Entertainment
Dark Netflix Sci-Fi Thriller Turns Marvel's Best Hero Into A Villain
By Britta DeVore
| Published

2020 was a busy year for Chris Hemsworth. Not only was he working alongside filmmaker and actor Taika Waititi on Thor: Love and Thunder, but he was also squeezing in days to film the 2022 Netflix thriller, Spiderhead, with director Joseph Kosinski.
Hemsworth’s roles in each film couldn’t have been more different than one another. In Love and Thunder, he reprised his role as the sarcastic and chatty God of Thunder, whereas in Spiderhead, he played a sinister scientist conducting experiments on prisoners.

On paper, Spiderhead was a pretty big grab for the streamer. Not only does it star Chris Hemsworth, but it also featured leading performances from Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollett (Lovecraft Country). It also marked a reunion between Teller and its helmer, Joseph Kosinski, as the pair welcomed another blockbuster success in the summer of 2022 when Top Gun: Maverick soared into theaters, resurrecting the box office following its COVID slump.
Dark Experiments

Based on George Saunders’s short story, “Escape from Spiderhead,” which was first published in The New Yorker, the film centers around prisoners at a top-secret penitentiary located on an island in the middle of nowhere.
While it may seem like a gorgeous place to fill out your sentence, the horrors and crimes against humanity that carried on inside the walls are truly the stuff of nightmares. Chris Hemsworth’s doctor, Steve Abnesti, carried out experiments on the inmates, using mind-altering drugs to put them into traumatic situations – all in the name of healing.

Turning to one of the most beautiful places in the world to act as the filming location for Spiderhead, the production team picked up their cameras and started filming in Queensland, Australia. You can see these recognizable spots all over the country, from the Gold Coast to Darlington and even Whitsundays – a spot known for drawing in tourists from all over the world.
This also helped Chris Hemsworth pull off a leading role in two projects at the same time as Thor: Love and Thunder was set up in Sydney, Australia, allowing him to travel from one set to the other much easier than if they were in separate countries.
Spiderhead Failed To Impress Critics

Despite what, by all appearances, should have been a critical success, Spiderhead met mixed reviews upon its arrival on Netflix in June 2022. By all means, the movie tried to nab the attention of Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller, and Joseph Kosinski’s already-set audience, but it didn’t quite manage to hold its head above water. While it was a bummer for everyone involved, the summer wouldn’t be a complete washout as Hemsworth found success with Love and Thunder, and Teller and Kosinski broke records with Top Gun: Maverick.
For fans of either of the film’s leading men or its director, giving Spiderhead a shot on Netflix is still worth the time – especially if you’re a fan of mind-bending sci-fi films that keep you on your toes. It’s also exciting to see Chris Hemsworth in a villainous role as we’ve become so accustomed to seeing him joining the rest of the Avengers in Marvel films and playing the good guy in other flicks like the Extraction franchise and Men in Black: International. You can find Spiderhead now streaming on the platform alongside Netflix’s vast collection of sci-fi fare.
Entertainment
NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for July 22, 2026
Today’s Connections: Sports Edition will be easier if you watch college football.
As we’ve shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.
Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight, and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
What is Connections: Sports Edition?
The NYT‘s latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication’s sports coverage. The sports Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
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Each puzzle features 16 words, and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake — players get up to four mistakes before the game ends.
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Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
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Here’s a hint for today’s Connections: Sports Edition categories
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Here are today’s Connections: Sports Edition categories
Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:
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Yellow: Places Where an Errant Golf Shot Lands
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Green: Sports Films, With “The”
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Blue: College Football Stadium Nicknames, With “The”
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Purple: ___Break
Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today’s Connections: Sports Edition #667 is…
What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?
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Places Where an Errant Golf Shot Lands: BUNKER, OUT OF BOUNDS, POND, ROUGH
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Sports Films, With “The”: FIGHTER, KARATE KID, NATURAL, WATERBOY
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College Football Stadium Nicknames, With “The”: BIG HOUSE, FLATS, HORSESHOE, SWAMP
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___Break: FAST, HYDRATION, SERVICE, TIE
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new sports Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Connections.
Entertainment
Hurdle hints and answers for July 22, 2026
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.
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If you find yourself stuck at any step of today’s Hurdle, don’t worry! We have you covered.
Hurdle Word 1 hint
Possessive.
Hurdle Word 1 answer
WHOSE
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Hurdle Word 2 hint
A small, round fruit.
Hurdle Word 2 Answer
GRAPE
Mashable 101 Fan Fave: Nominate your favorite creators today
Hurdle Word 3 hint
To intrigue.
Hurdle Word 3 answer
PIQUE
Hurdle Word 4 hint
To follow.
Hurdle Word 4 answer
ABIDE
Final Hurdle hint
To yearn for.
Hurdle Word 5 answer
COVET
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Entertainment
Netflix Horror Thriller Series Brings Fan-Favorite 90s Books To Life
By Charlene Badasie
| Published

