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Seeing Stephen King references pop up in Joe Hill's latest horror novel, King Sorrow, is a fun surprise for the reader — but in another sense it's not that surprising at all.

Hill, a successful horror writer and King's son, started out his career under a different surname from his father in order to remain anonymous.

"I didn't want to get published because I had a famous parent, and I was very insecure," he told Mashable. "I needed to know for my self worth, that when I sold something, I sold for the right reasons."

Hill's identity became public knowledge after the publication of his first book, and in the decades since he's become increasingly comfortable with the association. He's spoken about his father in author's notes and co-wrote two stories with him for his 2019 collection Full Throttle. Now, in his latest novel, there are references to at least three of his dad's most famous works.

"In a way, we are all the children of Stephen King."

"King Sorrow, even more than any of my other books, is in conversation with the work of Stephen King," Hill explained. "I love my dad's work, and I kind of love celebrating my dad. I'm a huge Stephen King fan, too. The other thing though that I realized, you know, I had a thought a while back, which is, I write horror fiction, and me and every other person who writes horror fiction, in a way, are all the children of Stephen King. We're all Stephen King's kids. But I might be the only one who can get away with actually sticking some of his stuff into my book."

We asked Hill to break down the different Stephen King references in King Sorrow, and why he decided to include them.

SEE ALSO: 10 of the best Stephen King book endings The Dead Zone Credit: Mashable / Hodder Paperback

Early on in the novel, the six main friends have a conversation that directly references Johnny Smith and Greg Stillson, two of the main characters in King's 1979 novel The Dead Zone — an exchange Hill described as "amusing but also highly functional."

"It's more than an Easter egg," said Hill, explaining that he wanted his novel to be about a cross-section of America and was looking for a way to position each of his characters on a different point on the political spectrum. A reference to Greg Stillson — a populist right wing politician in King's The Dead Zone who has been compared to Donald Trump — was the perfect vehicle for this.

"I saw in talking about the acts of John Smith from The Dead Zone an amusing opportunity to position them each very clearly for the reader about what are their views," Hill said. "And I feel like in a page, by the time that page is over, you're like, oh, I get where every single one of these characters is coming from."

The Dark Tower Credit: Mashable / Hodder Paperback

During the chapter of King Sorrow where the main characters first summon the novel's titular dragon, they each take part in their own ritual that forms part of a larger ceremony. Arthur Oakes, the driving character in this part of the book, pursues a ghost through the snow outside, and Hill's description — "The dark man fled across the snow and Arthur Oakes followed" — is a subtle altering of one of King's most famous lines of fiction from The Dark Tower series.

"I think the rhythms of the original line, 'The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed,' is the great opening line of any genre story," Hill said. "And there's some kind of music in it. There's some kind of thumpity-thumpity-thumpity-thumpity. I wouldn't be surprised if you studied it and it turned out to be iambic pentameter. [...] So I think it was just, oh, I like the music of that. I'm going to use that here. I'm going to borrow the music of that."

View this post on Instagram Pet Sematary Credit: Mashable / Hodder Paperback

Hill went on to say that later on in King Sorrow, during a section where two of the main characters are led into the lair of a troll, there's a callback to King's 1983 novel Pet Sematary that some readers don't catch — a line that echoes something Jud Crandall says to Louis Creed as he's leading him to the infamous cemetery.

"When Stuart Finger, the troll, leads Colin and Arthur down to Arthur's cave, he says something very similar," said Hill.

Ultimately, Hill views all of these references less as Easter eggs, and more as a conversation between stories.

"One of the great things about literature, as I understand it, is the way stories can respond to other stories," he said. "One of the powerful things stories can do is have conversations with other stories. And I feel like everything I've ever written has, in one way or another, been continuing a conversation that I had with some other writer when I was reading their book."

King Sorrow is available now in bookstores and online retailers.

Featured Video For You Cooper Hoffman and 'The Long Walk' cast compete for ultimate Stephen King film knowledge

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It's day 17 of the lunar cycle, and we're currently heading towards the New Moon. Until then, the moon will appear smaller and smaller each night.

What is today’s moon phase?

As of Friday, Nov. 7, the moon phase is Waning Gibbous. This means 94% of the moon is lit up tonight, according to NASA's Daily Moon Observation.

The moon is getting smaller each night, but we've still got a while until the New Moon takes it away completely. For now, there is still plenty to see on its surface, if you look hard enough.

If you don't have any visual aids, not to worry, there's still things to spot, including the Aristarchus Plateau, Mare Serenitatis, and the Mare Vaporum. Binoculars will make things even more visible and you'll have a chance to see the Posidonius Crater, Alphonsus Crater, and the Apennine Mountains. If you have a telescope hanging about, pull it out to see the Reiner Gamma, Apollo 14 landing spot, and the Rima Ariadaeus.

When is the next full moon?

The next full moon will be on Dec. 4.

What are moon phases?

NASA notes that as the Moon orbits Earth over about 29.5 days, it goes through a series of phases. These phases occur because of the changing angles between the Sun, Moon, and Earth. Depending on its position, the Moon can appear fully illuminated, partly illuminated, or completely hidden, even though we always see the same side. What changes is how much sunlight reflects off its surface, creating a repeating sequence known as the lunar cycle.

The eight main moon phases are:

New Moon - The moon is between Earth and the sun, so the side we see is dark (in other words, it's invisible to the eye).

Waxing Crescent - A small sliver of light appears on the right side (Northern Hemisphere).

First Quarter - Half of the moon is lit on the right side. It looks like a half-moon.

Waxing Gibbous - More than half is lit up, but it’s not quite full yet.

Full Moon - The whole face of the moon is illuminated and fully visible.

Waning Gibbous - The moon starts losing light on the right side. (Northern Hemisphere)

Third Quarter (or Last Quarter) - Another half-moon, but now the left side is lit.

Waning Crescent - A thin sliver of light remains on the left side before going dark again.

From Ira Sachs — director of the striking contemporary queer drama Passages — the 1970s New York-set Peter Hujar's Day is a confined, two-character experiment that's far more about mood than plot. Set almost entirely in one apartment over the course of a single day, its mere 76 minutes are languidly paced, though that's a major part of its success. Few filmmakers have so distinctly evoked an era without so much as pointing their camera out through a window to capture the street below.

The film is reconstructed from a transcript, once thought to be lost, of an interview with gay New York photographer Peter Hujar (Passages star Ben Whishaw) conducted by writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall). The recording resurfaced in 2019 — Rosenkrantz has since published it as a book under the same title as the movie — but Sachs doesn't merely restage the interview as written. Rather, he extrapolates what feels like an entire lifetime from words alone.

What is Peter Hujar's Day about? Credit: Courtesy of Janus Films

Describing Peter Hujar's Day runs the risk of oversimplifying it, but the film's simplicity is its charm. Beginning on a random December morning in 1974, the curious Rosenkrantz — who ran in the same circles as Hujar, creating a sense of intimacy — asks him to recall all the things he did the previous day. As her two-spool tape recorder spins (resembling a film projector in both appearance and sound), Hujar goes about his day and the duo move about his East Village apartment as he narrates, in flowery detail, events that might have seemed unremarkable at the time but take on a greater significance in retrospect.

This is not unlike the way Hujar's photography would come to be perceived. His black-and-white portraits made few waves at the time — certainly not compared to contemporaries like Andy Warhol — but they have since been canonized as having brought a subtle texture and depth to his subjects, physically and psychologically. As Nan Goldin once wrote of Hujar's personal artistry: "His pictures are exotic but not in a shallow, sensational way. Looking at his photographs of nude men, even of a naked baby boy, is the closest I ever came to experience what it is to inhabit male flesh."

Although the film doesn't take its cues from Hujar's images (except for a few dreamlike interludes), Sachs attempts to unearth a similarly lifelike dimensionality. His shots — mostly still, though sometimes moving gradually across space — help craft a sense of intrigue. This goes hand-in-hand with Whishaw's thoroughly considered performance, which feels free and uninhibited in its motions, whether Hujar moves from room to room or simply fidgets on his couch.

Sachs generally excels at creating this sense of life between the creases, and Peter Hujar's Day is among his finest aesthetic achievements. Not only does its form evoke a specific time and place, but it creates a distinct relationship between its mid-'70s setting and the present right from the word go.

Peter Hujar's Day is an artistic bridge between eras. Credit: Courtesy of Janus Films

The New York of today would be alien to Hujar's New York, and vice versa. The city was certainly grimier in the 1970s, with more danger and more edge — think Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver — but it was also the cradle of a burgeoning American arts' scene that has since been priced out for several decades.

Throughout the film, Hujar makes mention of his East Village address and that of other artists he travelled to photograph the previous morning, noting the rough-and-tumble neighborhoods that have long since been gentrified. Granted, to pick up on the significance of these details requires foreknowledge of the city's modern topography, which certainly shrinks the movie's intended audience (or at least, those that might pick up everything it's putting down), but this specificity is an extension of its experimentation.

On the surface, it's a film of "telling" rather than "showing," but the inherent obliqueness (and the obfuscating nature) of its dialogue limits how much of it can be considered exposition. If anything, it is in fact a film of "showing" in a macro sense — of depicting Hujar's thoughts and feelings towards each description — with Rosenkrantz as his mostly silent foil, whose input on his recollections becomes known without words.

