3 Best Movies To Watch On Prime Video This Weekend (September 26-27)

Credit: Jerome Domine/Abaca/startraksphoto.com Published Sep 25, 2026, 9:02 PM EDT Felipe Rangel is a Movie and TV Journalist ScreenRant. He has been writing about movies and TV since 2021. Felipe joined ScreenRant in 2022, working across different teams, covering everything from breaking news to features to reviews and more. Felipe is a writer who is an avid film and TV fan, with superhero movies and series being his biggest passion. He graduated from college in 2019, having studied Journalism. Before college, he spent a month studying at the Oxford English Centre. His superhero knowledge expands to the comics, with his undergraduate thesis being "Politics Reflected In American Comics." Sign in to your ScreenRant account Prime Video subscribers will find a mix of genres this weekend on the streaming service with a roster of films that includes several Hollywood stars. On last weekend's Prime Video movie recommendations, I talked about movies like the magic heist film Now You See Me, Ethan Hawke's crime thriller The Purge, and the spy thriller The Amateur, which features Rami Malek, Jon Bernthal, and more. Only one of those movies is trending on Prime Video this week. That would be The Amateur, which currently stands as the 7th most-watched movie on Prime Video in the United States. According to data from FlixPatrol, the R-rated spy thriller with a great cast is also closing in on the milestone of 60 days on the streamer's domestic top 10. As such, The Amateur remains a timely watch as we move into the final weekend of September. That said, I have brought a completely fresh set of three movies for Prime Video subscribers to explore on the streaming service this weekend. That list includes three films of wildly different genres, so rest easy, as there will be something for every type of viewer. Draft 1 · Bangor, Maine How Well Do You Know Stephen King? “They all float down here.” 🎈ITYou'll float too 🪓ShiningAll work and no play 🔨MiseryI'm your number one fan 🏰Dark TowerThe gunslinger followed ⛓ShawshankGet busy living OPEN THE BOOK → 01 King was a high school English teacher in Hampden, Maine, living in a trailer with no phone, when Doubleday paid him a $2,500 advance for his first hardcover novel in 1973. He'd thrown the opening pages in the trash; his wife Tabitha fished them out and told him to keep going. What was the book? AThe Shining B'Salem's Lot CCarrie DThe Stand ✓ Correct! Carrie. Doubleday paid a $2,500 hardcover advance in 1973, and the paperback rights sold to Signet for $400,000 — King's half ($200,000) let him quit teaching. He always credits Tabitha with saving the manuscript from the trash. Brian De Palma's 1976 film adaptation with Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie earned two Oscar nominations and cemented King as a screen-adaptation goldmine from day one. ✗ Wrong page. The answer is Carrie, published April 5, 1974. 'Salem's Lot came next in 1975, The Shining in 1977, The Stand in 1978. Tabitha King rescued the Carrie opening from the trash, insisted he finish it, and the $400,000 Signet paperback deal that followed — split 50/50 with Doubleday — is what finally let him leave teaching. NEXT → 02 In the late 1970s, publishers believed no author could release more than one book a year without saturating the market. So King invented a pseudonym and published five novels under it — including The Long Walk, The Running Man, and Thinner — before a Washington bookstore clerk outed him in 1985. What was the pen name? AJohn Swithen BRichard Bachman CGordon Lachance DPeter Straub ✓ Correct! Richard Bachman. King took the first name from Richard Stark (Donald Westlake's pseudonym) and the last from Bachman-Turner Overdrive playing on the car stereo. Steve Brown, a Washington D.C. bookstore clerk, cross-checked copyright filings at the Library of Congress and phoned King. Rather than deny it, King wrote a mock obituary declaring Bachman had died of “cancer of the pseudonym.” ✗ Wrong byline. The answer is Richard Bachman — a pseudonym King used for Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man and Thinner between 1977 and 1985. Peter Straub is a real author and King's co-writer on The Talisman and Black House. John Swithen was a one-off alias for a 1972 short story. Gordon Lachance is the narrator character in The Body (filmed as Stand By Me). NEXT → 03 King wrote The Shining (1977) after a one-night stay at the then-closing Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, in the fall of 1974. He and Tabitha were the only guests, and a dream about his son being chased down a corridor gave him the entire novel. The fictional haunted hotel is called... AThe Overlook BThe Bates CThe Dolphin DThe Stanley ✓ Correct! The Overlook Hotel. The Kings checked into room 217 on the last night of the Stanley's 1974 season; Tabitha fell asleep and Stephen dreamed about his three-year-old son Joe being pursued by a fire hose. He woke up with most of the novel in his head. The Stanley has been milking the connection ever since — and in 1997 King adapted his own novel for a TV miniseries filmed there, as a partial corrective to Kubrick's film. ✗ Wrong floor. The answer is The Overlook. The real-world Stanley Hotel in Estes Park inspired it — King stayed in room 217 on the last night of the 1974 season and had the fire-hose nightmare that became the book. The Dolphin is a later King hotel (1408). The Bates Motel is Psycho. The Stanley itself is the real place, not the fictional one, though it's