Movies
11 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘The Munsters’ and ‘Smile’!
These next several weeks are going to be absolutely loaded with brand new horror, and this week alone brings 11 new movies to the table as we make our way into the month of October.
This week’s new releases include brand new theatrical horror as well as the sequel to a beloved Halloween favorite and even a new take on a classic TV series from an unlikely source.
Here’s all the new horror arriving September 27-October 2, 2022!
First up, Rob Zombie‘s The Munsters comes to Blu-ray, VOD and Netflix on Tuesday, September 27, a fresh – and colorful – new take on the classic black & white television series.
Jeff Daniel Phillips is playing Herman Munster and Sheri Moon Zombie is playing Lily Munster in Zombie’s movie, with Daniel Roebuck co-starring as Grandpa Munster.
In the brand new movie, “Herman and Lily’s crazy courtship takes The Munsters on a hauntingly hilarious trip from Transylvania to Hollywood in the all-new feature length film.”
Richard Brake (31, 3 from Hell) is playing Dr. Henry Augustus Wolfgang. Catherine Schell (“Space: 1999,” The Return of the Pink Panther) is playing “Zoya Krupp the gypsy queen.”
Dee Wallace, Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson and Jorge Garcia will also star in the film, alongside original “The Munsters” television series actors Butch Patrick and Pat Priest.
A group of friends receive the surprise of their lives when they realize there’s a real killer on the scene of a local haunted trail in Level 33 Entertainment’s Haunted Trail.
Directed by Robin Givens, the film hits Digital/VOD on September 27.
In Haunted Trail, “A group of college friends visit a local haunted trail. After many screams and a few nervous laughs, an actual killer approaches the group. Scared out of their minds, the friends run through the trail, trying their best to get to the end without being killed. After much of the group is slaughtered, the remaining friends make a horrific discovery about who the killer really is.”
Written by Raven Magwood (Switching Lanes) and Paul Lindsay and produced by Magwood and Jock McKissic the film stars Comedians Desi Banks (Little, Love by Chance) and Reggie Couz (The Portal, “Dreams”) along with Marquise C. Brown (“Strange Angel,” “Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide”), Brook Sill (High Expectations, “Stranger Things,” “Afterparty”), Raven Magwood (Switching Lanes), Matt William Knowles (Son of the South, Asura, “Love Me If You Dare,” Return of the Poker King 2), Anna Perdun and Grace Perdun.
The SXSW horror-comedy Sissy is headed to Shudder this week, premiering on Thursday. The Australian horror movie was written and directed by Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes.
“Sissy tells the story of young friends Cecilia (Aisha Dee) and Emma (Hannah Barlow), who were inseparable until Alex (Emily De Margheriti) showed up. After Emma and Cecilia run into each other 12 years later, Emma invites Cecilia for weekend at a secluded cabin in the mountains, where Alex turns Cecilia’s weekend into a living nightmare.”
The cast also includes Hannah Barlow, Emily De Margheriti, Daniel Monks, Yerin Ha, Lucy Barrett, Shaun Martindale, Amelia Lule, April Blasdall, and Camille Cumpston.
The road to Halloween has been paved with a handful of brand new horror movies in theaters this year, and that continues this coming weekend with the arrival of Paramount’s Smile.
Smile begins playing only in theaters on Thursday, September 29.
In the film, “After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) starts experiencing frightening occurrences that she can’t explain.
“As an overwhelming terror begins taking over her life, Rose must confront her troubling past in order to survive and escape her horrifying new reality.”
Smile also stars Jesse T Usher (“The Boys”), Kal Penn, Rob Morgan (“Stranger Things”), Kyle Gallner (Scream 2022), and Caitlin Stasey (All Cheerleaders Die).
Meagan wrote in her Smile review for BD, “There’s a familiarity to the curse’s nature and formula, drawing easy comparisons to several beloved horror films. Even still, it’s well crafted and introduces a fresh feeling mythology, with some genuine scares along the way. Smile makes for a solid enough crowd pleaser heading into the Halloween season.”
The store becomes a movie with Spirit Halloween: The Movie, which will begin its limited theatrical release on Friday, September 30. The film then comes to VOD on October 11.
Spirit Halloween: The Movie is the feature directorial debut of David Poag and stars Christopher Lloyd, Rachael Leigh Cook, Marla Gibbs, and a fantastic cast of up-and-coming talent, including Donovan Colan, Marissa Reyes, Jaiden J. Smith and Dylan Martin Frankel, many of whom are making their big screen debuts.
