6 terrifying new shows and movies to see before Halloween

It’s October. The leaves are falling, the weather is cooling, and pop-up costume shops are opening on every corner. It’s Halloween season, and Hollywood knows you want to be scared round the clock. They’re obliging with a bunch of new shows and movies designed to chill you to the bone. The first couple are already here:

Monster: The Ed Gein Story

Streaming now on Netflix

The Monster series on Netflix focuses on a different true crime story each season: first, Jeffrey Dahmer; then, Lyle and Erik Menendez; and now, Ed Gein, played by Charlie Hunnam.

If you’re looking for a lurid horror story based on real events, you can’t do much better (or worse) than Ed Gein, an American serial killer who murdered at least two women in the 1950s. He also dug up corpses and used the skin to upholster his furniture, and at one point tried to create a “woman suit” he could wear to feel closer to his late mother.

If you enjoy this kind of stuff, all eight episodes are now streaming on Netflix. If not, maybe you’d rather seek out some of the many movies inspired by Gein’s tale, including Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Silence of the Lambs.

Good Boy

In theaters now

Good Boy is about a young man who moves into the isolated cabin where his grandfather died under strange circumstances. Obviously, the place is haunted, and pretty soon, the man is attacked by a mysterious entity. The gimmick is that we don’t see this through the man’s perspective, but through that of his dog, played by director Ben Leonberg’s real-life dog, Indy.

Originally, Good Boy was only going to get a limited release, but the idea of a horror movie with a dog as a main character caught on online, so now it’s being released everywhere. At a brisk 73 minutes, Good Boy is the most unique scare you’ll get all month.

Black Phone 2

In theaters October 17

The first Black Phone movie is about a serial killer known as the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) who kidnaps a teenager named Finney (Mason Thames). After using a mysterious black phone to communicate with the Grabber’s dead victims, Finney outsmarts the killer and seems to put him down for good…but this is a horror franchise, and the bad guy always come back.

Black Phone was based on a short story by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill, who also came up with the idea for the sequel. Black Phone was a surprise smash hit when it came out in 2022, and Black Phone 2 should do just as well, if not better. Early reviews are positive. The rest is up to you.

Frankenstein

In limited theaters on October 17, streaming on Netflix on November 7

On the same day as Black Phone 2, Netflix will release a new movie based on Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel Frankenstein; this time around, Oscar Isaac plays mad scientist Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi his Creature.

There have been a lot of Frankenstein movies over the years. The newest sticks very close to the book, with the Creature more of a vengeance-crazed emo kid than a mindless monster. The film is directed by Guillermo del Toro, the guy behind high-end creature features like Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, and The Shape of Water. With him in charge, you’re guaranteed a scary good time.

Frankenstein will be in select theaters on October 17; Netflix has an annoying habit of only giving their movies limited releases—it’s also doing this with Knives Out 3 the month after, out of fear that no one will watch on streaming. If you’re able to see Frankenstein on the big screen, have at it. If not, it’ll be streaming on Netflix three weeks later.

Talamasca: The Secret Order

Streaming on AMC+ and airing on AMC on October 26

One of the most underrated shows on TV right now is AMC’s Interview With The Vampire, based on the novel by Anne Rice. It’s scary, sexy, and successful enough that AMC has ordered a spinoff: Talamasca: The Secret Order.

While Interview With The Vampire is based directly on Rice’s books, Talamasca is merely inspired by them. The Talamasca is a secret society that keeps tabs on all things supernatural, including vampires, witches, and other supernatural entities. The show will follow Talamasca agents as they try to do their jobs without running afoul of the dark creatures they study.

Talamasca is the third show in what AMC is calling its “Immortal Universe,” based on the works of Anne Rice; AMC is also between seasons of a show based on the author’s Mayfair Witches novels. To be honest, so far, Interview With The Vampire is the only show in this group worth watching, and Talamasca feels a bit like an extension no one asked for. But I’m going to go with the Halloween spirit and keep an open mind.

IT: Welcome to Derry

Streaming on HBO Max October 26

Stephen King’s novel IT—about a sleepy Maine town haunted by a mysterious presence—has been creeping out readers since the ’80s and got a new wave of fans thanks to a pair of movies released in 2017 and 2019. But even with two films to work with, producers weren’t able to fit in everything from King’s massive novel, namely, a number of flashbacks that showed what IT was up to years before the main events of the story. Welcome to Derry will fill in those gaps.

The first season is set in the 1960s and will show how IT influenced an attack on a Black nightclub. The whole thing is based on a single chapter from King’s book, which would be a problem for any other book except this one. In fact, nine episodes might not be enough.

A lot of people from the movies are returning, including director Andy Muschietti and Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown. Add on a coat of HBO polish, and Welcome to Derry could be the horror event of the year.

Recommendations for the faint of heart

There’s no better time than October to indulge your desire to watch spine-tingling, creepy, or just flat-out gross horror content. But not everybody is into that kind of thing, which is fine. There are also plenty of movies out there that will give you that pleasant autumn vibe without the scares.

And if you choose to seek out something terrifying, have fun and don’t say we didn’t warn you.