September 11, 2025

What to stream: 'Only Murders in the Building,' 'The Thing,' 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'

Spooky season has a head start at HBO Max thanks to 'The Cabin in the Woods.'

By Kristin Hunt
PhillyVoice Staff

Provided image/Disney/Patrick Harbron

Mabel (Selena Gomez) and Charles (Steve Martin) puzzle over their latest case in Season 5 of 'Only Murders in the Building,' now airing on Hulu.

Just as SEPTA has roared back to life (with a fare bump), so have television's favorite podcasters/private eyes.

"Only Murders in the Building" is officially back. While the whodunit will air 10 new episodes by late October, the first three are available now on Hulu. Viewers can expect everyone from Meryl Streep to Renee Zellweger (and Philly native Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Yardley's own Richard Kind) to stop by the Upper West Side apartment complex where residents keep dropping dead by the season's end.

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Streamers are also adding horror movie staples ahead of Halloween. Catch "The Thing" or "The Cabin in the Woods," newly available on Peacock and HBO Max, or take a break from the jump scares with "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Here's what to know about each of them:

'Only Murders in the Building'

There's been another death in the Acronia, and the building's platonic power throuple is on the case. "Only Murders in the Building" returned for its fifth season Tuesday on Hulu. The premiere picks up on the bloody demise of doorman Lester (Teddy Coluca), found dead in the fountain after the Oliver (Martin Short) and his actress girlfriend Loretta (Meryl Streep) got married. While the death has somehow been ruled an accident, Oliver and his sleuthing partners Charles (Steve Martin) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) know something is up. By the end of the first episode of the new season, they've stumbled upon a severed finger, secret casino and yet another dead body.

The latest chapter in the comedic mystery series is preoccupied with the Mafia. Lester's death is somehow connected to a mobster family consisting of an absent father (Bobby Cannavale), tired mom (Téa Leoni) and five podcasting sons. They all live in the Staten Island estate featured in "The Godfather." It's a great excuse for Short and Martin to do terrible Marlon Brando impressions, but the premiere's real standout is, as always, Martin doing physical comedy — this time, contorting around Lester's coffin to see if he's missing a finger. The first three episodes of Season 5 are now streaming, with new installments to come Tuesdays.

'The Thing'

Think the Arctic is all fuzzy penguins and polar bears? "The Thing" would like to set the record straight.

The 1982 horror movie, now available on Peacock, turns a quiet, snowy research base into a death trap. There, every man and sled dog is a potential foe, owing to the "thing" that can disguise itself as any life form. A team of American scientists must suss out who's really human and who's this other, alien thing before it claims them all. Most memorably, they try to isolate the organism in a blood test scene that's been much-imitated over the ensuing four decades — including in this year's vampire flick "Sinners."

'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'

Already hyped for Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey"? It's still nearly a year away, but you can tide yourself over with a loose adaptation of the Homer classic, set in Mississippi during the Great Depression.

The Coen brothers' period piece "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" recasts stranded hero Odysseus as Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), an escaped convict from a chain gang. He and his fellow jailbirds Pete (John Turturro) and Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson) are trying to return home, but they face obstacles adapted from Greek mythology. Their sirens are women peddling bootleg hooch, while their cyclops is a one-eyed Bible salesman who's really a Klansman. The trio also records a hit single as the Soggy Bottom Boys, though that part isn't canonical; it's just a bop.

The charming, slightly mystical movie is streaming now on Hulu.

'The Cabin in the Woods'

Ramp up to spooky season with this send-up of scary movie tropes. "The Cabin in the Woods" follows a group of college kids on a weekend getaway that's clearly doomed from the start — when they stop for gas, the station attendant might as well be playing the banjo from "Deliverance." But the omens are supposed to be obvious; engineers in an underground lab are baiting the coeds to ignore the warning signs and stumble toward their deaths. The lab crew deploys all the oldest tricks in book to fuel the satire: lost signals, creepy diaries, zombies and pheromones to distract the young people from the guy wielding an ax. It's a great time for anyone who loves horror, but "The Cabin in the Woods" serves up genuine scares, too. Also, a merman. Stream it on HBO Max.