Medical Masks

UK TV Dramas Are Pitching in on The Coronavirus Crisis

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The rapid spread of the Coronavirus has inevitably taken its toll on the healthcare industry. In the UK the overwhelming treatment of those affected has left a depletion of medical supplies from the basic to complex. Hospitals are in desperate need for ventilators as more and more people need life-support and the current demand for basic equipment to protect healthcare workers such as scrubs and surgical masks are sky-rocketing. Fears for the NHS staff who are at risk treating those with the virus amongst a shortage of basic personal protective equipment is rife.

In the UK we have seen some incredible acts of kindness as community volunteers come together to support the vulnerable, small businesses donate visors and similar equipment’s to the National Health Service (NHS) and operations are providing proper meals to NHS workers who are working around the clock without proper food. Phrases and comparisons to ‘wartime spirit’ has been bandied around as clear parallels to World War Britain are used to rally the nation and summarise the wonderful response from businesses and the public. In only a few of many examples, British tech Industries turn their hands to building ventilators, volunteers are joining the NHS and manufacturers such as distilleries are bottling their alcohol in hand sanitisers.

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The United Kingdom’s vibrant festival season has taken a hit, with many events including the trailblazing Glastonbury festival being cancelled. However, despite the saddening decision, they are still looking to do what they can to support the NHS, the BBC reporting: ‘Emily Eavis is donating cotton bags from the Glastonbury Festival to hospitals and NHS workers in need. The bags will be used to place worn scrubs into before they are washed to help avoid cross contamination.’

Even the landscape of British television is changing as some regular TV soaps and shows are being rationed, ceased filming or altered as the film industry goes into lockdown. That, however has not deterred some shows, who have instead chosen to use the time to join the effort to support the UK’s healthcare industry. Medical TV Dramas such as Holby City and Casualty, have suspended production but have been donating personal protective equipment (PPE) to the NHS. In an article from the BBC Executive producer Simon Harper said: “Casualty and Holby City are all about celebrating NHS heroism, so we are only too happy to help out and do what we can for the courageous and selfless real life medics battling this situation.”

Similar acts have been seen in the US as Business Insider reported: ‘ Producers from ABC shows “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Station 19,” and “The Good Doctor” are donating supplies from their sets to hospitals and local authorities, a representative for ABC confirmed to Insider via email…”At ‘Station 19,’ we were lucky enough to have about 300 of the coveted N95 masks which we donated to our local fire station. They were tremendously grateful. At ‘Grey’s Anatomy,’ we have a back-stock of gowns and gloves which we are donating as well,” Vernoff said in the statement.’

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Yet it is not just medical shows who have been helping. The costume crew from the BBC’s adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials has begun to make hospital scrubs as production stalls. According to the BBC recently the crew set up Helping Dress Medics and are attracting help from more designers across the country and whose fundraising efforts have already raised over £12,000 for material. The show’s costume supervisor Dulcie Scott explained to the BBC:

“We were aware of the many and varied talents within the film industry that would not be in use at this time,” “When we realised there was a lack of PPE [personal protective equipment], and specifically scrubs, Dulcie contacted health professionals local to her to find out if and how we could help.”

“We are helping hospitals local to the costume makers. We have makers now in Wales, Sussex, Cotswolds, Plymouth, Malvern, Manchester and Liverpool”

According to the article, the design process is very simple and designers are following one basic universal pattern. Volunteers are providing their extraordinary talents for free and at such a high level of skill, scrubs are being made very very quickly. Extra material is even being donated to a company who is using their extra time, expertise and 3D printing equipment to make protective face masks.

The buyer from His Dark Materials is sourcing the fabric and material needed and sending it onto costume makers across the country, who will utilise their pool of contacts – tailors, designers etc. in their area. Even hobbyist sewers from the general public, are setting up groups on Facebook, taking to their machines in a mass effort to quite literally, protect NHS workers.

