Arrow in the Head’s October Horror Movie Preview looks ahead to releases like The Exorcist: Believer, Totally Killer, and more
The spookiest month of the year has official begun! This year, October has a Friday the 13th to add to the usual Halloween Horror Fest, making this an extra special month for horror fans. Sure enough, the month is jam-packed with loads of horror movies that will be coming out theatrical and on streaming. With Saw X and The Nun in theaters now, here’s our definitive October Horror Movie Preview, packed with spooky movies you can check out all month long!
TOTALLY KILLER – Streaming, October 6
Coming to the Prime Video streaming service is director Nahnatchka Khan’s time travel slasher Totally Killer, which stars Kiernan Shipka as a modern day heroine who travels back in time to 1987 so she and a teenage version of her mom (played by Olivia Holt) can take down a masked maniac called the Sweet Sixteen Killer. Time travel + slashing + ’80s setting = high hopes for this one.
PET SEMATARY: BLOODLINES – Streaming, October 6
Directed by Lindsey Anderson Beer from a screenplay she wrote with Jeff Buhler (who was also a writer on the 2019 version of Pet Sematary), this prequel will take viewers back to 1969 so we can watch a young version of the character Jud Crandall (played here by Jackson White) discover sinister secrets and confront dark family history. White’s co-stars include Henry Thomas, Samantha Mathis, David Duchovny, and the legendary Pam Grier. Pet Sematary: Bloodlines will be streaming on the Paramount+ service.
V/H/S/85 – Streaming, October 6
The anthology franchise continues with V/H/S/85, which will be released through the Shudder streaming service, just like the last two entries (V/H/S/94 and V/H/S/99). The directors bringing us found footage horror this time around are David Bruckner (Hellraiser 2022), Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone), Gigi Saul Guerrero (Bingo Hell), Natasha Kermani (Lucky), and Mike P. Nelson (the Wrong Turn reboot). V/H/S/85 is the sixth V/H/S movie, but if you factor in the spin-offs SiREN (which was based on a segment from the first movie) and Kids vs. Aliens (based on a segment from the second V/H/S), it’s the eighth installment in the overall franchise. Or what one might call the “V/H/S Cinematic Universe”.
THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER – Theatrical, October 6
Universal and Peacock forked over an amount somewhere in the range of $400 million to acquire the rights to distribute a new trilogy of The Exorcist sequels from Blumhouse Productions, Morgan Creek Entertainment, and director David Gordon Green (who previously directed a trilogy of Halloween sequels). In October, we’ll find out if that was a wise investment. Indeed. the film was supposed to open on Friday the 13th, only to move at the eleventh hour when it was announced Taylor Swift’s concert film would be opening the same day. The Exorcist: Believer stars Leslie Odom Jr. as a man who seeks the help of original The Exorcist character Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn reprises the role) when his daughter and her friend are possessed.
DEAR DAVID – Theaters, VOD, and Digital, October 13
Battling The Exorcist: Believer for Friday the 13th box office will be Dear David, based on a ghost story that went viral when BuzzFeed writer Adam Ellis wrote it out on Twitter in 2017. Augustus Prew plays Ellis, who becomes haunted by the ghost of a dead child named David. The film is directed by John McPhail, who previously brought us the awesome, Christmas-set zombie outbreak musical Anna and the Apocalypse.
DARK HARVEST – One Day Theatrical on October 11th, Digital on October 13
This Friday the 13th release sees the return of director David Slade (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night) to the big screen horror game, being an adaptation of the novel by Norman Partridge. Here’s the synopsis: “In a cursed town, the annual harvest becomes a brutal battle for survival. On Halloween 1963, Sawtooth Jack, a terrifying legend, rises from the cornfields, threatening the town’s children. Groups of boys unite to defeat the murderous scarecrow before midnight. Richie, a rebellious outcast, joins the run, motivated by his brother’s previous victory. As the hunt progresses, Richie makes a shocking discovery and faces a pivotal choice to break the relentless cycle.”
FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S – Theatrical and Streaming, October 27
A long-awaited feature adaptation of the popular video game franchise, Five Nights at Freddy’s will be streaming on the Peacock service the same day it reaches theatres. Directed by Emma Tammi, the film stars Josh Hutcherson and Matthew Lillard in the story of a troubled security guard who finds himself battling maniacal animatronic creatures in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a darker version of Chuck E. Cheese.
SUITABLE FLESH – Theaters and Everywhere You Rent Movies, October 27
Brian Yuzna, Barbara Crampton, and Dennis Paoli worked with the late Stuart Gordon on some of the most popular H.P. Lovecraft adaptations ever made. Now they have teamed up with director Joe Lynch on a new Lovecraft movie that’s described as an “erotic body-swapping horror”. Suitable Flesh stars Heather Graham as a psychiatrist whose obsession with helping a patient leads her into dark occult danger.
November Bonus: THANKSGIVING – Theatrical, November 17
Sixteen years after director Eli Roth contributed the faux slasher trailer Thanksgiving to the Robert Rodriguez / Quentin Tarantino double feature Grindhouse, he’s finally bringing us a feature expansion of the concept. Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, and Gina Gershon are among the cast members who will be in danger of a slasher who terrorizes a small Massachusetts town during the Thanksgiving festivities. While this definitely isn’t an October release, it’s certainly a movie people will be buzzing about all month long, as a fresh horror movie from Eli Roth is always an event.
So, what do you think of this Fall Horror Movie Preview? How many of these movies will you be watching? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
