There’s a lot of cool stuff hitting HBO Max in the next seven days, leading off with the streaming premiere of horror hit Backroomsand continuing with all the prestige (and not-so-prestige) TV you’ve come to expect from the service. October 1 hits us with a deluge of new and classic movies as well. Here are our top picks for the week.
HBO Max Review
This Week on HBO Max: PCMag’s Picks
Backrooms (September 25)
HBO Max’s partnership with A24 means that it gets the streaming debut of one of 2026’s biggest horror hits, Backrooms. Directed by YouTube wunderkind Kane Parsons at just 20 years old, it’s a clever and unsettling spinoff of his video series. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a furniture store owner who finds entry into a seemingly infinite world of corridors and hallways, only to soon realize that he’s not alone in there. It’s an incredible debut that rewards multiple viewings.
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Stars:Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass
4 Blocks Zero (September 25)
If you haven’t watched German crime drama series 4 Blocks yet, don’t worry: You can go into prequel 4 Blocks Zero without catching up. Set in 1990s Berlin, it takes us back to the beginning of the Hamady family’s criminal empire. After fleeing Lebanon with his four children, patriarch Malik Hamady is caught in the gears of bureaucracy and prejudice in Berlin, until his brother-in-law Ibrahim is released from prison and starts the whole clan on their trajectory to the dark side.
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Directors:Özgür Yıldırım, Hüseyin Tabak
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Stars:Mieke Schymura, Bella Dayne, Seumas Sargent
War (October 1)
A new legal drama created by Lupin’s George Kay, War drops us into the middle of a messy divorce between an ultra-wealthy tech mogul and his actress wife. The series is framed from the perspectives of attorneys at their respective firms as they work to outmaneuver one another while compromising their own morals. Two seasons have been ordered, with the second set to feature the same lawyers, this time dealing with a defamation case. It looks like the kind of glitzy prestige stuff that HBO is famous for.
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Stars:Dominic West, Sienna Miller, Phoebe Fox
HBO Max New Releases This Week
4 Blocks Zero – Season 1
Backrooms
Diners Drive-Ins and Dives – Season 55
House Hunters: Volume 11 – Season 262
Paolo – Season 1
The Good Spirit: Behind the Doors of the Opus Dei
90 Day: The Last Resort: Between the Sheets – Season 3
Decades in Sports – Season 1
Miller Night Football
Recommended by Our Editors
What to Watch on HBO Max in September 2026
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What to Watch on Netflix in September 2026
Unmasking a Monster: Aileen Wuornos – Season 1
Anatomy of a Fall
A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child
A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas
A Very Harold & Kumar 3-D Christmas: Extra Dope Edition
Born on the Fourth of July
Coraline
Double Wedding
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat
Final Destination 3
Freaks
Freddy vs. Jason
Friday the 13th
From Hell It Came
Ghost Adventures – Season 31
House of Wax
House on Haunted Hill (1959)
I’ll See You in My Dreams
Indestructible Man
Isle of the Dead
It Happened in Brooklyn
Krypto Saves the Day – Season 2B
Kubo and the Two Strings
Little Shop of Horrors
Love Crazy
Macabre
Masterminds
Objective, Burma!
Ocean’s 11 (1960)
Ocean’s Eleven (2001)
Ocean’s Thirteen
Ocean’s Twelve
ParaNorman
Poltergeist
Roadkill Garage – Season 10
Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Screaming Eagles
Shadow of the Thin Man
Song of the Thin Man
Space Jam
Space Jam: A New Legacy
Teen Titans Go! See Space Jam
The Black Scorpion
The Boxtrolls
The Cyclops
The Departed
The Exorcist
The Hangover Part II
The Internship
The Leopard Man
The Mummy (1959)
The Mystery of the Wax Museum
The Post
The Return of Doctor X
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Seventh Victim
The Shining
The Thin Man Goes Home
The Walking Dead
Thirteen Women
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Trick ‘r Treat
Trouble Along the Way
War – Season 1
Wife vs. Secretary
About Our Expert
K. Thor Jensen
Contributing Writer
Experience
K. Thor Jensen is a writer and cartoonist living in the Pacific Northwest. He has contributed to dozens of prestigious outlets, including PCMag, Tested, Clickhole, and Newsweek. His second graphic novel, Cloud Stories, was released in 2017.
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