Positive COVID-19 Test

The Growing Number of Celebrities Who Have Caught Coronavirus

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Despite us knowing full well that celebrities are not superhumans who are immune to the evil in this world, it always comes as a shock when we hear about a much loved person who has been struck down with an illness.. The progression of the global coronavirus pandemic is no different, and many people are voicing genuine concern and worry for celebrities who have been revealing that they have coronavirus.

In the U.K. there was hysteria from fans when it was revealed the actor Idris Elba has contracted the virus while filming. He released the information on social media after deciding to get tested following the knowledge that someone he had been in contact with now had the virus. In his post, he mentioned that due to having asthma, he was actually worried about how it may progress, although he was in fact asymptomatic. He was joined by his wife, Sabrina, who was also self-isolating with him and subsequently tested positive for the virus too. Idris did not suffer any complications and both have now recovered.

Although not a celebrity per se, Prince Charles also sparked concern after revealing that he too had the virus, having been involved in many public events over the past few weeks. Whilst he had refrained from hand shaking at many of his most recent events, it is clear that at some point he was infected and this was subsequently discovered when he started to show symptoms at home. Although his wife The Duchess of Cornwall, tested negative for the virus, they were both self-isolating at home, with the prince conducting his first official engagement since coming down with the virus by video link, it was the opening of the new NHS Nightingale Hospital in London.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson was also diagnosed with the virus after beginning to suffer symptoms and has been self-isolating in his flat at Downing Street ever since. He wasn’t the first politician to come down with the virus and a number of others, including the Chief Medical Officer also withdrew from public duties after the onset of symptoms. Despite now passing the initial 7 day period, it has been reported that Boris still had symptoms and was therefore continuing to remain locked away in his flat. However, he has still been working hard behind closed doors to continue leading the country’s fight against the virus.

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were one of the first celebrity couples to announce they had contracted the virus, whilst Hanks was in Australia filming. They have been self-isolating whilst in Australia and thanked all of the people ‘down under’ who were taking such good care of them. Although no further details have been released about the couple’s condition, they were reported to have been taking things ‘one day at a time’.

Frozen 2 actress Rachel Matthews also announced she had contracted the virus in March and explained that she had been in self-quarantine for several days. She hoped that her experiences could potentially help others who were suffering or worried about the symptoms and said that she would be happy to answer any questions that people may have about her particular experiences of the virus.

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Actor Daniel Dae Kim also revealed on Instagram that he had tested positive for the virus whilst in New York filming for the NBC series New Amsterdam. The production of the show was subsequently postponed, as has been the case with many TV shows and films. It is thought that Daniel suffered mild symptoms and has now recovered.

Younger actress Debi Mazar started to feel unwell around mid-March and was reported as saying that her symptoms appeared to ‘come and go’. She used her exposure on Instagram to help share the message to stay at home in order to try and help combat the spread of the virus.

Famous opera singer Plácido Domingo announced via Facebook that he had contracted the virus and was now in self-isolating along with his family. He reassured fans that he was in good health although he had experienced the trademark cough and fever associated with the virus. Sadly, seven days later he was admitted to hospital but after responding well to treatment is now back home and recovering well.

As more celebrities reveal that they have also caught the virus, it is worth noting that the health advice continues to be to stay at home unless you have an urgent need to leave the house. Remember to keep a safe distance from others (2 meters) and wash your hands frequently. If you start to suffer from symptoms, stay at home and practice self-isolation for a period of 7 days, longer if the symptoms continue. It is also important for family members to also self-isolate for a period of 14 days, as it can take several days for the virus to begin to cause symptoms.

Golden Oscar Award

Oscar Nominations for ‘Marriage Story’ and ‘The Irishman’ Are a Huge Win for Netflix

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Netflix creates plenty of award-winning television shows, but during 2019 they truly outdid themselves in the film category. Two (technically three) Netflix films earned nominations at the Academy Awards, becoming one of the studios with the most nominations. Here’s why Netflix’s Oscar-win for Best Documentary and Laura Dern’s Best Supporting Actress win are so important for this streaming platform.

