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The best movies new to streaming to watch in April 2022

Here’s what to watch this month on Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Max

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As we turn the calendar to April and move further away from winter, there are a whole slew of fantastic new movies to stream on Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Peacock, Criterion Channel, and more. From the Blade movies on Netflix to dark comedies from the Coen Brothers to animated adventures like How To Train Your Dragon and horror movies like The Ring, there’s something for virtually everyone to watch at home this month. It also seems likely we’ll get The Batman on HBO Max in mid-April, so keep your eye out for that.

With that in mind, we’ve pulled together a list of the best movies new to streaming in April to help you figure out what to watch this month. We also have complete lists of everything coming to Netflix and Disney Plus in April, if that’s your speed.

Got something else you’re excited to check out this month? Planning to check one of these out? Already did and loved it? Be sure to let us know in the comments.


Candyman

Tony Todd as Candyman in Canydman (1992). Image: Scream Factory

Bernard Rose’s original 1992 Candyman is one of the most horrifying horror movies of the early ’90s, a film whose sheer thematic depth and daring visuals evidence the hand of a masterful filmmaker at the peak of his abilities. Adapted from Clive Barker’s short story “The Forbidden,” the films stars Virginia Madsen as Helen Lyle, a University of Illinois grad student who becomes obsessed with studying the legend of Candyman, the murderous apparition born from the tortured spirit of a black man who, in 1890, was killed for falling in love with a white woman. Lyle journeys to the modern-day site of Candyman’s death, the Cabrini-Green housing development, where she unwittingly conjures the vengeful ghost back into being. With a beautiful, haunting score by composer Philip Glass and an iconic performance by Tony Todd as Candyman, the 1992 original is required viewing for anyone even remotely interested in watching Nia DaCosta’s 2021 sequel of the same name. —罢贰

Candyman is available to stream on Shudder.

Carrie

Carrie up close covered in blood Image: MGM

Brian De Palma’s 1976 horror movie stands as one of the better Stephen King adaptations ever made, bringing to life both the natural anxieties of being a bullied teenager in an unsupportive household and the supernatural anxieties of having super powers. Sissy Spacek stars as Carrie, and Piper Laurie as her domineering mother, a religious fanatic. When Carrie gets her first period at school and panics, having never been told what that was, it starts a spiral that leads to a climactic and unforgettable prom night for all involved. —PV

Carrie is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Crank

Jason Statham as Chev Chelios clamping his tongue and right nipple with jumper cables in Crank. Image: Lionsgate Home Entertainment

Director duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Gamer) have a chaotic energy to their movies that has to be seen to be believed. Their debut, Crank, takes that to its premise, as well. Chev Chelios (Jason Statham), a hitman in LA, has a job go bad and ends up being injected with a drug that slows his heart. In order to stay alive, Chelios must keep his adrenaline pumping. While the premise sounds ridiculous, don’t let it fool you into thinking there’s no thought behind it: Chelios’ situation can also be read as an allegory for action movies themselves, as the genre also requires continual stimulation to stay alive (aka keeping viewer interest). But what links the whole thing together are Neveldine and Taylor’s unique directorial sensibilities, infusing the film with a permeating sense of chaos and disorder that fits the story to perfection. —PV

Crank is available to stream on Hulu.

Hanna

Saoirse Ronan pointing a gun in Hanna Image: Focus Features

Pride and Prejudice director Joe Wright’s action thriller Hanna stars Saoirse Ronan as a 15-year-old girl trained from birth to become an assassin by her surrogate, ex-CIA asset father Erik (Eric Bana). When the pair are discovered by Marissa Wiegler (Cate Blanchett), the CIA handler charged with recovering Hanna and her father, she’s forced to face startling revelations about her past and existence as she attempts to stay one step ahead of her pursuers. Featuring a bangin’ soundtrack produced by The Chemical Brothers, Hanna is a lean and mean spy thriller that hits the mark. (The Amazon series it inspired, maybe less so.) —罢贰

Hanna is available to stream on Hulu.

Her

Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) sitting in front of a computer in Her. Image: Warner Bros. Pictures

The sci-fi romantic drama Her stars Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore Twombly, an introvert who falls in love with an artificial intelligence operating system named Samantha (Scarlett Johansson). Set in an uncanny future only partially removed from our present, Spike Jonze’s cinematic ode to the intersecting forces of love and technology is a humorous and affecting experience whose poignant clarity will stick with you long after it’s over. —罢贰

Her is available to stream on Netflix.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Mos Def, Martin Freeman, and Sam Rockwell in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Image: Buena Vista Home Entertainment

Garth Jennings’ 2005 adaptation of Douglas Adams’ beloved sci-fi comedy stars Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, Sherlock) as Arthur Dent, a dull, ordinary everyman who inadvertently becomes one of the last surviving humans in the universe after the Earth is destroyed by a bureaucratic alien race to build a hyperspace overpass. Venturing alongside a cast of colorful characters played by Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel, and the late Alan Rickman as a depressed android, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is gleefully out of this world and perennially hilarious. The whale scene alone ... —罢贰

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Limitless

Eddie (Bradley Cooper) typing on a computer as yellow letters fall around him in Limitless. Image: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

What if there was a pill that could change your life and give you everything you ever wanted? No, I’m not trying to soft-sell you on some snake oil prophylactic, I’m describing the premise of 2011’s Limitless. Bradley Cooper stars as Eddie Morra, a down-on-his-luck writer who ingests an experimental synthetic drug that increases his concentration and intelligence a hundred-fold. Using his newfound mental prowess, Eddie becomes a successful financial advisor and climbs the corporate ladder to success — that is, until the criminals who manufactured the drug come looking for him to take back what’s theirs. —罢贰

Limitless is available to stream on HBO Max.

Mystery Men

the mystery men team Photo: Universal Pictures

Acclaimed commercial director Kinka Usher’s one and only feature film is this silly cape comedy about a group of minor superheroes left to save the day after the much more lauded and powerful Captain Amazing (Greg Kinnear) goes missing. With a sprawling, hilarious ensemble cast that ranges from Ben Stiller, Wes Studi, and Willliam H. Macy to Janeane Garofalo, Eddie Izzard, and Tom Waits, Mystery Men has everything from silly gags about farts to astute send-ups of the nascent genre and its overlap with corporate America. —PV

Mystery Men is available to stream on Peacock.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Delmar (Tim Blake Nelson), Everett (George Clooney), and Pete (John Turturro) singing into a microphone in O Brother, Where Art Thou? Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

The Coen brothers followed up their 1998 cult classic The Big Lebowski with O Brother, Where Art Thou?, a crime comedy-drama following a trio of escaped convicts trekking through a mythic rural Mississippi inspired by Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson each deliver comic performances worthy of the Marx Brothers as they serendipitously stumble from one bizarre misadventure to the next, whether becoming accidental country folk stars or quarreling with the Klan.

From its ever-quotable dialogue to its serene scenes of the Depression-era South and its infectiously catchy folk score, O Brother, Where Art Thou? is yet another terrific film that could have only sprung from the imagination of the so-called “Two-Headed Director.” —罢贰

O Brother, Where Art Thou is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

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