Five Science Fiction Movies to Stream Now: Aliens and Halloween

By Tom Whitfield

Five science-fiction movies sit at the center of a monthly Times streaming guide, but the supplied text details only two. Its introduction promises alien encounters, sinister deepfakes, fantastical time loops and postapocalyptic woe. Viewers cannot assess the promised deepfake or time-loop entries, and the available material cannot support a full five-film recommendation.

Spielberg makes first contact a moving target

“Disclosure Day” leads the selections. Steven Spielberg has said that the film is part of an unofficial trilogy that began with “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977) and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1982).

The Times review says Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp make both the timing and nature of contact central to the plot. Their counterintuitive solution is that the movie “circles back by relentlessly moving forward.”

Most of the film consists of an extended chase. Emily Blunt plays Margaret, a television meteorologist. Josh O’Connor and Eve Hewson also play clearly sympathetic characters. They try to escape nefarious pursuers led by Colin Firth. The Times says the factions’ goals take time to emerge, then judges that “Disclosure Day” “speeds along entertainingly” because Spielberg’s direction drives it.

The praise is broad rather than demonstrative. The review cites no individual scene or performance, so its claim about speed rests on Spielberg’s reputation. The structural point remains clear: contact becomes pursuit, and delayed explanation sustains the chase. This recasts Spielberg’s first-contact mythology rather than simply repeating the earlier films.

Communication runs through the story, along with the consequences of secrets becoming public. Some of that concern alien life forms, but the more unsettling development belongs to Margaret. The Times says she suddenly speaks languages she never learned and reads people’s minds. It treats these abilities as both powerful and destabilizing.

The review says the unknown feels scary and humbling. Yet the conclusion’s wonderment does not erase the ethical cost. Humanity reaches a relatively uplifting stage, the Times argues, only after failing the most basic decency tests. That qualification keeps the ending from becoming easy absolution.

Hallowarrior puts Halloween after the apocalypse

Milly Shapiro plays Pumpkin, a teenager who refuses to believe she is the last person left in a postapocalyptic world. She broadcasts calls into the ether, hoping to reach other survivors. Pumpkin lives in hope and tries to mark her favorite holiday, Halloween, by leaving out candy. The Times then reveals that she is not alone.

Visitors arrive at her door, but they prefer nasty tricks to chocolate treats. That reversal supplies the entry’s hook and its limit. The supplied review names no one beyond Shapiro, describes no threat beyond the visitors’ preference for tricks, and offers no verdict on the film’s execution.

The premise rests on a precise contrast: a teenager preserves a holiday ritual in a postapocalyptic world, and unexpected visitors treat that ritual as an opportunity for menace. Whether the film turns this into horror, satire or something else remains unsaid.

What does this change for viewers?

For viewers deciding what to stream now, the guide supplies one developed recommendation and one teaser. “Disclosure Day” offers Spielberg’s contact mythology recast as a chase, a test of communication and an ethical reckoning. “Hallowarrior” offers a smaller proposition: a teenager keeps Halloween alive after the world becomes postapocalyptic, only for visitors to answer with tricks.

The practical difference is clear. The first entry supplies a filmmaker, screenwriter, cast, plot mechanism and critical verdict. The second supplies a star, a premise and a reveal, but no evaluation. The guide also names no streaming platform.

Until the missing entries and the rest of the “Hallowarrior” section appear, the headline’s five-film count remains a promise rather than a usable recommendation. Viewers have two leads, not five choices.