Now Streaming: ABRAHAM'S BOYS, Human Monsters, FRANKENSTEIN, The Real Monster

It's still Dracula vs. Frankenstein time.

Abraham's Boys: A Dracula Story
The film is now streaming on Shudder.

Nathasha Kermani wrote and directed the atmospheric and moody drama, adapting Joe Hill's story, which finds Abraham Van Helsing (Titus Welliver) moving his sons to the United States for a fresh start. Of course, when you keep a stake in your back pocket and are always ready to kill a vampire, it's safe to say this family will be different than everyone else.

The official synopsis: "​​Max and Rudy Van Helsing have spent their lives under the strict and overprotective rule of their father, Abraham. Unaware of his dark past, they struggle to understand his paranoia and increasingly erratic behavior. But when they begin to uncover the violent truths behind their father's history with Dracula, their world unravels, forcing them to confront the terrifying legacy they were never meant to inherit."

Frankenstein
The film is now streaming on Netflix.

I hope you got to see Guillermo del Toro's masterful Frankenstein on the biggest theatrical screen possible, because it's rather magnificent, and the theatrical experience allows all the visuals to sink in gradually and grandly.

The film as a film is quite good, too, as expressed by our trusty Toronto scribe Kurt Halfyard in his review from the Toronto fest: "In the end, Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein is akin to Tim Burton's Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, or Christopher Nolan's The Prestige. Not necessarily the film he will be remembered by, nor a perfect film (few are, nor should be) but certainly an auteur operating in grand form, well within in a comfortable wheelhouse. His hands were not burned, however. Maybe, just maybe, they should have been singed a little bit more."

Materialists
The film is now streaming on .

It's from A24 Films, which has an output deal with HBO Max now, so that seems to indicate a minimum standard of quality. Celine Song (Past Lives) wrote and directed; Chris Evans, Dakota Johnson, and Pedro Pascal star.

Our own Barbara Goslawski reviewed and was not enthralled in her review: "Past Lives had a resounding emotional depth, with tonal intricacies and a profound resonance that is simply missing from her latest. The stylistic dexterity in her debut allowed her to sidestep some of the tired formulas that can sink the best romantic ideas. Yet, in Materialists, the director is so busy with her messaging that she forgets to give her film any soul. More importantly, she botches a key dramatic twist that has no business being there in the first place."

The Fantastic Four: First Steps
The film is now streaming on Disney Plus.

Speaking of Pedro Pascal, he also led Marvel's latest stab at a fabled foursome this past summer. What did our lead critic Mel Valentin think?

His review was quite admiring: "While it might have taken five films, four decades, and three reboots (the last thanks Disney's purchase of 20th Century Fox six years ago), to finally give Marvel's First Family the big-screen treatment they've long deserved, lifelong and casual comic-book fans alike should be happy, possibly even ecstatic, at The Fantastic Four: First Steps' refreshingly irony-free blend of superheroes, epic-scaled world-building, and stakes-heavy comic-book action."

Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale
The film is now streaming on .

This is not really our site's cup of tea, but it's British, and we support the Brits, even if we didn't review this one. I watched and enjoyed the series and I watched the first two movies, which was enough for me, but if you want more, here you go.

Blackout Noir
The eight-film collection is now streaming on the Criterion Channel.

If you've had enough of modern movies, why not soak in #NoirNovember to the full? Here's a good starting point, both for seasoned noir bathers, as well as first-timers wondering about all the fuss. It includes what is possibly my favorite film of all time.

I'll just quote the official description of these films: "Celebrate Noirvember with our new BLACKOUT NOIR collection! Among the most agonizingly intense films in the history of film noir are those that adopt the point of view of characters tormented by amnesia, memory holes, and drunken blackouts, leaving them to grasp in the dark in search of an often terrifying truth. These films--including both defining genre classics like IN A LONELY PLACE and CROSSFIRE and hidden gems like BLACK ANGEL and DEADLINE AT DAWN--combine tantalizing whodunit mysteries with creeping doubt, paranoia, and a guilt that shreds the soul."

I've not seen all these films, but I absolutely adore Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place, which devastates me every time I see it.

Now Streaming celebrates independent and international genre films and television shows that are newly available on legal streaming services.