What to stream this week: Relic, The Old Guard, Greyhound, Rosehaven and more

If you’re the type of person who likes to invite terror into your loungeroom, this new streaming movie will do the trick.

With cinemas reopened in most states across Australia, we’re spending a lot more time out of our homes.

So we’ve merged the TV and movie columns in one weekly “What to stream this week” offering, featuring new streaming TV shows and movies, and some classics to revisit.

If you don’t feel like leaving the house – or live in Victoria where you have no choice – here’s your handy guide on what to watch.

SOMETHING FRIGHTENING

Relic is coming to Stan on Friday

Relic: Melbourne filmmaker Natalie Erika James’ horror movie won raves when it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and if you’re the type that likes to invite terror into your loungeroom, pencil it in for your Friday night. The petrifying, ghoulish movie stars Emily Mortimer, Bella Heathcote and Robyn Nevin as three generations of one family trapped in a haunted house, standing in for the scourge of dementia. Watch it: Stan, from Friday, July 10

The Haunting of Hill House: With the release of a fictionalised movie inspired by horror writer Shirley Jackson, now’s the time to revisit one of the most successful adaptations of her work: The Haunting of Hill House. The 2018 series about five adult siblings and the memories of the bloodcurdling horrors that led them to flee their homes as children terrified many viewers. Watch it: Netflix

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SOMETHING NEW

Rosehaven returns for its fourth season this week

Rosehaven S4: ABC’s small, delightful comedy about two friends working in a real estate agency in Tasmania returns for its fourth season this week, and it’s packed with the easy charms of Celia Pacquola and Luke McGregor. Everything about Rosehaven is cosy and warm, and it manages to wring so much humour out of life’s little things. Watch it: ABC iview, from Wednesday, July 8 at 9pm

Noughts + Crosses: A six-part TV adaptation of a popular young adult novel series, Noughts + Crosses is part Romeo & Juliet love story and part racial and social commentary. This clever show is set in an alternate version of the world where Europe was conquered by African colonisers some centuries ago, who still rule over light-skinned “Noughts”. Its leads are two young people from opposing groups who fall for each other. An urgent series that entertains but also provokes and challenges what audiences have taken for granted. Watch it: Binge/Foxtel Now

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SOMETHING THRILLING

Charlize kicks serious butt

The Old Guard: Netflix has spent a lot of money making blockbusters with A-list stars, but many of its action flicks have been big bangs with little story or emotional depth. The Old Guard, starring Charlize Theron and Kiki Layne, manages to be thrilling and propulsive with tight, hand-to-hand combat sequences, and still give weight to those other aspects of filmmaking that matters – you know, characters, writing and performance. Watch it: Netflix, from Friday, July 10

Greyhound: Tom Hanks’ WWII epic is a personal project for him – he wrote the screenplay from a C.S. Forester novel. Which is why Hanks was a little dismayed (his exact word was “heartbroken”) that Greyhound is releasing to streaming instead of the cinema as originally intended. It’s a movie that begs to be seen on a big screen, a tale of a navy captain in command of a convoy crossing the Atlantic, fending off U-boat attacks. Watch it: Apple TV+, from Friday, July 10

SOMETHING CHILLING

Dead bodies are never a good sign

War of the Worlds: H.G. Wells’ classic sci-fi story gets a modern update with this series starring Gabriel Byrne, Elizabeth McGovern, Stephen Campbell Moore and Normal People’s Daisy Edgar-Jones. Wells’ alien invasion epic has been catnip for storytellers because it sets the scene – this time, contemporary Europe – for that ultimate test, what humans are willing to do in the face of an existential threat. Watch it: SBS On Demand, from Thursday, July 9 at 8.30pm

Unsolved Mysteries: Many of us would remember the old Unsolved Mysteries series on TV and host Robert Stack in his trench coat. Revived by its original creators John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer, along with Stranger Things producer Shawn Levy, there are six new mysteries to puzzle over. The first episode is the mystery of a man who ran out of the house in a hurry and was later found dead on the roof of a hotel. Watch it: Netflix

SOMETHING FAMILIAR

You are rocking that boater, sir

Witness: Directed by Australian Peter Weir, Witness is a taut crime thriller featuring a solid Harrison Ford performance. Ford plays a detective who commits to protecting a young Amish boy when the kid witnesses a murder, even going undercover in their community. A young Lukas Haas plays the child while his mother is a pre-Top Gun Kelly McGillis. A classic that holds up with every repeat viewing. Watch it: Binge/Foxtel Now

The Baby-sitters Club: Technically, this is a new series, and for a younger generation of viewers, this will be their first contact with Ann M. Martin’s stories about a group of pre-teen friends who set up their own business. But for everyone who grew up with Martin’s books through the 1980s and 1990s, this Netflix series will be giant nostalgia hit. Watch it: Netflix

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