X, 4 new Netflix movies and everything new to watch

This weekend Choose or diethe 2022 video game horror film starring Iola Evans (carnival series) and Asa Butterfield (sex education), premiering on Netflix. If you’re not looking for 1980s throwback horror and spooky 2004-style technology Stay alive, Don’t worry – there are plenty of great new streaming and VOD releases to choose from this week.

In addition to Choose or Tuee, the Spanish comedy Today we fix the worldthe Polish love comedy The Taming of the Slyand the Nigerian drama The man of God all coming to Netflix this weekend. The latest horror film The Devil’s House Director Ti West starring Mia Goth is finally coming to VOD, as is the Aussie action horror film Wyrmwood: Apocalypse and the cerebral sci-fi thriller chariot with John Malkovich.

The Filipino-Japanese sports biopic Gensan punch comes to HBO Max during the haunted house thriller The cellar on Shudder. Oh, and did I mention another critically acclaimed 2021 film from the director of drive my car coming to Criterion Channel this weekend? As I said, there is one much of great movies to choose from!

So you know what’s new and available, here are the new movies to watch this weekend via streaming and VOD.

Choose or die

Where to see: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix/CURSR Movies

The horror movie 2022 Choose or die It stars Iola Evans as Kayla, a broke college student and programmer who stumbles upon an obscure ’80s text-based survival game that is said to come with an unclaimed prize of $100,000. However, this is no Ready player one; think Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. With the help of her friend Isaac (Asa Butterfield), Kayla quickly discovers that the game called CURS>R is (unsurprisingly) cursed as the choices made in the game spill over into reality in increasingly horrific ways. As Jon Foster once said in the 2006 film stay alive, “If you die in the game, you really die.” Also, Robert Englund (aka Freddy Krueger) appears as a fictionalized version of himself – neat! From our review,

At 84 minutes, Choose or die is a whip-cracking film grounded in snappy, robust storytelling. Evans, a surprise newcomer, gives Kayla a rich inner life. She’s a bundle of stress and exhaustion, all on her hardened face. Her performance begs that other components around her feel similarly sublime, a request the film is unable to fulfill due to its frustrating simplicity. In that regard, one of the film’s biggest offenders is wishy-washy character Lance (Ryan Gage), who may be working in the building, may be in a sexual relationship with Kayla’s mother, and is definitely her dealer, but as a cartoonist, Garbage Robber languishes, who hardly feigning credibility.

X

Where to see: Available for $19.99 from Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Photo: Christopher Moss/A24

Ti West’s 2022 horror film starring Mia Goth (suspiracy) as Maxine Minx, an aspiring actress who travels with her producer friend Wayne (Martin Henderson) and his amateur film crew to a remote farmhouse in rural Texas to shoot an adult film. When the crew is unexpectedly stalked and terrorized by their reclusive hosts, the survivors must make a desperate attempt to escape with their lives. From our review,

Although the premise of turning a porn shoot into a horror show could easily lead to a flaky parody, Ti West has more on his mind. The adult film’s angle serves two purposes – it gives a meta spin to the almost mandatory nudity and adult content of R-rated slasher films and uses the adult industry to talk about indie filmmaking in general. The first half of the film is a love letter to independent filmmaking, to the satisfaction of grabbing a group of like-minded friends and a camera and going somewhere remote to make films. At the Q&A following the film’s SXSW premiere, Ti West spoke about the similarities between horror and porn in the 1970s – specifically, the desire to break free from studio systems and make a name for yourself with nothing but a good idea.

Wheel of Fortune and Imagination

Where to see: Available to stream on Criterion Channel

Image: Criterion Channel

While directing his Oscar-nominated 2021 drama drive my carRyusuke Hamaguchi also directed another slightly less recognized but no less touching masterpiece: the romantic drama anthology Wheel of Fortune and Imagination. Spanning three distinct stories involving a love triangle, a college student’s conspiracy to seduce his professor, and a chance meeting and confession, Hamaguchi’s film explores the complexities, frustrations, and catharsis of human relationships in loving, thoughtful detail.

Gensan punch

Where to see: Available to stream on HBO Max

Image: HBO Max

This is a sports biopic about Nao Tsuyama, a boxer with a prosthetic leg who moved to the Philippines to further his career and became known as “Gensan”. From award-winning Filipino director Brillante Mendoza, Gensan punch won the Kim Jiseok Award at the Busan International Film Festival in 2021.

The cellar

Where to see: Available to stream on Shudder

Photo: Shudder/RLJE Films

a haunted house thriller, The cellar is both the title of this film and the location where the teenage daughter of protagonist Keira Woods (Elisha Cuthbert) disappears. As Keira searches for her, she uncovers a dark spiritual secret that points to something ancient and evil lurking in the house.

Wyrmwood: Apocalypse

Where to see: Available for $6.99 from Amazon, Apple, and Vudu

Photo: Emma Bjorndahl/XYZ Films

The sequel to the 2014 cult hit wyrmwoodthis Aussie action-horror franchise aims to “crazy Max, but with zombies” mood of the first. This film follows Rhys, a soldier who realizes his “work” has done more harm than good. When he encounters a zombie-human hybrid, Rhys sees it as a chance to actually save the world.

The Taming of the Sly

Where to see: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

This Polish romantic comedy is about Kaska (Magdalena Lampraska), a scientist who moves back home after being released. When her return disrupts her brother’s plans to sell the family’s land, he hires a handsome stranger (Mikolaj Roznerski) to woo her and convince her to agree to the sale. Surprise, surprise, the two fall in love! This one gets a TV-MA tag from Netflix, so expect a saucy rom-com than some of their American offerings.

Today we fix the world

Where to see: Available to stream on Netflix

Image: Netflix

The Spanish comedy drama Today we fix the world follows David (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a highly successful workaholic TV producer and an emotionally absent father to his 9-year-old son Benito (Benjamín Otero). When Benito’s birth mother confides in David that he may not be the boy’s father on her deathbed, the two embark on an emotional journey to find Benito’s actual birth father while exploring the extent of their own complicated relationship.

The man of God

Where to see: Available to stream on Netflix April 16th

Image: Netflix

A faith drama from Nigeria, The man of God follows Samuel (Akah Nnani), the son of a strict pastor who pushed him away from home. As Samuel feels the retreat to his faith, he is caught between the many worlds in which he lives.

chariot

Where to see: Available to rent for $5.99 from Amazon; $6.99 on Apple and Vudu

Image: Saban Films

John Malkovich stars in the 2022 sci-fi thriller chariot as dr Karn, an eccentric specialist who oversees a process of technologically-assisted reincarnation for unwitting test subjects. When a young man named Harrison (Thomas Mann) has strange visions after meeting a woman (Rosa Salazar) he loved in a past life, he turns to Karn for help. With time running out, Karn must heal Harrison’s condition or risk jeopardizing the entire artificial reincarnation system. While this may initially sound like a mash-up between 2020’s supernatural drama Nine days and Lisa Joy’s neo-noir thriller reminiscencethe trailer for chariot looks way crazier than that, with strangers floating through space like outlandish avatars and mysterious figures clad in high-tech plague masks that look like something straight out of Ridley Scotts Prometheus.