The film's 16mm cinematography by Alex Ashe evokes that place and time's No Wave cinema scene, led by the likes of John Cassavetes, with its distinct celluloid textures and ever-so-slightly blown-out highlights, as though it were cheaply produced. The acoustic qualities add to this DIY feeling, which includes flaws and faded noises in the audio recordings, as though the movie's entire soundtrack (rather than the interview transcript) were the thing that had been rediscovered, and the film were merely adding physical dimensions to something heard.

Alongside the ambient noises of New York, from ambulance sirens to noisy streets, each physical element on screen stands out in the soundtrack: glasses, dishware, even chairs being dragged so Hujar and Rosenkrantz can sit. Sachs' repeated shots of the tape recorder serve to remind us that what we're watching is a recreation or restaging of the past. The movie even opens with a clapper board, and features frequent jump-cuts despite its at-length scenes. We even catch occasional glimpses of modern crew members putting boom mics in place. However, this Brechtian quality never detracts from the movie's lived-in, realistic feel.

The characters never wink at the camera, or even acknowledge it, despite Sachs drawing our attention to the artifice. We're never watching actors play a part. Rather, we're watching historical figures through a modern lens, a self-reflexive exercise in which the present and the past exist simultaneously, creating a contrast between life and artistry as it once was, and now is — made all the more apparent by Hujar casually invoking the names of famous figures.

Peter Hujar's Day brings a human quality to figures of the past. Credit: Courtesy of Janus Films

What exactly was "Peter Hujar's day"? As narrated by Hujar in the film, the preceding 24 hours were mildly annoying, given how many people he had to chase for money and other scheduling confirmations — such is the life of a freelance artist — but they were also eventful, in the sense that they made for a fun recounting. Rosenkrantz barely interjects, in part because she's a good reporter, letting her subject speak for himself, but in part because she, like the audience, is familiar with the specific people Hujar refers to in his story: the likes of critic Susan Sontag, poet Allen Ginsberg, and author William S. Burroughs.

The difference between the characters' relationship to these figures and the audience's is that to the former, they're acquaintances, whereas to us, they're pillars of modern Western culture, which makes for a fascinating disconnect. Peter Hujar's Day practically lives within this dissonant space, wherein everything that's mundane for Hujar and Rosenkrantz is destined to have a historic quality some five decades later.

That these artistic legends are only mentioned and not seen adds, on one hand, a mythic quality to them — one of whispers and rumors — but what's actually said about them grounds them through a surprisingly cheeky approach. Hujar's personality, wants, likes, and annoyances all come to the fore through his anecdotes, which exist somewhere between gossip and name-dropping. Each time he narrates his interactions with someone the audience might've heard about, he does so quite casually (which makes sense — Hujar doesn't have the perspective the audience does), adding a humane quality to an often mythologized era, bringing us closer to it in the process.

A film that recalls recollections, and Peter Hujar's Day is, by its very nature, a film of reflections and refractions. However, it makes its various Xerox copies of the past feel thoroughly original and lifelike, transforming a contained interview into what may as well be a moody, sprawling biopic.

Peter Hujar’s Day was reviewed out of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. It opens in NY/LA on Nov. 7, 2025.

UPDATE: Nov. 5, 2025, 2:53 p.m. This review was first published on Feb. 1, 2025, as part of Mashable's Sundance coverage. It has been updated to reflect theatrical options.

In retrospect, the collision of Lynne Ramsay and Jennifer Lawrence seems fated. The Scottish filmmaker forged her reputation with character-driven dramas like Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and You Were Never Really Here. Her films — often led by critically heralded performers — push audiences to uncomfortable emotional spaces of desire, rage, and grief. Meanwhile, the American actress broke through with such a drama, Debra Granik's riveting Winter's Bone, which earned Lawrence her first Oscar nod. Then, she rose to stardom by embracing roles of women on the edge in The Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, and Mother! 

Through this lens, Die My Love seems inevitable, but that doesn't make it any less remarkable. Ramsay and Lawrence's powers combine to create a ruthlessly savage portrait of female desire and wrath. The result is something feral and bloody fantastic. 

Die My Love is a stirring drama in the vein of Hedda Gabler.  Jennifer Lawrence as Grace in "Die My Love." Credit: Kimberley French / MUBI

Adapted from Ariana Harwicz's novel of the same name, Die My Love focuses on a young mother named Grace (Lawrence), who struggles within the confines of her seemingly settled life. (Hedda, can you hear her?) In the screenplay by Ramsay, Alice Birch, and Enda Walsh, the film begins with Grace and her partner, Jackson (Robert Pattinson), pulling his pick-up truck up to the family home that has been passed down to them, ahead of the birth of their first child. 

Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey resolutely sets the camera statically inside the house, which is littered with leaves as if it's been nearly forgotten. From this wide shot, we can see the couple arrive through an open door. We hear their excited chatter and finally see them come into the building, bringing life with them. Grace, in a silky red skirt, practically blooms as she enters a room. And before they even sweep the floors, she's pinned Jackson to them, naked and christening the place as theirs. 

Their lovemaking isn't the standard stuff of Hollywood movies, all soft lighting and carefully revealed flesh. Instead, Die My Love delivers a frank and carnal sex scene. Grace claws at Jackson like a predatory cat. It's with this same intensity she will later crawl on all four through their sprawling wilderness of a lawn or paw into her own panties as their fever for each other cools.

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Swiftly through physicality, Lawrence and Ramsay establish the intensity of Grace, which will not be shrunk by her role as wife or mother. So, when work pulls Jackson away from the house, leaving Grace to their baby and herself, she begins to spiral in search of who she has become in this circumstance. And her rage, even at its most extreme, is achingly relatable. 

Having recently seen Hedda, it was easy to see a line of shared vexation between these two anti-heroines. Where their families, lovers, and society would happily shove them into placid roles of feminine domesticity, their spirits rage against such flattening of their lives. In response, both react wildly — though Grace is less strategic than Hedda. 

Jennifer Lawrence is on fire in Die My Love. Jennifer Lawrence and Nick Nolte dance in "Die My Love." Credit: Kimberley French / MUBI

Grace's passions push her to explode, sometimes in outbursts of joyful dancing or spirited song, sometimes in vicious words or violence. Within the film, characters sympathetically diagnose Grace with postpartum depression. But even this feels like a box to confine her. 

Lawrence throws herself fearlessly into Grace's mental breakdown. She laughs, screams, flails, and fights with an electrifying abandon. She's so achingly alive onscreen that Pattinson, renowned for his onscreen intensity, withers beside her, which suits their characters' dynamic. Jackson seems intoxicated by Grace's free spirit, but also infuriated he can't pin her down as she might him. From their increasing animosity, tension churns this domestic drama into a thriller, because something has got to give. 

And yet, as fiery as Lawrence gets — bearing her body, yearning, and rage with equal bravado — the scenes that hit me the hardest in Die My Love are when Grace shares a sharp softness. There's a beautiful and humane paradox built in this protagonist. Her snarls and anti-social behaviors, like plunging into a pool in her underwear at a family party, might startle the neighbors and embarrass Jackson, but they don't mean she doesn't care about others or know how to. 

Jennifer Lawrence lies on the ground in "Die My Love." Credit: Kimberley French / MUBI

While motherhood might feel like a shackle, she loves her baby boy and expresses gentle, ardent affection for him. But before he even arrives, she does the same for her father-in-law, Harry (Nick Nolte), who is addled by dementia. Where others treat Harry like a child, with lilting pleads for obedience, Grace talks to him like they're sharing a secret, like they understand each other. And perhaps they do better than any other because of how everyone else infantilizes them, instead of meeting them where they are.

While Grace is soft with her son and father-in-law, Lawrence performs that gentleness with an intellectual sharpness that complicates even these moments of warm love. She and Ramsay build a woman who so resolutely rejects archetypes like mother and wife that Grace practically vibrates on screen, so fully formed that she can barely be contained in a 2D medium. 

 Die My Love is a radical and riveting melodrama that rejects sentimentality.  Robert Pattinson washes a bloody vehicle in "Die My Love." Credit: Kimberley French / MUBI

In this role, Lawrence will writhe on the floor, prowl on all fours through tall grass, and claw at the floral walls of a battered bathroom. She sinks her teeth into every moment so that Die My Love bleeds. Its premise might seem the stuff of Lifetime movies about failing marriages or maternal frustrations. But under Ramsay's direction, the story is more slippery and surreal, dangerously dedicated to psychological and emotional truth over a comforting narrative. There's a frankness to everything from sex and breastfeeding to the comfort and casualness Grace has with her own body. And perhaps especially now, when the U.S. government is pushing an agenda to reduce a woman's control over her reproductive rights and gender-affirming care, this feels audacious and radical.

Grace's journey will make you squirm, perhaps cackle. But in her messy quest for something beyond being boxed in, she offers a radical freedom to her audience. In the discomfort of watching her bicker, battle, and act out, an excitement of possibility burns. Where could this lead, not just for her — but for us? Will you walk away from Die My Love rattled? Feeling recognized? Or dared to be reborn? 

