What to watch in UAE cinemas and OTT this week: Resident Evil, Daayra, and Son Ye-jin's saucy K-drama

Big weekend ahead. Cinemas across the UAE are getting a proper genre buffet, a horror reboot, a Malayalam police thriller, and a Bollywood box-office clash all landing within 24 hours of each other, while the streaming platforms are stacking one of their strongest weekends of the year, from a Netflix anthology favourite to a K-drama period romance and a Bollywood-fusion dance comedy.

So, here's everything worth carving out time for this week, in cinemas and streaming, so you don't end up scrolling for twenty minutes before settling on a rerun.

In cinemas

Resident Evil

15+ · English · Action, Horror, Sci-Fi · 17 September

Wrong package, wrong night. A courier just trying to make a hospital delivery stumbles straight into an outbreak, and suddenly 'customer service' means outrunning things that used to be human. Directed by Zach Cregger, you can expect this reboot to lean hard into dread over nostalgia. If you've been burned by Resident Evil movies before, this one's actually got horror-movie pedigree behind the camera.

Pradhama Drishtya Kuttakkar

PG15 · Malayalam · Crime, Drama, Thriller · 17 September

The cops become the case. Parvathy Thiruvothu, in her first-ever police role on screen, plays an officer who joins the force after her husband, also a cop, dies. One chaotic night later, she and her fellow officers find themselves on the wrong side of the very system they represent.

Daayra (Hindi)

15+ · Hindi · Drama · 18 September

Kareena Kapoor and Prithviraj Sukumaran share the screen for the first time ever, and they spend most of it on opposite sides of the law. Directed by Meghna Gulzar (of Raazi and Talvar fame, so you know this won't play it safe), Daayra is inspired by true events and follows two DCPs whose investigation into one disturbing case pulls the thread on truth, justice, and how blurry the line between them really is. Less shoot-em-up, more slow-burn moral gut-punch.

Vibe

PG15 · Hindi · Action, Comedy, Thriller · 18 September

Two certified underachievers accidentally stumble onto a terror plot and — despite being wildly unqualified for literally anything, end up as the nation's last line of defence. Kunal Kemmu (fresh off the success of Madgaon Express) writes, directs, and stars, with Preity Zinta making her big comeback as the nspy who has to whip these two into shape.

Streaming this week

Lust Stories 3

Netflix · 18 September

The anthology is back for round three. This time it's Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra, and Vishal Bhardwaj each taking a turn, with a cast stacked deep, Radhika Apte, Konkona Sen Sharma, Aditi Rao Hydari, Vijay Varma, Ali Fazal, and more. Four short films, four completely different takes on desire, intimacy, and the things people don't say out loud.

The Scandal

Netflix · 18 September

Son Ye-jin and Ji Chang-wook headline this lavish Joseon-era retelling of Dangerous Liaisons, yes, the seduction-and-betrayal classic, just with hanboks instead of powdered wigs. Lady Cho, bored and brilliant, dares her cousin Cho Won (the biggest playboy in the kingdom) to attract a young widow who's sworn off love. It's a bet that should stay just a game — except, of course, it doesn't.

Best of the Best

Netflix · 18 September

Never Have I Ever fans, get ready to feel old — Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is all grown up and throwing down on the competitive Bollywood-fusion dance circuit. She plays Maya, who drags her childhood best friend Anjali (Priyanka Kedia) into UCLA's most cutthroat dance team, only to find out that chasing a national title tests their friendship as much as their footwork. Hasan Minhaj co-writes and co-stars, bringing his usual sharp comic timing to a story about ambition, identity, and what happens when winning starts to matter more than who you're winning with.