Marriage Story proved to be a milestone for this streaming platform, first enjoying its theatrical run for a month before premiering on the streaming platform. Although it was only available in select theaters, the exposure caused the Netflix original to later become a trending topic on Twitter.

Fans commented on everything from Adam Driver’s singing to Laura Dern ordering a kale salad, with the actress later becoming a starring topic of the Spirit Awards. Additionally, Laura Dern of Marriage Story walked away with her first-ever Academy Award in the Best Supporting Actress category. (She also earned a Golden Globe in the same category.)

“Noah wrote a movie about love and about breaching divisions in the name and in the honor of family and home, and hopefully for all of us, in the name of our planet,” Laura Dern said during her Oscar acceptance speech.

Adam Driver earned a nomination for Best Actor for his role in this film, while earned the nomination for Best Actress. The director behind Marriage Story, Noah Baumbach, earned the nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Complete with new anti-aging technology, Netflix premiered The Irishman in 2019. Directed by Martin Scorsese, this movie also enjoyed a short theatrical run, before becoming available to Netflix subscribers.

Along with Joker and 1917, The Irishman was one of the movies with the most nominations at this award show. It earned Academy Award nominations in the Best Picture, Best Visual Effects, Best Costume Design, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Director categories.

The film did not walk away with an Oscar or a Golden Globe, although it also received multiple nominations at that award show. However, that does not make the nominations any less important for Netflix.

According to CNET, “Netflix entered the 2020 Oscars ceremony with 24 nominations on its scorecard — more than any other studio.” These nominations, of course, are not the first Netflix originals to earn recognition from the award show.

This was, however, the first time a Netflix Original won an Oscar for acting. Netflix and its documentary, American Factory, won the Oscar for best feature documentary. This film told the story of an Ohio plant reopened by a Chinese billionaire.

While Netflix has since created itself a handful of critically acclaimed television shows, (Stranger Things, Queer Eye, and The Crown just to name a few,) this award show illustrates the platform’s slow, but steady, step into the biggest film award shows.

 

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Man Sitting Playing Guitar & Singing

Darius Rucker’s ‘Wagon Wheel’ Keeps Rolling

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Darius Rucker’s ‘Wagon Wheel’ Keeps Rolling.

NASHVILLE, Tenn (AP) — Country singer Darius Rucker couldn’t quite believe it when he was surprised this week with the news that his song “Wagon Wheel” was certified eight times platinum, making it one of the top five most popular country singles ever.

On Wednesday, Rucker stopped by the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum to see his items in an exhibit, but his label, Universal Music Group Nashville, surprised him with a plaque featuring eight platinum-colored records.

After repeating the word “Wow!” over and over, Rucker muttered to himself, “That can’t be true,” as he inspected the plaque in his hands.

 

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The Oscars

Oscars 2020: What To Expect From The 92nd Academy Awards

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The 92nd annual Academy Awards on Sunday night will mark the end of an awards season that has been consistent in giving acting accolades to Brad Pitt, Renee Zellweger, Laura Dern and Joaquin Phoenix but polarizing in its lack of diversity.

The Oscars in particular have drawn ire in recent years for having too few nominees who were female or people of color.

While the Academy has made significant strides — doubling the percentage of people of color within its membership and boosting the number of female members to 32%, up from 25% since 2016 — this year’s list of Oscar nominees has shown that issues of representation persist.

Only two of the 20 actors and actresses nominated were people of color, and no female director was nominated this year. Of the nine films nominated for best picture, only the South Korean movie “Parasite” featured a predominantly nonwhite cast, and only one, “Little Women,” was centered around numerous female characters.

Notable snubs for the 2020 ceremony included Greta Gerwig in the directing category, Jennifer Lopez and Awkwafina in the acting categories, and films such as “Dolemite is my Name,” “The Farewell,” “Us,” “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” and “Queen and Slim,” which were absent from the ballot altogether.

It is expected that presenters and award winners could use their time at the podium to call out these disparities.

