Shocktober starts in September this year thanks to Netflix, which is launching its fall slate of scary streamables on Friday the 28th. From classics like The Shining to brand new series like The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Netflix has so much spooky content coming that you won’t have to leave the physical and emotional comfort of your covers until spring. Here’s all the horror that’s new on the streaming service this month.
Hold the Dark (9/28)
There’s lots to be afraid of in Murder Party director Jeremy Sauliner’s violent new wilderness horror film set in rural Alaska, Hold the Dark. Jeffery Wright, a.k.a. Bernard from Westworld, is enlisted by a mother to hunt down the wolves that took her child. Based on this Netflix Original’s trailer, the wolves are pretty scary, but the woman’s husband (Alexander Skarsgård) might be the most terrifying part. See the trailer here.
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The Shining (10/1)
Stanley Kubrick’s classic horror film is so frightening that making it was “almost unbearable ” for actress Shelley Duvall. For some, this fact adds to Stanley Kubrick’s expertly-crafted atmosphere of paranoid, chilling horror and Jack Nicholson’s unhinged acting. For others, it may be a reason to skip.
Truth or Dare (10/3)
Truth or Dare is like It Follows or The Ring or Final Destination but instead of sex, videotape, and death’s sense of balance, contagious magical violence is spread by a deadly game of, as the title suggests, truth or dare. There’s gore, teens torturing each other, and lots of inventive bodily harm. This 2017 film is not to be confused with Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare, which has a nearly identical premise but came out in 2018.
Creeped Out (10/4)
This Netflix Original anthology series is like a horror version of Black Mirror, but for kids. Or maybe an adolescent Twilight Zone. Expect a moral by the end of these Jr. scaries, which tackle everything from controlling parents to cyberbullying to creepy old ladies: everything a young person has to fear in 2018.
The Haunting of Molly Hartley (10/4)
This 2008 occult thriller follows a girl who tries to navigate high school parties and romance while being haunted by murderous images of her mother—who happens to have sold Molly’s soul to the devil when she was young. The Haunting of Molly Hartley has a whopping 3-percent on Rotten Tomatoes, so expect the kind of movie that’s so bad it’s good.
Malevolent (10/5)
The summer of scam is bleeding into the fall with the Netflix Original Malevolent, which follows Angela (Florence Pugh) and Jackson (Ben Lloyd-Hughes), sibling con artists who offer their grieving marks the promise of talking to their dead relatives. Things get trippy when they’re invited to an orphanage where a bunch of young women died years ago. There’s not too much info about this title out yet, but the title suggests there are some ghosts who aren’t too happy with the living.
Apostle (10/12)
Gareth Evans, who wrote and directed the brutal Raid series is deep diving into cults with Netflix’s supernatural noir, Apostle. Thomas Richardson, played by Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey and the live-action Beauty and the Beast, is hunting for his disappeared sister on a pastoral island thoroughly under the thumb of a cult leader played to sinister perfection by Masters of Sex star Michael Sheen. There’s lots of action, gore, and torture in between what will likely be a blistering indictment of good people who do bad things for religious reasons. See the trailer here.
The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell (10/12)
Some people are too faint of heart for such scary movies, so Netflix also gave an October slot to scary talented baker Christine McConnell. She’s racked up over 260k followers on Instagram for her wicked sweets, like this Alien-themed pie, and made a bunch of Stranger Things candies for Valentine’s Day earlier this year. She’ll show you the dark magic behind her confounding confections in The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell.
The Haunting of Hill House (10/12)
Creepy children are even creepier when they’ve grown up and have to face the shit that made them creepy as kids. At least, that’s the premise of The Haunting of Hill House, Netflix’s original series based on Shirley Jackson’s novel about a family that lived in the most haunted house in America.
Haunted (10/19)
If made-up horror stories are too tame, Netflix is offering a suite of spine-chillers recounted by real folks, produced by the same people as The Purge and Lore. Haunted will satisfy viewers’ morbid curiosity with gruesome first-person tales, “from people who have witnessed horrifying, peculiar, extraordinary supernatural events and other unexplained phenomenons that continue to haunt them,” according to the Netflix description.
Castlevania: Season 2 (10/26)
Netflix’s spookiest anime show—except maybe Devilman: Crybaby—returns for a second season just days before Halloween. The Castlevania series follows the eternally young Dracula rampaging across 1400s Europe with an army of demons after his wife, the altruistic doctor Lisa Tepes, is burned at the stake for witchcraft by the Inquisition. A few super-powerful demon hunters are all that stand in between the Lord of Darkness and a human genocide—but it can be genuinely difficult to know whose side to be on. This season looks even bloodier and sexier than the last, as you can see in the trailer here.
The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (10/26)
Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa’s (Riverdale, Supergirl, Carrie) gritty Sabrina the Teenage Witch reboot might be the most anticipated horror event in Netflix’s fall lineup. Kiernen Shipka, a.k.a. the little daughter from Mad Men, plays the relatable 16-year-old half-human, half-witch Sabrina Spellman as she begins her magical education. Obviously, she’s also got to blend in at high school, which opens The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina up to plenty of potential for hijinks. But based on the trailer, the vibe seems closer to the Hereditary sort of magic than the occasionally musical sorcery of Melissa Joan Hart’s 90s adaptation of the Archie comic.
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