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A Guide to New Horror Movies This Month

From a killer weave to vampires in the Bronx, new movies are here to keep Halloween frightful.

Elle Lorraine in “Bad Hair.”Credit...Tobin Yellan/Hulu

Sick of “The Exorcist?” This Halloween season, the number of new and noteworthy horror films will make your head spin.

What’s especially refreshing is how many of these new stories are by women and people of color, two groups whose voices have been stifled in the horror genre for too long. Not a big horror fan? Many of these movies are as funny as they are scary.

In select theaters

Brandon Cronenberg’s second feature is a sci-fi-horror hybrid about an assassin (Andrea Riseborough) who inhabits the bodies of other people to be incognito when she kills her targets. Her mission doesn’t go quite as planned. In his Times review, Glenn Kenny called the film “a shocking work that moves from disquieting to stressful with ruthless dispatch.”

In theaters and on demand

Sunita Mani and John Reynolds play hipsters battling an alien invasion in this low-budget horror-comedy survival film from the writer-directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson. Look elsewhere for a grisly creature feature — the punishing invaders in this movie are deceptively adorable, fuzzy orbs.

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Angela Bettis in “12 Hour Shift.”Credit...Matt Glass/Magnet Releasing

In theaters and on demand

This horror comedy of errors, written and directed by Brea Grant, is about an overworked nurse (Angela Bettis), an organ trafficking ring and a kidney that goes missing one night at an Arkansas hospital. In his Times review, Ben Kenigsberg calls the film an “exploitation splatter comedy” with a “stellar airhead routine” from Chloe Farnworth as an incompetent organ harvester.

October 8-11, with select films available until Oct. 14

Five genre festivals, including the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, collaborated on this new all-virtual lineup of movies and events. Highlights include the world premiere of Ryuhei Kitamura’s action-thriller “The Doorman,” starring Ruby Rose, and a “virtual fireside” with Nia DaCosta, the director of the coming “Candyman” reboot.

In virtual cinemas

Turkish horror films are under the radar in the United States. Here to remedy that is Orcun Behram’s grim thriller, set in a dystopian Turkey, about the caretaker of a brutalist apartment complex that the government has wired for surveillance. The film is as much a political allegory about threats to freedom of speech as it is a David Cronenberg-style creepfest.

On demand

The holidays go to hell in this mega-gory possession thriller directed by Adam Leader and Richard Oakes. Brutal and blood-soaked, “Hosts” is about a demonic entity that takes over the bodies of a young British couple, who then gruesomely terrorize their neighbors on Christmas Eve.

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Arthur Avenue isn’t what it used to be in “Vampires vs. the Bronx,” with Gregory Diaz IV, Gerald Jones III, Jaden Michael and Germar Terrell Gardner.Credit...Jon Pack/Netflix

On Netflix

Gentrification and its bloodsucking enablers are bad enough, but now the Bronx has to combat vampires too? That’s the timely premise behind this family-friendly horror comedy, directed by Osmany Rodriguez, about three kids who take up crucifixes and garlic to battle vampires stalking Arthur Avenue with bloodthirsty agendas.

In theaters and on demand

Jim Cummings wrote, directed and stars in this dark, droll horror comedy about a cop in a small mountain town who is on the hunt for a killer werewolf. Nestled in the mayhem is a surprisingly touching story about fatherhood. The film features the final screen performance by the Oscar-nominated actor Robert Forster, who died last year.

On Netflix

Steven Brill’s kid-friendly comedy stars Adam Sandler as Hubie Dubois, a big-hearted doofus who battles supernatural entities that threaten Halloween traditions in Salem, Mass. The starry cast also includes Kevin James, Kenan Thompson, Steve Buscemi and Maya Rudolph.

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Jacques Colimon and Madison Iseman in “Nocturne,” part of the “Welcome to the Blumhouse” series.Credit...Kevin Estrada/Amazon Studios

On Amazon Prime Oct. 13

Zu Quirke makes her feature film debut with this unsettling thriller set in the cutthroat world of classical music education. Sydney Sweeney plays a young pianist who has nightmarish visions after she finds a dead classmate’s notebook. “Nocturne” is one of four films out this month as part of “Welcome to the Blumhouse,” a new film series that highlights scary tales told by diverse casts and filmmakers.

On demand Oct. 16

A global pandemic, a besieged apartment complex and vicious zombies called “screamers”: That’s the ghoulish outline of Johnny Martin’s apocalyptic thriller starring Tyler Posey and Summer Spiro. Donald Sutherland plays an eccentric, isolated neighbor who may or may not be a savior.

On HBO Max Oct. 22

Originally scheduled for theaters, this screen adaptation of the beloved 1983 children’s book instead comes exclusively to HBO Max. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the film features Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Stanley Tucci, Kristin Chenoweth and the voice of Chris Rock in the story of a boy, his kindly grandmother and their plans to foil the diabolical plans of a coven of child-hating witches.

On Hulu Oct. 23

A nasty weave leaves terror in its tracks in Justin Simien’s horror satire, set in 1989 inside the world of music television. Elle Lorraine plays a young Black woman whose new expensive straight hair has demonic roots and sinister intentions. The fabulous supporting cast includes Vanessa Williams, Usher, Kelly Rowland, Laverne Cox and MC Lyte.

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From left, Zoey Luna, Gideon Adlon, Lovie Simone and Cailee Spaeny in “The Craft: Legacy.”Credit...Rafy Photography, via Sony Pictures

On demand Oct. 28

Zoe Lister-Jones wrote and directed this continuation of the popular 1996 teen horror fantasy about a coven at a Catholic high school. Cailee Spaeny, Lovie Simone, Gideon Adlon and Zoey Luna star as the teenage spell casters. Pam Grossman, a witch and host of “The Witch Wave” podcast, was hired as a consultant, so expect a script guided by legit witchery.

In theaters on Oct. 30

Gillian Jacobs and John Gallagher Jr. play parents who battle a malevolent presence that tries to attack their son via the child’s personal devices. Jacob Chase wrote and directed this tech-terror monster movie, based on his own creepy short film “Larry.”

A correction was made on 
Oct. 9, 2020

An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to the film "The Craft: Legacy" as a remake of "The Craft." It is a continuation of "The Craft."

How we handle corrections

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 3 of the New York edition with the headline: Here to Help; Six New Horror Movies Out This Month. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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