Die My Love opens in theaters on Nov. 7.

By no means a fast-paced film but one rich with detail and strong performances, Train Dreams weaves one man's life through a rapidly changing American West in the early 20th century.

Based on Denis Johnson’s 2011 novella of the same name, it's a steady, meditative, and at times devastating journey with many a conversation around the fire. Train Dreams sees Sing Sing collaborators Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley reunite — this time with Bentley in the director's chair — to explore delicate themes of love and loss amid this fading frontier, sitting on the cusp of industrialisation. It's a slow-going, sombre film at times, an historical essay at others, and it won't be everyone's cup of sarsaparilla.

SEE ALSO: 'Hamnet' review: Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley burn in William Shakespeare tragedy

However, the true heart of this moving film is a subtle, sensitive performance by Joel Edgerton, one immersed in Bryce Dessner's meticulous score and Adolpho Veloso's lush cinematography, and concluded with the unmistakable spirit of Nick Cave.

What is Train Dreams about? Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones in "Train Dreams." Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Beginning in 1917 and running through to 1968, Train Dreams follows a man's search for meaning as the 20th century arrives. The Wild West days are over. The American frontier is transforming. And Edgerton leads as devoted family man and stoic railroad worker Robert Grainier, who works for the Spokane International Railway in Idaho. He builds transient bonds with his fellow lumberjacks and pines for home. He's also a man riddled by guilt for his complicity watching the racist murder of Chinese immigrant worker Fu Sheng (Alfred Hsing) during a railroad job, perpetually haunted by the memory. Here, the script diverges from the novella: In the latter, Robert physically helps in hauling the worker to a tall bridge, but in the film, Robert simply doesn't intervene.

Despite this shockingly casual event, the film spends most of its time tracing Robert's life. After a brief courtship with his soon-to-be wife Gladys Olding (Felicity Jones), in the small village of Meadow Creek, Robert builds a simple, idyllic home with her among fields of wildflowers and beside a babbling brook. The pair map out their single-room cabin with river boulders and soon welcome the arrival of their daughter Kate. It's an almost overwhelmingly romantic existence, hammered home in near-saccharine montages and Dessner's tender score, and one Robert yearns for when torn away for months on dangerous railroad-building projects. The job's perils are emphasised in both Johnson's novella and Bentley's film, with injury or death from the felling of colossal trees a common workplace risk for 20th-century lumberjacks. Veloso's POV shots of these ancient giants falling prove the point, and several scenes show how risky this business of pillaging the natural landscape was.

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At one tragic point, in a devastatingly shot and enacted sequence, Robert's world is upturned forever. He's left desperately searching for meaning in it all, feeling obsolete and expecting "a great revelation to arrive about his life." Edgerton delivers a solemn, raw performance — and with everything that happens, we're not mad that he's surrounded by fluffy stray puppies for a large chunk of the film. Giving Edgerton's character room for deep conversation and reflection, Bentley and Kwedar expand characters from Johnson's book, including Robert's friend Ignatius Jack (a wonderful Nathaniel Arcand), a Kootenai store owner who helps him rebuild, and forest service worker Claire (Kerry Condon), who bonds with Robert down the track.

Train Dreams is a journey of solitude and American history. Joel Edgerton in "Train Dreams." Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Though it's not necessarily a history lesson, Train Dreams subtly meanders through stories of the American West and where these unsung railroad workers fit within it. Through an omniscient narrator (voiced by Will Patton) and conversations between characters, the script pieces together fragments of the past. As in Johnson's novella, mentions of the American Civil War, American Indian Wars, and World War I arise organically. In particular here, William H. Macy is a highlight as Arn Peeples, a harmonica-playing explosives expert and "gadabout of unknown origin" who befriends Robert. As in the novella, Arn's the character most reflective on American history, lamenting his younger peers' disconnection to it.

Like Arn, Patton's narration lends a certain grandfatherly energy, describing locomotive mechanics, the construction of the Robinson Gorge Bridge, and "the cost of progress" in the same tone as he describes Robert's existential crisis. Nonetheless, it gives the film a steadfast emotional consistency. Additionally, his narration gives the film's present an awareness of the future, as we learn what will become of things.

William H. Macy in "Train Dreams." Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Train Dreams also takes pains to capture a specific tension between tradition and modernity through the work of production designer Alexandra Schaller. From the handcrafted elements of the Graniers' cabin to the changing technology of the logging sites from rudimentary tools to machinery, Schaller's team craft a detailed picture of life in the American West from early to mid century. But there's one crucial element that pulls all the elements of Train Dreams together.

The simmering engine of Train Dreams is Bryce Dessner's score. Joel Edgerton and Kerry Condon in "Train Dreams." Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Adding to his lauded catalogue of modern film scores from The Revenant to We Live In Time, The National's Bryce Dessner once again flexes his atmospheric composer skills in Train Dreams. At once a whimsical, romantic ode to potential and a hypnotic, reflective accompaniment to loss, Dessner's score drives the emotional engine of Train Dreams. Edgerton's Robert is characteristically stoic and interior in his emotions, allowing Dessner to draw out the brilliant subtleties of his performance. Meanwhile, it's the perfect partner to Veloso's gorgeous shots of Robert engulfed by the Idaho landscape, immersed in the beauty and history of the American wilderness.

Worth staying through the film's end credits for, Dessner teams up with the ever-iconic Nick Cave (no stranger to a lyrical exploration of love and loss) for the haunting original song "Train Dreams." This brooding ballad essentially encapsulates the film's narrative and emotional tone in a few minutes, marking a sublime conclusion to the film.

Train Dreams takes its time, relishing in conversations about grief, loss, feeling obsolete and overwhelmed by both nature and modernity. This slower pace can feel a little engulfing at times, but Edgerton's performance, Dessner's score, and Veloso's balance of handheld and static photography kept me hitched on the ride.

Train Dreams was reviewed out of BFI London Film Festival. The film will hit select U.S. cinemas on Nov. 7 before streaming on Netflix worldwide on Nov. 21.

UPDATE: Nov. 5, 2025, 2:40 p.m. This review was first published on Oct. 25, 2025, as part of Mashable's BFI coverage. It has been updated to reflect screening options.

It's a love story as only Guillermo del Toro can tell it. For ages, the Mexican filmmaker, who has awed audiences with wondrous films like The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth, Crimson Peak, and the Academy Award–winning The Shape of Water, has dreamed of turning Mary Shelley's Frankenstein into a movie of his own. And what he has accomplished here — notably with some of Hollywood's most beautiful men in the lead roles — is absolutely astonishing. 

Ahead of the North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, del Toro explained to the audience how for him, Frankenstein is a story of fathers and sons, exploring his relationship to his own father and his own children. But audiences won't need a curtain speech to understand this inspiration point, as del Toro's script is unabashedly about the ties that bind and sometimes suffocate. 

With the help of a star-studded cast that includes Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Charles Dance, and Christoph Waltz, this rightly heralded writer/director resurrects a classic horror story with a romantic flair that makes it gruesome, beautiful, and deeply poignant all at once. 

Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein focuses on cycles of behavior and abuse. Charles Dance as Leopold Frankenstein and Christian Convery as young Victor in "Frankenstein." Credit: Ken Woroner / Netflix

This version of Frankenstein begins with a framework that recalls Shelley's 1818 novel. In 1857, in "farthest north," a crew of freezing sailors chips away at their ice-seized ship as their captain hollers about reaching the North Pole. Then, they find a man, bleeding and broken, barely alive on the icy terrain. 

They pull him aboard only to discover he's being pursued by a mighty, bellowing "thing." The man is Victor Frankenstein (Isaac), the thing is his monster (Elordi). After a swarm of sailors beats the latter back in a dynamic and fiery action sequence — taking heavy, grisly losses — they sail on, but Victor warns the Creature will return, and so begins his story to the captain. 

Through this framework, the film flashes back to Victor's youth, where he was in a bitter battle with his cruel father (Dance) over his beautiful mother (Goth). As a boy, Victor sought the love of his mother but the approval of his father, if only to avoid the lashings the latter considered parenting. When Victor's mother dies in childbirth, he blames his surgeon father for failing, and seeks to best them both, though he only articulates his wish to outmatch his father. 

Years later, as a fanatical scientist, Victor experiments with electricity on corpses, seeking to resurrect them into a new living thing. Like James Whale's iconic Frankenstein, there's the fantastical element of a man creating life without the intervention of a woman. Here, because of Victor's pronounced love of his mother, his experiment feels like a backwards way to prove she need not have died. But in a bigger way, it is to defeat death as his father never could. 

His victory comes when he successfully stitches together and electrocutes to life a son. But Victor's failing is falling into the same cycle of abuse his father modeled. At first, Victor is in awe of his towering creation as it toddles in awkward steps and begins to explore its dungeon containment, splashing in puddles of water and reaching curiously for the fire that lights the space. But when his monster's intellectual development doesn't meet Victor's standards, it will be the lash, just as Victor experienced when he flunked his father's lessons. 

