonization, migration and family. At one point, they watch clips from colonial propaganda that paints the local people as savages, scantily clad with bows and arrows, acting out tribal disputes with “witch doctors.” But as his grandparents point out, it was the Belgian film crew orchestrating these scenes. This interview technique reveals elements that might not have come up otherwise: the exclusion of women from French education, for instance, and the divisions the Belgian government manufactured between the Baluba and Lulua ethnic groups.Later, when the country achieved independence, Justin joined its nascent government as a senator and participated in a secession movement, leaving Kassanda to reconcile his respect for his grandfather with his admiration for the opposition leader, Patrice Lumumba, who became the country’s first prime minister. The result is a film both intimate and political; informative and profound. It highlights the deep and far-reaching wounds of colonization and offers a balm for its scars.Colette and JustinNot rated. In Lingala and French, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes. In theaters. More

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      The Best Movies and TV Shows Streaming in October: ‘Loki,’ ‘Goosebumps’ and More

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      Here’s the best of what’s coming to Amazon, Max, Apple TV+ and others.Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of October’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)New to Amazon Prime Video‘Totally Killer’Starts streaming: Oct. 6The offbeat horror-comedy “Totally Killer” is a 1980s-style slasher film with a science-fiction twist. Kiernan Shipka stars as Jamie, a rebellious teenager who has lived her whole life in a small town that was the site of an infamous string of unsolved murders in 1987. When the masked killer — or perhaps a copycat — reappears and slays Jamie’s mother, Pam (Julie Bowen), Jamie travels back in time to 1987 to stop the original spree. While trying to figure out the identity of a knife-wielding maniac, the heroine handles the culture-clash of being a 2020s high school kid stranded in a clique-dominated, politically incorrect era.Also arriving:Oct. 3“Make Me Scream”Oct. 6“Desperately Seeking Soulmate: Escaping Twin Flames Universe”Oct. 10“Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe”Oct. 11“Awareness”“The Greatest Show Never Made”Oct. 13“The Burial”“Everybody Loves Diamonds”Oct. 20“Bosch: Legacy” Season 2“Upload” Season 3Oct. 24“Hot Potato: The Story of the Wiggles”“Zainab Johnson: Hijabs Off”Oct. 26“Sebastian Fitzek’s Therapy”Oct. 27“The Girl Who Killed Her Parents: The Confession”Brie Larson in “Lessons in Chemistry.”Apple TV+New to Apple TV+‘Lessons in Chemistry’Starts streaming: Oct. 13Based on a Bonnie Garmus novel, this mini-series stars Brie Larson as Elizabeth Zott, a talented chemist who struggles to be taken seriously in the sexist 1950s scientific community. When her brazen defiance of her lab’s rules — coupled with an unwillingness to be subservient and girlie — gets her fired, Elizabeth reinvents herself as the host of a science-focused TV cooking show. “Lessons in Chemistry” covers a decade in the heroine’s life, balancing her rise to fame with her early struggles, while also following her brilliant, eccentric colleague and love interest Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman). A combination of “Mad Men” and “Julia” — with a little bit of “Oppenheimer” mixed in — the series is a portrait of smart, independent people bucking the conformity of their times.Also arriving:Oct. 20“The Pigeon Tunnel”“Shape Island: Creepy Cave Crawl”Oct. 27“The Enfield Poltergeist”“Curses!” Season 1New to Disney+‘Loki’ Season 2Starts streaming: Oct. 5The Marvel Cinematic Universe has lately been all about the multiverse, with movies and TV series offering alternate versions of the classic Marvel characters living in parallel realities. Season 1 of “Loki” got that ball rolling, with a creative and mind-bending story about the roguish Norse deity running afoul of the timeline watchdogs in the Time Variance Authority. For Season 2, Tom Hiddleston returns as Loki and Owen Wilson is back as the frequently flustered TVA agent Mobius M. Mobius. Because of the proliferation of new multiverses unleashed in the Season 1 finale, many of the show’s characters find themselves subtly altered and stuck in other worlds, necessitating another trip through time, space and dimensions for these unlikely heroes.Also arriving:Oct. 2“Mickey and Friends Trick or Treats”Oct. 11“4EVER”Oct. 13“Goosebumps” Season 1Oct. 25“Primal Survivor: Extreme African Safari”Oct. 27“LEGO Marvel Avengers: Code Red”Zack Morris in “Goosebumps.”David Astorga/DisneyNew