Stream Ben Affleck, Kerry Washington in new thriller ‘Animals’
Stream Ben Affleck, Kerry Washington in new thriller ‘Animals’
The movie hits select theaters and streaming on Friday, Oct. 9, with Gillian Anderson and Steven Yeun also in the cast.
Ben Affleck returns to the director’s chair — and steps in front of the camera — for “Animals,” a new political thriller premiering on Netflix on Friday, Oct. 9. Affleck stars alongside Kerry Washington as a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose seemingly perfect life spirals out of control when his son is kidnapped, forcing him and his wife to make increasingly desperate decisions. The star-studded film will stream at 3:01 a.m. ET, and you can watch with a subscription to Netflix.
How to watch ‘Animals’
- When: Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, at 3:01 a.m. ET
- TV: Netflix
- Stream: Watch with a subscription to Netflix.
- From anywhere: Watch with a subscription to a VPN.
Everything you need to know about ‘Animals’
When does ‘Animals’ come out?
“Animals” comes out Friday, Oct. 9 on Netflix and in select theaters. The streamer is allowing the film to be viewed in theaters in order for it to be eligible for awards consideration. However, you can watch it from the comfort of your own home on Friday, beginning at 3:01 a.m. ET.
Can you watch ‘Animals’ for free once it starts streaming?
No, you won’t be able to watch “Animals” for free when it comes out because Netflix doesn’t offer a free trial in the United States right now. That said, they have started offering free trials in other territories, so perhaps sometime soon.
However, the film will be available to stream on all of the platform’s subscription tiers, so you can watch it for as little as $9 via a one-month subscription to the Standard With Ads plan.
Netflix
Netflix is a leading subscription-based video streaming service that offers on-demand access to an extensive library of over 3,000 movies, 2,000+ TV shows, and a growing collection of acclaimed Netflix originals. Renowned for producing groundbreaking content, Netflix has become a cultural powerhouse with hit originals like “Stranger Things,” “Wednesday,” “Squid Game,” “The Crown,” “Tiger King,” “Bridgerton,” “The Witcher,” and “Black Mirror.”
Watch the trailer for ‘Animals’
What you need to know about ‘Animals’
“Animals” follows Mark Kimball (Affleck), a candidate running for mayor of Los Angeles, and his wife Abigail (Washington). Their son is kidnapped, they get a ransom demand, and suddenly their carefully built life is on fire. Now they need to find the money to get their kid back without blowing up everything they spent so long to build.
Now, the trailer is pretty light on details. I would have preferred a little more from it, to be honest — there’s not a word of dialogue in it, and I was left a little confused. But you can sense Affleck’s sensibility behind it (muted colors, what looks like a heist set piece, LA feeling like a character itself), and it leaves plenty of open questions to mull over. Like, what is it this couple is so desperate to hide?
Ben Affleck stars as Mark Kimball, with Kerry Washington playing his wife Abigail. Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun, Adriana Paz, Luis Gerardo Méndez, and Ray Fisher also star. We don’t have many details about what their roles are yet, but chalk it up to another part of the mystery.
Ben Affleck directs the movie and also co-wrote the screenplay, so his fingerprints will be all over this one. The movie was made in partnership with Artists Equity, the studio Affleck founded with Matt Damon and Gerry Cardinale that is trying to level the playing field between artists, studios, and distributors.
Animals
When the son of an L.A. mayoral candidate is kidnapped, he and his wife have a few hours to come up with the ransom payment. With most of their money spent on his political campaign, they have to get their hands dirty and expose a side of their lives they never intended to see the light of day.