leaned into the association ever since. NEXT → 04 In IT (1986), the shape-shifting entity the Losers' Club calls Pennywise the Dancing Clown emerges from the sewers every 27 years to feed on children. The novel — and Andy Muschietti's 2017/2019 films — are set in a fictional Maine town that also shows up in Insomnia, Dreamcatcher, and 11/22/63. Name it. ACastle Rock BJerusalem's Lot CDerry DChester's Mill ✓ Correct! Derry. Loosely modeled on Bangor, Maine, where King lives. Derry recurs across IT, Insomnia, Dreamcatcher, 11/22/63 and parts of the Dark Tower series. Castle Rock is King's other signature Maine town (The Dead Zone, Cujo, Needful Things). Jerusalem's Lot is from 'Salem's Lot. Chester's Mill is the setting of Under the Dome. ✗ Wrong sewer. The answer is Derry — King's Bangor-coded fictional town, the setting of IT (1986), Insomnia (1994), Dreamcatcher (2001) and 11/22/63 (2011). Castle Rock is a different King town (Cujo, The Dead Zone, Needful Things) and Jerusalem's Lot is where the vampires show up. But Pennywise's home is always Derry. NEXT → 05 The 1990 film of Misery, adapted by William Goldman and directed by Rob Reiner, won its lead actress the Best Actress Oscar for playing obsessed “number one fan” Annie Wilkes — still the only acting Oscar ever won for a Stephen King adaptation. Who was it? AKathy Bates BSissy Spacek CJessica Lange DPiper Laurie ✓ Correct! Kathy Bates — winning Best Actress at the March 1991 Oscars for Misery. Bates later came back for King adaptations Dolores Claiborne (1995) and The Stand (1994 miniseries). It remains the only Academy Award for acting in any screen adaptation of a Stephen King book; Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie both got nominations for Carrie, but neither won. ✗ Wrong fan. The answer is Kathy Bates, who won Best Actress at the 1991 Academy Awards for Misery. Sissy Spacek and Piper Laurie were both nominated for Carrie in 1977 but lost. Jessica Lange has been nominated and won for other films, but not for any King adaptation. Bates's hobbling scene with the sledgehammer is still routinely voted one of the most terrifying moments in horror cinema. NEXT → 06 The Shawshank Redemption (1994) — regularly voted the greatest film of all time on IMDb — is adapted from a King novella called “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.” The same 1982 collection also contains the novellas that became Stand By Me and Apt Pupil. What is the collection called? ASkeleton Crew BDifferent Seasons CNight Shift DFour Past Midnight ✓ Correct! Different Seasons (1982) — four novellas, three of them adapted into major films: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption became The Shawshank Redemption (1994), The Body became Stand By Me (1986), and Apt Pupil became the 1998 Bryan Singer film. The fourth, The Breathing Method, is the only one never filmed. Different Seasons is the most-adapted single King book in Hollywood history. ✗ Wrong shelf. The answer is Different Seasons (1982). Night Shift (1978) is an earlier horror-story collection. Skeleton Crew (1985) contains The Mist and The Jaunt. Four Past Midnight (1990) has The Langoliers and Secret Window. But three of the four novellas in Different Seasons — Shawshank, Stand By Me, Apt Pupil — all became celebrated films, making it arguably the single most cinematically influential King book. NEXT → 07 King started writing his sprawling magnum opus in 1970 as a college student and finally published the eighth and final volume in 2012. The first line — “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed” — introduces a hero inspired by Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name. What's the gunslinger's name? AFlagg BRoland Deschain CJake Chambers DTed Brautigan ✓ Correct! Roland Deschain of Gilead, last of his line. The Dark Tower series — eight novels plus The Wind Through the Keyhole — is King's spine work, connecting dozens of his other books (The Stand, Salem's Lot, Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis, IT) into one multiverse. Randall Flagg is the series' recurring villain, Jake Chambers is the boy Roland meets, and Ted Brautigan is a Low Men minor character. ✗ Wrong ka-tet. The answer is Roland Deschain. Randall Flagg is the recurring King villain who crosses from The Stand into the Dark Tower (he's the “man in black” fleeing across the desert in the famous opening). Jake Chambers is the young boy Roland picks up in The Gunslinger. Ted Brautigan is a minor Breaker in Hearts in Atlantis. Roland alone is the king of Gilead's son. NEXT → 08 King has three children. His daughter Naomi is a Unitarian minister. His younger son Owen is a novelist. His older son is a bestselling horror writer in his own right — author of Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, NOS4A2, and The Fireman — and spent his early career using a pseudonym to hide the family connection. What name does he publish under? AJoe Hill BPaul Tremblay CJosh Malerman DGrady Hendrix ✓ Correct! Joe Hill — a shortening of his real name, Joseph Hillström King. He used the pseudonym for a decade so his work would be judged on its own merits and not marketed as “son-of.” His 2004 short-story collection 20th Century Ghosts and 2007 debut novel Heart-Shaped Box made his reputation before the family connection became public. He and his father have also co-written a handful of novellas including In the Tall Grass. ✗ Wrong branch. The answer is Joe Hill — pen name of Joseph Hillström King. Paul Tremblay (A Head Full of Ghosts, The Cabin at the End of