Oscar Isaac is great in Frankenstein.  Oscar Issac as Victor Frankenstein in "Frankenstein." Credit: Ken Woroner / Netflix

Isaac brings a frightening fire to the role of Victor Frankenstein. He is not the raving mad scientist of the Universal Monster movies. He is not the egotistical showman of Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Isaac makes the part his own by digging into the paternal determination to mold his "creation" in his own image. 

Furthering the Oedipal thread that began in his childhood, this Victor is given a softer side through a romance subplot and a clever bit of casting. Victor becomes instantly besotted with Elizabeth, a young maiden who loves sciences and insects, and who is also played by Mia Goth.

Her girlish beauty gives an impression of innocence and gentleness, but del Toro's script bolsters Elizabeth with a sharp scientific intelligence, something she shares with Victor though their morals differ intensely. When she sees the monster, she sees someone impressive and pure, despite his scars and lack of academic accomplishment. She sees a soul that Victor cannot grasp. She becomes the foil to Victor's drive, echoing the warmth and joy of his mother. Thereby, the monster becomes a reflection of both his "father" and "mother," an accomplishment the cold, violent Victor failed to achieve.

Jacob Elordi is iconic as Frankenstein's monster.  Jacob Elordi as the Creature in "Frankenstein." Credit: Ken Woroner / Netflix

At six feet, five inches tall, Elordi easily towers over his co-stars. But rather than sporting bolts in his neck or gnarly lumps of sullied flesh, del Toro's monster is lean and muscular, pale to the point of nearly being blue, and precisely constructed. There's a slight resemblance to the Engineers, the tall, robust, alien race from Prometheus. However, the scars along his wrists, limbs, torso, and face will never let us forget his origins. 

Elordi has a difficult role because the Creature's arc is one of pain that often has no voice. Much of the performance is doggedly physical. After his birth, he is a child, though his father cannot see that. Elordi reflects this with a portrait of exploratory physicality so much like a toddler's that it's both wondrous and wretched, as we know what horrors will come next for this innocent.

At Victor's hands, the Creature experiences physical, emotional, and psychological abuse; he's chained, beaten, and insulted. Meeting Elizabeth, however, gives the Creature a greater understanding of the possibilities of the world and people. The second half of the film focuses on the monster telling his own story to the ship's captain, the framework device switching perspectives. While sound effects are employed to give Elordi's voice a harrowing, monstrous echo in these scenes, the delivery of the Creature's words as he finds his voice is bedecked with pain and earnest wonder. 

The Creature's story, where he is cast out by one family and so chooses another, is one that will speak to many, especially as Elordi's crackling voice explains the heartbreaking realization that the world may try to destroy you just for being yourself. This misfit monster becomes a radiant analogy for self-love, as he is both horrid and beautiful, misunderstood and full of potential and love. For this monster, del Toro carves out a different ending from Shelley's — one that is bittersweet and glorious.

None of these risky deviations or romantic embrace of the monster would work were it not for Elordi's performance. He wears a full body of prosthetic scars and putridly pale skin, but he suffuses every movement, every glance with purpose and emotion. Escaping his well-recognized handsomeness and the expectations that come with being a dashing leading man, Elordi is del Toro's perfect monster, wretched and wondrous. 

Del Toro's Frankenstein is a romantic fairy tale and a horror movie.  Mia Goth as Claire Frankenstein and Christian Convery as young Victor in "Frankenstein." Credit: Ken Woroner / Netflix

Like Crimson Peak, perhaps Del Toro's most misunderstood film, Frankenstein embraces a romantic fairy tale tone that urges audiences to indulge in its impressions and emotions. Because the film is told from one perspective then another, there's a suggestion that what we're shown is not what happened but how it felt. 

So, a preposterous tower shoots into the sky like a dark, threatening blade, its insides riddled with rot, overrun with vines, and yet glistening with top-of-the-line tech, funded by an eccentric arms dealer (Waltz). And here, a young woman is both Victor's dream girl in intellect but also wears the face of his mother. Could that be real? Or is Elizabeth as Victor dreams her? Likewise, the violence the monster inflicts on others feels impossibly powerful, as he chucks wolves away with the slash of a forearm and rocks an ice-bound ship loose of its frigid bonds. At times, del Toro's story feels impossible, and that's precisely the point. 

Every element of this film is like a fairy tale, not the kind we tell to children to help them fall asleep but the kind used in dark forests and evil-plagued eras to warn them of a world that won't see them as beautiful but as meat. So, the design of the monster follows this idea, being both splendid and scarred. The experiments of Victor's process are gruesome, but also reveal the natural beauty of human's internal design.

The costumes by Kate Hawley (Crimson Peak) are extraordinary, ranging from dark shrouds, so charred and befouled you can practically smell them, to gossamer gowns and veils that float almost impossibly, draping Goth in vibrant colors. And details along the spine of both the Creature's crusty trench coat and Elizabeth's corseted gowns remind us of the bones that lie beneath, a connection between them and their fortitude against the abuses of the world. 

The score by Alexandre Desplat is sumptuous in its agony. Stringed instruments call out in longing and loss, enveloping the audience and the monster with the same, overwhelming surge of hurt and awe. The sound design as a whole embraces del Toro's signature blend of horror and romance. Sounds of violence snap and squelch, but in a symphony all their own. Across the production design, a vicious, brilliant red ties everything together, from Victor's mother (who drapes herself head to toe in the color) to his leather gloves as he operates, a book here, a funeral wreath there, and of course, in the end, blood. Yet the juxtaposition this sharp color serves against so much high-contrast blacks and whites of cloaks and dead flesh doesn't seem threatening; instead, it's a reminder of life — vibrant, pulsing, and unstoppable. 

As a whole, del Toro's Frankenstein is a marvel. His vision is clear and mesmerizing. His ensemble is electrifying. His adaptation is unique, soulful, and unforgettable. The man who loves monsters has just made his masterpiece: It's rich, rapturous, and ruthlessly interrogates what it means to be human, with all of our glory and our flaws.

Frankenstein was reviewed out of its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie will open in select theaters in Oct. 17 (and this critic suggests you go see it big!). A Netflix release will follow on Nov. 7. 

UPDATE: Nov. 5, 2025, 2:48 p.m. This review was first published on Sept. 9, 2025, as part of Mashable's TIFF coverage. It has been updated to reflect theatrical and streaming availability.

Ahead of its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Sydney Sweeney's turn in Christy earned press for the reportedly incredible physical transformation she took on for the role: 30 pounds and a brunette wig. This suggested the Euphoria star was willfully pushing away from her bombshell persona to stretch in her latest, the David Michôd-directed biopic, where she plays brash boxer Christy Martin. But Sweeney's range doesn't reach where Christy needs her to go.

Yes, some critics are cheering Sweeney's performance as the best of her career, and it certainly plays to the sweet spot of Oscar. Like Nicole Kidman in The Hours or Christian Bale in basically every movie he does, Sweeney has a physical transformation that rejects the Hollywood ideal. Plus, she plays a literal fighter, like Oscar winner Hillary Swank (Million Dollar Baby) or Robert De Niro in Raging Bull. But Sweeney does not have the screen presence or intensity of either, and Christy suffers for it. However, the film on its own is beleaguered with problems. 

Christy is a mixed-up melodrama about American boxer Christy Martin.

In the 1980s, Martin began a boxing career that would lead to groundbreaking moments like becoming the first woman that boxing promoter Don King ever signed, and the first female boxer to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated. However, Christy is less interested in Martin's accomplishments and more in the agony she suffered behind the scenes. Her pain came less from the punches she took in the ring, and more from her homophobic mother's ruthless intolerance and the domestic violence delivered at the hands of her abusive husband.

SEE ALSO: TIFF 2025 preview: 20 films you'll want to see for yourself (and how)

In the first act, Christy is established as a butch lesbian, whose relationship with her "friend" Rosie (Jess Gabor) has offended her mother Joyce (Merritt Wever). While Wever is a terrific actor who brings emotional weight to every line here, the archetypal role of unaccepting mom is so doggedly one-note that it's flat-out comical. The screenplay by Mirrah Foulkes and Michôd makes this mother so consistently horrific that she feels like a parody, plucked from actual comedies like Walk Hard or the more restrained TIFF offering Maddie's Secret. In Christy, Joyce exists purely to say hateful things to her daughter. While Michôd aims for seriousness, all of Wever's dialogue basically boils down to campy proclamations like: Christy, why do you have to be so lesbian and break my heart?

When it comes to the marriage of Christy to Jim Martin, her trainer and abuser for decades, Michôd's approach is also confounding. Ben Foster plays Jim, wearing a hairy fat suit and a comb-over wig that just gets more aggressively ugly as the years pass by. Their marriage has many of the red flags of an abusive relationship (and a slew of Lifetime movies), including Jim's recurring promise that if she were to leave him, he'd kill her. The contrast between Christy being a fighter in the ring but assaulted in her own home is the film's central focus, with her queer repression taking a backseat until the third act. Within this abuse storyline, Foster's chewing scenery (and his lower lip) and Sweeney is out of her depth.

Sydney Sweeney is not an Oscar contender in Christy. 

