It is winter, every day brings news that infuriates people, and theaters are full of lackadaisical children’s movies and holdovers from the holidays. Notable movies are approaching, I promise you, but it doesn’t make sense for me to talk about them quite yet. Given that dull winter is a climate that invites lurid genre movies so as to spice up our doldrums, I thought to check in on a few that have dropped on streamers recently, and offer alternative suggestions where appropriate.

“Den of Thieves 2: Pantera” (Christian Gudegast)

The 2018 “Den of Thieves” is an act of “Heat” cosplay with Gerard Butler that piqued critics’ interests when it was praised by acclaimed filmmaker Christian Petzold. It does have an intriguing strain of eccentricity, which is evident in Butler’s wild and funny performance as Big Nick, a boorish L.A. cop who plays dirtier than the robbers he’s trying to catch. “Pantera” trades the L.A. bit for sleek European settings and a new heist and is pretty much the same movie as its predecessor, offering a few superb set pieces—a car chase late in the game is authentically worthy of “Heat”—that are stranded by a patchy plot. One desperately wants director Christian Gudegast to loosen the reigns and let Butler go all out, rather than sentimentalizing Big Nick. Still, both movies are reasonable time killers that straddle a weird line between accomplished and disposable.

Perhaps see instead: Michael Mann’s seminal 1995 crime film “Heat” is the obvious suggestion, since it’s the guiding light of the “Den of Thieves” series. If you haven’t seen it in a while, it’s as sharp and haunting as its reputation suggests. For something more obscure, try the superb 1989 Al Pacino detective movie “Sea of Love,” which gives its divorced cop more room to breathe than “Den of Thieves” does for Big Nick.

“Night Call” (Michiel Blanchart)

A locksmith (Jonathan Feltre) in Brussels is called upon by a young woman to open her apartment, as she claims that she has locked up her keys, as well as her purse, her ID, and anything else that might legitimize her story. He does as she asks, and is mistaken for a thief by the apartment’s real owner, who turns out to be a white supremacist connected to the city’s underworld. Disappointingly, this simple and promisingly sick premise is allowed by director Michiel Blanchart to grow sentimental and convoluted.

The locksmith is Black, and Blanchart keeps cutting from the action to a Black Lives Matter protest in the city. What does this plot have to do with Black Lives Matter? Not much, it turns out. When a pulp movie wants to be taken seriously, it often wades into weird ideological waters. Such as a movie that pretends to be concerned with Black Lives Matter while pivoting ludicrously on the efforts of its Black protagonist to save the very white woman who served him as a sacrificial lamb to (checks notes) white supremacists. This plot development is meant to be romantic and fatalistic in the key of a French noir, but why? I’m not requesting political correctness, but a nod towards common sense.

Perhaps see instead: I thought of John Carpenter’s 1976 masterpiece “Assault on Precinct 13” while watching “Night Call.” Both are set over the course of one evening and incorporate racial tensions into familiar thriller templates. When a gang raids a nearly abandoned police station to retrieve one of its own, criminals and cops of various colors must unite to save themselves. It remains a potent nightmare, with hard and tactile imagery that abounds in the sense of emptiness that would become Carpenter’s trademark as he progressed to “Halloween” and “The Thing” and many others.

“Grafted” (Sasha Rainbow)

Socially awkward Wei (Joyena Sun) moves to New Zealand to stay with her Aunt Ling (Xiao Hu) and cousin, Angela (Jess Hong). Wei has been raised to honor traditional Chinese customs, which alienates her from Angela and her westernized classmates. The young women all go to college together and a mild “Mean Girls” situation develops while Wei works on perfecting her dead father’s experiments in grafting skin, so that she may cover up the large purplish birthmark that runs along her neck.

There’s a lot going on in that set-up. Like “Night Call,” “Grafted” seems to have been sewn together from various parts without much thought as to what these plot elements might mean as arranged. Somehow, a late scene in which Wei wears the face of a blonde classmate does not scan as a metaphor for the pressures of assimilation. Or, best case, the metaphor feels like an accident, which almost makes it more loaded than if the filmmaker seemed to have firmer control over her material. Director-co-writer Sasha Rainbow can’t decide what the primary point of “Grafted” is supposed to be. Is it an assimilation parable or is the film simply borrowing the lonely nerd archetype that’s been in place in the horror genre since at least 1976’s “Carrie?” These aren’t just egghead film critic concerns, such indecisiveness leads to an unfocused, impersonal movie.

Rainbow works in a bold visual style—rich in primary colors and enthusiastic close-ups of gore—that brings to mind Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance.” Look for that film to become a huge influence on budding horror feminist filmmakers, though here that association is presumably coincidental. I enjoyed “The Substance,” but it and movies like “Grafted” have an insularity that’s growing annoying. The world of “Grafted” is so cocooned—so cultivated merely to further its own familiar plot—that a woman is dead for what feels like a third of the film’s running time before anyone thinks to look for her.

Perhaps see instead: Well, “The Substance” is more assured than ‘Grafted,” which flat lines once the body horror gimmick gets going, and it’s the talk of the town right now with many Oscar nominations, particularly Demi Moore’s nod for Best Actress. Or take Julia Ducournau’s “Raw” and “Titane,” which bend feminist body horror into strange and poignant new directions. If you wish to sip straight from the well from which all these films spring, try David Cronenberg’s 1986 “The Fly.”

“Den of Thieves 2: Pantera,” “Night Call,” and “Grafted” are all available on VOD. “Grafted” is also available on Shudder. “Heat” is streaming virtually everywhere, while “Sea of Love” is currently on Netflix. “Assault on Precinct 13” can be found on Tubi, “The Substance” on MUBI, “The Fly” on Max, and “Titane” on Hulu. “Raw” is also on VOD.