Blink Twice, Challengers, Netflix’s His Three Daughters, and every movie new to streaming this week
Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.
This week, Blink Twice, the new psychological horror movie from actor-director Zoë Kravitz, is available for purchase and rent on VOD, after its theatrical premiere last month. There’s also the horror thriller Cuckoo, starring Hunter Schafer, which is also available to rent and purchase on VOD. If neither of those interest you, don’t worry; there’s tons of other new releases to stream this week, like Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow on Max, Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers, the Norwegian horror mystery Handling the Undead on Hulu, and more!
Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
His Three Daughters
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Azazel Jacobs
Cast: Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, Elizabeth Olsen
This family drama follows three estranged sisters who reunite during their ailing father’s final days. The tension between the three is further exacerbated because one of them is not biologically related to the rest. Old animosity flares up, but the three must overcome their differences in order to spend their final moments with their father.
The Garfield Movie
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Genre: Adventure comedy
Run time: 1h 41m
Director: Mark Dindal
Cast: Chris Pratt, Samuel L. Jackson, Hannah Waddingham
It’s Chris Pratt! As Garfield! The lazy orange cat reunites with his long-lost father, Vic (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, of all people). Along with Odie, Vic and Garfield plan a heist of a farm so that they can steal a lot of milk in order to appease the Persian cat crime boss that Vic works for. The movie comes by way of director Mark Dindal, best known for The Emperor’s New Groove.
New on Hulu
Handling the Undead
Where to watch: Available to stream on Hulu
Genre: Horror drama
Run time: 1h 37m
Director: Thea Hvistendahl
Cast: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Bahar Pars
There’s tons of horror movies about the dead coming back to life. None of them are quite like Handling the Undead, though. Based on John Ajvide Lindqvist’s 2005 novel, the film follows the story of three families living in Oslo whose loved ones all mysteriously rise from the dead as semi-sentient corpses. How will they handle this new phenomenon, and is it a second chance to say goodbye… or a curse?
New on Max
I Saw the TV Glow
Where to watch: Available to stream on Max
Genre: Psychological horror
Run time: 1h 40m
Director: Jane Schoenbrun
Cast: Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Helena Howard
If you somehow haven’t yet had the opportunity to watch Jane Schoenbrun’s critically acclaimed psychological horror drama, don’t worry: There is still time, especially now that the film is available to stream on Max. Justice Smith stars as Owen, an isolated teenager who forms a bond with an older classmate, Maddy (Brigette Lundy-Paine), over a television series called The Pink Opaque. As the years wear on, however, it gradually becomes clear to Owen that there’s more to the show — and his own reality — than meets the eye.
New on Prime Video
Challengers
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Genre: Sports drama
Run time: 2h 11m
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist
Luca Guadagnino’s sensual sports drama, about a love triangle in professional tennis, has set certain circles of the world on fire since its release in late April, and it is one of the best movies of the year. Now, you can enjoy it at home.
From our review:
That script is a terrific three-course meal for Faist and O’Connor. They get to trade off face and heel roles from scene to scene and era to era, as Art and Patrick help and hurt each other in equal measure. But it’s an absolute smorgasbord for Zendaya, who even in starring roles has never been given this much room to stretch. Tashi is a gratifyingly rich character, both righteously angry over the thwarting of her ambitions and cruelly angry at all the men who have the nerve to keep on playing the game that was taken away from her. She’s hungry for affection and withholding it at the same time, by turns sensually curious and coldly dispassionate, ambitious and exhausted, conflicted and confident. She’s the kind of character that media master’s theses are made of, and unpicking Tashi’s conflicting motives and how she integrates them is likely to become a pop culture obsession in the months to come.
New on AMC Plus
Dandelion
Where to watch: Available to stream on AMC Plus
Genre: Drama
Run time: 1h 53m
Director: Nicole Riegel
Cast: KiKi Layne, Thomas Doherty, Melanie Nicholls-King
KiKi Layne (If Beale Street Could Talk) stars in this musical drama as Dandelion, a struggling singer-songwriter who travels the country performing gigs, all the while yearning for a career breakthrough she fears will never happen. After striking up a romance with Casey (Thomas Doherty), a fellow disgruntled musician, their love proves to be the inadvertent catalyst for Dandelion’s discovery of an authentic artistic voice all her own.
New to rent
Cuckoo
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Horror
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Tilman Singer
Cast: Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick
Hunter Schafer (Euphoria) stars in this horror movie as Gretchen, a teenager grieving the recent loss of her mother. After being forced to move to the Bavarian Alps by her father and stepmother, she is hired to work for Herr König (Dan Stevens), the owner of the hotel her parents have been hired to help build. However, Gretchen soon discovers there’s something far more sinister going on under the surface of this idyllic resort.
Blink Twice
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Psychological thriller
Run time: 1h 42m
Director: Zoë Kravitz
Cast: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater
Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut is a psychological thriller about a cocktail waitress named Frida (Naomi Ackie) who gets whisked away to a private island by a tech mogul for a lavish partying getaway. But Frida begins to notice that something strange is happening with the female guests. Fun fact: The film’s working title was Pussy Island, but the Motion Picture Association had an issue with that.
Omni Loop
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Sci-fi drama
Run time: 1h 47m
Director: Bernardo Britto
Cast: Mary-Louise Parker, Ayo Edebiri, Carlos Jacott
Omni Loop premiered at 2024’s South by Southwest festival. It’s a science fiction drama about a Florida woman named Zoya (Mary-Louise Parker) who partners up with a scientist in order to solve time travel, because of the black hole growing inside of her chest. It’s not just time travel but a time loop and a whole lotta timey-wimey funk happening as Zoya confronts her life and her regrets.
Afraid
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Sci-fi horror
Run time: 1h 24m
Director: Chris Weitz
Cast: John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Havana Rose Liu
Remember Smart House, that 1999 sci-fi comedy about a fully automated house voiced by Katey Sagal that goes haywire? Well, imagine if that movie was a horror thriller instead and you’ve got the gist of Afraid, the new film from director Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass, The Twilight Saga: New Moon) starring John Cho and Katherine Waterston.
When a happy family decides to test out AIA (Havana Rose Liu), a commercial artificial intelligence designed to help them better organize their home life, they couldn’t be happier with the results. That is, until the AI starts psychologically manipulating the family and harming people close to them in its twisted desire to be a part of the family.
Slingshot
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Genre: Sci-fi thriller
Run time: 1h 48m
Director: Mikael Håfström
Cast: Casey Affleck, Laurence Fishburne, Emily Beecham
This sci-fi thriller stars Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea) as John, an astronaut aboard an experimental spacecraft designed to make a years-long mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. When the passengers aboard the ship begin to suspect that the mission has somehow been compromised, John must work alongside the ship’s captain (Laurence Fishburne) in order to find a solution and survive.