Screening Guide: Post-modern vampires, cosmic horror and a Guy Ritchie remake

Alicia Vikander stars in prestige drama-thrillerr Irma Vep, streaming on Neon from Tuesday.

Irma Vep
(Neon)

This HBO premium miniseries left critics wowed after it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. The series follows Mira, an American movie star, who hopes to escape an existential crisis by moving to France to star in a remake of the silent film Les Vampires. Of course, running away never solves anything and as she begins work on the lurid crime thriller, reality and fiction begin to blur.
One critic praised it for its "relentless cleverness and post-modern sophistication", and the show is currently sitting on a plump 100 per cent Rotten Tomatoes rating.
Streaming from Tuesday.

Offseason
Shudder

Taking inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft's unfathomable horrors and the movie-making style of genre master John Carpenter, this Shudder original will provide plenty of Friday night frights.

Jocelin Donahue stars in horror film Offseason, streaming on Shudder from Friday.

It's about a woman who receives a mysterious letter saying that her mother's grave on a remote island has been vandalised. Despite rushing to clean it up she misses her one opportunity to leave, finding herself stranded for the tourist destination's off-season.
After several odd encounters with the townsfolk, she begins to suspect something's not right in the small town and begins to learn troubling revelations about her dear mother.
Genre critics have been impressed with one calling it "chilling and unsettling, intimate yet monstrously vast in its cosmic horrors".
Streaming from tomorrow.

Snatch
(TVNZ OnDemand)

Harry Potter star Rupert Grint grabs the lead role in this crime-comedy based on director Guy Ritchie's 2001 cult classic film of the same name.

Rupert Grint (L), leads the cast of Snatch, the TV series based on the Guy Ritchie film of the same name. Streaming on TVNZ OnDemand from Sunday.

While Ritchie isn't involved, critics have said the series has adapted his same zippy storytelling and high-octane visual techniques.
Deviating from the film, the series follows a small band of hustlers who bite off more than they can chew after coming into possession of a crime lord's truck. The kicker is that the truck is loaded with stolen gold bullion.
Critics have been mixed, much like with the original film. Still, those that liked it really liked it with one calling it "a punchy, adventurous show, with a distinct, if openly derivative visual style".
Full season streaming from Sunday.