Phoenix, who has secured several wins already for his performance as Arthur Fleck in “Joker,” used his acceptance speech at the BAFTAs last week to call out the film industry for becoming a “system of oppression.”

“I feel conflicted because so many of my fellow actors that are deserving don’t have that same privilege,” he said during the telecast. “I think that we send a very clear message to people of color that you’re not welcome here. I think that’s the message that we’re sending to people that have contributed so much to our medium and our industry and in ways that we benefit from.”

Phoenix was quick to note that he views himself as “part of the problem,” saying that he hadn’t done everything in his power in the past to make sure the sets he worked on were inclusive.

In the past, award shows such as the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes have been a place for the film industry’s elite to air grievances about inequalities in Hollywood and to make political statements about women’s rights, gay rights and police brutality against people of color.

Notably, in 2017, Meryl Streep spent part of her acceptance of the Cecile B. DeMille Award to attack President Donald Trump, without naming him directly. In the wake of Trump being acquitted of both charges in the Senate impeachment trial on Wednesday, celebrities at the ceremony could be tempted to speak out during their speeches or interviews on the red carpet before the show.

Front-runners for the biggest prizes of the ceremony, which will take place at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, include “1917,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Parasite.”

While the acting categories seem to be set in stone, top awards such as best picture and best director are still up in the air. Sam Mendes has been the favorite to win for his work on “1917.” Still, Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) and Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”) aren’t total underdogs.

Similarly, Universal’s “1917” is the front-runner for the top prize of best picture. “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Parasite” are also in contention, but “1917″ has garnered wins this awards season from the Golden Globes, the Producers Guild, the Directors Guild and the BAFTAs.

“1917” is also expected to win the best cinematography award for making the film appear as if it were all shot in one take.

“Parasite,” South Korea’s first nominated film at the Academy Awards, is expected to win best international feature and is a strong candidate for best original screenplay.

“Judy,” a biopic about Judy Garland, received only one nomination: best actress. Zellweger is expected to win for her portrayal of Garland.

 

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The Oscars

Joaquin Phoenix Addresses Lack of Diversity And Climate Change

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It’s been a fruitful awards season for Joaquin Phoenix, who has dominated this year’s circuit thanks to his role as the title character in Joker. Phoenix won Best Actor at the Golden Globes, the Critics’ Choice Awards, the SAG Awards, and the BAFTA Film Awards, among others. He’s now the favorite to win at the Oscars on Sunday—a prospect that might make some of the people watching a little bit uneasy.

Phoenix has been a formidable and unpredictable presence at the podium, going beyond the routine expressions of gratitude in his acceptance speeches to chastise the audience for their hypocrisy on climate change or to draw attention to the lack of the diversity at the very awards ceremony that just honored him. Though he may preach and provoke, he’s been self-deprecating and self-aware about it. “Contrary to popular belief, I don’t want to rock the boat. But the boat is [censored] rocked,” he said during his Golden Globes speech, to laughter.

Climate change was the major theme of Phoenix’s acceptance speech for Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama at the Golden Globes in January. “First, I would like to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press for recognizing and acknowledging the link between animal agriculture and climate change,” began Phoenix, who had urged the organization to adopt a vegan menu. “It’s a very bold move making tonight plant-based and it really sends a powerful message.” But that spoonful of sugar was soon followed by a dose of medicine when Phoenix (acknowledging that he himself has “not always been a virtuous man”) suggested that those present could all do better than sending well wishes to an Australia on fire, such as by cutting down on the “private jets to Palm Springs.”

Phoenix also once again dismissed the idea of awards ceremonies altogether, telling his fellow nominees that there’s no real competition between them. “It’s like, this thing that is created to sell advertisements for the TV show.” He threw in plenty of swearing, for good measure.

Who should be nervous for the Oscars: Hollywood jet-setters and whoever is live-bleeping the ceremony.