Don't buy into the hype. This movie is a mess, and Sweeney is a contributor to that, not its highlights. For one thing, she uses Martin's West Virginia background as an excuse to slap on a thick Southern accent that comes and goes. For another, while her look is different in Christy, it doesn't read "athlete," as she lacks tone and physicality. 

With all the personal melodrama, the actual boxing gets lost in Christy. Sweeney can't throw a convincing punch, so Christy's knockouts don't hit like those in the Rocky movies, the Creed movies, or even Girlfight, which used white frames to suggest contact of the boxing gloves to powerful effect. Michôd's boxing scenes lack punch in choreography and execution. However, the director shows a much more deft hand at recreating the violence happening at home.

Featured Video For You Sydney Sweeney on finding a church that would let them film 'Immaculate'

A pivotal sequence late in the film finally clicks into a tone that feels consistent with Michôd's work in the acclaimed Animal Kingdom. Perhaps because true crime is his comfort zone? Abruptly, the details of movement and dialogue become sharply specific, with Christy having a short phone conversation unlike the rest of her dialogue, and slipping into a pair of sneakers before acknowledging her scowling husband. What follows is gripping and horrifying, as the actors deliver the kind of reenactment that briefly elevates this floundering melodrama to something scarier and more real.

Yet, it's unnerving to me that the strongest sequence in this movie, the one that feels most like this is why Michôd, Sweeney, and Foster made it, is one where the heroine is savagely attacked. Why is that the part they seem most determined to get right? And yet, while this is Christy's most powerful scene, it's not its best bit. That's all Katy O'Brian. 

Katy O'Brian is Christy's blessing and curse. 

The Love Lies Bleeding actor has been stealing scenes in big Hollywood movies like Twisters and Mission: Impossible – Final Reckoning. And in Christy, she effortlessly shows up Sweeney, playing the eponymous boxer's professional adversary Lisa Holewyne. Let's be clear: Katy O'Brian should be a big damn star. 

In Christy's bid to be rich and famous, she didn't just fight in the ring, but talked smack about her opponents outside of it. So it goes in this industry. But in the film, the focus of this promotional persona is Christy leaning into a femme look — floral dresses, pink boxing shorts — and wielding slurs at her peers. Lisa bears the brunt of these comments, yet becomes an unlikely ally to Christy in the film's final act. This is good news for audiences, because O'Brian has the kind of star power this movie needs.

Her stature, muscles, and carriage are all more in line with what audiences expect of an athlete onscreen: confident, sturdy, and strong. Sure, Martin's real look was softer than some of her opponents. But in any sequence that pits Sweeney and O'Brian in competition, be it boxing or jogging while training, the latter's ease in these spaces makes the headliner's lack thereof stand out all the more. Beyond the physical, in appearance and performance, O'Brian delivers an alertness in every scene that dazzles, while Sweeney just does not. O'Brian is alive in every moment, even when she's second banana. It came to the point where I became infuriated that she wasn't the lead of this movie, resemblance to the real Martin be damned! 

Despite the premiere buzz, Christy is not the Oscar contender that Sweeney, who also produced the film, seems to have swung for. Its script is a mess, creating clumsy archetypes and hitting on Lifetime movie cliches with no self-awareness. Its ensemble cast, while committed, cannot agree on a common tone. For instance, Chad L. Coleman, who pops up as a flashy and fun Don King, brings laughs and much-needed energy to the movie, but also ends up further muddying what this even is. Michôd has no grace in the tonal shifts, and so Christy is more confusing than moving.

Michôd seems most riveted by the criminal violence than any other aspect of Martin's story. So even what this film has to say about being a woman in sports, or a lesbian in America, or a person at all, is perplexing. In the end, Christy doesn't hit hard. It just blows.

Christy was reviewed out of the World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie will release in theaters on Nov. 7.

UPDATE: Nov. 5, 2025, 2:33 p.m. This review was first published on Sept. 8, 2025, as part of Mashable's TIFF coverage. It has been updated to reflect screening options.

Black Friday is fast approaching, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Major retailers already dropping their Black Friday ads and early-access deals, so it's time to check out everything that's on offer, make a list of your top priorities, investigate price history, and hope for the best.

Target, Best Buy, Walmart, and a bunch of other popular retailers have already announced their Black Friday plans. The Target early Black Friday sale runs from Nov. 6-8, three weeks before the main event. Want to make the most out of Target's Black Friday campaign? We've checked out the pre-Black Friday ad to provide you with a snapshot of what's on offer from the big-box retailer.

SEE ALSO: 60+ of the absolute best stocking stuffers for 2025

The great news for shoppers is that Target’s three-day early Black Friday sale is offering a large portion of deals at 40% off or more. And that includes popular categories like gifts and holiday décor, toys including Lego, clothing, and kitchen essentials. We're seeing great deals on some of the best Ninja appliances, cordless vacuums, and headphones. Some of these will make great holiday gifts while others are a gift to get you through holiday travel, like noise-cancelling headphones.

Keep in mind some of these deals are exclusive to Target Circle members but don't fret because it's free to to sign up.

Here are some of the best Target deals you can shop on sale between Nov. 6-8:

Best early Black Friday toy deals

• 30% off Disney princesses with Target Circle

• Up to 50% off art and writing sets

• Up to 50% off toy vehicle and play sets

• Up to 50% off select toys, including Barbie, Nerf, FAO Schwarz, and Hot Wheels

• Up to 40% off select ride-on toys and scooters

Best early Black Friday Kitchen deals

• Instant Pot 6-quart Pressure Cooker Bundle — $69.99 $139.99 (save $70 + get a free $10 Target gift card)

• Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven — $99.99 $299.99 (save $130)

• Ninja NeverClog Cold Press Juicer — $119.99 $149.99 (save $30)

• Ninja Kitchen System Blender — $129.99 $189.99 (save $60)

• Nespresso VertuoPlus Coffee Maker and Espresso Machine — $139.99 $199.99 (save $60)

• Ninja Crispi Glass Air Fryer Cooking System — $159.99 $179.99 (save $20 + get a $10 Target gift card)

• KitchenAid 3-piece Pasta Roller & Cutter Set — $179.99 $249.99 (save $70)

• KitchenAid Ultra Power Plus 4.5-quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer — $279.99 $449.99 (save $170)

• DeLonghi Magnifica Start Automatic Coffee Espresso Machine — $499.99 $799.95 (save $299.96)

• Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine — $549.99 $699.99 (save $150)

Best early Black Friday Lego deals

• Lego City Advent Calendar 2025 — $17.99 $29.99 (save $12)

• Lego Christmas Tree Building Set — $26.99 $44.99 (save $18)

• Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar 2025 — $26.99 $44.99 (save $18)

• Lego City Space Science Lab — $27.59 $45.99 (save $18.40)

• Lego Wicked Glinda & Elphaba's Dormitory — $31.79 $52.99 (save $21.20)

• Lego Botanicals Evergreen Collector’s Set — $35.99 $59.99 (save $24)

• Lego Minecraft The Crafting Table — $53.99 $89.99 (save $36)

• Lego Icons Wreath-Making Kit and Holiday Garland — $59.99 $99.99 (save $40)

• Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Express & Hogsmeade Station — $65.99 $109.99 (save $44)

• Lego Star Wars Wicket the Ewok — $77.99 $129.99 (save $52)

Best early Black Friday floor care deals

• Bissell Little Green Max Carpet Cleaner — $109.99 $139.99 (save $30)

• Shark Navigator Lift-Away Deluxe Upright Vacuum — $119.99 $199.99 (save $80)

• Tineco GO Flex Cordless Stick Vacuum — $129.99 $179.99 (save $50)

• Shark Pet Cordless Stick Vacuum — $149.99 $299.99 (save $150)

• Tineco GO Pet Pro Cordless Stick Vacuum — $169.99 $319.99 (save $150)

• Dreame K20 Pro Wet and Dry Vacuum — $179.99 $229.99 (save $50)

• Dyson V9 Motorbar Vacuum Cleaner — $269.99 $599.99 (save $330)

• Tineco GO HammerHead MessDetect Cordless Wet/Dry Mop and Vacuum — $279.99 $379.99 (save $100)

• Dyson V11 Cordless Stick Vacuum — $399.99 $629.99 (save $230)

• Eecovacs Deebot T30S PRO Robot Vacuum and Mop — $545.99 $839.99 (save $294)

Best early Black Friday headphone and earbud deals

• Beats Solo Buds Earbuds — $69.99 $79.99 (save $10)

• Beats Solo 4 Headphones — $129.99 $199.99 (save $70)

• Beats Studio Pro Headphones — $199.99 $349.99 (save $150)

• Bose QuietComfort Headphones — $199.99 $359.99 (save $160)

• Sony WH-1000XM5 Headphones — $329.99 $399.99 (save $70)

• Sony WH-1000XM6 Headphones — $429.99 $459.99 (save $30)

Best early Black Friday speaker deals

• Amazon Kids Echo Dot — $34.99 $59.99 (save $25)

• Amazon Echo Spot — $54.99 $79.99 (save $25)

• Beats Pill — $99.99 $149.99 (save $50)

Best early Black Friday holiday prep deals

• 40% off holiday sheets

• 40% off potted Christmas trees and planters

• 40% off stocking, wreaths, and garland

• 40% off select holiday décor and lights

Best early Black Friday clothing deals

• 40% off select clothing for men, women, and kids

• 40% off pajamas for all

• Up to 40% off slippers and socks

We know you might not want to hear it, but Black Friday is very much upon us. The beast of a shopping holiday has been looming menacingly on the horizon for some time, but it will not be contained any longer.

