5 Meryl Streep Movies You Must Stream This Spooky Season

Though three-time Academy Award winner and multi-hyphenate Meryl Streep is known for her deft performances in dramatic roles, such as Doubt, The Iron Lady, Sophie’s Choice, and many more tearjerking, socially-conscious, and narratively taut cinematic splendors, the living legend has dabbled in the spooky and the kooky, the manic and the magical. So, if you’re looking to sit down for a Streep marathon that will satisfy your Halloween-season needs, we’ve got you covered. 

‘Death Becomes Her’ 1992 | Peacock

Death Becomes Her is a kooky campy rollercoaster featuring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn as the best of frenemies. With a melodramatic fervor, Streep sinks her teeth into the aging Hollywood starlet Madeline Ashton, who will do anything to remain young and beautiful. What’s a soul worth anyway? A life of immortality — isolated as those around you die — sold…in exchange for perky bosoms and a wrinkle-free expression. Though the movie is a heavy-handed take on Hollywood, vanity, and the struggle to remain relevant in an industry that prioritizes beauty over experience (for women only), it has become a beloved cult classic in the years since. Death Becomes Her has even enjoyed a fabulous queer afterlife as a tale of struggle and redemption that lends way to makeup-heavy and over-the-top drag queen performances. 

The then-advanced and comedy-laden special effects, as well as the strong performances from Streep and Hawn as ruthless and cantankerous competitors, make this horror comedy a worthwhile watch. Showbiz satire meets a deliciously tasteless and almost cartoon-like presentation that will leave you bawled over in hysterics. That is if you love a lavish and vindictive Streep. 

‘The House of the Spirits’ 1993 | Prime Video

1993’s The House of the Spirits is a multigenerational family saga featuring an all-star ensemble in Jeremy Irons, Winona Ryder, Glenn Close, Antonio Banderas, Vanessa Redgrave, and (of course) Streep. The narrative follows the Trueba family, paying specific attention to Esteban Trueba (Irons) and his wife, Clara (Streep). Esteban is a poor young man who falls in love with Clara — a woman who boasts paranormal abilities. Despite their differences (and the ominous red flags), the two marry and start a family. Yet, Esteban’s violent and authoritarian tendencies surface when he becomes a powerful and wealthy landowner, leading to conflicts within the family.

Weaving together magical realism, social commentary, and familial crises, the film dives headfirst into themes of love and commitment, the influence of political upheaval on individual lives, cultural identity, and generational legacy (exploring Esteban and Clara’s descendants’ lives). 

Though critically panned upon its release as an entry into magical realism that lacks both qualities inherent to the genre, Streep’s performance is magnetic. She creates a character whose elegance and grace establish a transcendent sort of beauty — one that reflects her out-of-this-world spirituality. She possesses a mystical aura, as each psychic experience lends way to tonal variations and nuanced physical gestures that capture the character’s ethereal nature. Clara feels authentic despite the film’s lack of sincerity and depth the trailer so strongly aims to suggest. 

‘Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events’ 2004 | Prime Video

Though not exactly loaded with paranormal beings or mystical components, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events boasts a Halloween-esque aura nonetheless, via its fantastical and dark comedic elements. Based on the children’s novel of the same name, the movie follows the recently orphaned Baudelaire children, who are sent to live with their scheming distant relative, Count Olaf (who wants to seize their inherited fortune at any cost). The children escape, but Olaf is never far behind. In one of the film’s brief moments, they wind up in the care of the afraid-of-everything Aunt Josephine (Meryl Streep). 

With an endless wide-eyed expression that gets at her phobia-controlled existence, breathy vocalizations, and jittery body movements, she becomes the tormented and terrified Aunt Josephine. “You can trip over the welcome mat and decapitate yourselves,” she tells the Baudelaires, as they start to enter too quickly into her home. The line slips from her lips hastily with a feverish panic. It’s a manic and delicious, though small role for Streep. With a hairdo that screams bouffant meets beehive and a long black gown, it’s as if she’s in mourning for her very life — one she is convinced she will lose at any moment. Yet, despite her crazed disposition, her love for the children is evident. She wants what’s best for them — even if that means imparting her grammatical fastidiousness and fear-of-all mentality onto the impressionable youths. 

‘Into the Woods’ 2014 | Disney+

Meryl Streep plays Sondheim’s formidable Witch in the cinematic interpretation of his beloved ‘80s musical Into the Woods. The story interweaves several classic fairytales, including Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and more, yet it begs to ask what happens after. What consequences do our actions hold? What is the price of a wish? Streep lends her vocals to the reflective musical, serenading audiences with a heartfelt maternal ballad in “Stay With Me” before threatening her culprits with a growling superiority and omniscience in “The Last Midnight.”

Streep virtually gets to play two characters in one in this film. She begins as the raggedy cursed witch, boasting a hunchback, ratty hair, yellowed teeth, and wrinkles. She becomes a divine sorceress with cheekbones contoured to the skies, a cinched waist, glorious purple-gray eyeshadow, and a blowout that drag queens would envy. Her take on the character shifts seamlessly with the physical transformation – from a sort of wicked despondence and laissez-faire attitude to one of condescension and excellence. The all-knowing quality is there from the start, but her take on such power goes from a devil-may-care apathy to hyper-fixated attention and dominance. Her gestures and vocal intonations follow suit. 

With impeccable comedic timing and nuanced villainy that, over time, establishes her relatable humanity, she injects humor and compassion into a regretful character yearning for redemption. She dodges the “evil witch” trope, drawing audiences into her web of woes, as you come to feel for the villain, the baddie, the evil-doer: “The Witch.”

‘Mary Poppins Returns’ 2018 | Disney+ 

In Mary Poppins Returns, which follows a now-adult Michael Banks as he discovers his home is soon to be repossessed, Meryl Streep plays savior Mary Poppins’ (Emily Blunt) cousin Topsy. Topsy boasts a vaguely Eastern European accent that is intentionally non-specific and laugh-out-loud funny. She sings one number in the film, “Turning Turtle.” Wearing an orange-haired wig, bracelets up to her elbow, and a rainbow-hued getup, she’s a nutty craftsman who repairs broken items. Yet, when her world turns upside down, which happens every Wednesday, she’s hopeless. She can’t even thread a needle. 

Streep has a certain knack for portraying the playfully crazed, and she brings that flair for excessiveness to the trinket-tinkering Topsy. The fast-paced number shifts from doubt, anxiety, and terror to understanding and bliss as Mary teaches Topsy to change her perspective with the flipping world around her. It’s a brief but fun, sing-a-long moment perfect for a family movie night this Halloween season.