First I’d like to thank the the awards for going plant-based and trying to offset our carbon footprint. I think it’s really an amazing message; I deeply appreciate that. I need to thank my mom. Mom, you’ve always been my greatest inspiration and even when self-pity led me astray you never gave up on me and always believed in me and I’m deeply appreciative of your support. Scott Silver and Todd Phillips, you tricked us. You took a comic book character and used to talk about childhood trauma, gun violence, isolation, and mental health. And instead of inciting violence you invited the audience in to see what it feels like when you’re one of the forgotten. And I deeply appreciate that. Thank you, all.

The acceptance speech at the Critics’ Choice Awards also began with a nod to climate change before moving on to praise Joker for addressing “childhood trauma, gun violence, isolation and mental health.” The jury is out on whether Phoenix’s complimentary characterization of Joker counts as rocking the boat, given the criticism of how the movie handles those very themes, but in any case, the way Phoenix redirected praise to director Todd Phillips and screenwriter Scott Silver was unquestionably smooth.

Who should be nervous for the Oscars: Joker haters.

Phoenix’s BAFTA acceptance speech was all about lack of diversity in the industry—especially notable at a ceremony where all of the acting nominees were white—and the “systemic racism” behind it. It was also his most strongly worded speech: “I think that we send a very clear message to people of color, that you are not welcome here,” said Phoenix, adding that “I don’t think anyone wants a handout or preferential treatment—although that’s what we give ourselves every year. I think that people just wanted to be acknowledged and appreciated and respected for their work.”

Who should be nervous for the Oscars: Academy voters, who nominated 19 white actors this year and only one actor of color, Cynthia Erivo. It seems likely given the circumstances that Phoenix might again use his platform to call attention to the lack of recognition for people of color.

In his comparatively tame acceptance speech for the SAG Awards, Phoenix praised fellow nominees Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, Adam Driver, and Taron Egerton at length and ended his speech with a shoutout to another Joker actor: “Really I’m standing on the shoulders of my favorite actor, Heath Ledger.”

Who should be nervous for the Oscars: Leonardo DiCaprio, who might have to smile sheepishly through yet another charming story about how other actors fear hearing his name at auditions.

 

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Viacom

ViacomCBS Announces George Cheeks CEO, CBS Entertainment

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ViacomCBS has named George Cheeks President and CEO of CBS Entertainment Group, effective March 23. In an anticipated move, Cheeks succeeds Joe Ianiello, who will be leaving the company after a transition period.

Cheeks joins after resigning from NBCUniversal earlier this month where he was Vice Chairman of NBCUniversal Content Studios. In his new role, Cheeks will lead CBS-branded assets, including CBS Television Network, which encompasses CBS Entertainment, CBS News and CBS Sports, CBS Television Studios and CBS Television Stations and CBS’ first-run syndication business. He will also partner with the ViacomCBS digital organization on the CBS-branded digital assets, including CBS All Access.

Cheeks will report to Bob Bakish, President and CEO of ViacomCBS.

“I am thrilled to welcome George back to the family at this exciting moment for ViacomCBS,” said Bakish.

“Throughout his career, George has built broad experience in broadcast and studio operations and brings a unique mix of skills – combining deep commercial expertise and industry relationships with strong creative and programming capabilities. With his finger on the pulse of culture and change and his strong grasp of strategy, brands, audiences and content monetization, George will help CBS build on its position as the most-watched broadcast network and drive results across the entire CBS portfolio.”

“I am incredibly honored to join the stellar CBS team and help lead these incredible brands forward. From news to sports to entertainment, CBS sets the standard, and I look forward to building on this tremendous foundation as we find new and innovative ways to deliver CBS to audiences worldwide,” said Cheeks.

Bakish said he was grateful to Ianiello “for his many contributions to CBS and for the meaningful role he has played in bringing the CBS and Viacom teams together.”

Ianiello has been running the broadcaster since former CEO Les Moonves stepped down in September of 2018 after a sexual harassment scandal.