The film tells the story of three middle school friends who spend the night locked inside a Spirit Halloween store, only to discover that the store is haunted.
“When a new pop-up Halloween store opens in a deserted strip mall, three friends who think they’ve outgrown trick or treating make a dare to spend the night locked inside the store Halloween night. But they find out that the store is haunted by an angry evil spirit who has possessed the creepy animatronic characters. The kids will need to embark on a thrilling and spooky adventure in order to survive the night and avoid becoming possessed themselves.”
Speaking of family-friendly frights, the hotly anticipated Hocus Pocus 2 will premiere on Disney+ on September 30, a brand new sequel to the classic Halloween movie from the 1990s.
Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimy are back as the Sanderson Sisters!
“It’s been 29 years since someone lit the Black Flame Candle and resurrected the 17th-century sisters who were executed for practicing witchcraft, and they are looking for revenge. Now it is up to three high-school students to figure out how to stop the ravenous witches from wreaking a new kind of havoc on Salem before midnight on All Hallow’s Eve.”
Doug Jones will also return in the sequel as Billy Butcherson.
Anne Fletcher (The Guilt Trip) directed Hocus Pocus 2 for Disney+.
Author Grady Hendrix released his second novel My Best Friend’s Exorcism back in 2016, which he describes as “Beaches meets The Exorcist.” Set in the late ’80s during the so-called Satanic Panic, it’s a touching story of high school friendship and, well, demonic possession. A movie adaptation is on the way, debuting on Amazon Prime Video on September 30, 2022.
Elsie Fisher (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Eighth Grade) and Amiah Miller star in the film, directed by Damon Thomas (“Penny Dreadful”).
“The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries—and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?”
Cranked Up Films will be releasing the horror movie After She Died this Halloween season, a supernatural haunter from writer/director/visual effects artist Jack Dignan.
The film comes to On Demand outlets on September 30, 2022.
Dignan, who worked on the visual effects for this year’s major Hollywood movies Thor: Love and Thunder and Elvis, makes his feature directorial debut with After She Died.
In After She Died, “Jen’s mother is dead. Her relationship with her father, John, is fractured beyond repair. Her friends, all recent high school graduates, are moving on with their lives and leaving behind the small town they once called home. Jen is, in every sense of the word, alone.
“That is until John introduces Jen to his new girlfriend, Florence… a woman who looks and sounds identical to Jen’s dead mother.”
Lionsgate’s new horror movie Devil’s Workshop will open up for business in select theaters, on demand and digital September 30, and you can watch the Red Band trailer down below.
Radha Mitchell and Emile Hirsch star in the film, a supernatural horror movie.
“In this chilling psychological thriller featuring Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild), struggling actor Clayton (Timothy Granaderos) is desperate for a role as a demonologist. He contacts Eliza (Radha Mitchell, Man on Fire), an expert in devil lore, to help him prepare and spends the weekend at her home. Eliza forces Clayton to confront his troubling past, perform dark rituals, and sacrifice a goat. Does she want to help Clayton, seduce him—or destroy him?”
“The shocking climax will set your soul ablaze,” Lionsgate teases.
Up next from writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, Bad Batch) is fantasy thriller Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, which will be released this week.
Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon comes to theaters, Digital, and On Demand September 30 from Saban, described as a “demon-out-of-water fairy-tale thriller” by Variety.
Kate Hudson and Jun Jong Seo star in this “mind-bending thriller from visionary director Ana Lily Amirpour (A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night).”
“When a struggling single-mother (Hudson) befriends a mysterious mental institute escapee with supernatural powers (Jong Seo), she sees a lucrative opportunity to make some fast cash. But when they draw the attention of a detective (Craig Robinson), their luck starts to run out as the cops close in on their crime-spree.”
Craig Robinson, Ed Skrein and Evan Whitten also star.
Terror Films will release the Michael Pare-starring Bigfoot horror movie The Wild Man this week, which will first premiere on digital platforms on Friday, September 30.
The film, directed by Ryan Justice (Followers), was developed during the pandemic.
“Young women have been going missing in Ochopee, FL, without a single suspect in custody. A young journalist, Sara, convinces her crew to join her investigation as she travels to Ochopee to document her discoveries, but they soon realize their presence in this town is not welcome.
“Determined to find her story, Sara convinces her friends to stick with her, because they’re onto something big. Upon meeting Dale, the town’s notorious conspiracy theorist, she’s convinced he knows more than he is willing to share. The crew humors Dale’s ridiculous theories, even accompanying him into the Florida swamps on his quest to show them “The Wild Man”, hoping he’ll somehow reveal his guilt.
