A filmed version of Bat Out of Hell The Musical delivers all the bombast, noise, and mythic swagger Jim Steinman fans could want, but the attempt to shape his greatest hits into a coherent dystopian love story remains uneven.
Playing on BroadwayHD
Watching the streaming broadcast of Bat Out of Hell The Musical feels a bit like riding a phantom bike that needs to brake now and then. Jim Steinman’s work is as bombastic as expected, even though the story is essentially a dystopian remix of Streets of Fire. That connection is no accident, since Steinman also penned the anthems for that rock and roll fable.
While the songs from Meat Loaf’s landmark 1977 album remain thunderous and mythical, this filmed stage production shows how difficult it is to build a consistent narrative around music originally written as stand-alone set pieces.
Luc Besson’s Dracula is arriving on VOD on March 10, 2026. Starring Caleb Landry Jones, Christoph Waltz, and Zoë Bleu, this romantic reimagining of the vampire myth also stands as one of Vertical’s biggest theatrical successes to date.
Coming to Prime Video, Apple TV, Fandango, and YouTube
Straight out of theatres and into your home, Luc Besson’s Dracula is ready to strike beginning March 10, 2026. It is already listed on Prime Video, and is reported to be one of Vertical’s highest-grossing releases to date. This romantic reimagining stars Caleb Landry Jones, Christoph Waltz, and Zoë Bleu, and offers a bold new take on the iconic vampire myth.
In my review, I noted that Dracula: A Love Tale reshapes the familiar myth into a sweeping gothic romance driven by loss, reincarnation, and pulp energy. Caleb Landry Jones leans hard into the Count’s theatrical menace, while Christoph Waltz gives Van Helsing a scene-stealing presence that helps keep the film lively. Though the digital effects can feel uneven, the film still lands as an entertaining and memorable take on the legend.
Although a Blu-ray and DVD release date has not yet been announced, seeing this vampire reincarnate around Easter would be rather ironic indeed.
Diabolic blends trauma, control, and the supernatural into a hallucinatory folk-horror trip. While the film leans heavily on its past timeline, Phillips’ visceral style shines once the weirdness bleeds into the present.
Aussie-made films can sometimes lean on the outback, or curiosity about Indigenous culture, but Diabolic takes a different path. Though the story plays out in the proverbial outback of Utah, I couldn’t help wondering why foreign investors were more interested in helping Daniel J. Phillips make this film than backing local creators. It’s not a detail worth nitpicking since the movie was shot in the land down under, but it becomes noticeable when the landscape feels slightly wrong for its intended setting. Maybe that’s part of the hallucinatory effect Phillips is aiming for.
After Elise (Elizabeth Cullen, The Bureau of Magical Things) leaves The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she thinks she’s safe. She’s moved on, but the nightmares keep coming. Elise has PTSD, and that’s the terrain the film explores more than anything else. Thankfully, her boyfriend Adam (John Kim, The Librarians) and her adoptive sister Gwen (Mia Challis, Outer Banks) are understanding. Trouble starts when they take a camping trip to get away and bring drugs along, hoping to knock down the walls Elise has built so she can finally feel whole and free from her past.
After a long rewatch of Stranger Things, I look at what worked and what did not when creating the threat that would manifest in the small town of Hawkins. Thankfully, for those in the know, no foothold was made, but is this truly the end?
When Stranger Things first arrived on Netflix, it began with something wonderfully small. It seemed to be simply about a group of kids playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons, and not expecting that world to manifest around them! After the sudden absence of Will (Noah Schnapp), they had to learn how to become heroes for real. Even though the adults didn’t believe what they’ve encountered is real, what they managed to do was the impossible: to show that dangers lurk in every corner. The shadows are alive, and the necrophagous shadows, well….
From that moment, the series evolved naturally from childhood rituals into becoming adults. As for the fantasy characters they wanted to become, all the visual motifs (including a garbage can lid modified to become a shield) came into place. And the monsters they had to face weren’t just creatures. They were metaphors to something greater shaped by the kids’ references to concepts and entities from this role playing world. Some worked, and others did not, but overall, unless the viewer was in the know, the tie-ins were more than surface level references.
This Winter Crunchyroll has a good lineup of works, returning and new, to satisfy. Rather than chasing everything, this selection leans into darker fantasy, legacy continuations, and intimate supernatural stories worth the time.
Although a bit late, here’s what’s playing for the Winter Crunchyroll season. It’s a familiar mix of a few new series, a lot of returning ones, and my own picks on what’s worth the time. I never try to catch everything. After sampling trailers and leaning into the genres that usually reward my attention, I narrow things down to a focused shortlist. It’s easier to manage, especially alongside theatre trips and a growing pile of graphic novels.
In addition to my top five choices, two movies deserve mention too. Please see below for what I’m looking forward to:
This adaptation of Rocket Shōkai’s light novel flips heroism into a sentence rather than a calling. In a world where being a “hero” is punishment, Xylo Forbartz, a condemned goddess killer, is assigned to Penal Hero Unit 9004, forced into endless combat against monstrous abominations. Death offers no release, only resurrection and more violence. I’m drawn to how openly this interrogates systems of power, turning the usual fantasy reward structure into something oppressive and cyclical. When Xylo encounters a mysterious new goddess, their uneasy alliance threatens to unravel the machinery of eternal punishment itself.
When Netflix will soon dump all of Star Trek, and traditional networks are broadcasting less genre television than ever, where do audiences go to get their fix?
Looking back, the last century feels like the moment genre television quietly defined its contract with the audience. Most of those early experiments arrived in short waves, and like the tides, they came and went. Some returned decades later on specialty stations or streaming platforms. And these days, nearly everything is being tucked into quieter shores. Every so often, the tropes that once defined a series are reskinned for a new generation, which is simply how television writing evolves.
From that first wave, some re-dos leaned into long-form storytelling, while others stayed loyal to the standalone format.
The 70s offered a handful of tests, including Shazam! (1974–1976), Wonder Woman (1975–1979), and The Incredible Hulk (1977–1982). The latter proved that if you give audiences a hero they can empathize with, they will follow even an unresolved quest, like Bruce Banner’s search for a cure. Sadly, many genre series never reached a true conclusion. The Time Tunnel (1966–1967) is only one of several 60s science-fiction shows left without closure.