As Vice Chairman, NBCUniversal Content Studios, Cheeks helped run NBCUniversal’s television studios. Previously, he served as Co-Chairman of NBC Entertainment, where he was jointly responsible for the network’s primetime, late night and scripted daytime programming – including business affairs, marketing, communications, scheduling, West Coast research and digital operations and first-run syndication.

Prior to joining NBC in 2012, Cheeks served as EVP, Business Affairs and General Counsel for Viacom Music and Entertainment Group. He he served in legal roles at Nickelodeon, MTV, CMT and LOGO.

Earlier in his career, he held positions at Castle Rock Entertainment and the law firms Loeb & Loeb and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren & Richman. He has a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, Phi Beta Kappa, and a law degree from Harvard Law School.

 

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Laptop Google Search

Google’s Super Bowl 2020 Commercial Will Make You Cry

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Google debuted an unforgettable Super Bowl ad Tuesday about the human struggle to hold on to memories.

The heart-wrenching commercial features the voice of an elderly man asking his Google Assistant to show him photos of he and his apparently late wife Loretta, and asks the device to remember endearing details about his beloved.

“Hey Google, show me photos of me and Loretta,” he asks, prompting an image of the couple to appear — and then another when they were younger, which elicits a happy memory. “Remember she hated my mustache,” he laughed.

Google Assistant replies onscreen, “OK, I’ll remember that.”

“Remember, Loretta loved going to Alaska,” he commands as another picture of the couple fishing shows.

“Show me photos from our anniversary,” he asks. A video of a young Loretta shows her laughing. “Remember, she always snorted when she laughed.”

Then, Google Assistant pulls up a record of all the man’s notes — “Here’s what you told me to remember” — each dated from the time the request was made, leading back to May 14, 2017.

“Loretta always said, don’t miss me too much, and get out of the dang house,” the note read.

The one minute, 30 second spot is tugging at the heartstrings of social media.

“This hit me hard, my grandmother had alzheimers, on her death bed I told her goodbye but she didnt recognize me or my mom, we were complete strangers to her, she felt so far away from me,” commented one YouTube user.

“Never did I think that a google ad would bring me to tears,” said another.

One watcher felt the clip captured how technology and the internet can help us feel a little less lonely:

“Equal parts beautiful, touching, encouraging for a future with Google and terrifying at our dependency on it. Right on the knife’s edge of what it means to benefit from our marvelous digital world and our loss of traditional social support. I stan this ad.”

 

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Parkinsons Disease

Ozzy Osbourne Reveals Parkinson’s Diagnosis

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NEW YORK (WTHR) — Ozzy Osbourne has opened up about his difficult year. In an interview with Robin Roberts on “Good Morning America,” the “Prince of Darkness” opened up about his difficulties after a fall in February and a Parkinson’s diagnosis.

Osbourne’s last show was on New Year’s Eve 2018. “Then I had a bad fall,” he said. “I had to have surgery on my neck, which screwed all my nerves.”

After the fall, Osbourne said he was diagnosed with a mild form of Parkinson’s, called PRKN 2.

“There’s so many different types of Parkinson’s,” his wife, Sharon said. “It’s not a death sentence by any stretch of the imagination, but it does affect certain nerves in your body. And it’s — it’s like you have a good day, a good day, and then a really bad day.”

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Scared

The Best Horror Movies On Hulu Right Now

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Every streaming service has a glut of options for your viewing needs, and Vulture is doing its part to help you find the signals among the noise. Just as we try to keep abreast of the top horror-movie options on Netflix, so too do we want to curate a best-of-the-best list for other platforms. In this case: Hulu. Here are the 40 best titles available to you right now for your art-house-horror and simple-jump-scare needs.

This follow-up to the zombie-redefining hit 28 Days Later takes us further into hopelessness, as the contagion, once thought to be under control, comes roaring back and threatens to expand beyond its U.K. origins. Plus it stars Imogen Poots, which immediately gives it a higher start value than almost any other zombie movie.