The 2022 horror mystery-thriller The Midnight Club is one of Netflix’s most overlooked originals. Created by Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong, the 10-episode series adapts Christopher Pike’s 1994 novel of the same name while weaving elements from 27 of the prolific YA author’s other books into a single haunting story. Set at Brightcliffe Hospice Care for Teenagers, it follows a group of terminally ill young adults who gather each night to share terrifying stories and unravel the institution’s darkest secrets.
The Patients Of Brightcliffe

Set in the mid-1990s, the series begins when Ilonka (Iman Benson), a bright and ambitious young woman battling terminal thyroid cancer, chooses to live at Brightcliffe Hospice Care. She befriends Kevin (Igby Rigney), a leukemia patient, and clashes with her roommate Anya (Ruth Codd). One night, Ilonka stumbles upon a secret gathering of the Midnight Club.
The secret society, comprised of the patients of Brightcliffe, tries to communicate with the dead and shares eerie stories that intertwine with the hospice’s ominous history. As Ilonka delves deeper into the story of a former patient named Julia Jayne (Larsen Thompson), the supposed healer from the past, she uncovers a sinister cult, symbolized by the number “292.13,” and drawings that hint at a dark past.
21 Jump Scares

Julia, the founder of the original Midnight Club in 1969, had connections to Paragon, a cult that practiced unsettling rituals. The plot thickens as Ilonka, with Kevin’s help, discovers a hidden floor beneath the hospice. Records of the original club and evidence of a cult terrify the group. The final episodes bring closure for some characters, while others meet tragic ends.
The Midnight Club quickly captured the attention of Netflix audiences, recording an impressive 90.31 million hours viewed between October 2 and October 23, 2022, securing its position in the platform’s top 10. The series’ debut episode also made history by breaking the Guinness World Record for the most scripted jump-scares in a single episode, with 21 hair-raising moments.

The series was initially supposed to run for multiple seasons but was unexpectedly canceled in December 2022. Despite its premature ending, The Midnight Club earned critical acclaim and currently holds an 85 percent approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Critics praised Flanagan’s heartfelt approach to horror and the unique blend of individual stories with the overarching plot.
Other Horror Titles On Netflix From Mike Flanagan
Mike Flanagan has made a name for himself with his Netflix shows, including The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher. These series are known for their focus on the human condition rather than jump scares and loud noises. Flanagan’s nonlinear approach to horror works very well, and he often tells parallel stories in the past and present.

The Haunting of Hill House became a huge surprise hit and remains a fan favorite. The Fall of the House of Usher, Flanagan’s most recent Netflix project, is an adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s vast bibliography and is up there with his best efforts. While The Midnight Club may have been axed prematurely, its chilling tales, stellar cast, and impressive viewership numbers are cemented into the annals of Netflix’s haunting offerings.
