A Stranger Things actor's horror comedy and everything new to stream this weekend

Watch out for killer robots and murderous strangers

Big threats to humanity are breaking out on streaming this week. A U.S. Army Rangers training exercise goes very wrong when a Metal Gear-like mechanical monster starts hunting a team including Reacher star Alan Ritchson in War Machine, which crash-lands on Netflix. Liam Neeson helps two storage facility employees contain a fungal plague in the horror comedy Cold Storage, which is thawing out on VOD.

100 Nights of Hero, an adaptation of Isabel Greenberg’s 2016 queer fantasy graphic novel, is ready to seduce you too. You can also welcome the final film in The Strangers horror trilogy into your home, if you're one of the 10 people morbidly curious enough to do that.

Here's a rundown of the most notable new releases on streaming and VOD, including the biggest, best, and most popular new movies you can watch at home right now.

New movies on Netflix

War Machine

• Genre: Sci-fi action
• Run time: 1h 47m
• Director: Patrick Hughes
• Cast: Alan Ritchson, Dennis Quaid, Stephan James

A group of U.S. Army Ranger recruits encounter an alien killing machine during their final training exercise. Hunted through the forest, they have to figure out how to survive without weapons so that they can warn their base what’s coming. The film blends elements of Predator and Aliens for a story of highly competent, tough people led by Reacher star Alan Ritchson.

We dug it! From our review:

War Machine hits all the right spots for this kind of movie. It’s lean and propulsive. The practical stunts are impressive and immersive. And Ritchson, even playing a man so throttled by his own past that he doesn’t want to feel anything, is a compelling screen presence.

New movies on AMC Plus

100 Nights of Hero

• Genre: Fantasy romance
• Run time: 1h 30m
• Director: Julia Jackman
• Cast: Emma Corrin, Nicholas Galitzine, Maika Monroe

The adaptation of Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel follows Cherry (Maika Monroe), a lady whose husband decides to test her fidelity by leaving her alone for 100 days. In his absence, she starts a slow-burn romance with her storytelling maid Hero (Emma Corrin). The real stars of the fantasy film are the gorgeous costumes.

New movies on HBO Max

Fackham Hall

• Genre: Spoof
• Run time: 1h 37m
• Director: Jim O'Hanlon
• Cast: Thomasin McKenzie, Ben Radcliffe, Katherine Waterston

This spoof on Downton Abbey follows Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe), a thief who gets a job at Fackham Hall working for the Davenport family. Eric gets romantically involved with Rose Davenport (Thomasin McKenzie), but is accused of murdering Lord Davenport (Damian Lewis). He’ll have to uncover the truth to save himself and the estate.

New movies on Hulu

The Secret Agent

• Genre: Political thriller
• Run time: 2h 41m
• Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
• Cast: Wagner Moura, Carlos Francisco, Tânia Maria

A technology researcher has to flee from hitmen employed by the Brazilian military dictatorship during the 1977 carnival holiday in this Oscar-nominated neo-noir. While he tries to escape political prosecution, he winds up having to confront his past and getting entangled with members of an underground resistance group.

New movies on Peacock

Hamnet

• Genre: Historical drama
• Run time: 2h 6m
• Director: Chloé Zhao
• Cast: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Jacobi Jupe

A far more somber look at William Shakespeare’s personal life than Shakespeare in Love, Hamnet chronicles the romance between the bard (Paul Mescal) and Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley). It dwells heavily on grief, portraying how the loss of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe), inspired him to write the tragedy Hamlet. We hope Hamnet inspires James Cameron to work with Chloé Zhao.

New movies to rent

A Private Life

• Genre: Mystery thriller
• Run time: 1h 43
• Director: Rebecca Zlotowski
• Cast: Jodie Foster, Daniel Auteuil, Virginie Efira

Psychiatrist Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster) has been treating Paula (Paula Cohen-Solal) for nine years, and when Paula unexpectedly dies, Lilian suspects she may have been murdered. Her investigation leads her to dig into Paula’s family and the secrets Paula was keeping, even as someone is trying to stop Lilian from uncovering the truth.

Cold Storage

• Genre: Horror comedy
• Run time: 1h 39m
• Director: Jonny Campbell
• Cast: Georgina Campbell, Joe Keery, Liam Neeson

When an alarm starts going off in the storage facility where they work, Travis (Joe Keery) and Naomi (Georgia Campbell) learn that the building is housing a mutant fungus capable of turning anything it infects into an exploding zombie. They’ll need the help of government operative Robert Quinn (Liam Neeson) to contain the threat.

From our review:

Throughout all this bustle, Koepp leaves room for Campbell to engineer absurd horror-comedy images — an infection-dazed deer casually strolling into an elevator; David Fincher-style impossible shots that zip through industrial crevices and passageways, following the path of the wily fungus; all that exploding gunk — while still taking the lead characters seriously as people. Travis is funny, but not because he’s constantly swearing or making labored wisecracks; he’s endearingly earnest even when his brain slips a beat behind his companion. Naomi is smart and capable, but not an unstoppable badass, nor above following her whims and exploring the dank recesses of forbidding-looking tunnels. Neeson is also funny while finding some humanity at the midpoint between Taken-style ass-kicking and Naked Gun-style bumbling.

Heel

• Genre: Black comedy
• Run time: 1h 50m
• Director: Jan Komasa
• Cast: Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Anson Boon

Tommy (Anson Boon), a 19-year-old criminal, is out partying with his friends when he’s kidnapped by a married couple who try to “rehabilitate” him by keeping him chained to the wall of their suburban home. They subject him to physical and psychological punishment to train him to be a “good boy.”

The Strangers – Chapter 3

• Genre: Horror
• Run time: 1h 31m
• Director: Renny Harlin
• Cast: Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso, Ema Horvath

After surviving multiple attacks by masked strangers and killing one of the murderers, Maya (Madelaine Petsch) is recruited to join their group to replace the woman she killed. With the town’s sheriff working to cover up the strangers’ crimes, Maya will have to play along in order to get revenge and escape.

Whistle

• Genre: Supernatural horror
• Run time: 1h 40m
• Director: Corin Hardy
• Cast: Dafne Keen, Sophie Nélisse, Sky Yang

Corin Hardy (The Nun, The Hallow) uses a mix of practical and special effects to show teenagers being hunted by their future deaths after blowing an Aztec. They’ll have to figure out how to break the curse to end the horror. The film is filled with very gory kills, representing the emotional and traumatic ways death can come.