to Hulu‘Goosebumps’ Season 1Starts streaming: Oct. 13R.L. Stine’s perennially popular “Goosebumps” young adult horror novels get a new television adaptation, although unlike the original 1990s anthology TV series, this latest version (available on Hulu and Disney+) features concepts from Stine’s books inserted into a larger serialized story, with a single cast. Justin Long plays Nathan Bratt, the new high school English teacher in a quaint small town, as well as the new owner of a spooky old house that the local teenagers like to use for their parties. Before Mr. Bratt chases the kids away from their annual Halloween bash, five of them encounter haunted objects that change their lives and put the community in danger.Also arriving:Oct. 1“Ash vs. Evil Dead” Season 1-3“Crazy Fun Park”“Stephen King’s Rose Red”Oct. 2“Appendage”“Fright Crewe” Season 1Oct. 5“The Boogeyman”Oct. 6“Bobi Wine: The People’s President”“Undead Unlock”Oct. 9“The Mill”Oct. 10“Moonlighting” Seasons 1-5Oct. 11“Nada” Season 1Oct. 12“Monster Inside: America’s Most Extreme Haunted House”Oct. 13“Nocebo”Oct. 14“Empire of Light”Oct. 15“Slotherhouse”Oct. 18“Living for the Dead” Season 1Oct. 20“Cobweb”Oct. 26“American Horror Stories” Season 3Oct. 27“Explorer: Lake of Fire”“Shoresy” Season 2Rhys Darby in Season 1 of “Our Flag Means Death.”HBO MaxNew to Max‘Our Flag Means Death’ Season 2Starts streaming: Oct. 5The first season of “Our Flag Means Death” arrived without a lot of fanfare. Initially, the show looked to be just a mild-mannered pirate parody, about a ship full of misfit outlaws led by the inept captain Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby). But as the season rolled on — and as Stede’s rivalry and romance with the notorious Blackbeard (Taika Waititi) became more central to the plot — the series’ creator David Jenkins began focusing more on piracy as a haven for people who yearn to live outside the mainstream. Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger, with Stede’s crew stranded on a deserted island and Blackbeard determined to get back to being mean. Fans have been eager ever since to learn how these twists will affect one of TV’s sweetest love stories.‘The Gilded Age’ Season 2Starts streaming: Oct. 29The “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes brings his uncommon knack for energetic historical melodrama to “The Gilded Age,” a lavishly decorated and irresistibly entertaining look at high society in 1880s New York City. Carrie Coon is superb as a shrewd social climber, married to a nouveau-riche tycoon (Morgan Spector) whose ruthless business tactics irritate the old money types. The rest of the cast includes Louisa Jacobson as a restless young woman living with her eccentric, judgmental aunts (Christine Baranski and Cynthia Nixon) and Denée Benton as an aspiring writer defying the era’s racist biases. Season 2 will continue Fellowes’s fascination with a pivotal era in American culture, when the upper-crust considered whether an ascendant democracy should still be following Europe’s unwritten rules of etiquette.Also arriving:Oct. 1“The Ringleader: The Case of the Bling Ring”Oct. 8“Last Stop Larrimah”Oct. 12“Doom Patrol” Season 4Oct. 19“Peter and the Wolf”“Scavengers Reign”Oct. 22“AKA Mr. Chow”Oct. 23“30 Coins” Season 2Jack Cutmore-Scott, left, as Freddy Crane and Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane in “Frasier.”Paramount+New to Paramount+ with Showtime‘The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial’Starts streaming: Oct. 6The final film from William Friedkin is both an adaptation of Herman Wouk’s provocative 1953 play “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial” (updated to modern times by Friedkin, who wrote the screenplay) and a summation of the director’s career-long fascination with the line between legal authority and raw power, as seen in his classic films “The French Connection” and “To Live and Die in L.A.” Jason Clarke plays Lieutenant Barney Greenwald, a Navy lawyer defending Lt. Stephen Maryk, who defied orders and relieved his commanding officer Lt. Cmdr. Phillip Queeg (Kiefer Sutherland) of duty during a storm. Though mostly confined to one courtroom set, the movie is a thrilling actors’ showcase; and as with the play, it toys with the audience’s sympathies, raising questions about how justice is properly served in a case involving the rigid military chain of command.‘Frasier’ Season 1Starts streaming: Oct. 12Kelsey Grammer returns to his most famous role, in a sequel series that surrounds the fussy psychiatrist Frasier Crane with a mostly new cast of characters. Crane moves back to Boston from Seattle and gets involved in the lives of his son, Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott), and his nephew, David (Anders Keith). Freddy has turned out a lot like Frasier’s father, Martin — rugged and unpretentious — while David has the same dry wit and nervous energy as Frasier’s brother, Niles. Like the old “Frasier,” this new one traffics in farce, with the comedy driven by misunderstandings and personality clashes.