October used to be the spookiest month of the year at the movies. Major studios and indie distributors alike would pack in as many horror titles as the release calendar could reasonably sustain, the genre would enjoy a few weeks of consistent, mainstream attention, and then it would be back to business as usual from November 1. But that dynamic is changing: Horror movies are becoming big, culture-defining hits at any time of year, and the industry has adapted accordingly.
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Audiences can now reasonably expect to enjoy Sinners over Easter, kick off the summer season with Obsession and Backrooms, and celebrate Christmas with Nosferatu. In terms of big-screen scares, October’s actually been a little light lately. ScreenRant‘s 31 Days of Horror may be coming to a close this Halloween night, but if Hollywood’s perfectly willing to let supply meet our growing demand, why let the fun stop here?
So, horror fans, this preview is for you! Here’s a look ahead at 12 movies coming your way over the next few months that will satisfy your spooky cravings in all manner of ways. SR has also procured some goodies for our cinematic trick-or-treaters: exclusive new images and quotes from some of the filmmakers!
The Last Temptation Of Becky
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In Theaters November 4
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Courtesy of Quiver Distribution</figure>
Hot on the heels of Halloween comes the latest installment in the Becky film series, which, thanks to its gory action and Lulu Wilson’s unhinged protagonist, has powered its way to cult status. Each movie pits Wilson against a different lovable actor playing against type, and in The Last Temptation of Becky, that mantle is passed to Neil Patrick Harris.
Harris plays General Wilhelm Reuss, the head of a family of undercover Nazis dead-set on bringing about a Fourth Reich. Becky, now a CIA agent following the events of the previous film, is sent to infiltrate their Polish inn, located at one of Hitler’s former bunkers. A great deal of pulpy violence follows.
Later in November, tucked in among the awards hopefuls and four-quadrant blockbusters, is a horror movie for people who prefer their costume dramas wild and bloody. Scream Queen Maika Monroe stars in Victorian Psycho as a governess who brings a touch of psychosis to a Victorian-era family, alongside a supporting cast that includes Jason Isaacs, Ruth Wilson, and Thomasin McKenzie. When asked to preview the kind of horror audiences should expect, director Zachary Wigon told ScreenRant that “Victorian Psycho is a demented, deranged tale of grotesquerie and madness.”
It’s a film for those who want to explore the past through a heavily warped, genre-bending lens. Dancing on the edge, the film bounces between psychological horror, arch satire and period drama – as it tells the story of Winifred Notty’s desperate attempt to finally belong.
It’s a film for those who want to explore the past through a heavily warped, genre-bending lens. Dancing on the edge, the film bounces between psychological horror, arch satire and period drama – as it tells the story of Winifred Notty’s desperate attempt to finally belong.
The Host
Re-Releasing In Theaters November 20
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Thanks to a special 20th anniversary re-release, American audiences have the opportunity to see one of the 21st Century’s best creature features on the big screen – and in newly remastered 4K, too. Years before Parasite took the Oscars by storm, South Korean writer-director Bong Joon Ho made a huge splash with The Host, which became the highest-grossing Korean film ever upon its release in 2006.
Set in Seoul, the movie stars Song Kang-ho as a man whose daughter is snatched up by a monster living in the Han River. Alongside his father, brother, and sister, he must try and make his way through the chaos of the government’s response to the creature to save her. It’s as singular as any of Bong’s films, at once thrilling, funny, and cutting. Plus, audiences will also get to see a new conversation about The Host between Bong and fellow filmmaker Edgar Wright being released alongside it.
After his remake of Nosferatu found great success when it released on Christmas Day 2024, writer-director Robert Eggers is back this December 25 with another period horror film, this time tackling a different classic monster. Set in early-1300s England, Werwulfstars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, seen in ScreenRant‘s exclusive new look at the movie above, as a character known only (and perhaps deceivingly) as Man.
Eggers has reteamed with several of his regular collaborators to tell this tale of a town beset by a vicious beast. Alongside Taylor-Johnson, the cast sees the returns of Lily-Rose Depp, Ralph Ineson, Katie Dickie, and Willem Dafoe, who plays a ruthless hunter sent by the king to deal with the wolves. The script (in Middle English, naturally) is co-written with Sjón, whom Eggers worked with on The Northman, and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke will once again be playing with light and shadow to craft uniquely chilling images.
Pendulum
In Theaters January 1
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If celebrating Christmas with horror isn’t quite enough for you, how about New Year’s Day? That’s when Pendulum, the new film from writer-director Mark Heyman, hits theaters nationwide. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Phoebe Dynevor play a couple who attend a new-age retreat in New Mexico, and suddenly find themselves contending with the methods of its leader, Jacki Weaver’s Ella Rose.
Heyman, a veteran writer and producer making his feature directorial debut, gave ScreenRant a hint of what audiences can expect from Pendulum:
The film is for folk horror fans, for anyone who’s ever been drawn to a retreat, a guru, or the promise that they could fix themselves, or simply for the cult-curious. It begins in the stark beauty of the New Mexico desert then plunges the audience into a disturbing fever dream rooted in my own experience with the self-help world – a world where it can become impossible to tell what’s real, what we’ve been convinced is real, and what fears true belief can manifest.
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The film is for folk horror fans, for anyone who’s ever been drawn to a retreat, a guru, or the promise that they could fix themselves, or simply for the cult-curious. It begins in the stark beauty of the New Mexico desert then plunges the audience into a disturbing fever dream rooted in my own experience with the self-help world – a world where it can become impossible to tell what’s real, what we’ve been convinced is real, and what fears true belief can manifest.
