3 Best Movies To Watch On Prime Video This Weekend (September 26-27)
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."
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HBO Max subscribers better get ready for an absolutely stacked weekend of movies on the streaming service, with a film that continues to trend, one that has just arrived, and another that is one of the best in its genre. After a brief pause, ScreenRant's HBO Max movie recommendations are back to explore the immense movie library that HBO Max holds.
On the last HBO Max movie recommendations, the three films debated were the Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson comedy Wedding Crashers, which will transport you to a different era; Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man, a stunning noir story; and the 1990 version of Stephen King's It, which saw Tim Curry terrorize a whole generation as the evil clown Pennywise.
Those were three very different movies, allowing HBO Max subscribers to find what suited their tastes best. This time around, I thought about keeping a mostly different roster of films and tones, though all three do share a sci-fi throughline. That said, each of the movies stays firmly in one lane, and HBO Max subscribers can find what works best for them.
Signal Received · Deep Space Broadcast The Ultimate Sci-Fi TV Trivia Quiz “The truth is out there.”
🚀Deep
SpaceFinal frontiers
⌛Time
TravelWibbly wobbly
👽AliensWe are not alone
👁DystopiaThe black mirror
💡Upside
DownHawkins, 1983
01
The most famous opening monologue in TV sci-fi begins: “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the ___.” Complete the line from the original 1966 Star Trek series.
✓ Engage! William Shatner’s iconic opening — “Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before” — has become one of the most quoted passages in all television. Later Trek series would adapt it, but the Enterprise is the one that started it all.
✗ Subspace interference! The answer is Starship Enterprise. USS Voyager belongs to the 1995–2001 series, the Defiant to Deep Space Nine, and the Discovery to the modern 2017 series. It’s the original Enterprise, captained by James T. Kirk, that William Shatner immortalized in that final-frontier monologue.
02
The Doctor’s time machine is disguised as a 1960s British police box and is famously bigger on the inside than the outside. What is the acronym it’s known by?
✓ Allons-y! TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. The name was coined by the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan in the very first 1963 episode. The police-box shape is the result of its chameleon circuit getting stuck while parked in 1963 London — and it’s stayed that way for sixty-plus years.
✗ Chronal distortion! The answer is TARDIS — Time And Relative Dimension In Space. The other options are invented distractors. The TARDIS first appeared in 1963 and has followed every regeneration of the Doctor since, though its interior famously redesigns itself whenever the showrunners want a fresh look.
03
The acclaimed 2004 Battlestar Galactica reboot — considered one of the greatest sci-fi TV shows ever made — was developed by which writer-producer, a veteran of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine?
✓ So say we all! Ronald D. Moore developed the modern Battlestar Galactica, reimagining Glen A. Larson’s 1978 original as a gritty, post-9/11 political allegory. Moore had cut his teeth writing many of TNG and DS9’s best episodes. His BSG aired 2004–2009 and tackled terrorism, torture, faith, and what it means to be human.
✗ Frak! The answer is Ronald D. Moore. J. Michael Straczynski created Babylon 5, David Eick was Moore’s co-executive-producer on BSG, and Glen A. Larson created the original 1978 Battlestar Galactica. Moore took Larson’s cheesy space opera and rebuilt it into a Peabody Award-winning meditation on war and morality.
04
Netflix’s ’80s-drenched sci-fi hit Stranger Things is set in a small American town sitting above a secret government lab that tore a hole into the “Upside Down.” What is the town called?
✓ Friends don’t lie! Hawkins, Indiana is the fictional town the Duffer Brothers invented for Stranger Things — home to Hawkins National Laboratory, where Dr. Brenner’s MKUltra-style experiments opened a rift into the Upside Down. The show is actually filmed in Jackson, Georgia, but the Hawkins sign is now an iconic TV landmark.
✗ The Upside Down! The answer is Hawkins, Indiana. Derry is Stephen King’s fictional town from IT, Castle Rock is another King town (and an anthology series), and Springwood is from A Nightmare on Elm Street. The Duffer Brothers deliberately evoked King’s small-town horror tradition when creating Hawkins.
05
In The X-Files, Fox Mulder has a famous poster hanging in his FBI basement office — a UFO photograph with a three-word tagline beneath it. What does the tagline say?
✓ The truth is out there! “I Want To Believe” sits below a blurry UFO photo on the poster that hangs in Mulder’s basement office throughout the series. The line became so associated with the show that it was used as the title of the 2008 feature film, The X-Files: I Want to Believe.
✗ File that one away! The answer is “I Want To Believe.” “Trust No One,” “Deny Everything,” and “The Truth Is Out There” are all iconic X-Files taglines — but it’s “I Want To Believe” that’s literally printed on the UFO poster in Mulder’s office, and which became the title of the franchise’s 2008 movie.
06
Apple TV+’s Severance — about office workers whose memories are surgically divided between their work and personal lives — was created by a first-time showrunner who used to be a customer service rep. Who is he?
✓ Praise Kier! Dan Erickson wrote the Severance pilot while working soul-crushing office jobs — literally daydreaming about splitting his mind so the “work-him” would suffer instead. Ben Stiller came on as executive producer and directed most episodes, but Erickson is the creator whose personal ennui gave us Lumon Industries.
