Stream on Demand: ‘The Witch’ will cast a spell on home televisions
What’s new for home viewing on video-on-demand and Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming services.
Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand
“The Witch,” a “New England folktale” of Puritans beset by hardship and tragedy in the new world of 17th-century America, is a primal horror film rooted in fear and superstition. It’s weird and dark and very creepy. R. Also on DVD and Blu-ray.
Robert De Niro is Zac Ephron’s “Dirty Grandpa,” an R-rated comedy that is even dirtier in its unrated edition. Also on DVD and Blu-ray.
“Embrace of the Serpent,” a dreamy odyssey through the Amazon rainforest from Colombia, was an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film. Not rated, with subtitles.
Available same day as select theaters nationwide is the mystery thriller “Manhattan Night” starring Adrien Brody and Yvonne Strahovski (R) and the boxing drama “Back in the Day” with William DeMeo and Alec Baldwin (not rated).
Amazon Prime Video
“Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes presents the mini-series “Doctor Thorne,” based on the Anthony Trollope novel about love, status, money and marriage in 19th-century society. Tom Hollander, Ian McShane and Alison Brie star. The British drama makes its stateside debut on Amazon.
More streaming TV: “Humans: Season 1,” set in a near-future world where humanoid robots become self-aware, and the animated series “The Busy World of Richard Scarry” based on the popular storybooks.
Netflix
Maria Bamford draws on her own life for “Lady Dynamite: Season 1,” a new Netflix original comedy about an L.A. stand-up comedian trying to move on from a breakdown. 12 slightly surreal episodes.
More streaming TV: the horror series “Slasher: Season 1” (2016) from the cable channel Chiller, the animated “American Dad!: Season 10” from Seth MacFarlane, the award-winning Australian drama “Redfern Now,” and the foodie travel show “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown – Season 6.”
The high school drama “A Girl Like Her” (2015) uses the “found footage” style so popular in horror films to explore teen bullying. PG-13.
Hulu
Every episode of the classic western series “The Rifleman” with Chuck Connors as a single father and former marshal turned rancher, and the British family dramas “The Adventures of Black Beauty” and “The New Adventures of Black Beauty” are now available.
HBO Now
“Pan” (2015), yet another take on the “Peter Pan” story, is a lavish fantasy that imagines the origins of the boy who never grew up. Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara and Levi Miller star. PG.
Available Saturday is the HBO original movie “All the Way” with Bryan Cranston as Lyndon B. Johnson.
Redbox
“The Revenant,” “Dirty Grandpa,” “The Witch”
Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and TV can be found at http://streamondemand athome.com.