“But what the crew discovers is a secret much deeper than fairy tales and legends. What they discover is much darker and more sinister than they bargained for.”
Lauren Crandall, Julian Green, and Mike Reed also star.
On the small screen, don’t forget that “The Walking Dead” is back with its final episodes this Sunday, with AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire” series also premiering Sunday.
And also don’t miss Shudder’s new documentary series “Queer for Fear,” which explores the history of queer horror and premieres exclusively on Shudder on Friday, September 30!
Here’s what we know about Longlegs so far. It’s coming in July of 2024, it’s directed by Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter), and it features Maika Monroe (It Follows) as an FBI agent who discovers a personal connection between her and a serial killer who has ties to the occult. We know that the serial killer is going to be played by none other than Nicolas Cage and that the marketing has been nothing short of cryptic excellence up to this point.
At the very least, we can assume NEON’s upcoming film is going to be a dark, horror-fueled hunt for a serial killer. With that in mind, let’s take a look at five disturbing serial killers-versus-law-enforcement stories to get us even more jacked up for Longlegs.
MEMORIES OF MURDER (2003)
This South Korean film directed by Oscar-winning director Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) is a wild ride. The film features a handful of cops who seem like total goofs investigating a serial killer who brutally murders women who are out and wearing red on rainy evenings. The cops are tired, unorganized, and border on stoner comedy levels of idiocy. The movie at first seems to have a strange level of forgiveness for these characters as they try to pin the murders on a mentally handicapped person at one point, beating him and trying to coerce him into a confession for crimes he didn’t commit. A serious cop from the big city comes down to help with the case and is able to instill order.
But still, the killer evades and provokes not only the police but an entire country as everyone becomes more unstable and paranoid with each grizzly murder and sex crime.
I’ve never seen a film with a stranger tone than Memories of Murder. A movie that deals with such serious issues but has such fallible, seemingly nonserious people at its core. As the film rolls on and more women are murdered, you realize that a lot of these faults come from men who are hopeless and desperate to catch a killer in a country that – much like in another great serial killer story, Citizen X – is doing more harm to their plight than good.
Major spoiler warning: What makes Memories of Murder somehow more haunting is that it’s loosely based on a true story. It is a story where the real-life killer hadn’t been caught at the time of the film’s release. It ends with our main character Detective Park (Song Kang-ho), now a salesman, looking hopelessly at the audience (or judgingly) as the credits roll. Over sixteen years later the killer, Lee Choon Jae, was found using DNA evidence. He was already serving a life sentence for another murder. Choon Jae even admitted to watching the film during his court case saying, “I just watched it as a movie, I had no feeling or emotion towards the movie.”
In the end, Memories of Murder is a must-see for fans of the subgenre. The film juggles an almost slapstick tone with that of a dark murder mystery and yet, in the end, works like a charm.
CURE (1997)
If you watched 2023’s Hypnotic and thought to yourself, “A killer who hypnotizes his victims to get them to do his bidding is a pretty cool idea. I only wish it were a better movie!” Boy, do I have great news for you.
In Cure (spoilers ahead), a detective (Koji Yakusho) and forensic psychologist (Tsuyoshi Ujiki) team up to find a serial killer who’s brutally marking their victims by cutting a large “X” into their throats and chests. Not just a little “X” mind you but a big, gross, flappy one.
At each crime scene, the murderer is there and is coherent and willing to cooperate. They can remember committing the crimes but can’t remember why. Each of these murders is creepy on a cellular level because we watch the killers act out these crimes with zero emotion. They feel different than your average movie murder. Colder….meaner.
What’s going on here is that a man named Mamiya (Masato Hagiwara) is walking around and somehow manipulating people’s minds using the flame of a lighter and a strange conversational cadence to hypnotize them and convince them to murder. The detectives eventually catch him but are unable to understand the scope of what’s happening before it’s too late.
If you thought dealing with a psychopathic murderer was hard, imagine dealing with one who could convince you to go home and murder your wife. Not only is Cure amazingly filmed and edited but it has more horror elements than your average serial killer film.
MANHUNTER (1986)
In the first-ever Hannibal Lecter story brought in front of the cameras, Detective Will Graham (William Petersen) finds his serial killers by stepping into their headspace. This is how he caught Hannibal Lecter (played here by Brian Cox), but not without paying a price. Graham became so obsessed with his cases that he ended up having a mental breakdown.
