Welcome to Culture Hound, InsideHook’s deep dive into the month’s most important cultural happenings, pop and otherwise.
(RE)WATCH: Amazing Stories
A revamp of the ‘80 anthology series from Steven Spielberg, the five-episode reboot covers a wide range of genres, with the tone coming off as a less-bleak Black Mirror (or The Twilight Zone with fewer twist endings). The “grandpa gets superpowers” episode starring the late Robert Forster might be one to watch. (March 6, Apple TV+)
Returning TV shows: Better Things (March 5, FX); Black Monday (March 15, Showtime); Westworld (March 15, HBO); Ozark (March 27, Netflix)
DISCOVER: Devs
Alex Garland (Ex Machina, Annihilation) seems like the perfect writer/director for a miniseries about the disappearance of a computer engineer’s boyfriend at a quantum computing company … run by an enigmatic CEO named Forest, played by Nick Offerman. (March 5, Hulu)
New TV shows/movies: Breeders (March 3, FX); Dave (March 4, FXX); The Plot Against America (March 16, HBO); Big Time Adolescence (March 20, Hulu); Making the Cut (March 27, Prime Video)
ENJOY: Saint Maud
Pretty much everything that ubiquitous indie film distributor A24 has touched in the last three years has turned to gold, and that’s doubly true for horror (Midsommar, The Witch, Hereditary). Rose Glass’s Saint Maud is their latest foray into the genre, in which a hospice nurse with a supernatural streak becomes obsessed with a patient in her care.
For other great March film choices — from ‘Onward’ to ‘Bloodshot’ to ‘A Quiet Place Part II’ — check out our Spring Movie Guide.
BUY/RENT: Verotika
A trilogy of “erotic horror stories” with a ‘70s European flair from punk/metal icon Glenn Danzig. Is it good? Well, if unintentional laughter is your goal, then maybe. As the horror site Bloody Disgusting put it in a review, the movie is the “horror equivalent of The Room.” So so so so bad it’s good.
More Blu-ray releases: Uncut Gems, Bombshell (March 10); 1917 (March 24); Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (March 31)
READ: The Glass Hotel
Emily St. John Mandel’s follow-up to Station Eleven ditches dystopia for modern-day horrors, mixing the story of a Bernie Madoff-like Ponzi scheme with the disappearance of a woman from the deck of a container ship. (March 24)
More book recs? Check out the eight new titles we’re most excited for this month.
LISTEN: Cornershop
“Brimful of Asha” was one of the great rock/electronic hybrids of the late ’90s, but the band behind that hit seemingly disappeared about eight years ago. But Cornershop is back and hating on Brexit with England Is a Garden. The first single (“No Rock: Save the Roll”) is kind of Stones-y, but in a good way. (March 6)
More new music: Mac Miller, Swamp Dogg (March 6); The Bombpops, Grouplove (March 13); Alicia Keys, The Weeknd (March 20); Brian Fallon, Pearl Jam (March 27)
PLAY: DOOM Eternal
Doom was a revelation when it was introduced back in 1993, and each iteration of the first-person shooter has upped the scares (I mean, you’re literally fighting the forces of Hell). 2016’s revamp of the title was an ultra-violent masterpiece with zero strategy beyond “push forward, blast demons with your BFG”; Eternal, the long-delayed follow-up, follows a similarly bloody path but adds the ability to play as the slayer-killing demons. (March 20)
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