This weekend, the historical crime thriller By Any Meansbecomes the latest to try to dethrone Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, following his previous 2026 roles in Wonder Man and Man on Fire, By Any Means follows the unlikely partnership of a young Black FBI agent and a notorious mafia hitman turned informant (Mark Wahlberg). Wahlberg hasn’t had much success at the box office in recent years, so Brand New Day is expected to continue its all-conquering run. With the box office taken care of, here’s a look at three movies you should stream this weekend on Netflix.
Disclaimer: These titles are available on US Netflix.
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‘Smile 2’ (2024)
Rotten Tomatoes: 86% | IMDb: 6.7/10
Now that September has reared its sepia-toned head, horror fans’ thoughts turn to the upcoming spooky season. To get you in the mood, why not watch one of the most gruesome horror sequels of the past couple of years? Director Parker Finn‘s sequel to his smash-hit horror flick Smile follows the grinning demon as it turns its attention to Naomi Scott‘s Skye Riley, a global pop star recovering from a tragic incident.
A spine-chilling exploration of the cost of fame and the weight of public expectation, Smile 2 is an intelligent follow-up to an acclaimed horror original. Finn once again proved his talent as a horror director with some of the most memorable, skin-crawling sequences of the past couple of years, culminating in an explosive climax that will live long in your nightmares.
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Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky
Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you’re not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.
🏕️Jason
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🔪Michael
💤Freddy
🎈Pennywise
🪆Chucky
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01
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Something feels wrong. You can’t explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.
02
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Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.
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What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn’t account for. What’s yours?
04
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What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.
05
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You’re with a group when things start going wrong. What’s your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn’t.
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What’s the horror movie mistake you’re most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.
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What’s your best weapon against something that can’t be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.
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It’s the final scene. You’re the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What’s yours?
Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…
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Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Camp Crystal Lake · Friday the 13th
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Jason Voorhees
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn’t strategise, doesn’t adapt, doesn’t outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.
Haddonfield, Illinois · Halloween
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Michael Myers
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael’s power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.
Elm Street · A Nightmare on Elm Street
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Freddy Krueger
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
You are harder to destabilise than most. You’ve faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven’t looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy’s greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.
Derry, Maine · It
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Pennywise
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
The Losers Club didn’t survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise’s worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.
Chicago · Child’s Play
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Chucky
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
You don’t have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.
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‘Teenage Wasteland’ (2025)
Rotten Tomatoes: 100% | IMDb: 8.1/10
This week, documentary fans were delivered a treat via Netflix, as one of the best docs in the past year finally made its streaming debut. Teenage Wasteland (formerly known as Middletown) follows a teacher and group of students in the early 1990s who uncover a conspiracy while making a short film. 30 years later, they reunite to explore the discovery once again.
After premiering at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, Teenage Wasteland earned hugely positive reviews, even earning a coveted 100% rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. “Riveting without ever feeling sensationalized and moving without being saccharine, Middletown is a captivating tale that combines elements of true crime and coming-of-age stories,” wrote Collider’s Taylor Gatesin one of many glowing reviews for the doc.
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3
‘Neighbors’ (2014)
Rotten Tomatoes: 72% | IMDb: 6.3/10
Finally breaking away from his High School Musical image, Zac Efron‘s coming-of-age came in the 2014 comedy Neighbors, which follows a loving couple with a newborn, Mac (Seth Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne), as their lives change when they are forced to live next to a fraternity house. As a bitter rivalry emerges, hilarity ensues.
Efron, Rogen, Byrne, Dave Franco, and Lisa Kudrow all combine for comedy gold in Nicholas Stoller‘s fourth directorial feature, which began with the beloved Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Utterly hilarious from start to finish and littered with perfect pop culture references, Neighbors will keep you thoroughly entertained this first weekend of September, setting you up for a great month of movies.
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