In Theaters January 15
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Courtesy of Universal Pictures and Blumhouse</figure>
River picked up some healthy buzz when it premiered in TIFF 2026’s Midnight Madness section, and general audiences thankfully don’t have too long to wait. The debut of writer-director Joshua Giuliano, this slasher film stars two veteran final girls, Jane Levy and Jessica Rothe, and Max Mattern as three estranged siblings who travel to a remote river to spread their late father’s ashes. Unfortunately for them, when their boat breaks down, they discover they’re not alone.
In SR‘s exclusive new look at River, you can see Levy and Rothe’s characters fleeing from The Man, played by Dane DiLiegro. You may be familiar with the basketball player-turned-actor’s work as the Predator in Prey, which should give you a sense of the kind of fight our heroes are in for. Whether DiLiegro’s look here is scarier than his turn as an alien hunter remains to be seen.
Slayground
In Theaters January 29
File this one under horror-adjacent, though you’d be forgiven for expecting something scarier from Slayground. The latest project from filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier (Green Room, Rebel Ridge) is set around Halloween, centers on a haunted attraction, and features some gruesome murders. But the story is really more of a mystery-thriller in spooky clothing.
Cory Michael Smith stars as Michael, who was working at Slayground when it experienced what the trailer calls a “mass-casualty event” that leaves him with no memory of that fateful night. Bad news for him: Michael’s being treated as the prime suspect, and he needs to piece together what really happened before the manhunt to track him down catches up with him. Also in the cast are Chase Sui Wonders, Sophie Wilde, Imogen Poots, Stephen Root, and returning Saulnier mainstay Macon Blair.
Another period horror movie, this time taking audiences back to the 1980s. Lice, from first-time director Jonathan Bensimon, is set at a high school hit by a deadly parasite outbreak and placed under military lockdown. Trapped in the building, the students start to turn on each other.
The Lice cast includes some familiar faces. Emile Hirsch stars as the science teacher who takes it upon himself to investigate the parasites; Justin Long plays the school principal; and Kevin Connolly is the police detective trying to contain the outbreak from the outside.
M. Night Shyamalan is getting supernatural again with Remain, the product of a creative collaboration with author Nicholas Sparks. Officially described as a romantic thriller, the film stars Jake Gyllenhaal as an architect grieving his sister’s death and coming off treatment for acute depression, who takes a job in Cape Cod to try and start fresh. There, he meets and connects with Phoebe Dynevor’s Wren, who pulls him into a deadly local mystery.
Shyamalan thrillers come in many different flavors, and it’s hard to know what working together with a romance writer like Sparks will result in. But if the movie’s first trailer is any indication, audiences are in for an eerie experience next February.
In 2024, In a Violent Nature made waves as an intriguing new entry in the slasher canon, mixing brutal violence with an artful sensibility and largely following the perspective of the killer. Original writer-director Chris Nash has teamed up with co-director Nate Wilson for In a Violent Nature: Part 2, which sees Ry Barrett’s Johnny shift to terrorizing a summer camp. According to Nash, the sequel is all about building on the first film’s foundation in new, exciting ways.
“We received an incredible response to our take on a ‘traditional’ slasher film,” Nash told ScreenRant, “and with Part 2, we wanted to build on that by expanding Johnny’s world with new settings and characters. We’ve taken even bigger swings this time around, delivering something even more ambitious, and, most importantly, with plenty of the gory practical effect fans have come to expect.”
Nearly eight years after The Curse of La Llorona became a surprise box office hit, grossing over $123 million worldwide against a $9 million budget, a sequel is set to arrive in theaters. The Revenge of La Llorona features a mostly new cast and creative team, with Santiago Menghini taking over directorial duties from Michael Chaves. The only character confirmed to return is Raymond Cruz’s Rafael Olvera, the former priest who helped defeat the titular spirit in the previous film.
As part of the wider universe of The Conjuring movies, audiences can expect plenty of supernatural scares from The Revenge of La Llorona, though it’s hard to know how similar to the first film it will be. Curse overcame poor reviews on the way to its financial success, and in the right hands, that can be an opportunity to take an ambitious swing with the sequel. For a good example, look no further than this very franchise – David F. Sandberg’s Annabelle: Creation was an exciting (and much scarier) improvement on the first Annabelle. Here’s hoping Menghini’s vision proves similarly thrilling.
The Exorcist: Martyrs
In Theaters March 12
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Michele K. Short / Universal Pictures and Blumhouse</figure>
When intended trilogy starter The Exorcist: Believer didn’t perform as hoped, the keys to this storied horror franchise were handed to Mike Flanagan, who has written and directed an entirely different story. Scarlett Johansson stars in The Exorcist: Martyrs as an NYPD homicide detective, seen in SR‘s exclusive new image above surveying a crime scene, who became famous for catching the infamous, satanic serial killer Father Sunday. She witnesses his execution. Then, a new killer emerges with a similar M.O., leading her to an investigation that soon takes her beyond the confines of the mortal realm.
In his films and TV series, Flanagan has brought a full spectrum of tones to the horror genre, but anyone who’s seen The Haunting of Hill House and Doctor Sleep knows he can terrify with the best of them. Based on the first trailer for The Exorcist: Martyrs, audiences could be in for a bone-chilling time at the movies when this hits theaters in March.
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