‘Fellow Travelers’Starts streaming: Oct. 27This historical romance tells a story that stretches from the 1950s to the ’80s, tracing a love affair between two political consultants whose lives are affected by the changing times. Matt Bomer plays Hawkins Fuller, a savvy, politically flexible congressional aide who has a fling with Tim Laughlin (Jonathan Bailey), a right-wing speechwriter who admires Joseph McCarthy. Their relationship stretches across decades, through the more permissive ’60s and ’70s and into the conservative revival of the Reagan era. Adapted by the Oscar-nominated “Philadelphia” screenwriter Ron Nyswaner from a Thomas Mallon novel, “Fellow Travelers” is dotted with real-life historical figures and explicitly erotic sex scenes, illustrating how basic human needs can be undone by political expediency.Also arriving:Oct. 5“Bargain”“Monster High 2”Oct. 6“Pet Sematary: Bloodlines”Oct. 10“Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders”Oct. 16“Vindicta”Oct. 17“Crush”Oct. 24“Milli Vanilli”New to Peacock‘John Carpenter’s Suburban Screams’Starts streaming: Oct. 13The influential genre filmmaker and composer John Carpenter lends his name, his music and — for one episode — his directing talents to this hybrid anthology series, which combines true crime and horror. Each episode is anchored by interviews with ordinary people who experienced something extraordinary, encountering real evil in the form of the creeps, the killers and the unexplained phenomena in their seemingly placid neighborhoods. The interviews provide the basic details for these tales; and then the bulk of each “Suburban Screams” episode consists of lengthy re-enactments that have the look and feel of an ’80s slasher movie, as though Carpenter’s “Halloween” were a documentary.Also arriving:Oct. 12“Superbuns” Season 1Oct. 19“Wolf Like Me” Season 2Oct. 20“Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken”Oct. 24“Krishnas: Gurus. Karma. Murder.”Oct. 27“Five Nights at Freddy’s”“L’il Stompers” Season 1 More

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      ‘Shadows in the City’ Review: A Sleazy Slice of 1980s No Wave

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      The director Ari M. Roussimoff’s black-and-white homage to the downtown crowd gets a raw screening at the Museum of Modern Art before its restoration.The visual artist and performer Ari M. Roussimoff and his camera crew — including the cinematographer and director Ellen Kuras — crept about the lower depths of 1980s Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens shooting an underground horror movie in 16-millimeter black-and-white film. The thing he assembled, “Shadows in the City” (1991), is an astonishing and often queasiness-inducing curio of No Wave cinema.This week the Museum of Modern Art is displaying its collection’s print — with the scruffy look and distorted audio — before its restoration. Aficionados of late-20th-century New York City scuzz may want to check it out in its raw form, which runs until Oct. 11. After all, it’s a movie for which too much cleanup may be inapt.The movie’s very loose story follows Paul (Craig Smith), who wanders around the city mourning several deaths in his family, soliciting prostitutes and contemplating suicide. From Times Square, he visits Lower Manhattan, and the West and East sides. There’s a terrifying biker bar in the meatpacking district, and some possibly undead high jinks for him in Alphabet City.The cast is replete with avant-garde artists. Taylor Mead, the wise fool of microbudget classics by Ron Rice and one of Andy Warhol’s regulars, is here a skid row wet brain. The documentarian Emile de Antonio plays a mage. The “Flaming Creatures” auteur Jack Smith is “the spirit of death.” And Nick Zedd, Joe Coleman and Kembra Pfahler represent the younger side of No Wave.The story, such as it is, borrows from both the experimental short film “Scorpio Rising” and the classic B-movie “Carnival of Souls.” (Bruce Byron, who appeared in “Scorpio,” also has a role here.) But the movie is mainly driven by a nightmare anti-logic that spews forth gnarly imagery pitched between the art house and the grindhouse. An end credit shows a dedication to Forrest J. Ackerman, the editor of the horror fan magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. The movie could be alternately titled “Famous Monsters Go Downtown.”Shadows in the CityNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 41 minutes. In theaters. More