Spooky season is just around the corner, which means many of us are already beginning to lock down our plans for Halloween, as well as the weeks leading up to it. Thankfully, there are a lot of options both on the big screen in the near future to get all of us in the proper mood. We’ve collected the most noteworthy horror and sci-fi films ranging from supernatural chillers to mystery thrillers for you to add to your calendar, each with a brand new exclusive image. Read on for our Fall Horror and Sci-Fi theatrical preview, and hop over to Rotten Tomatoes to see what's streaming.
THE NUN II
September 8
While 2018’s The Nun ultimately served as a prequel to the franchise-spawning The Conjuring, it’s not the last we’ll see of Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) and the haunting visage of the demon Valak (played by Bonnie Aarons). Set four years after The Nun, this sequel finds Irene at a boarding school in France, where she encounters Valak again and attempts to send him back to hell for good. Michael Chaves, who also directed the in-universe films The Curse of La Llorona and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, takes the reins here, with Jonas Bloquet returning to play Frenchie alongside newcomers Storm Reid and Anna Popplewell.
SATANIC HISPANICS
September 14
Horror geeks looking for a bit more variety in a single sitting will be happy to discover this festival darling of an anthology film with, as its title indicates, decidedly Latino flavor. Mike Mendez (Big Ass Spider!) kicks off the bookend story, which centers on the lone survivor (Efren Ramirez) of a gruesome massacre in El Paso, TX who is taken into custody by a pair of detectives. Know only as “The Traveler,” he regales the cops with a quartet of spine-tingling stories, all directed by Latin-American filmmakers with serious horror chops.
A HAUNTING IN VENICE
September 15
Kenneth Branagh’s third adaptation of an Agatha Christie classic (in this case, the 1969 novel Hallowe’en Party) admittedly isn’t exactly a horror film, but the mystery certainly leans into the supernatural and feels appropriate for the season. Detective extraordinaire Hercule Poirot (Branagh), now retired and living in Venice, reluctantly accepts an invitation to a séance, where a guest is murdered and he’s tasked with sussing out the truth. As expected, the film boasts an impressive ensemble cast that includes Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan, Kelly Reilly and recent Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh, among others.
THE CREATOR
September 29
Falling on the sci-fi side of the spectrum is this futuristic — albeit timely — action thriller about mankind’s battle against artificial intelligence. John David Washington stars as an ex-special forces soldier who is tasked with leading a team to hunt down and destroy a powerful AI that threatens the end of humanity, only to discover the AI has been created in the form of a young child. Co-writer and director Gareth Edwards cut his teeth on genre films like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and 2014’s Godzilla, and the cast includes names like Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson and Allison Janney.
SAW X
September 29
Taking a page out of other storied horror franchises that harkened back to their roots for a new installment, Saw X is a direct throughline between the original Saw and Saw II, as series villain John Kramer (Tobin Bell) seeks his grisly revenge against a group of medical scammers in Mexico who falsely promised a miracle treatment for his cancer. Shawnee Smith also returns to reprise her role as Jigsaw protégé Amanda Young, and she’s joined by Synnøve Macody Lund, Steven Brand and Michael Beach, while Saw VI and Saw 3D director Kevin Greutert takes on directorial duties.
THE EXORCIST: BELIEVER
October 6
After successfully bringing the Halloween franchise back to life with a new trilogy, David Gordon Green is hoping to do the same with The Exorcist, beginning with this new installment that is also intended to be the first of three films. Believer follows a widowed single father (Leslie Odom Jr.) whose daughter and her friend disappear in the woods one day, only to return and begin exhibiting some disturbing symptoms. Desperate for answers, he attempts to track down someone who has had similar experiences, namely Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn). Expectations are high for this one, due to Green’s previous horror credentials and Burstyn’s return to the franchise.
FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S
October 27
Video game adaptation Five Nights at Freddy’s might be the most anticipated horror offering of the season, considering how long the source material’s fans have been waiting for it. In development since 2015, the project really ramped up production once Blumhouse took over, and now its release is right around the corner. The story centers on a down-on-his-luck security guard (Josh Hutcherson) who takes the night shift at an abandoned pizza parlor, where he learns the animatronic mascots come to life at night and wreak murderous havoc. This is the sophomore solo effort from director Emma Tammi, and it co-stars genre fan favorite Matthew Lillard.
