With the fall comes many annual traditions that many people love. Among the most important of those traditions is the idea of “spooky season,” a time of year when Halloween is hotly anticipated and the movies on offer at the box office reflect that.
Horror movies are especially prevalent in the fall precisely because they can be timed around Halloween, which is when many people are most in the mood to be scared. We’ve pulled together a list of the five horror movies we’re most eagerly anticipating this fall, including a few you may not have heard of yet.
5. Terrifier 3 (October 11)
The Terrifier franchise has become a crucial watch for many horror fans, and we’re set to get another installment of it this October. The reason horror fans love the Terrifier franchise is that it feels like a throwback to the slasher fare of old, albeit with a more grotesque edge.
This third installment will follow the main characters from previous installments as they recover from their last battle with Art the Clown. As the holiday season rolls around, though, they find that Art may not only be in their past. Terrifier 3 is not going to be complicated, but that’s part of what makes it interesting.
4. Your Monster (October 25)
We love a good genre mash-up, and Your Monster looks to be exactly that. This horror/rom-com hybrid tells the story of a young actress who is dealing with the fallout from both a cancer diagnosis and a breakup when she discovers a strange, yet endearing monster living in her closet.
Starring Abigail‘s Melissa Barrera as the central character, the movie promises to be one of the more original horror films of the fall, and it could wind up being exactly the right combination of charming and scary to attract a pretty diverse audience.
3. Smile 2 (October 18)
The first Smile was a surprisingly smart horror movie, almost like It Follows with a little more of a pop edge. Crucially, the first Smile ends in a shocking and disturbing way, which means that this sequel will pick up with an entirely new protagonist.
In Smile 2, we’re following a global pop star who suddenly finds herself haunted by people with eerie smiles. In order to rid herself of these omens, she has to confront her traumatic past. It’s the same basic premise as the first installment, but applied to new characters and hopefully told in a slightly new way.
2. Heretic (November 15)
Few things have been more delightful over the past five years than the return of Hugh Grant, but Heretic sees him taking on a slightly more unusual role than the curmudgeons he usually plays. The film tells the story of two young missionaries who knock on the wrong door and have to fight for their lives after they become trapped in a stranger’s home.
Heretic seems designed to be a fun mishmash of a relatively basic premise, with some ideas about faith and belief thrown in.
1. Nosferatu (December 25)
Robert Eggers burst onto the scene almost a decade ago with The Witch, and since then he’s moved away from traditional horror, at least to some extent, with such films as The Northman. Nosferatu seems like his return to the genre, though, and he’s chosen to adapt one of the foundational horror movies in the process.
Telling one of the original cinematic vampire stories, Nosferatu follows a woman living in the 19th century who is being stalked by the titular vampire. Featuring an incredible cast that includes Willem Defoe, Emma Corrin, Nicholas Hoult, and The Crow‘s Bill Skarsgård, Nosferatu may be heavily stylized, but it’s also likely to be pretty scary.