Welcome to What to Watch Right Now, our weekly rundown of the best things to watch right now. The constant stream of shows, videos, and films to watch online can become a sludge to wade through, so here are a few things you can watch courtesy of the Rolling Stone Philippines team. Whether it’s a new film, a video essay, or even a home video release you should own (physical media is now available!), we hope it can ease the burden of selecting which streaming platform to use or discover a new cinematic odyssey.
This week, we gravitated towards horror with a capital H, consuming the latest (and final?) Warren caper, The Conjuring: Last Rites, while also delighting in sci-fi horror features like Alien: Romulus and Videodrome. Sabrina Carpenter’s “Tears” music video provided horror of the campier persuasion, and Blue Eye Samurai leaned heavily on gore, gore, gore. In light of the irreverent director Mike De Leon’s recent death, we revisited one of his later films, Bayaning Third World. Finally, turn to the video essay, The Only War You Will Not Win, a deep dive into what it means to embrace your Jungian shadow.
Videodrome
Body horror that’s eerily effective and prescient
In David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, Max Renn, a cable access executive, is obsessed with the titular satellite broadcast show inspired by snuff films, which shows victims brutally tortured and then killed. Rather than be put off, Renn becomes enamored by the show, a siren’s call that draws him closer and closer to his doom. For a film made in 1983, Cronenberg made an eerily effective and prescient cautionary tale about technology becoming a literal part of our bodies: brains fried by screen radiation, intellect shaped by mindless content, desires formed by decay. “Long live the new flesh.” — Don Jaucian
Bayaning Third World
Mike De Leon’s irreverent take on questioning the status of the National Hero
“Agua Rizalina, Para Hindi Ka Amoy Indio,” so goes one of the gags in Mike de Leon’s Bayaning Third World, commenting on the commodification of iconography. 26 years since the original release of Bayaning Third World, De Leon’s confrontation and investigation of Jose Rizal as an icon remains funny and irreverent, toeing the line between film as narrative and essay.
Through Bayaning Third World, we are given a means to untangle the many historical questions that hound Rizal: Did he really write a retraction before his execution? Why did he marry Josephine Bracken? De Leon and screenwriter Clodualdo del Mundo, Jr. offer no clear-cut answers, but by demolishing the pedestal of a national hero — not just Rizal’s — we’re left to face the notions of patriotism we’ve all been raised with. — Don Jaucian
The Conjuring: Last Rites
Horror franchise concludes with a chilling demonic case
The latest addition to “phase one” of The Conjuring franchise doesn’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel. Solid scares have been delivered by the first three films but with Last Rites, the franchise gives us some of the most emotional moments between the Warrens, now with a grown-up Judy Warren (Mia Tomlinson) directly involved in the work of her parents, Ed and Lorraine.
Valak may still reign as the nastiest entity in The Conjuring, but the unnamed demon terrifying the Smurl family and the Warrens is the most violent of all the demons they’ve faced. It only has one thing to accomplish: kill Judy Warren. Last Rites is a slower burn compared to the rest of the mainline films, but it’s still a nice way to round out the series. (Spot how many characters from the previous films appear in this one.) — Don Jaucian
Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Tears’ Music Video
Watch out for that stiletto!
It’s Sabrina Carpenter pole dancing in a cornfield with Colman Domingo (in full drag) standing on a tractor and hyping her up. It’s fun, it’s camp, it’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show of 2025 and, dare I say, it’s just as horny. But underneath all of Miss Carpenter’s ripped-up lingerie, high heel throwing, and fourth-wall breaking is a woman who’s definitely found her stride as one of the funniest, cockiest, and most self-assured pop superstars of our generation. — Mel Wang
Alien: Romulus
Another body horror dalliance with the USCSS Nostromo
Everything goes wrong quickly in Alien: Romulus. Arguably one of the best additions to the beloved extraterrestrial creature feature franchise, the movie opens with ragtag group of space colonizers trying to escape the decaying confines of their mining planet. They fly to a seemingly abandoned space station called Renaissance, hoping to steal some equipment to aid them in their escape.
The bad news is that Renaissance once carried a Xenomorph cocoon harvested from the wreckage of the USCSS Nostromo (yes, the ship from Alien) and the egg has, unfortunately, hatched.
Alien: Romulus is bloody in the best way, and the sticky, yonic-come-phallic imagery that defined the franchise stands front and center, along with emotional character arcs among the doomed group of would-be escape artists. — Mel Wang
Blue Eye Samurai
Like if Mulan was Japanese and double the queerbaiter
Last week, Netflix announced the start of production for its original animated series Blue Eye Samurai after its first season concluded in 2023.
Set in Edo-period Japan, the show follows titular blue-eyed samurai Mizu, voiced by Maya Erskine. Shunned by society for her unusual eye color, Mizu eventually learns to protect herself through tinted glasses and masculine clothing to keep the men at bay. With this armor and exceptional swordfighting skills, she sets out to exact revenge against the white man who fathered her and made her life hell.
Don’t let Blue Eye Samurai being an animated show fool you. The gore, violence, and smut give the show its 18-plus rating on the streaming service. It can also be very gay, but only in the glances between Mizu and Brenda Song’s Princess Akemi, or the fight scene between Mizu (presenting as masculine) and the swordsman Taigen.
There’s a lot of queerbaiting here, and if you like being teased, see Blue Eye Samurai for yourself before its second season comes out in 2026. — Pie Gonzaga
The Only War You Will Not Win
On multitudes, embracing the Jungian shadow, and kindness
In this video essay from the YouTube channel Horses, creator Michael Sorensen talks about Carl Jung’s conception of the shadow, or the unconscious part of the personality we repress to avoid shame and guilt, and individuation. In Jungian psychology, individuation is the lifelong process of attaining one’s authentic self by integrating the shadow with the more conscious parts of ourselves.
Sorensen points out that there is no clear-cut way to do that, but embracing the fact that you can have bad traits does make you better. “A person is not kind because they have no cruel thoughts,” he says. “They are kind because they elect to act upon their kind thoughts.”
A project that started in 2022, Horses has shaped up to be one of the coolest video essay channels on YouTube. Here, Sorensen’s compassion for humanity shows through a range of thought-out content about history, philosophy, and culture, from a 10-minute video entitled “Chef explains why white people don’t season their food” to a nearly hour-long discussion on the horrors and evils of a hypothetical nuclear war.
Also, the merch is cool. He has notebooks and hats, as well as a $300 sword called “Deathbringer.” — Pie Gonzaga
