Summer is wrapping up and we’re heading into fall – which means it’s time for us to put together a Fall Horror Movie Preview to remind you of the most notable horror movie releases coming down the line. Check it out below! Fall doesn’t officially begin until September 23rd, but there are some major releases that are going to be arriving a bit earlier and will still be in theatres (or streaming) as we segue into fall, so we’ve included a couple of those as well:
THE NUN II – Theatrical, September 8
The Conjuring Universe entry The Nun earned $365 million at the global box office on a budget of $22 million, so a sequel was just a matter of time. The only surprise is that it took four years to get The Nun II into production. But it’s heading our way now, and the director bringing the evil nun back to the screen is Michael Chaves (The Curse of La Llorona, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It). Bonnie Aarons reprises the role of the title character, Taissa Farmiga is back as Sister Irene, and they’re joined in the cast by Anna Popplewell, Katelyn Rose Downey, and Storm Reid.
SATANIC HISPANICS – Theatrical, September 14
Dread and Iconic Events will be giving the horror anthology Satanic Hispanics an 800 screen theatrical release in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The story begins when police raid a house in El Paso to find that it’s full of dead Latinos, with only one survivor: The Traveler, played by Efren Ramirez of Napoleon Dynamite. The film consists of of segments that were directed by five different Latin filmmakers: Mike Mendez, Alejandro Brugués, Eduardo Sánchez, Demián Rugna, and Gigi Saul Guerrero.
A HAUNTING IN VENICE – Theatrical, September 15
It’s highly unlikely that A Haunting in Venice is going to turn out to be a full-fledged horror movie, but the latest Hercule Poirot mystery from director/star Kenneth Branagh does involve a séance and a murder on Halloween. (It’s based on the Agatha Christie novel Hallowe’en Party.) As usual, Branagh has assembled a strong supporting cast for himself, including Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Kelly Reilly, and Michelle Yeoh.
ELEVATOR GAME – Streaming, September 15
Last year, director Rebekah McKendry impressed our reviewer Tyler Nichols with the horror film Glorious, which took place in a rest stop bathroom. (You can read Tyler’s 8/10 review at THIS LINK.) Now she has made another “supernatural happenings in a confined location” horror film with Elevator Game, about a group of youngsters who invoke a supernatural creature by playing the titular online challenge. This one will be streaming on the Shudder service.
IT LIVES INSIDE – Theatrical, September 22
Megan Suri of the Netflix series Never Have I Ever stars in this supernatural horror film about a teenager who finds herself dealing with a mythological demonic spirit. It Lives Inside marks the feature directorial debut of Bishal Dutta, and his IMDb bio says, “He has directed nineteen short films, which have been honored at more than a dozen film festivals around the world. Bishal has received six Best Director awards for his films from various international film festivals.” His horror feature debut looks quite promising.
SAW X – Theatrical, September 29
Back when Saw movies were being released on a yearly basis, they would say “If it’s Halloween, it must be Saw.” We can say that again this year, as Saw VI and Saw 3D director Kevin Greutert’s Saw X will be arriving in theatres just in time for Halloween festivities. Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith are back as John “Jigsaw” Kramer and his apprentice Amanda Young for this sequel that takes place between the ends of the first Saw and Saw II (because, remember, Jigsaw and Amanda have been dead ever since Saw III). This time Jigsaw is playing games with the people behind a medical scam.
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 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 13
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. 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 – Theatrical and VOD, 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.
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 – Theatrical and VOD, 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.
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.
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.