Leading retailers are already dropping their Black Friday ads and early-access deals. We know that shopping fatigue is a real thing at this time of year, so why not beat the rush and all the associated stress and get your shopping done early this year? You know it makes sense.

SEE ALSO: Target Black Friday ad: The best deals you can buy online early

Best Buy is one of the premier shopping destinations over the Black Friday period, and its savings-packed ad suggests that this year could be its biggest ever.

Best Buy was the first leading retailer to announce its 2025 holiday plans, with early Black Friday deals dropping as early as Halloween (Oct. 31). Best Buy will drop early Black Friday deals throughout November before its official Black Friday sale officially kicks off on Nov. 20. This 10-day sale is live through Nov. 29, followed immediately by its Cyber Monday event on Nov. 30 that runs for 48 hours through Dec. 1. Mark these dates in your diary.

Want to make the most out of Best Buy's Black Friday campaign? We've checked out all the best Black Friday deals and doorbusters from the Best Buy Black Friday ad that you can already buy online.

Best early Black Friday TV deals50- and 55-inch TVs

• Samsung 50-inch U7900 Series 4K TV — $229.99 $299.99 (save $70)

• Insignia 55-inch F50 Series 4K Fire TV — $189.99 $349.99 (save $160)

65-inch TVs

• Insignia 65-inch F50 Series 4K Fire TV — $279.99 $449.99 (save $170)

• Samsung 65-inch QN90F Series Neo QLED Mini LED 4K TV — $1,499.99 $2,499.99 (save $1,000)

70- to 77-inch TVs

• Samsung 70-inch U7900 Series 4K TV — $399.99 $569.99 (save $170)

• Insignia 75-inch F50 Series 4K Fire TV — $379.99 $599.99 (save $220)

• Toshiba 75-inch M550 Series QLED 4K Fire TV — $449.99 $779.99 (save $330)

• Samsung 75-inch Q6F Series QLED 4K TV — $599.99 $899.99 (save $300)

• TCL 75-inch QM5K Series 4K QD-Mini LED TV — $599.99 $1,199.99 (save $600)

• Samsung 75-inch QN90F Series Neo QLED Mini LED 4K TV — $1,799.99 $2,999.99 (save $1,200)

• LG 77-inch Class G5 Series OLED 4K TV — $3,499.99 $4,499.99 (save $1,000)

85-inch TVs

• Samsung 85-inch QN90F Series Neo QLED Mini LED 4K TV — $2,299.99 $4,499.99 (save $2,200)

Best early Black Friday soundbar deals

• Insignia 2.0 Channel Soundbar — $34.99 $59.99 (save $25)

• Insignia 5.1.2 Channel Home Theater Soundbar — $149.99 $229.99 (save $80)

• Samsung B-series 3.1 Channel Soundbar HW-B650 — $199.99 $399.99 (save $200)

• Samsung Q-Series 5.1.2 Channel Soundbar HW-QS750F — $699.99 $899.99 (save $200)

• Samsung Q-series 11.1.4 Channel Soundbar HW-Q990D — $999.99 $1,999.99 (save $1,000)

Best early Black Friday headphone and earbud deals

• Anker Soundcore P30i — $24.99 $49.99 (save $25)

• Bose Ultra Open Earbuds — $199 $299 (save $100)

• Bose QuietComfort Headphones — $199 $359 (save $150)

Best early Black Friday laptop deals

• Acer Chromebook 315 (Intel Celeron N4500, 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC) — $119 $229 (save $180)

• Asus Chromebook Plus CX14 (Intel Core 3 N355, 8GB RAM, 128GB eMMC) — $249 $429 (save $180)

• HP OmniBook X Flip 16 (Intel Core Ultra 9 288V, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD) — $999.99 $1,529.99 (save $530)

Best early Black Friday gaming dealsGaming headsets

• Logitech Astro A10 Wired Gaming Headset (Xbox, PC) — $49.99 $69.99 (save $20)

• Logitech G535 Lightspeed Wireless Gaming Headset (PS5, PC) — $59.99 $99.99 (save $40)

• Razer BlackShark V2 Pro Wireless Gaming Headset (Xbox) — $129.99 $199.99 (save $70)

• JBL Quantum 910X Wireless Gaming Headset (PS5, Xbox, Switch, PC) — $229.99 $329.99 (save $100)

Gaming mice

• Logitech Pro X Superlight 2 SE Wireless Gaming Mouse — $89.99 $139.99 (save $50)

Best early Black Friday smartwatch and fitness tracker deals

• Fitbit Inspire 3 — $69.95 $99.95 (save $30)

• Fitbit Charge 6 — $99.95 $159.95 (save $60)

• Fitbit Versa 4 — $119.95 $199.95 (save $80)

• Fitbit Sense 2 — $179.95 $249.95 (save $70)

• Google Pixel Watch 3 (Bluetooth/WiFi, 45mm) — $199.99 $299.99 (save $100)

Best early Black Friday vacuum dealsRobot vacuums

• eufy C10 — $199.99 $479.99 (save $280)

• eufy L60 — $249.99 $559.99 (save $310)

• eufy Omni C20 — $349.99 $749.99 (save $400)

Stick vacuums

• Dyson V9 Motorbar — $269.99 $599.99 (save $330)

Best early Black Friday kitchen deals

• KitchenAid 5.5-quart Bowl-Lift Stand Mixer — $299.99 $499.99 (save $200)

Best early Black Friday unlocked phone deals

• Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold (256GB) — $1,499 $1,799 (save $300)

• Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold (512GB) — $1,619 $1,919 (save $300)

SAVE $510: As of Nov. 7, the eero Max 7 mesh WiFi system is on sale for $1,189.99 at Amazon. That's a 30% discount on the list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: eero eero Max 7 $1,189.99 at Amazon
$1,699.99 Save $510   Get Deal

The eero Max 7 is back on sale at Amazon, but this time you can get it for its lowest-ever price.

As of Nov. 7, the impressive WiFi setup is down to $1,189.99, saving you over $500 on list price. With this router system, you can say goodbye to poor connections, laggy calls, and endless buffering.

SEE ALSO: The best WiFi routers for every home

But what is a mesh WiFi system? It is essentially a booster system that includes a main router and three (or more, this deal is for three) nodes placed around your home. The router works with these to cancel out dead zones in your space, making sure that you get reliable WiFi coverage all over your home.

This router will give you ultra-fast WiFi 7 performance with speeds up to 9.4 Gbps wired and 4.3 Gbps wireless, and it uses TrueMesh, TrueRoam, and TrueChannel software to keep your connection stable. And if you're a gamer or have a smart home, then this router was built for you, with its support for AR, VR, and connects Thread, Matter, and Zigbee devices. This means you can connect devices like a robot vacuum.

Worried you'll still have dead spots? This router system covers up to 7,500 sq. ft. and supports 750+ devices, so it’s ideal for large spaces. And the best part? Setup takes just minutes with the eero app.

Get this router deal from Amazon now.

How do you become the world's first trillionaire? If you thought it's by working hard, saving every penny and making your own lattes instead of buying them at Starbucks, we have news that may disappoint you.

On Thursday, during the company's Annual Shareholder Meeting, Tesla shareholders have voted to approve CEO Elon Musk's ridiculously hefty pay package that could net him $1 trillion dollars worth of Tesla shares. That, on top of the roughly $473 billion he already owns, would make him by far the wealthiest person on Earth and the world's first trillionaire.

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Musk already is the wealthiest person in the world, but he's got Oracle's Larry Ellison breathing down his neck with a $303 billion net worth.

Getting that trillion won't be easy. According to the terms of the 2025 CEO Performance Award, as the agreement is innocently called, Musk will have to stay at Tesla for seven and a half years, and bring the company's market share to $8.5 trillion in order to earn the full award, as well as hit a number of other goals such as deliver 20 million Tesla vehicles, 1 million "bots," and have 1 million Robotaxis in commercial operation.

For comparison, the largest company by market cap is currently Nvidia with a "mere" $4.6 trillion capitalization, followed by Apple with $4 billion. Yes, Tesla would have to be roughly the market cap of both Apple and Nvidia combined for Musk to achieve this goal.

This sounds very much in tune with Musk's typical lofty promises which often get revised or extended far into the future, but at least now there's a fixed agreement on when all of this must happen: by Nov. 6, 2035.

SEE ALSO: Elon Musk uses paid feature to boost his anti-Zohran Mamdani views on X before NYC election

Notably, during the shareholders meeting, Musk said the new Tesla Roadster's unveiling is scheduled for April 1, 2026 — literally days after he'd said he hopes the unveiling would happen "before the end of the year." Good luck with that trillion.

SAVE $500: As of Nov. 7, the EF EcoFlow Delta 2 Max is on sale for $899 at Amazon. That's a 36% saving on the list price.

