Can you feel that? That … thing? Some otherworldly presence in the room? 

October continues its march onward, and with it, the spirits and specters and supernatural glimmers are taking up more and more space — including on your screens. The best way to deal with this season of haunting? Don’t even try to banish it. Sit in the moment of the veil between worlds being thin by welcoming in a phantom-themed stream. Choose between a docuseries about some real-life paranormal episodes, a mini-marathon of movies that find the humor in a haunting, or a pair of acclaimed limited series that tell classic scary stories about shadowy old houses. Choose wisely, because if you don’t … Wait, listen! Did you hear a noise?  

But first, what’s new on Netflix?

Something rather Posh. An icon of the past three decades takes center stage in the new three-part docuseries Victoria Beckham, which traces its title figure’s singular journey through her Spice Girl stardom, high-profile marriage, and reinvention as a fashion designer. Not what you really, really want? Take a bite out of Is It Cake? Halloween. The reality competition series is back with a seasonal special in which cake artists create spooky desserts in an effort to fool a panel of celebrity judges. Don’t like tricks with your treats? Call in Nurse Jackie. The acclaimed medical dramedy, created by Liz Brixius, Evan Dunsky, and Linda Wallem in 2009, stars Emmy-winning Edie Falco as an emergency nurse with a pill addiction and ran for seven seasons, all of which are now streaming. 

If you have just a night… 

Become a believer. Two stories fill up the five episodes of the new docuseries True Haunting, executive-produced by horror filmmaker James Wan. Weaving together documentary interviews and dramatized reenactments of the chilling events, the series explores the real-life tales of “Eerie Hall” in its first three episodes, about a college student in the ’80s who is tormented by an otherworldly entity, and “This House Murdered Me,” about a family whose new home holds some terrifying secrets, in its last two. 

If you have a whole day… 

Welcome a new roommate (or three). A trio of supernatural comedies will keep you laughing at the idea of a ghostly guest, starting with Brad Silberling’s 1995 fantasy Casper, based on the Harvey Comics character of the same name. Christina Ricci stars as a teenage girl who befriends the ghost of the film’s title when she and her father, a paranormal therapist, move into the house Casper’s haunted for decades. Next, Christopher Landon’s We Have a Ghost (2023), based on Geoff Manaugh’s short story “Ernest,” imagines a highly contemporary incident of a haunting, in which a family discovers a spirit (David Harbour) in their new home and posts about him online, attracting internet fame as they try to discover his history. And finally, Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the 2024 sequel to his 1988 gothic horror comedy, brings back Michael Keaton’s wily poltergeist Betelgeuse, the “bio-exorcist” who helps ghosts banish mortals from their homes. His pursuit of Winona Ryder’s character Lydia Deetz, now grown up, takes a new shape in the sequel, with Lydia’s daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega), complicating the haunting. 

If you have the entire weekend… 

Make it a classic. Mike Flanagan made a name for himself as a mastermind of spooky literary limited series, first with 2018’s The Haunting of Hill House, based on Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel. The show takes place across two timelines: In the early ’90s, when the Crain family moves into a creepy old mansion, and a quarter of a century later, when the five Crain siblings (Michiel Huisman, Elizabeth Reaser, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Kate Siegel, and Victoria Pedretti) who suffered there reunite and realize how much the experience continues to haunt them. Once you’ve escaped Hill House, visit Flanagan’s 2020 follow-up, The Haunting of Bly Manor, adapted from Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw and some of his other scary tales. Pedretti stars as a young American hired as an au pair for a family in England, where she moves into an old estate full of apparitions and dark secrets. 

Don’t forget, you have one last chance… 

To RSVP. Will Gluck’s 2023 hit Anyone But You reimagines Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing as a modern wedding rom-com. Glen Powell and Sydney Sweeney star as two single guests who agree to put their mutual contempt on hold in a shared endeavor: faking a relationship to manipulate various other attendees. After next week, it will be regrets only.