the World) is a separate contemporary horror novelist. Josh Malerman wrote Bird Box. Grady Hendrix wrote Horrorstor and My Best Friend's Exorcism. Joe Hill hid the King connection for about a decade so his career would stand on its own. REVEAL MY SCORE → Final Draft · Put Down the Pen Your Constant Reader Status ✍ / 8 Constant Reader — or still stuck in Derry? ⤴ START OVER This weekend's Prime Video movie recommendations are a horror that adapts one of Stephen King's biggest classics, a new romance that has taken the world by storm and has an interesting origin story, and a dramedy with crime elements and one of the biggest concentrations of talent both in front of and behind the camera in Hollywood history. These are the best movies on Prime Video this weekend: 3 The Love Hypothesis (2026) First up is Prime Video's new breakout hit and the only Prime Video original movie on the list, The Love Hypothesis. The romance stars Riverdale's Lili Reinhart as Olive Smith and Tom Bateman as Dr. Adam Carlsen, with the duo engaging in a fake dating story that ends up drawing them closer. The Love Hypothesis premiered on Prime Video on September 23. It became an instant streaming hit, topping Prime Video's movies chart in the United States. The Love Hypothesis comes with the intriguing twist that it was originally a Star Wars fanfiction focused on Daisy Ridley's Rey and Adam Driver's Kylo Ren set in an alternate universe. The finished movie sees Ridley's real-life husband, Bateman, play the Kylo Ren-inspired Adam Carlsen. 2 Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood (2019) Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood is a timely release to check out this weekend on Prime Video for a variety of reasons. The first of them is the fact that the movie just became available on the streamer, arriving on Prime Video this Friday, September 25. The second is how rewatching it seven years later is necessary, as the film has since birthed a franchise with an upcoming release. Brad Pitt will reprise his role as Cliff Booth in Netflix's upcoming The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, which will have a limited theatrical release starting on November 25, before arriving on Netflix on December 23. Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino with names like Leonardo DiCaprio, Pitt, Margot Robbie, Austin Butler, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, and many more, Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood packs incredible performances. It is funny, sad, surprising, and above all, a great time on Prime Video. 1 Carrie (2013) Finally, with Mike Flanagan's Carrie series set to be released on Prime Video on October 7, the hour to look at the previous iterations of the story is now. Thankfully, Prime Video is the home of the latest Carrie movie, the 2013 version of the story that featured Chloë Grace Moretz as Carrie White. The Stephen King adaptation also featured major actors like Ansel Elgort, Julianne Moore, and Judy Greer. This iteration of the story is a must-watch before Prime Video's new Carrie series because it was the first to modernize the King classic, with one of its screenwriters being Riverdale creator Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa. Carrie will end the weekend on Prime Video with a loud bang. The Love Hypothesis 4/10 Release Date September 23, 2026 Director Claire Scanlon The Love Hypothesis follows biology PhD candidate Olive Smith and renowned professor Dr. Adam Carlsen as they navigate a fake relationship. As they pursue their calculated theories on love, their professional and personal lives become increasingly complicated. Cast Lili Reinhart, Tom Bateman, Rachel Marsh, Jaboukie Young-White, Nicholas Duvernay, Arty Froushan, Jeananne Goossen, Aladeen Tawfeek, Kenny Wong, Daniel Brochu, Alexandra Petrachuk, Howard Bilerman Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 8/10 Release Date July 26, 2019 Runtime 162 minutes A fading television star and his longtime stunt double navigate a rapidly changing Los Angeles as the Golden Age of Hollywood slips away around them. While one struggles to stay relevant and the other searches for purpose beyond the spotlight, their lives intersect with real figures from the era and an undercurrent of looming violence. Cast Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, Julia Butters, Austin Butler, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Mike Moh, Luke Perry, Damian Lewis, Al Pacino, Nicholas Hammond, Samantha Robinson, Rafał Zawierucha, Lorenza Izzo, Costa Ronin, Damon Herriman, Lena Dunham, Madisen Beaty, Mikey Madison, James Landry Hébert, Maya Hawke Director Quentin Tarantino Carrie 8/10 Release Date October 16, 2013 Runtime 100 minutes Based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, Carrie follows young Carrie White (Chloë Grace Moretz), a teenager abused by her classmates and her deeply religious mother (Julianne Moore). After a particularly upsetting incident at school, Carrie learns that she has telekinetic powers, and when her bullies continue to torment her, she turns the tables on the entire town. Cast Julianne Moore, Chloe Grace Moretz, Gabriella Wilde, Ansel Elgort, Alex Russell, Judy Greer, Portia Doubleday, Zoë Belkin, Samantha Weinstein, Karissa Strain, Katie Strain, Demetrius Joyette, Barry Shabaka Henley, Arlene Mazerolle, Evan Gilchrist, Eddie Max Huband, Tyler Rushton, Connor Price, Jefferson Brown, Cynthia Preston, Philip Nozuka, Kyle Mac, Michelle Nolden, Mouna Traoré, Chris Britton Director Kimberly Peirce