Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To GeekLooking for a good movie to throw on this weekend (or into the week, for that matter)? HBO Max isn’t just a den for dragons, it also hosts a giant library of great movies, from comedies and thrillers to high drama and documentaries, that it updates every month, with many coming on loan from other studios.
We’re raiding the catalog this weekend and have plucked a handful we think you’ll like, including a swashbuckling ’90s adventure, a crime saga with one of cinema’s greatest twist endings, a horror to keep you up, and my top pick for the weekend—a Stephen King dystopian nightmare that just keeps walking.
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The Mummy (1999)
Brendan Fraser is the best mummy hunter ever—fight me
I don’t care what Rotten Tomatoes says (it’s got a 64%) about Stephen Sommers’ 1999 action-monster remake of the 1932 classic, The Mummy; this ’90s blockbuster is pure comfort food, it made an action star out of Brendan Fraser, and sparked several sequels, a prequel, and spinoffs.
It’s 1926 Egypt, and rugged adventurer Rick O’Connell (Fraser) leads Egyptologist Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) and her thief-of-a-brother, Jonathan (John Hannah), to the fabled City of the Dead, where they accidentally awaken Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), a mummified high priest who needs to sacrifice Evelyn to resurrect his lost love. Locusts are unleashed, darkness falls, and flesh-eating beetles have their feast as Rick and the crew try to put Imhotep back in his sarcophagus.
Cast
Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Patricia Velásquez, Oded Fehr, Kevin J. O’Connor, Jonathan Hyde, Erick Avari, Stephen Dunham, Corey Johnson, Mohammed Afifi, Tuc Watkins, Omid Djalili, Bernard Fox, Aharon Ipalé, Carl Chase, Abderrahim El Aadili, Jake Arnott, Mason Ball, Isobel Brook, James Traherne Burton, Peter Chequer, Porl Smith, Ian Warner
Runtime
124 minutes
Director
Stephen Sommers
Writers
Stephen Sommers
Producers
James Jacks, Kevin Jarre
Sequel(s)
The Mummy Returns, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The Mummy 4
Franchise(s)
The Mummy
Main Genre
Adventure
Executive Producer(s)
Kevin Jarre
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The Usual Suspects
This will have you screaming, “Who is Keyser Söze?!”
Endlessly parodied and quoted, this 1995 Oscar-winning film has one of the most compelling twist endings of all time. Director Bryan Singer’s The Usual Suspects is the story of a group of hardened criminals, Hungarian mobsters, and a ghostly mastermind known as Keyser Söze, who may or may not exist.
After a docked ship mysteriously explodes in San Pedro Bay, killing 27 bad people, one of only two survivors, con artist Roger “Verbal” Kint (Kevin Spacey), tells the entire crazy story to U.S. Customs agent Dave Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) in an L.A. police station. Told in flashbacks, Verbal’s story is elaborate, involves drugs and jewels, and includes his crew of five career criminals caught up in it all—including Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), McManus (Stephen Baldwin), Fenster (Benicio Del Toro), and Hockney (Kevin Pollak). “The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist,” Verbal tells Kujan of the phantom crime lord at the core of it all. But who is Keyser Söze? Is he the Devil? The Usual Suspects will have you asking the same question.
Cast
Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, Benicio Del Toro, Kevin Pollak, Kevin Spacey, Chazz Palminteri, Pete Postlethwaite, Suzy Amis, Giancarlo Esposito, Dan Hedaya, Paul Bartel, Carl Bressler, Phillipe Simon, Jack Shearer, Christine Estabrook, Clark Gregg, Morgan Hunter, Ken Daly, Michelle Clunie, Louis Lombardi, Frank Medrano, Ron Gilbert, Vito D’Ambrosio, Gene Lythgow, Bob Elmore
Runtime
106 minutes
Director
Bryan Singer
Writers
Christopher McQuarrie
Producers
Michael McDonnell, Bryan Singer
Main Genre
Crime
Budget
$6 million
Studio(s)
Universal Pictures
Distributor(s)
Universal Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Executive Producer(s)
Art Horan, François Duplat, Hans Brockmann, Robert Jones
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Hereditary
You never know what’s lurking in your genes
Oh boy, if you haven’t seen A24’s terrifying Hereditary, which put the company on the horror map (and by all rights should have gotten Toni Collette an Oscar nod), then grab a pillow to hide behind and clear your Saturday night schedule. When Annie Graham’s (Collette) estranged mother Ellen dies, grief and disturbing incidents grip the family, which includes her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne), teenage son Peter (Alex Wolff), and eccentric daughter Charlie (Milly Shapiro).
When another unspeakable tragedy happens, it’s revealed that something dark and sinister is lurking—a multi-generational demonic curse tied to the kings of Hell, and it’s coming for them. Slow-burning dread builds to one of the most upsetting final acts in modern horror. The film’s writer/director, Ari Aster, would go on to scare the crap out of more audiences the following year with Midsommar, in 2019.
Cast
Toni Collette, Milly Shapiro, Zachary Arthur, Gabriel Byrne, Mallory Bechtel, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd
Runtime
2h 7m
Director
Ari Aster
Writers
Ari Aster
Budget
10 million
Studio(s)
A24
Distributor(s)
A24
1
The Long Walk
Keep walking or die in Stephen King’s dystopia
Family pets, corn fields, clowns, a luxury mountain hotel, and a ’58 Plymouth Fury—just a few of the normal, un-scary things that Stephen King has turned into the most horrifying stories ever. Well great, now we can add walking to that list—thanks, Stephen. The first novel King ever wrote—published in 1979 under his Richard Bachman pseudonym—The Long Walk was just made into a major motion picture in 2025, with director Francis Lawrence bringing the same dystopian feel he perfected on The Hunger Games films.
