Can child stars escape the pressures of the entertainment world?

On Culture Bites this week, Enas Refaei and Farah Andrews round up their favourite Halloween films to binge before October 31. From the classically frightening to the unsettling and gory, they share suggestions across several horror genres.

The hosts focus on newer films, including Jordan Peele’s chilling alien mystery Nope and the grotesque body horror The Substance starring Demi Moore, as well as classics like The Exorcist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Ensuring there’s something for everyone, they also discuss newer sequels and remakes of family-friendly spooky classics, such as Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and Roald Dahl’s The Witches.

The ecology-focused Al Sidr Environmental Film Festival takes place this week at NYUAD’s Arts Centre under the theme 'All Living Beings'. Enas and Farah highlight some of the most compelling features of the event, including two local short films developed by the UAE platform Climate Tribe. They discuss the festival’s mission to foster a greater appreciation for the interconnectedness of our worldly creatures.

After the tragic early death of former One Direction star Liam Payne at the age of 31, fans around the world showed an overwhelming outpouring of emotion as they grieved. The singer was 14 when he was thrust into the limelight, eventually spending more than half his life in the public eye. As his struggles with addiction and untimely death raise questions about the welfare of child stars, the hosts discuss the pressures of growing up within the entertainment industry.