The 11 Best Things Coming to Max in October

Get ready to get scared with ‘Salem’s Lot,’ plus more spooky stuff, some laughs, and a French thriller you won’t soon forget

Tracey Minkin,

AARP

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En español

Published January 30, 2024

/ Updated September 30, 2024

Linda Ronstadt

Paul Natkin/Getty Images

What’s better than a Halloween haul? These Max treats, including an M. Night Shyamalan spookfest and a film of Stephen King’s terrifying Salem’s Lot. Expect new thrillers, true-crime documentaries and beloved Late Night host Seth Meyers’ yet-to-be-titled stand-up special. No tricks! Here are the 11 best things coming to Max this month.

Coming Oct. 1

The Cranes Are Flying (1957)

Soviet director Mikhail Kalatozov’s masterful, classic, timely Cannes prizewinner sets the love story of Veronica (Tatiana Samoilova) and Boris (Aleksey Batalov) against the backdrop of World War II. As Boris heads to the front, Veronica must deal with anxiety, plus the romantic advances of Boris’s draft-evading cousin. This landmark in Soviet and international cinema is worth watching for Sergei Urusevsky’s cinematography alone.

Coming Oct. 3

Salem’s Lot, R

Get your spooky season started with the first feature film adaptation of Stephen King’s 1975 novel, after miniseries in 1979 and 2004. Lewis Pullman (Top Gun: Maverick) plays writer Ben Mears, who returns to his small hometown in Maine just to get some writing done but discovers the place is under siege from a vampire. Look for Alfre Woodard, 71, and Bill Camp, 60, among the good guys helping Ben battle the supernatural.

Coming Oct. 6

The Franchise

It may not be as perfect as HBO’s Succession, but The Franchise takes a similar comedic swing. It’s a sharp, British-inflected series about a beleaguered superhero film’s first assistant director (Himesh Patel, Station Eleven) amid the slings and arrows of outrageous moviemaking. The power trio of Armando Iannucci, 60, Sam Mendes and Succession writer Jon Brown are behind the fun.

Michael Ian Black, Roy Wood Jr. and Amber Ruffin in Have I Got News for You

(Left to right) Michael Ian Black, Roy Wood Jr. and Amber Ruffin

Max

Have I Got News for You

A mash-up of NPR shows like Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! and those diabolical New York Times news quizzes, this new game show from CNN hosted by comedian Roy Wood Jr. (The Daily Show) features Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black leading panelists through comic games that test their knowledge of current events. Of course the BBC did it first, but, hey, these are American headlines now!

Coming Oct. 10

Caddo Lake, PG-13

When you’ve got producer M. Night Shyamalan on the marquee, spooky fun’s afoot. The creeps revolve around the disappearance of an 8-year-old girl and deeper, potentially supernatural events from her family’s history on this vast (actually real) lake and bayou on the Texas-Louisiana border. The always-excellent Lauren Ambrose (Yellowjackets, Six Feet Under) leads the Max Original thriller’s cast.

Coming Oct. 11

The Confidante

In this highbrow French psychological thriller based on real events, Laure Calamy (Call My Agent) plays Christelle, who claims to be a survivor of the 2015 terror attack at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris. Almost instantly, she’s not only involved in the newly formed victims’ association — she’s heading it. Was she even there? What’s really going on? We get four installments to find out.

Coming Oct. 15

I Am Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders

Tickle your true crime itch this month with this two-part HBO Original documentary about 56-year-old wife, mother and grandmother Lois Riess, who murdered her husband David in 2018 and then went on the run. Four years later, she sits down with filmmaker Erin Lee Carr (Murdaugh Murders, Britney vs. Spears) to tell her side of the story.

Coming Oct. 17

Louder: The Soundtrack of Change

Listen up! Produced by Selena Gomez and Stacey Abrams, 50, this Max Original documentary spotlights the breadth and passion of female musical icons, from Linda Ronstadt, 78, and Chaka Khan, 71, to Melissa Etheridge, 63, and H.E.R. This journey across generations and genres is here to remind us of the power of female voices and their role in fighting for equality for all.

Coming Oct. 18

MaXXXine

Keep the Halloween vibes going mid-month with this A24 winner starring Mia Goth as 1980s adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx. But as a mysterious killer (grownups will remember the Night Stalker of 1980s fame) stalks the starlets of Hollywood, Maxine’s past begins to leave a trail of its own blood. The top-flight ensemble cast includes Emmy winners Elizabeth Debicki (The Crown) and Bobby Cannavale, 54, plus Lily Collins (Emily in Paris), Giancarlo Esposito, 66, and Kevin Bacon, 66.

Coming Oct. 23

Breath of Fire

What happens when influencers become gurus? Nothing good, as evidenced in HBO’s four-part documentary about the 2013 rise and later scandal-fueled fall of Katie Griggs, a millennial YouTube astrologer who put on a white turban, changed her name to Guru Jagat, and became the new face of 1960s-minted kundalini yoga. Based on a Vanity Fair exposé, Breath of Fire meditates on the dangers of cultural appropriation and guru-dom in the digital age.

Coming Oct. 25

Trap, PG-13

Can’t a dad just take his daughter to see her favorite singer in concert? Not if the dad is a serial killer who discovers the whole concert is a sting operation to trap him. This devilish conceit comes from — who else? — M. Night Shyamalan, who wrote and directed. Former teen idol Josh Hartnett is all grown up, and all menacing, as the trapped killer.

Coming in October

Seth Meyers comedy special

It’s hard to believe that Meyers, 50, who has been a comic presence in our TV lives seemingly forever, has never taken the stage for an HBO comedy special (he did release one on Netflix, Lobby Baby, in 2019). This new, yet-to-be-named special (release date also to come) captures a live performance at The Vic Theatre in Chicago in June; Neal Brennan, who directed Lobby Baby, is behind the camera for this one as well.