Opens in a new window Credit: Ecoflow EF EcoFlow Delta 2 Max $899 at Amazon
$1,399 Save $500   Get Deal

A portable power station is always good to have on hand, especially something as impressive as the EF EcoFlow Delta 2 Max. With a 2,048 wattage and the ability to power 99% of appliances, this model is something you'll never regret owning. And as of Nov. 7, this popular model is on sale for $899. That's a saving of $500 and its lowest-ever price on Amazon.

If you want a power station you can use with little warning, this is a great choice. It charges fast, reaching 80% in just 43 minutes when combining up to 1,000W solar input with AC, or in about an hour using AC alone. It’s built to last, made with a durable LFP battery that lasts up to 10 years, offering around 3,000 cycles before dropping to 80% capacity. According to EcoFlow, this is six times more than the industry average.

SEE ALSO: Keep everything charged up with the Bluetti Elite 30 v2 portable power station for its lowest price ever

The capacity is expandable from 2kWh to 6kWh by adding up to two extra batteries, so it's easy to customize for home backup or outdoor use. It comes with 15 outlets and up to 2,400W of power (or 3,400W using X-Boost), so it can handle almost any household device. And despite how powerful it is, you won't be disturbed as it runs quietly at around 30 dB.

Grab this power station deal from Amazon while the price is this low.

SAVE OVER $1,000: As of Nov. 7, the Samsung 65-inch Class S84F OLED 4K TV has dropped to $899.99 at Best Buy as part of its Doorbuster deals ahead of Black Friday. This is $1,100 off its list price of $1,999.99.

Opens in a new window Credit: Samsung Samsung 65-Inch Class S84F OLED 4K UHD Vision AI Smart Tizen TV (2025) $899.99 at Best Buy
$1,999.99 Save $1,100   Get Deal

For excited shoppers waiting for Black Friday deals to drop, the good news is there's already early discounts available. Best Buy's selection of Doorbuster deals are offering limited-time discounts (this batch is only available until Nov. 9) on a wide variety of items. In particular, if you're looking for a new TV for the holidays, this deal on the Samsung 65-inch Class S84F OLED 4K TV is absolutely worth a look.

It's usually priced at $1,999.99, but the Samsung 65-inch Class S84F OLED 4K TV has dropped to $899.99 at Best Buy. This makes for a whopping $1,100 in savings, but again, keep in mind the deal comes to an end on Nov. 9. Now's your chance to scoop it up at this great low price.

SEE ALSO: Target Black Friday ad: The best deals you can buy online early

If you're planning some movie nights or binge-watching TV shows over the holiday season, this 65-inch Samsung TV can set you up well with the help of 4K resolution and OLED display. Dolby Atmos will surround you in high-quality sound as well, so you can hear every action on screen as if you're right in the middle of it. It's also a smart TV, so if you're someone who loves to stream shows and movies, you can have your favorite apps gathered together for instant access.

There's a limited time to grab this deal, so don't miss out on $1,100 off this Samsung 65-inch Class S84F OLED 4K TV at Best Buy. It's not the only early Black Friday deal Best Buy has right now. Check out our breakdown of Best Buy's Black Friday ad to see even more deals available at the retailer right now.

In no world do I want the events of Pluribus to become a reality.

An extraterrestrial virus that turns the world's population into a too-happy hive mind? No thank you, that sounds like it would be terrifying to experience. (It does, however, make for great TV.)

SEE ALSO: 'Pluribus' review: I can't tell you much about Vince Gilligan's sci-fi series, but what I can say is glowing

But there is one element of Pluribus that I would love to see come to life, and that is the series of books written by the world's most miserable woman, Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn).

Carol writes a best-selling series called The Winds of Wycaro, which is described by a Barnes & Noble employee speaking over a PA system as "speculative historical romance literature." A more accurate term in 2025's book-selling landscape would probably be "romantasy," but for Carol, it's all just "mindless crap."

SEE ALSO: 'Pluribus' happiness virus, explained: Where did it come from?

Look, I haven't read any of the Winds of Wycaro series. I've only heard the quick snippet Carol reads from her new release Bloodsong of Wycaro, which the Barnes & Noble employee hilariously calls "the fourth book in her Winds of Wycaro trilogy." (Shout out to this unseen bookseller, comedic MVP of an otherwise very intense episode.) However, what I did hear about Winds of Wycaro sounded really fun.

Based on the snippets we get and the Bloodsong of Wycaro cover, it looks like the series is Brandon Sanderson mixed with Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. (To hammer that point home, Bloodsong is on the same shelf as the latter on bookshelves at the airport, and Carol's partner Helen (Miriam Shor) makes sure to shift them around so Bloodsong of Wycaro is more visible.) The series takes place on purple sand seas, where formidable heroine Lucasia crosses paths with the handsome corsair Raban. Just the sound of his name sends Carol's book tour audience into a frenzy, which means he'd do numbers on BookTok. Xaden from Fourth Wing, you're done.

Carol bashes on both the book and her adoring fans, but that doesn't deter me from wanting to give Winds of Wycaro a shot, if it were only real. I'm a sucker for a doorstopper fantasy novel, and it's not every day you get to read a trilogy that has four whole books in it!

So please, Apple TV, if you need ideas for Pluribus merch, I'm telling you to gift viewers Winds of Wycaro. After all, you put out not one, but two tie-in books for Severance, even turning Ricken's The You You Are into a reality. Surely a chapter or two of the Winds of Wycaro would be feasible. Or Vince Gilligan, if you're reading this, why not make give those fictional book fans what they want and make a real-life movie? Just be sure you get ILM to do the slipsand. Think about it! And keep the wind at your back.

Pluribus is now streaming on Apple TV, with a new episode every Friday.

If the first two episodes of Pluribus left you feeling like Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn) — namely, screaming, "What the fuck is happening?" into the void — then you've come to the right place.

The new sci-fi series from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan delivers a jaw-dropping premiere, one that sees (almost) the entire world infected by a virus that leaves the population peaceful and content. But where did the virus come from, and what happens now that it's on Earth? Let's break it down.

SEE ALSO: 'Pluribus' review: I can't tell you much about Vince Gilligan's sci-fi series, but what I can say is glowing Where did the virus in Pluribus come from?

Space! Well, kind of. At the start of Pluribus, astronomers pick up a signal coming from 600 light-years away. Who's transmitting it? Why are they transmitting it? And how long have they been sending out the signal? No one knows!

However, these unknown signalers aren't sending a message in an alien language. Instead, they're sending a molecular message. Each of the four tones of the signal corresponds to a nucleotide: guanine, uracil, adenine, and cytosine, which are the key building blocks of RNA.

SEE ALSO: What happens when you call the phone number in Pluribus?

Scientists at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases manage to recreate the nucleotide sequence. They determine that it is a lysogenic virus, which means that the virus' genetic material gets incorporated into that of the host. And while months of animal testing didn't yield major results, as soon as the virus gets transferred to a human via rat bite, all hell breaks loose. The infected humans start spreading the virus through kissing, donut licking, and more, resulting in the most cheerful pandemic the world has ever seen. Now if it were up to me, I would simply never recreate an alien virus for fear of this exact scenario, but that's why I'm not a scientist!

Wait, so are the infected "we" in Pluribus aliens? Karolina Wydra in "Pluribus." Credit: Apple TV

No, they aren't. While Carol initially thinks she's living through an alien invasion — a mistake I think we'd all make in her shoes — the infected quickly set her straight. Speaking through United States Department of Agriculture Undersecretary Davis Taffler (Peter Bergman), the infected tell Carol that there are no aliens on Earth. Instead, they, or the new "we" of the world, are just "beneficiaries of extraterrestrial technology."

Still, the question of alien involvement looms large over these not-aliens. Who originally developed that RNA sequence, and why did they send it to Earth? Did they send it to other planets, too? Is this how they reproduce?

What does the virus in Pluribus do?

As Davis explains to Carol, the nucleotide sequence is like a virus, but it isn't exactly a virus. Instead, it's "kind of a psychic glue capable of binding us all together."

SEE ALSO: The 38 best Apple TV+ shows, ranked

That means all of humanity, excluding Carol and the other 11 unaffected members of the world, is now one big hive mind. Members can't read the minds of Carol and her compatriots, but they can access the thoughts and feelings of every single person within the collective. They can even do so for people who were briefly a part of the hive mind before passing away, like Carol's late partner Helen (Miriam Shor).

Why did the virus kill people?

Helen was one of 886 million who died during the Joining of the hive mind. As Carol's chaperone Zosha (Karolina Wydra) says in episode 2, the infected were originally passing the virus along stealthily. No one died during this more controlled process. However, once the military discovered them, they accelerated their spread, resulting in calamity for hundreds of millions. The deaths were not intentional, as Zosha reveals in episode 2 that the infected cannot kill, not even when it comes to food.

Why do Carol's emotions impact the infected? Rhea Seehorn in "Pluribus." Credit: Apple TV

The first Joining wasn't the only example of mass death within the hive mind. When Carol gets angry at Zosha in episode 2, Zosha begins to shake uncontrollably, just as everyone did when they were first infected by the virus. As Carol goes to get help for Zosha, she realizes that everyone else in Albuquerque is shaking, too. In fact, everyone in the world is undergoing a similar seizure, and 11 million of the infected wound up dying as a result. So what's happening?