Anna and the Apocalypse not only has zombies, it has musical numbers and friendship and coming-of-age drama that follows the titular Anna (Dickinson star Ella Hunt) and a handful of her high-school classmates as they try to survive an onslaught of the undead. See also: large lawn candy canes used as bludgeoning instruments.

Alex Garland’s adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer’s novel of the same name is a hard-sci-fi horror trip into an earthbound alternate dimension called Area X. A research team is sent beyond the barrier to find another team that went missing before them, but instead they find a gorgeously mutated landscape that threatens to destroy each of them in a uniquely terrifying way.

Director Brandon Cronenberg treads in his father David’s legendary footsteps with this body horror about an even more celebrity-obsessed near future in which you can pay to contract the diseases of famous people. (You can also eat their vat-grown tissue, but that’s just a detail.) Caleb Landry Jones plays an employee at a bespoke-disease clinic — and a part-time black-market smuggler — who gets caught up in the mystery of a dead starlet whose pathogens are suddenly in high demand. It’s gross, and it’s great.

It’s common for horror movies to conjure the experience of being in hell, but few accomplish the task as effectively as Baskin, from Turkish director Can Evrenol. When a group of police officers answer a distress call that takes them to an abandoned building, they find a gruesome charnel house that gets only more nightmarish the further they descend into its bowels. Baskin is surreal, colorful chaos.

Roxanne Benjamin has been producing horror content for years, but Brighton Rock, which takes us on an eerie one-night journey into the woods with a newly minted park ranger, is her feature debut. When Wendy finds a dead body in the middle of nowhere, she’s instructed to wait with it until help arrives. Help, however, won’t reach her until the next morning, leaving Wendy to spend the night alone with a festering corpse and whoever — or whatever — caused the death.

This Joss Whedon–penned meta-horror-comedy was one of those olive-branch extending scary movies that made wider audiences realize how smart and varied the genre could be. A group of friends take a vacation to a secluded cabin, and everything that can go wrong — and has gone wrong in slasher movies for decades — does go wrong for our attractive, overwhelmed 20-somethings. Huge bonus points for the pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth.

This creepy-kid classic follows a 20-something couple on a cross-country move who get hung up in a tiny midwestern town that is suspiciously devoid of adults. John Franklin gives an all-time horror performance as the child preacher and cult leader Isaac Chroner, whipping his young peers into a murderous frenzy in the name of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. If you’re feeling something aggressively ’80s, join Linda Hamilton for this road trip gone wrong.

This entry in Hulu’s Into the Dark anthology series is one of its strongest chapters to date. Up-and-coming feature director Gigi Saul Guerrero helmed this story about a pregnant woman who gets swept up by a nefarious U.S. government operation while trying to cross the border from Mexico to the United States. Horror legend Barbara Crampton co-stars as an evil emissary of the American Dream in this immigration nightmare.

Of all the internet-horror movies out there, The Den is really one of your best options: A graduate student is combing through video-chat forums to gather data for her thesis project when she witnesses a murder over someone’s webcam. As she tries to solve the murder, she and her loved ones become targets of the killer, and we watch the whole thing play out on her desktop monitor.

This possession-horror film is set at a Catholic asylum for women in Northern Ireland and follows a pair of priests dispatched by the Vatican to investigate reports of a Virgin Mary statue that weeps blood. It turns out, though, that the crying plaster isn’t nearly as scary as the brutal nuns in residence or what they have chained up in the basement.

This rowdy postapocalypse movie features an America divided into two factions: violent gang members who belong to themed mobs and nonviolent people dubbed Domestics. A husband and wife set out to make a perilous drive across the Midwest to reach family, but the several hundred miles between their starting point and their destination are filled with Mad Max–esque heathens looking to kill or imprison anyone who invades their territory.

This quiet French film takes place on a remote island inhabited only by young boys and the very similar-looking, somewhat ghostly women who care for them. When one of the boys gets dangerously curious about the medical experiments the women perform on their charges and starts spying on what they get up to on the beach at night, he realizes their bucolic existence masks something much more sinister.

 

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