October has much to offer from prestige dramas to horror franchises. Many of these titles were from film festivals in September that have finally made it to the big screen. There are also some great re-releases to check out! The great news dropped earlier this week that the AMPTP and the WGA have reached a deal and the strike has ended. Hopefully SAG-AFTRA will be able to reach an equally great deal soon.

October 2nd:

Fright Krewe on Hulu & Peacock. An ancient prophecy and a Voodoo Queen put misfit teens in charge of saving New Orleans from the biggest demonic threat it’s faced in almost two centuries. But, honestly? Saving the world might be easier than becoming friends.

October 4th:

Strange Way of Life is a short film by esteemed Spanish writer and director Pedro Almodóvar. The film stars Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal, and it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

October 6th:

The Exorcist: Believer stars Olivia Marcum, Leslie Odom Jr., Lidya Jewett, Jennifer Nettles, Raphael Sbarge, Ann Dowd, and Ellen Burstyn. It was written by David Gordon Green and Peter Sattler and directed by David Gordon Green. This is a sequel to the 1973 film The Exorcist.

Foe is a new film by writer-director Garth Davis. Ian Reid, the author of the book it is based on, is also a screenwriter for the film. Saoirse Ronan, Paul Mescal, and Aaron Pierre star in the movie. This weekend it will be in limited release, and it will first premier at the New York Film Festival.

The Royal Hotel is the follow-up film to writer-director Kitty Green’s first film The Assistant. It was also written by Oscar Redding. Also returning from The Assistant is Julia Garner. The cast adds Jessica Henwick, Toby Wallace, Hugo Weaving, Ursula Yovich, Daniel Henshall, James Frecheville, and Herbert Nordrum. This is a Neon release, one of the studios that has agreed to SAG-AFTRA and the WGA’s demands to procure an interim agreement.

She Came to Me stars Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway, Marisa Tomei, Brian d’Arcy, Joanna Kulig, and Chris Gethard. The film is written and directed by Rebecca Miller. The film follows a composer who is unable to finish an opera meets a woman and has a one-night stand that changes his life.

Cat Person premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year. It stars Nichols Braun, Emilia Jones, Geraldine Viswanathan, Hope Davis, Liza Koshy, Isaac Powell, and Isabella Rossellini. It is directed by Susanna Fogel and written by Michelle Ashford. Margot (Jones) goes on a date with an older man (Braun) she has been texting, but the date takes an unexpected turn.

Season 1 of Chad (Roku Channel): Follows a 14-year-old pubescent Persian boy as he navigates his first year of high school on a mission to become popular. Chad’s friendships and sanity are pushed to the limits as he uses every tactic at his disposal to befriend the cool kids, while enduring his mother’s new dating life and reconciling with his cultural identity.

October 13th:

Anatomy of a Fall won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year. In the leading role is Sandra Hüller, who has Oscar buzz around her performance. It also stars Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner, Antoine Reinartz, Samuel Theis, Jehnny Beth, Saadia Bentaïeb, Camille Rutherdood, Anne Fotger, and Sophie Fillieres. It was written by Arthur Harari and written and directed by Justine Triet.

Dear David was written by Mike Ban Waes and directed by John McPhail. It stars Augustus Prew, Andrea Bang, Rene Escobar Jr., Cameron Nicoll, and Justin Long. The film combines horror and technology which creates an eerie story about an artist who believes he is being haunted by a dead child named David.

Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour is the concert film experience of the very popular ERAS tour. The date dropped surprisingly last month, and a couple movies needed to switch release dates to accommodate this surprise release by AMC Theatres Distribution. It is directed by Sam Wrench and produced by Taylor Swift.

October 20th:

Killers of the Flower Moon premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year. It was adapted by writer Eric Roth and directed by Martin Scorsese. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Lily Gladstone, Tantoo Cardinal, JaNae Collins, Jade Myers, Jillian Dion, William Belleau, Jason Isbell, and Sturgill Simpson. The film will have a wide release and in IMAX.

Nyad follows the true story of Diana Nyad who swam from Cuba to Florida at 60 years old. It premiered this year at the Telluride Film Festival. The film stars Annette Bening, Jodie Foster, and Rhys Ifans. It was co-directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and written by Julia Cox. It is releasing in limited theaters this weekend but will be released on streaming on November 3rd.

Malibu Horror Story was written and directed by Scott Slone. It stars Dylan Sprayberry, Robert Bailey, Jr., Valentina De Angelis, Rebecca Forsythe, and Tommy Cramer. The film will be in limited release this weekend and is also 87 minutes long.

The Persian Version was written and directed by Maryam Keshavarz. It stars Layla Mohammadi, Niousha Noor, Bijan Daneshmand, Bella Warda, Jerry Habibi, Arty Froushan, and Samuel Tehrani. This is the story of an Iranian-American mother and daughter who connect during a family gathering.

October 27th:

Five Nights at Freddy’s stars Josh Hutcherson, Matthew Lillard, Mary Stuart Masterson, Elizabeth Lail, Kat Conner Sterling, and Kevin Foster. It is written by Scott Cawthon and Emma Tammi, and directed by Emma Tammi. This is also produced by Jason Blum. There was a rumor that the film was going to be 3 hours long, but according to iMDB, it is 1 hour and 50 minutes.

The Holdovers premiered at the Telluride Film Festival this year. It is written by David Hemingson, directed by Alexander Payne, and stars Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa, and Carrie Preston. It is in limited release this weekend and released wide on November 10th.

Freelance stars John Cena, Alison Brie, Juan Pablo Raba, Alice Eve, Marton Csokas, and Christian Slater. The film is directed by Pierre Morel and written by Jacob Lentz. The film will be released wide this weekend.