In Manhunter, Graham not only has to deal with Lecter playing psychological games with him from behind bars but a new serial killer in Francis Dolarhyde (in a legendary performance by Tom Noonan). One who likes to wear pantyhose on his head and murder entire families so that he can feel “seen” and “accepted” in their dead eyes. At one point Lecter even finds a way to gift Graham’s home address to the new killer via personal ads in a newspaper.
Michael Mann (Heat, Thief) directed a film that was far too stylish for its time but that fans and critics both would have loved today in the same way we appreciate movies like Nightcrawler or Drive. From the soundtrack to the visuals to the in-depth psychoanalysis of an insanely disturbed protagonist and the man trying to catch him. We watch Graham completely lose his shit and unravel as he takes us through the psyche of our killer. Which is as fascinating as it is fucked.
Manhunter is a classic case of a serial killer-versus-detective story where each side of the coin is tarnished in their own way when it’s all said and done. As Detective Park put it in Memories of Murder, “What kind of detective sleeps at night?”
INSOMNIA (2002)
Maybe it’s because of the foggy atmosphere. Maybe it’s because it’s the only film in Christopher Nolan’s filmography he didn’t write as well as direct. But for some reason, Insomnia always feels forgotten about whenever we give Nolan his flowers for whatever his latest cinematic achievement is.
Whatever the case, I know it’s no fault of the quality of the film, because Insomnia is a certified serial killer classic that adds several unique layers to the detective/killer dynamic. One way to create an extreme sense of unease with a movie villain is to cast someone you’d never expect in the role, which is exactly what Nolan did by casting the hilarious and sweet Robin Williams as a manipulative child murderer. He capped that off by casting Al Pacino as the embattled detective hunting him down.
This dynamic was fascinating as Williams was creepy and clever in the role. He was subdued in a way that was never boring but believable. On the other side of it, Al Pacino felt as if he’d walked straight off the set of 1995’s Heat and onto this one. A broken and imperfect man trying to stop a far worse one.
Aside from the stellar acting, Insomnia stands out because of its unique setting and plot. Both working against the detective. The investigation is taking place in a part of Alaska where the sun never goes down. This creates a beautiful, nightmare atmosphere where by the end of it, Pacino’s character is like a Freddy Krueger victim in the leadup to their eventual, exhausted death as he runs around town trying to catch a serial killer while dealing with the debilitating effects of insomnia. Meanwhile, he’s under an internal affairs investigation for planting evidence to catch another child killer and accidentally shoots his partner who he just found out is about to testify against him. The kicker here is that the killer knows what happened that fateful day and is using it to blackmail Pacino’s character into letting him get away with his own crimes.
If this is the kind of “what would you do?” intrigue we get with the story from Longlegs? We’ll be in for a treat. Hoo-ah.
FALLEN (1998)
Fallen may not be nearly as obscure as Memories of Murder or Cure. Hell, it boasts an all-star cast of Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Donald Sutherland, James Gandolfini, and Elias Koteas. But when you bring it up around anyone who has seen it, their ears perk up, and the word “underrated” usually follows. And when it comes to the occult tie-ins that Longlegs will allegedly have? Fallen may be the most appropriate film on this entire list.
In the movie, Detective Hobbs (Washington) catches vicious serial killer Edgar Reese (Koteas) who seems to place some sort of curse on him during Hobbs’ victory lap. After Reese is put to death via electric chair, dead bodies start popping up all over town with his M.O., eventually pointing towards Hobbs as the culprit. After all, Reese is dead. As Hobbs investigates he realizes that a fallen angel named Azazel is possessing human body after human body and using them to commit occult murders. It has its eyes fixated on him, his co-workers, and family members; wrecking their lives or flat-out murdering them one by one until the whole world is damned.
Mixing a demonic entity into a detective/serial killer story is fascinating because it puts our detective in the unsettling position of being the one who is hunted. How the hell do you stop a demon who can inhabit anyone they want with a mere touch?!
Fallen is a great mix of detective story and supernatural horror tale. Not only are we treated to Denzel Washington as the lead in a grim noir (complete with narration) as he uncovers this occult storyline, but we’re left with a pretty great “what would you do?” situation in a movie that isn’t afraid to take the story to some dark places. Especially when it comes to the way the film ends. It’s a great horror thriller in the same vein as Frailty but with a little more detective work mixed in.
Look for Longlegs in theaters on July 12, 2024.
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