Zosha reveals that everyone is impacted by Carol's emotions, especially the negative ones. "If they're directed right at us, they can be a little tough to take," she says. That sets in motion one of the core dilemmas of Pluribus. Carol is rightfully miserable and furious about what has happened to the world, yet if she expresses that too much, she risks wiping out more of humanity. It seems like she has as much power over the infected as they have over her, creating a fascinating stalemate.

Why is Carol immune from the virus?

Nobody knows, but the infected are working on researching why she and the other 11 remaining humans weren't impacted by the Joining. As Zosha says, them spreading is a "biological imperative." They need to spread to the others, just as much as we need to breathe. Once they do figure out a solution, you can bet they'll bring Carol into the fold of the hive mind.

However, that might conflict with their prior claims that Carol's life is her own and that she has agency. Does she really have agency if they're just going to force her to join them?

Can the virus be cured? Rhea Seehorn in "Pluribus." Credit: Apple TV

Carol certainly wants to know! However, it doesn't seem like there's a clear path forward for reversing the Joining — especially since none of the other survivors Carol met seem interested in collaborating with her. Still, given the twists and turns of these first two episodes alone, you can bet that Gilligan has more revelations up his sleeve for the remainder of the season.

Pluribus is now streaming on Apple TV, with a new episode every Friday.

The first episode of Vince Gilligan's Pluribus is already one of the best, most gripping TV installments of the year.

Over the course of an hour, Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) crafts his own mini disaster movie, unfolding a tale of a virus that spreads across the globe and infects everyone with total happiness. The virus also acts as a kind of "psychic glue," binding the world's population together in a hive mind. Only 12 people are unaffected, and one of them is the deeply miserable Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn).

SEE ALSO: 'Pluribus' review: I can't tell you much about Vince Gilligan's sci-fi series, but what I can say is glowing

As Carol panics over the viral apocalypse and grieves the loss of her partner Helen (Miriam Shor), the infected reach out to explain the situation to her. They give her a direct line to an authority figure: Davis Taffler (Peter Bergman), the U.S. Undersecretary of Agriculture for Farm Production and Conservation. Given the hive mind of it all, he isn't really Davis anymore. He's part of a global collective. But since he was near the White House, fully healthy after the infection, and wearing an authoritative suit, the being that was once Davis became the best candidate to speak to Carol from the White House press room.

In order to get Carol to reach out to Davis, the infected plaster a phone number — (202) 808-3981 — on a C-SPAN broadcast of Davis in the press room, with news tickers begging her to call them. She does so, opening herself and viewers up to answers about what is happening.

But what happens if Pluribus' audience tries to call the phone number themselves? I tried, and I've got good news: Calling the number doesn't infect you with the happiness virus.

Instead, you get an unsettling voice message. "Hi, Carol," the message tells you. "We're so glad you called. We can't wait for you to join us."

Ominous! And basically a shortened version of Davis' speech to Carol, minus the explanation of the science behind the virus.

The message then tells callers to dial 0, saying they'll reach out to you via text. The call ends once you press 0, but the text message comes through soon after, reading, "Your life is your own, Carol. You have agency!"

Then, if you're so inclined, you can sign up for updates from Apple TV. So if you want to live your Carol Sturka fantasy, give the infected members of the world a quick ring. Or don't. After all, your life is your own.

Pluribus premieres Nov. 7 on Apple TV, with a new episode every Friday.

The collapse of humanity is a lot to take in even in TV form, so we can only imagine how poor Carol (Rhea Seehorn) feels when it's happening all around her in Pluribus.

In episode 1 of Vince Gilligan's new Apple TV+ show, after finally making it back to her house, Carol watches C-SPAN on television. There's a man standing behind a podium in a suit, not moving or saying anything, as a number appears onscreen for Carol to call.

SEE ALSO: The 38 best Apple TV+ shows, ranked

While the man on the TV — a politician called Davis Taffler — explains to Carol that the vast majority of humanity has either died or been linked together as one by a virus, a stream of news tickers appear at the bottom of the screen.

In case you missed them, we've rounded them all up below:

"Carol, when you're ready you can reach us at this number. No pressure. We know you've got questions."

"You are safe."

"Your life is your own."

"Landlines only."

"Just dial zero, 24/7."

"We can't read minds."

"We're not aliens."

"Signal from space."

"Davis Taffler, U.S.D.A"

"We're one."

"Your life is your own."

Featured Video For You Emma Stone reveals how 'Good Luck, Babe' wound up in 'Bugonia'

The show's repetition of that last line — "Your life is your own" — feels a bit ominous, particularly given that a) the people united by the virus are trying to discover why Carol is immune, and b) the virus seems to like nothing better than spreading itself.

Pluribus premieres Nov. 7 on Apple TV, with a new episode every Friday.

TL;DR: Live stream the 2025 MotoGP Grand Prix of Portugal for free on ServusTV. Access this free streaming platform from anywhere in the world with ExpressVPN.

The 2025 MotoGP season has entertained us all year, but now the chequered flag is being unfurled. We've only got a couple of race weekends left, and although the title was decided long ago, we're expecting some electric competition from the best riders in the world.

If you're interested in watching the 2025 MotoGP Grand Prix of Portugal for free from anywhere in the world, we've got all the information you need.

When is the 2025 MotoGP Grand Prix of Portugal?

The MotoGP Grand Prix of Portugal takes place at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve. The 2025 MotoGP Grand Prix of Portugal race starts at 6:15 a.m. ET on Nov. 9.

How to watch the 2025 MotoGP Grand Prix of Portugal for free

The MotoGP Grand Prix of Portugal is available to live stream for free on ServusTV.

ServusTV is geo-restricted to Austria, but anyone can access this free streaming platform with a VPN. These tools can hide your real IP address (digital location) and connect you to a secure server in Austria, meaning you can bypass geo-restrictions to access ServusTV from anywhere in the world.

Unblock ServusTV by following this simple process:

1. Sign up for a VPN (like ExpressVPN)

2. Download the app to your device of choice (the best VPNs have apps for Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, and more)

3. Open up the app and connect to a server in Austria

4. Connect to ServusTV

5. Watch MotoGP for free from anywhere in the world

Opens in a new window Credit: ExpressVPN ExpressVPN (1-Month Plan) $12.95 only at ExpressVPN (with money-back guarantee) Get Deal

The best VPNs for streaming are not free, but they do tend to offer free-trial periods or money-back guarantees. By leveraging these offers, you can access MotoGP live streams without fully committing with your cash. This clearly isn't a long-term solution, but it does mean you can watch the 2025 MotoGP Grand Prix of Portugal before recovering your investment.

If you want to retain permanent access to free streaming sites from around the world, you'll need a subscription. Fortunately, the best VPN for live streaming is on sale for a limited time.

What is the best VPN for MotoGP?

ExpressVPN is the top choice for unblocking ServusTV, for a number of reasons:

• Servers in 105 countries including Austria

• Easy-to-use app available on all major devices including iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and more

• Strict no-logging policy so your data is protected

• Fast streaming speeds free from throttling

• Up to eight simultaneous connections

• 30-day money-back guarantee

A two-year subscription to ExpressVPN is on sale for $139 and includes an extra four months for free — 49% off for a limited time. This plan also includes a year of free unlimited cloud backup and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Alternatively, you can get a one-month plan for just $12.95 (including money-back guarantee).

Watch the 2025 MotoGP Grand Prix of Portugal for free with ExpressVPN.

If you like playing daily word games like Wordle, then Hurdle is a great game to add to your routine.

There are five rounds to the game. The first round sees you trying to guess the word, with correct, misplaced, and incorrect letters shown in each guess. If you guess the correct answer, it'll take you to the next hurdle, providing the answer to the last hurdle as your first guess. This can give you several clues or none, depending on the words. For the final hurdle, every correct answer from previous hurdles is shown, with correct and misplaced letters clearly shown.

An important note is that the number of times a letter is highlighted from previous guesses does necessarily indicate the number of times that letter appears in the final hurdle.

If you find yourself stuck at any step of today's Hurdle, don't worry! We have you covered.

SEE ALSO: Hurdle: Everything you need to know to find the answers Hurdle Word 1 hint

A cord.

SEE ALSO: Apple’s new M3 MacBook Air is $300 off at Amazon. And yes, I’m tempted. Hurdle Word 1 answer

TWINE

Hurdle Word 2 hint

A common Halloween costume.

SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Answer, hints for November 7, 2025 Hurdle Word 2 Answer

GHOST

Hurdle Word 3 hint

A friend.

SEE ALSO: NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for November 7 SEE ALSO: NYT Connections hints today: Clues, answers for November 7, 2025 Hurdle Word 3 answer

CRONY

Hurdle Word 4 hint

Cranium.

SEE ALSO: NYT Strands hints, answers for November 7 Hurdle Word 4 answer

SKULL

Final Hurdle hint

Plenty.

SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Games available on Mashable Hurdle Word 5 answer

AMPLE

If you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.