The Best New Horror to Watch This Halloween Season

When a blind medium’s twin sister is murdered, the world’s creepiest wooden mannequin—no, seriously, this thing is absolute nightmare fuel—becomes instrumental in her quest for revenge.

This Irish horror movie already has quite a buzz going; find out if it lives up to the hype by streaming now on Shudder.

From the demented mind of media mogul Ryan Murphy, who has already had immense success in the genre with hits like American Horror Story and Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, comes this grim new series about a cop. Played by Dahmer’s Niecy Nash, this cop teams with a gleefully morbid nun to solve a series of deeply gruesome murders.

It’s not exactly a romp—the tone falls somewhere between Seven and Longlegs on the dour scale—but you can always count on Murphy & Co. to take the story to places both surprising and disturbing.

Streaming now on Hulu and Disney+, with new episodes set to premiere throughout October.

Julia Garner stars in this stylish prequel to the 1968 classic Rosemary’s Baby, in which Mia Farrow portrays a woman who unwittingly becomes the mother of the Antichrist.

Here, the focus is on a previous victim marked for motherhood by the busybody-Satanists-next-door, led by Dianne Wiest in the iconic Ruth Gordon role. Stream it now on Paramount+.

Since the ‘80s, the makers of this long-running documentary series have understood that there’s nothing scarier than a true story — especially if there are loose ends involved.

These mysteries range from the morbid (murders, unexplained disappearances) to the supernatural (cryptid sightings, alien abductions), but they have one common thread: The ending has yet to be written.

Ready to try your hand at some amateur sleuthing? Four new episodes of the revived version of this classic show hit Netflix on October 2. 

Right off the bat, this film checks two major boxes—vampires and Stephen King adaptations.

If your October simply wouldn’t be complete without a little something from one of horror’s most celebrated masters, then you have to check out this latest on-screen adaptation of the novel that King has called one of his favorites.

And rest assured that writer-director Gary Dauberman has already proven his King adaptation bona fides: He also penned the massively popular Bill Skarsgård-starring It films.

Stream ‘Salem’s Lot on Max from October 3.

A family in 1930s Oklahoma is besieged by more than just the blinding dust storms that notoriously ravaged the region when the mother becomes convinced that the storms hide a sinister supernatural presence.

Featuring a cast of TV luminaries, including Sarah Paulson (American Horror Story, Ratched) and The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach, this tense psychological thriller debuts October 3rd on Hulu.

A young girl’s disappearance exposes a disturbing pattern of death and danger at Caddo Lake—a real-life Texas lake that has apparently been a hotbed of Bigfoot sightings since at least the 1960s.

No word yet on whether this particular film is ‘squatch-centric, but either way, it sounds unsettling.

Stream it October 10 on Max.

In 2022, Smile became a huge box office hit with one potent premise: that there is nothing more sinister than a smile.

Sure, it’s scary to watch someone, oh, drag a jagged shard of glass across their tender throat—but what if that horrifying gesture is accompanied by a mile-wide grin?

If your palms are sweating just thinking about it, this sequel promises even more happy-faced horrors than its predecessor.

Catch it in theaters on October 18.

The ‘80s revival is still going strong in horror, and this new series takes a comedic look at one of the decade’s signature suburban freakouts—a little phenomenon known as Satanic panic.

Yes, back in the ‘80s ordinary, everyday suburbanites were convinced that their friends and neighbors might be secret devil worshippers, taking part in occult rituals and engaging in animal—or maybe even human—sacrifice.

A high school metal band bites off more than they can chew when they decide to exploit the whole Satanism angle for a shot at rock stardom. 

Check it out on Peacock on October 18.

Based on the short of the same name that premiered as part of Huluween in 2018, this horror-comedy should be absolutely dripping with holiday atmosphere, given its premise about a vengeful killer pumpkin that traps a group of teens in a historical reenactment village on Halloween night.

Can they escape, or will they end up hollowed out and glowing on a porch somewhere, only to be unceremoniously smashed in the middle of the street by the time November dawns?

Stream Carved on Hulu starting October 21 to find out. 

After all that, perhaps you’re looking for spooky fare that’s a little lighter, perhaps even a touch more…romantic?

With shades of Beauty and the Beast and Lisa Frankenstein, this tale of a woman who falls for the monster in her closet could be just the ticket.

Starring Melissa Barrera (Scream, Abigail) and directed by Caroline Lindy in her feature debut, this horror-romcom is set to hit theaters on October 25.

Featured photo: Still from Oddity via IFC Films.