What To Watch This Week: Sept 28-Oct 4, 2026

Deadly Tag (Disney+, Sept 30)

This new Korean survival game show pits contestants — including an ex-Navy SEAL, pro athletes, YouTubers, actors, and reality stars —  against one another as they navigate a series of physical and mental challenges, while avoiding getting caught by their pursuers. It gets better: they have to figure out who among them is the Seeker, the puppet master calling the shots. In other words: it’s tag on steroids. Netflix did something similar with the Japanese show Run for the Money a few years ago, but Deadly Tag looks a tad more hardcore.

East of Eden (Netflix, Oct 1)

When they aren’t producing brain-rot content (hello, Too Hot to Handle), Netflix is in the prestige drama (meaning: Emmy bait!) business. Their latest attempt at respectability is a seven-part limited-series adaptation of John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel — which was famously made by Elia Kazan into a 1955 movie starring James Dean. Interestingly, this iteration is adapted by Kazan’s granddaughter, Zoe Kazan (Ruby Sparks). Set in California’s Salinas Valley, this epic family saga stars Florence Pugh as the antihero Cathy Ames, whose life becomes intertwined with those of two brothers, Adam Trask (Christopher Abbott, aka Prof Xavier in the upcoming X-Men reboot) and Charles Trask (West Side Story’s Mike Faist), from the aftermath of the Civil War to the first days of WWI.

The Exorcist: The Version You’ve Never Seen (HBO Max, Oct 1)

In 2000, William Friedkin revisited his 1973 landmark horror as an extended Director’s Cut, with an extra 12 minutes of footage, including the infamous ‘spider-walk’ sequence. More than 50 years after its release, is The Exorcist — about two priests (Max von Sydow and  Jason Miller) trying to save a demonically possessed young girl (Linda Blair) — still the scariest movie of all time? Probably. I’ve seen it a few times but over the years, I’ve come to appreciate it more as what Friedkin and his collaborators called “a theological thriller” about” the mystery of faith”. Some might even call it  “a beautiful love story”. That said, once you’re done with the movie, watch the 1998 BBC documentary The Fear of God: 25 Years of The Exorcist. The behind-the-scenes story is just as fascinating.

I Would Rather Die (Prefiero la Muerte) (Prime Video, Oct 2)

In the mood for a zombie outbreak? This zom-com from Mexico follows a group of teens trying to save their town from a zombie invasion. The kids might be outnumbered, but they have an ace up their sleeves: one of them (Diego Bernal) has been bitten by the undead but never fully turned  (think Nicholas Hoult’s character in Warm Bodies).  

Scream 7 (HBO Max, Oct 2)

In Friends’ parlance, this is the one where Neve Campbell returns to the franchise (after bowing out of Scream VI over a pay dispute) while new blood Melissa Barrera was fired over her Gaza posts and Jenna Ortega subsequently bailed as the production started falling apart. As for the movie, it’s running on fumes: the characters are annoying, the post-modern banter weak, and the Big Final Reveal risibly lame. But here’s the good news (ish): this is the R21 version, with a few brutal moments that were removed from the theatrical cut.

Strange: Junji Ito’s Tales for Sleepless Nights (HBO Max, Oct 2)

A few years ago, Netflix made Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the Macabre, an anime series based on the works of renowned horror manga artist Junji Ito, but never followed through with another season. Good news, then, that fans can find solace in this live-action anthology series, featuring 12 tales that promise to be unsettling, surreal and terrifying. Among them is The Rib Woman, which had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival in July. It follows a young woman (former idol Nagisa Saito) obsessed with achieving a slimmer waistline. Be careful what you wish for…

Kill Jackie (BBC First, Singtel Channel 308; BBC Player, Oct 3)

Catherine Zeta-Jones takes a break from Morticia Addams to play a badass who sends someone to the morgue! In this eight-part thriller, Zeta-Jones — using her Welsh accent onscreen for the first time — stars as Jackie Price, a high-living art dealer who was once a big-time drug smuggler! (CZJ is no stranger portraying dope peddlers; see Traffic and Cocaine Godmother.) Her dark past gets dredged up when her old foes despatch a squad of hitmen to kill her. Oh dear. But not if she strikes at them first. New episodes every Saturday.