✗ Outie interference! The answer is Dan Erickson. Damon Lindelof created Lost, The Leftovers, and Watchmen; Ben Stiller is Severance’s executive producer and primary director (but not its creator); Jonathan Nolan created Westworld and Person of Interest. Erickson’s script sat on the Black List for years before Stiller championed it.
07
In 2018, Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror released a groundbreaking feature-length episode that let viewers make choose-your-own-adventure style decisions for the protagonist. What was it called?
✓ Interactive transmission received! Bandersnatch followed young programmer Stefan as he adapted a choose-your-own-adventure novel in 1984. Viewers could make choices at key moments, branching the story into multiple endings. It was Netflix’s most ambitious interactive experiment — and the meta commentary on viewer control remains quintessential Black Mirror.
✗ Null pointer! The answer is Bandersnatch. USS Callister is the Emmy-winning Star Trek riff, San Junipero is the beloved ’80s romance episode, and Metalhead is the black-and-white robot-dog thriller. All are Black Mirror, but only Bandersnatch was the interactive choose-your-own-adventure special that launched in December 2018.
08
Joss Whedon’s space-western Firefly became a legendary cult classic after Fox infamously cancelled it — airing episodes out of order, burying the pilot, and pulling the plug. How many episodes aired on Fox before cancellation?
✓ Shiny! Only 11 of the 14 produced Firefly episodes aired on Fox in late 2002 before the network pulled the plug. The remaining three (including the two-hour pilot “Serenity”) first aired in proper order on the Sci-Fi Channel and eventually on DVD. Fan outcry led to the 2005 film Serenity — a rare cinematic rescue for a cancelled series.
✗ Fox strikes again! The answer is 11. Fourteen episodes were actually filmed, but Fox only aired 11 before cancellation, and they aired them out of order with the pilot held until last. The complete set finally aired on Sci-Fi Channel and DVD, and the fan-driven “Browncoats” campaign eventually convinced Universal to greenlight Serenity.
Transmission Complete · Signal Decoded Your Sci-Fi Rating
👽
/ 8
Trekkie-level canon — or still buffering?
One of the best HBO Max movies to watch on the final weekend of September is a superhero adventure that found redemption on streaming after a box office flop, with the other two films HBO Max subscribers should give a go being one of the biggest theatrical success stories of 2026, and a space opera that started a monumental franchise. These are the best HBO Max movies:
3 Supergirl (2026)
Starting us off is Supergirl. The 2nd movie in James Gunn's DC Universe did not work in theaters, only bringing in $126.5 million at the worldwide box office. That said, right after it arrived on HBO Max on September 10, those who did not watch Supergirl in theaters finally tried it out on streaming. The result is Supergirl becoming HBO Max's most-watched movie in the United States, a position it still holds to this day.
With Lanterns episode 7 releasing this Sunday, September 27, Supergirl is the perfect DC two-punch on HBO Max. It is a superhero movie set almost entirely in space, as Milly Alcock's Kara accompanies the young Ruthye, played by Eve Ridley, as they venture the cosmos after Krem of the Yellow Hills. Throw in Jason Momoa's Lobo in an energetic role, and Supergirl is a fun ride for the weekend with a bucket of popcorn.
2 Backrooms (2026)
Next up is Backrooms, which finally came to HBO Max this Friday, September 25. The A24 horror movie is one of the reasons the genre is on the rise in 2026. Alongside Obsession, Backrooms, which grossed $400.9 million on a reported budget of only $10 million, showed how it was possible to make theatrical hits at a low budget. It also packs a talented ensemble.
Directed by Kane Parsons, Backrooms features names like Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and more. The sci-fi horror explores the concept of a hidden dimension made up of liminal spaces that not only seems like it never ends, but also holds dark secrets and horrifying creatures. Get ready to watch characters have the absolute worst time of their lives in an intriguing and intense horror movie.
1 Dune (2021)
Finally, Denis Villeneuve's first Dune movie is an excellent option to end the final weekend of September on HBO Max. The Dune franchise will return in December with the release of Dune: Part Three on December 18, the same day that Marvel Studios' Avengers: Doomsday releases in theaters. With that franchise now receiving attention through the theatrical release of Avengers: Endgame Encore with Doomsday teases, it is only right Dune also gets some attention.
Dune is a virtually perfect franchise starter. While it is a slow-paced space opera, everything it sets up is key to future installments of the franchise, and Dune's world-building, through lifelike locations, advanced technology, and intricate political games, makes the movie one worth watching. With a star-studded cast that features names like Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, and many more, it is easy to understand the sci-fi movie's 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. Dune is the perfect HBO Max movie to end September with.
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Survivor Kara Zor El is still haunted by Krypton's collapse, drifting across the galaxy with Krypto at her side. When a young warrior named Ruthye begs for help avenging a family tragedy, Kara gets pulled into a ruthless hunt for Krem of the Yellow Hills.
- Director
- Craig Gillespie
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Backrooms is a film adaptation inspired by the viral found-footage shorts created Kane Parsons. The film explores the eerie and surreal labyrinth known as the Backrooms, capturing unsettling experiences within its endless hallways and rooms.
- Director
- Kane Parsons
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Dune
5/10
- Release Date
- September 15, 2021
- Runtime
- 155 minutes
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Paul Atreides
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Rebecca Ferguson
Lady Jessica Atreides
Dune is a science fiction epic directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, the film follows Paul's journey amid a conflict over the planet's valuable resource, spice, as he grapples with his destiny to secure his family's future.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.