The Killer is director David Fincher’s first film since Mank in 2020, and he is reteaming with Se7en writer Andrew Kevin Walker. The film stars Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Arliss Howard, Kerry O’Malley, and Charles Parnell. It will be in limited release in theaters on October 27th and released on Netflix on November 10th.

Sight is written and directed by Andrew Hyatt and additionally written by John Duigan and Buzz McLaughlin. Greg Kinnear, Terry Chen, Fionnula Flanagan, Kenneth Liu, Ben Wang, Danni Wang, and Wai Ching Ho stars in the film. This follows the true story of Doctor Ming Wang, who becomes a world-renowned eye surgeon.

Online:

The Burial stars Jamie Foxx, Tommy Lee Jones, Jurnee Smollett, Mamaoudou Athie, Bill Camp, Pamela Reed, and Alan Ruck. The film is written and directed by Maggie Betts and written by Doug Wright, and it will be released on Amazon Prime.

Totally Killer stars Kiernan Shipka, Olivia Holt, Julie Bowen, and Randall Park. It is directed by Nahnatchka Khan and written by David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D’Angelo. It will be released on Amazon Prime.

Old Dads is a Netflix film written and directed by Bill Burr and written by Ben Tishler. It stars Bill Burr, Bobby Cannavale, Bokeem Woodbine, Miles Robbins, Katie Aselton, and Reign Edwards.

Pain Hustlers stars Chris Evans, Emily Blunt, Catherine O’Hara, Chloe Coleman, Brian d’Arcy James, Jay Duplass, and Andy Garcia. It is directed by David Yates and written by Wells Tower. It will be released on Netflix on October 27th, 2023.

Fingernails stars Jessie Buckley, Jeremy Allen White, Annie Murphy, Luke Wilson, Nina Kiri, and Riz Ahmed. It is written by Christos Nikou, Stavros Raptis, and Sam Steiner, and directed by Christos Nikou. The film will be released simultaneously on streaming and in select theaters by Apple TV+. It has played at TIFF, Telluride, and the BFI Film Festival.

Re-Releases:

Right before the sequel is being released, The Exorcist will be back in theaters on October 1st. It stars Max von Sydow, Ellen Burstyn, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGrowan, and Linda Blair. It was directed by William Friedkin and written by William Peter Blatty. Fathom Events is placing it back in theaters.

Director Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds will be released back into theaters on October 22nd by Fathom Events. It stars Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, Jessica Tandy, and Veronica Cartwright, and was written by Evan Hunter.

Crossroads stars Britney Spears, Zoe Saldana, Anson Mount, Taryn Manning, Justin Long, Dan Aykroyd, Harry Carey, Jr., Joe Morton, and Kim Cattrall. It was directed by Tamra Davis and written by Shonda Rhimes. It will be re-released by Trafalgar Releasing on October 23rd.

Shout TV! October Lineup!

Our friends at Shout TV! are bringing back their 31 Nights of Horror and we have the full list of films below.

31 NIGHTS OF HORROR OCTOBER PROGRAMMING SCHEDULE:

Programs are scheduled for 8pm ET / 5pm PT nightly. 

10/1/23

Night of the Living Dead

10/1/23

Day of the Dead

10/2/23

Demon Squad

10/2/23

Santo and the Treasure of Dracula

10/3/23

Black Sabbath

10/3/23

The Evil Eye

10/4/23

Willard

10/4/23

Ben

10/5/23

Cockneys vs. Zombies

10/5/23

Zombie High

10/6/23

Lisa and the Devil

10/6/23

Exorcist III

10/7/23

Silent Night, Deadly Night 2

10/7/23

Magic

10/8/23

Apollo 18

10/8/23

Piranha

10/9/23

Galaxy of Terror

10/9/23

Forbidden World

10/10/23

Last Man on Earth

10/10/23

The Monster Club

10/11/23

Ghosthouse

10/11/23

Witchboard

10/12/23

Bloodsucking Bastards

10/12/23

Nosferatu the Vampyre (Herzog)

10/13/23

Assault on Precinct 13

10/13/23

Saturday the 14th

10/14/23

Willard

10/14/23

Ben

10/15/23

Black Christmas

10/15/23

House on Haunted Hill

10/16/23

Slumber Party Massacre

10/16/23

Slumber Party Massacre II

10/17/23

Horror Hospital

10/17/23

Dr. Giggles

10/18/23

Phantom of the Opera

10/18/23

Hunchback of Notre Dame

10/19/23

Stepfather

10/19/23

Stepfather II

10/20/23

Witchery

10/20/23

Hell Night

10/21/23

Carnival of Souls

10/21/23

Nightbreed

10/22/23

Dog Soldiers

10/22/23

The Stepfather

10/23/23

Sharkansas Women’s Prison Massacre

10/23/23

Terror Beneath the Sea

10/24/23

Creepshow III

10/24/23

Body Bags

10/25/23

The Wasp Woman

10/25/23

Lady Frankenstein

10/26/23

Road Games

10/26/23

Elvira’s Haunted Hills

10/27/23

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

10/27/23

Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde

10/28/23

Bad Moon

10/28/23

Plan 9 From Outer Space

10/29/23

Day of the Dead

10/29/23

Night of the Demons

10/30/32

A Bay of Blood

10/30/23

Kill, Baby…Kill!

10/31/23

 Night of the Living Dead

10/31/23 

Night of the Demons

For more information on 31 NIGHTS OF HORROR, please go to 31NOH.com and follow Shout! TV and Scream Factory TV on social media for updates.