Every month is “Horror Month” here at Bloody-Disgusting but let’s be honest, October is where our hideous hearts are. With Halloween looming in the distance like a sugar-addled leviathan, everybody is in the mood for a good scare, even if otherwise they might shy away from the realm of the macabre.
So it comes as no surprise that studios, networks and every other distributor under the sun pulls out all the stops in October to release as many scary things as possible. There are so danged many that one monthly preview wouldn’t be enough, and we’ll have to divvy October up in a series of weekly specials, highlighting all the creepy stories being told this year!
Are we horror fans being pandered to? You betcha! Do we mind? Heck no.
The zombie apocalypse resumes today and for the rest of the week, it’s exclusively at AMC+. The streaming service features the return of The Walking Dead and the debut of the new spin-off The Walking Dead: World Beyond. The Season 10 finale of the original hit series was delayed as a result of the (actual) global pandemic, and the new show promises a different take on the apocalypse, focusing on a whole new generation that grew up in a world overrun with the undead. If you don’t have AMC+, both shows air on the cable station AMC on October 4.
Not to be outdone, Shudder also gets the festivities started today with the debut of their all-new Ghoul Log, a video fireplace specifically designed for fans of the macabre! After you’ve set the atmosphere you can enjoy their new exclusive feature Scare Me, a creepy comedy about a struggling writer challenged by an acclaimed horror author to tell a scary story. In her review on Bloody-Disgusting, critic Meagan Navarro called the film “an imaginative and witty horror-comedy perfect for a quiet, cozy night in.”
And if that’s not enough for you, October 1 also sees the VOD release of the new horror comedy Mass Hysteria, directed by Arielle Cimino and Jeff Ryan, about a group of Salem Witch Trials re-enactors who are targeted by a modern day witch hunt.
That’s a lot of horror for the first day of October, but October 2nd is where the month truly unleashes hell. In the good way, of course…
Netflix gets into the scary movie game with the debut of two new features. Vampires vs. The Bronx imagines a world in which the gentrification of Black neighborhoods is the work of literal vampires, not just figurative ones. Naturally it’s up to a group of kids to rescue everybody. Meanwhile, the Italian supernatural thriller The Binding tells the story of a woman protecting her child from an evil curse, just as they are about to marry into a new family.
Also on October 2, over on Hulu, horror fans can take a trip to Monsterland. The new horror anthology series, based on Nathan Ballingrud’s novel North America Lake Monsters: Stories, takes place in prominent cities and uses supernatural tales to explore the devilish depths of humanity. In writing about the series at Bloody-Disgusting, critic Meagan Navarro says “the soul-sucking storylines are gloomy and miserable, featuring many parables and moral comeuppances devoid of joy.”
But the real deluge of scary stories this week comes from VOD and theaters, where a shocking number of new releases all arrive on October 2!
Darren Lynn Bousman, the director of the upcoming Saw sequel Spiral (which was supposed to come out earlier this year), has another thriller for us instead. Death of Me stars Maggie Q and Luke Hemsworth, and tells the story of a couple on vacation who get drunk, wake up with no memory of the night before, and piece together that they took part in a twisted ritual.
In Brea Grant’s black comedy 12 Hour Shift, Angela Bettis stars as a nurse whose already difficult job also involves illegal organ harvesting. David Arquette and Mick Foley co-star in a film about which Bloody-Disgusting’s Meagan Navarro says “for those that like violent pitch-black comedies packed to the brim with characters misbehaving, and often with aimlessness, there’s enough here to make you chuckle.”
The ambitious indie horror film Let’s Scare Julie also premieres on VOD on October 2, telling the story of a Halloween prank gone horribly wrong, when an attempt to scare a reclusive woman backfires on her would-be shockers. Writer/director Jud Cremata’s film was shot in one continuous take. Another novel thriller debuting this week is Do Not Reply, a tech thriller starring Amanda Arcuri as a woman kidnapped by a serial killer who films his spree with virtual reality cameras.
You may remember the horror movie Host that came out earlier this year, set during the contemporary global pandemic? Well, don’t confuse that with Richard Oakes and Adam Leader’s Hosts, a Christmas horror movie about a couple carrying a demonic possession like the plague, who spread it to a family gathering. Even though they both seem topical as hell.
If you like a little more sci-fi in your scares, the new horror-comedy Save Yourselves! arrives this week. The film stars John Reynolds and Sunita Mani as a couple of urbanites who decide to completely unplug from the internet for a week, only to return and find the whole world invaded by aliens.
In a more serious vein, the apocalyptic sci-fi thriller 2067 stars Kodi Smit-McPhee and Ryan Kwanten, and takes place in a world where the environment is ruined, humanity can only survive on artificial oxygen, and the artificial oxygen has started killing us too.
Back in the present day, Aaron Wolf’s new horror movie Tar tells the story of a monster that emerges from the La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles, and does what monsters do.
Brandon Cronenberg, the director of Antiviral, returns on October 2nd with a new sci-fi thriller called Possessor, starring Andrea Riseborough as an assassin who controls other people’s minds and gradually begins to lose her own. The uncut version of the film is heading to theaters, where they’re actually open. In her review at Bloody-Disgusting, Meagan Navarro calls Possessor “a heady sci-fi film that brings serious levels of violence and gore.”
And last but not least is The Call, a new supernatural thriller about a woman, played by Insidious’s Lin Shaye, who exacts revenge on her tormenters from beyond the grave. Tobin Bell from the Saw franchise co-stars, in a film where one phone call can give you only 60 seconds to live.
That’s just the tip of the eerie iceberg this month. Come back in a few days for our preview of the second week of October, which is packed full of more horror movies, shows and games!
