Every month, all the major streaming services add a host of newly acquired (or just plain new) shows, movies, and documentaries into their ever-rotating libraries. So what’s a dedicated reader to watch? Well, whatever you want, of course, but the name of this website is Literary Hub, so we sort of have an angle. To that end, here’s a selection of the best (and most enjoyably bad) literary film and TV coming to streaming services this month. Have fun.

NEW:

East of Eden
Netflix, October 1

Literary bona fides: based on East of Eden by John Steinbeck (1952)

From our Fall Preview: Zoe Kazan’s limited series, based on Steinbeck’s masterpiece, is thee marquee literary adaptation of the season, starring Florence Pugh as Cathy Ames, along with quite a few other hot people. Fun fact: Kazan’s grandfather Elia Kazan directed the 1955 adaptation. Think Zoe can top it?

Kill Jackie
Prime Video, October 2

Literary bona fides: based on The Price You Pay by Nick Harkaway as Aidan Truhen (2018)

From our Fall Preview: Catherine Zeta-Jones—with her natural Welsh accent on full display for once!—stars as the gender-swapped Jackie Price, an art dealer with a past so checkered that no fewer than seven assassins are hired to kill her. Well, she’ll just have to kill them first, won’t she?

Carrie
Prime Video, October 7

Literary bona fides: based on Carrie by Stephen King (1974)

From our Fall Preview: Mike Flanagan’s latest horror offering (and latest King adaptation) is a miniseries version of Carrie, the novel’s fourth screen adaptation, which reimagines the classic in a modern high school. “The themes that Steve was talking about half a century ago of kindness versus cruelty, of empathy and bullying, and violence at school have become even more relevant today than he could have contemplated because of our relationship to technology and the degree to which violence encroaches on our high schoolers, especially in the United States,” Flanagan told EW. “So that meant we had an opportunity to tell a story about a modern teenage experience that could use the seeds of these characters King created 50 years ago, but express them completely differently.” If anyone can do it, it’s Flanagan.

Yaga
AMC+, October 23

Literary bona fides: based on Yaga by Kat Sandler (2019)

From our Fall Preview: Canadian playwright Kat Sandler has turned her 2019 play based on the legend of Baba Yaga into a television show for Canada’s Crave (the same platform that brought us Heated Rivalry). And yes, Hudson Williams is in it, along with Carrie-Anne Moss, Noah Reid, and Clark Backo. Looks deranged; I’ll watch it!

Nocturne
Apple TV, October 30

Literary bona fides: based on The Sandman and Lazarus by Lars Kepler (2012, 2018)

From our Fall Preview: Liev Schreiber stars as Jonah Lynn in this adaptation of the bestselling Swedish thrillers (written by husband and wife team Alexander Ahndoril and Alexandra Coelho Ahndoril under the name Lars Kepler), a former homicide detective who relocates to a small town in Pennsylvania town, only to find its citizens being terrorized by a notorious serial killer Jurek Walter (Stephen Graham), despite the fact that he’s already behind bars. Finally Jonah must call on Saga Bauer (Zazie Beetz), his surrogate daughter, to try and get Jurek to talk before it’s too late.

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THROWBACK:

Psycho (1960)
Netflix, October 1

Literary bona fides: based on Psycho by Robert Bloch (1959)

It’s October again, which means that all of my throwback recommendations this month will be spooky. Why not start with a classic?

The Fly (1986)
Peacock, October 1

Literary bona fides: based on “The Fly” by George Langelaan (1957)

I’d say “peak Jeff Goldblum” but the problem is, Jeff Goldblum is always peak. Not for the squeamish, though.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)
Netflix, October 1

Literary bona fides: based on Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1918)

Robert De Niro is the Creature and Kenneth Branagh is Victor Frankenstein in this overwrought and overstuffed version of Shelley’s classic, directed by Branagh (of course) and produced by Francis Ford Coppola (of course!). But what better time than Halloween for overwrought?

I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
Netflix, October 1

Literary bona fides: based on Lois Duncan’s I Know What You Did Last Summer (1973)

Duncan may have disavowed the adaptation for its sensationalized violence and how little relationship it bore to her book, but it remains a touchstone of Millennial horror nostalgia. Some things never die. (Some do, though.)

American Psycho (2000)
Peacock, October 1

Literary bona fides: based on American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (1991)

Keeps on getting scarier.

Twilight (2008)
Netflix, October 1

Literary bona fides: based on Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (2005)

I, personally, have never seen Twilight, but I think this is my year. Unless I missed the zeitgeist, or something?