It’s October, the time year when everybody – even the seemingly “normal” people – admit that they love horror. As such, every October we are deluged with scary movies, TV shows and video games that are designed to play into this wonderfully spooky season! Whether you’re just visiting for the holidays or whether you make your home in Halloweentown, the next 31 days are chock full of awesome, eerie, gory goodness.
The “Month of Doom” begins with Doom! Specifically, Doom: Annihilation, a brand new feature film based on the trailblazing horror video game about a space marine fighting the forces of Hell on Mars. This straight-to-video release hails from writer/director Tony Giglio (S.W.A.T.: Under Siege), and it’s the first feature film based on Doom since the ill-fated Dwayne Johnson version from 2005. It’s gotta be better than THAT, right…?
Sticking to movies, later that week we’ve got Tony D’Aquino’s slasher The Furies debuting on Shudder on October 3, about women who are kidnapped and hunted by men in masks. Todd Philips’ Joker debuts in theaters on October 4, and is amassing serious Oscar buzz for its harrowing portrayal of mental illness. And if you need more scary clowns, the new documentary Wrinkles the Clown opens the same day, and tells the story of a real-life scary clown who scares misbehaving children at the behest of their parents.
If you can’t make it out to theaters on October 4, there’s plenty to scare you right at home. The new Stephen King adaptation In the Tall Grass, directed by Vincenzo Natali (Haunter), debuts on Netflix and tells the story of people trapped in a deadly field. The new Into the Dark installment, Uncanny Annie, debuts on Hulu and tells the story of people trapped in a deadly board game. The second season of the anthology series Creeped Out: Season 2 also debuts on Netflix, but if you’re more interested in interactivity, you can also play the updated Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows.
There’s no way you’re going to get through all those horror movies, shows and games by October 6, but that’s when The Walking Dead: Season 10 debuts anyway, with the survivors facing off against those danged Whisperers. One day later, on October 7, Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack) debuts his violent new Adult Swim series, Primal, all about cavemen and dinosaurs… the coolest of all anachronisms. Then the bizarrely titled kids animated special The Spooky Tale of Captain Underpants Hack-a-wee debuts on Netflix, on October 8.
Who you gonna call on October 9? You might wanna call the Ghostbusters, who are returning to theaters for a 35th anniversary Fathom event! And when you’re done reeling from that experience you can watch the premiere of Supernatural: Season 15 on October 10 on The CW. It’s the last season of the long-running horror series, and you wouldn’t want to stop watching now!
October 11 is another big day for horror movie lovers. Bong Joon-ho’s latest acclaimed thriller, Parasite, finally arrives in theaters after earning critical acclaim on the festival circuit. Billy Senese’s psychological thriller The Dead Center will make you question on sanity, and the latest animated version of the classic comedy characters The Addams Family, starring Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron, will bring the creepy and the kooky back to theaters as well.
But that’s not all! Also on October 11 (with a brief theatrical run starting October 8), Lupita Nyong’o plays a musician trying to protect a group of kids from the zombie apocalypse in Hulu’s Little Monsters. Brad Anderson’s new thriller Fractured also premieres on Netflix on October 11, with Sam Worthington starring as a man whose family goes missing in a hospital.
But wait! There’s more! Nickelodeon’s classic horror anthology Are You Afraid of the Dark? returns to television after 19 years, with a three-part limited series starting on October 11. And if that’s not enough TV for you, Charmed: Season 2 also debuts that day on The CW, along with Haunted: Season 2 on Netflix.
You can take a few days off if you want to, but be sure to come back on October 15 when The Purge: Season 2 premieres on the USA Network, and the hit video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition finally makes its debut on the Nintendo Switch.
October 18 is another gigantic day for movies. Zombieland 2: Double Tap finally reunites Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin in a long-awaited sequel to the horror-comedy hit. The Lighthouse, Robert Eggers’ follow-up to his critically acclaimed The Witch, starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson as lighthouse keeper on the brink of madness, debuts in theaters the same day. Omar Epps tries to track down a mysterious serial killer in Trick, the first new film from director Patrick Lussier since 2011’s awesome Drive Angry. Angelina Jolie returns in Disney’s live-action Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, where she must prevent Prince Phillips’ mother from destroying the fairy tale kingdom.
Not to be completely outdone by theatrical releases, October 18 also sees the release of the new horror-thriller Eli, directed by Ciarán Foy (Sinister 2), on Netflix. Meanwhile, on Hulu, Zazie Beetz and Dakota Johnson and Armie Hammer star in Wounds, the latest horror-thriller from acclaimed director Babak Anvari (Under the Shadow).
Fast forward a couple of days to October 20, where The Watchmen: Season 1 debuts on HBO, promising a new look at the dystopian future of the classic comic. That same night you can also watch The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror XXX. Can you believe it’s been 30 long years since the The Simpsons have been making awesome Halloween specials? And can you believe that this particular Halloween special is the 666th episode of The Simpsons?
October 23 promises to be a good one. Castle Rock returns to Hulu for its second season, and unlike the first season – which mostly revolved around an all-new story – the follow-up casts Lizzy Caplan as one of Stephen King’s greatest and most terrifying characters: the homicidal Annie Wilkes, formerly played by an Oscar-winning Kathy Bates in Misery. And just one day later, on October 24, the new post-apocalyptic comedy series Daybreak debuts on Netflix!
There’s a bunch of horror movies trying to squeak in under the wire this October, and capitalize on all that Halloween madness. October 25 brings with it Justin Dec’s Countdown, about a phone app that knows exactly when you’re going to die. Joining it in theaters is the creepy mansion thriller Girl on the Third Floor, as well as The Gallows Act II, the second film in the found footage supernatural horror series. On the same day, Netflix debuts the Zak Hilditch’s Rattlesnake, starring Carmen Ejogo who strikes a horrible bargain with a mysterious stranger in exchange for saving her child’s life.
And just to round out the month with a little fun and games, the horror-themed hack-and-slash game MediEvil gets a fancy PlayStation 4 remaster on October 25, and Mario’s brother takes another trip into a haunted realm in Luigi’s Mansion 3, debuting on Nintendo Switch on October 28!