Quiz
Name the Stephen King horror movie
Trivia challenge
Think you know your King? Identify these chilling films from just a clue or
two.
HorrorStephen KingMoviesCharactersPlot Twists
Plot
A group of childhood friends reunite as adults to battle a shape-shifting evil that
preys on their deepest fears — and has a particular fondness for a storm drain. Name the film.
Club as they face Pennywise the Dancing Clown in Derry, Maine. The film was a massive box office hit,
becoming one of the highest-grossing horror movies ever made.
lures young Georgie Denbrough in the unforgettable opening scene. The story was so big it was split into
two films, with Chapter Two following the Losers as adults.
Characters
A telekinetic teenage girl is humiliated at her school prom by a cruel prank,
triggering a catastrophic act of revenge on her classmates. Name the film.
Stephen King novel to be adapted into a film. Sissy Spacek’s haunting performance as Carrie White earned
her an Academy Award nomination.
involving a bucket of pig’s blood, is one of horror cinema’s most iconic moments. Carrie was King’s
debut novel, and he reportedly almost threw the manuscript away before his wife rescued it from the
trash.
Setting
A writer checks into a remote, supposedly haunted hotel for the winter to serve as
caretaker, only for isolation and supernatural forces to slowly destroy his sanity. Name the film.
Overlook Hotel and stars Jack Nicholson in one of horror’s most iconic roles. Interestingly, Stephen
King himself was famously unhappy with Kubrick’s adaptation.
a prison of the mind for Jack Torrance and his family. Kubrick’s film diverges significantly from King’s
novel, which is why King later approved a more faithful TV miniseries adaptation in 1997.
Monsters
A thick, mysterious mist rolls into a small Maine town, concealing terrifying
creatures, while the survivors trapped in a grocery store turn on each other in fear and
desperation. Name the film.
of the most devastating endings in horror history — an ending that King himself said he wished he’d
written. Darabont changed the conclusion from the novella and King fully endorsed it.
fear and religion can turn ordinary people against one another. Director Frank Darabont also adapted
King’s The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.
Villains
An obsessive fan rescues her favorite author from a car crash, takes him captive in
her remote home, and forces him to rewrite the ending of his latest novel — to her exact
specifications. Name the film.
won her the Academy Award for Best Actress — the first horror performance ever to win that award. James
Caan plays the captive writer Paul Sheldon.
as one of cinema’s greatest villains. The infamous ‘hobbling’ scene is one of the most cringe-inducing
moments in horror history, and King based the story partly on his own struggles with addiction.
Supernatural
A family moves to a rural Maine home near a burial ground with ancient and
terrifying power — one that can bring the dead back to life, but not quite as they were before. Name
the film.
novels, which he reportedly locked in a drawer because it scared even him. The 2019 remake updated the
story with a shocking early twist that divided fans.
denial, and the terrifying consequences of defying death. King has said this is the one book he wrote
that truly frightened him, particularly because of how it centers on the loss of a child.
Adaptation
A vintage 1958 Plymouth Fury becomes possessed by a malevolent force, developing a
jealous obsession with its teenage owner and wreaking violent revenge on anyone who gets in the way.
Name the film.
King’s novel of the same name. The film is notable for its eerie practical effects showing the car
repairing itself after being damaged — achieved by filming the car being crushed and then playing it in
reverse.
effect is one of the film’s most memorable moments, achieved through clever in-camera tricks rather than
CGI. John Carpenter delivered a sleek, stylish adaptation that remains a cult favorite.
Gore & Dread
A woman is left handcuffed to a bed in a remote lakeside cabin after her husband
dies of a heart attack during a fantasy roleplay — and as night falls, she may not be alone. Name
the film.
Flanagan, who has become one of the foremost adapters of King’s work. The film stars Carla Gugino in a
tour-de-force performance, much of it filmed entirely on a bed.
expertly translated what many considered an ‘unadaptable’ novel into a gripping psychological horror
film. Flanagan went on to adapt King’s Doctor Sleep and the beloved series The Haunting of Hill House.
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The story takes place in a broken, dystopian version of 1970s America, where each year 50 teenage boys enter a competition where the only rule is to keep walking, and the last man standing wins untold riches. Walk any slower than three miles per hour, though, and three warnings later, you’re shot on the spot. Mark Hamill stars as the ruthless, barking “The Major” presiding over the walkers who form bonds along the way. It’s a thrill ride with an 88% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Cast
Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing, Tut Nyuot, Charlie Plummer, Ben Wang, Roman Griffin Davis, Jordan Gonzalez, Josh Hamilton, Judy Greer, Mark Hamill, Joshua Odjick, Keenan Lehmann, Marina Stephenson Kerr, Noah de Mel, Teagan Stark, Daymon Wrightly, Maricar Faderon, Toni Reimer, Athena Barten
Runtime
108 Minutes
Director
Francis Lawrence
Writers
JT Mollner, Stephen King
Producers
Roy Lee, Steven Schneider, Francis Lawrence, Cameron MacConomy
Main Genre
Horror
Characters By
Stephen King
Based On
The Long Walk by Stephen King
Executive Producer(s)
Andrew Childs, K. Blaine Johnston, Stephen King, Mika Saito, Christopher Woodrow
Solid movie night picks
From tomb-raiding to a brisk walk-turned-terrifying, that’s a movie weekend with range. Once you’ve recovered, How-To Geek’s other streaming roundups are happy to help refill your watchlist.
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