Although September 23 is the official start of fall this year, we’re not waiting around another week to give you our fall 2023 movie guide. That’s because the fall movie season began last weekend with A Haunting in Venice, and it’s going to extend to the end of November. Despite some strike-related delays for Dune: Part Two and Kraven the Hunter, there are a lot of intriguing films on the horizon that we can’t wait to see in theaters.
But our fall 2023 movie guide just wouldn’t be complete without a few streaming films as well, including The Killer (pictured above). Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV+ may have their eyes on Oscar gold by giving some of their movies limited theatrical releases. Thankfully, this will work out in favor of the cinema lovers who want to see these stories play out on the big screen. And we’re pleased to say that there’s something for almost every film fan in the guide below.
September
A Haunting in Venice (September 15)
Agatha Christie‘s Hercule Poirot (Kenneth Branagh) is enjoying retirement in A Haunting in Venice. The story is set two years after World War II, and Poirot seems content to return to anonymity. But he can’t turn down a request to expose a psychic, Joyce Reynolds (Michelle Yeoh), as a fraud during a séance.
Much to Poirot’s alarm, Reynolds is murdered shortly thereafter, and the list of potential suspects isn’t short. Poirot doesn’t believe in the supernatural or otherworldly things, but the strange events that follow suggest that he may have found himself in a real ghost story. Yet there may be something even more sinister at play.
A Haunting in Venice is now in theaters.
A Million Miles Away (September 15)
You won’t have to go far to enjoy A Million Miles Away, because this Amazon Studios original film has already landed on Prime Video. Michael Peña has the leading role as José Hernández, a man who had big dreams of rising above his humble beginnings in a rural Mexican village to find a way to become an astronaut.
This movie, one of many to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, is based on a true story, and it chronicles the trials and tribulations that Hernández faced before he achieved his goals and became a NASA flight engineer stationed on the International Space Station. And he wouldn’t have succeeded without the support of his family.
Watch A Million Miles Away on Prime Video.
The Expendables 4 (September 22)
Don’t expect to see too much of Sylvester Stallone in The Expendables 4. He will be reprising his role as Barney Ross from the first three Expendables films, but this movie is his way of handing off the franchise to his co-star, Jason Statham, who has portrayed Lee Christmas since the original installment. As seen in the trailer above, Ross sends Christmas on a new mission alongside their surviving friends Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren) and Toll Road (Randy Couture), as well as newcomer Easy Day (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson).
This time, Iko Uwais’ Suarto Rahmat is the villain, and he’s trying to provoke a nuclear war between America and Russia. The wild card in this story is Christmas’ girlfriend, Gina (Megan Fox), a CIA agent whose agenda may not fully line up with her boyfriend’s.
The Expendables 4 opens in theaters on Friday, September 22.
The Creator (September 29)
Director Gareth Edwards delivered one of the very best Star Wars movies in 2016 with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Now, after a seven-year absence from theaters, Edwards has returned with a new original film, The Creator. This movie takes place in a dark future where humanity has gone to war with artificial intelligence, and the conflict isn’t going well for mankind.
John David Washington stars in the film as Joshua, an ex-special forces agent who has a new mission: To find and kill the Creator, the enigmatic person who created the AI before he can unleash his new weapon which will end the war by rendering humans extinct. However, Joshua is taken aback when he discovers that the Creator’s ultimate weapon is an AI named Alfie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) who appears to be a human child.
The Creator opens in theaters on September 29.
Dumb Money (September 29)
If you know what a short squeeze is, then you should be able to appreciate Dumb Money‘s dramatization of the 2021 GameStop movement that really stuck it to the rich stockbrokers and hedge fund bros. The professional Wall Street traders placed large financial bets that GameStop’s stock would drop like a rock, so they “borrowed” that stock from brokers and sold it with the understanding that they would have to buy back the stock after a certain date with the expectation that they would spend less money to do so. Thanks to an army of armchair investors, GameStop’s stock price reached unimaginable highs and left the pro traders unable to easily meet their financial obligations to rebuy the stock without losing millions.
Keith Gill (The Batman‘s Paul Dano), Caroline Gill (Shailene Woodley), Kevin Gill (Pete Davidson), Jennifer Campbell (America Ferrera), and Marcus (Anthony Ramos) are among the amateur investors who briefly taste wealth and fortune. This is all very bad news for hedge fund owners like Steve Cohen (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Kenneth C. Griffin (Nick Offerman). Unfortunately, the hard lesson here is that the Wall Street game is rigged against the little guy, and a lot of those instant millionaires may be left with nothing at all.
Dumb Money opens in theaters on Friday, September 29.
Saw X (September 29)
Jigsaw lives! But only because the Saw filmmakers have decided that the only way to really bring Tobin Bell back as John Kramer in a leading role is to tell a previously unrevealed story that is set between the original film and Saw II. Saw X begins with Kramer facing his impending death from a seemingly inoperable brain tumor before Cecilia Pederson (Synnøve Macody Lund) gives him hope that her experimental procedure can save his life.
Too bad for Cecilia that her promises were empty lies and her Mexican medical facility was staffed by thieves and con artists instead of actual doctors and patients. After discovering that he has been conned, Kramer’s response is going to be pretty lethal when he forces Pederson and her team into some of Jigsaw’s deadliest traps to date. Jigsaw’s victims almost never make it out alive without physically maiming themselves. Pederson and Company may really deserve their brutal fates, but this movie won’t be for the squeamish.
Saw X opens in theaters on Friday, September 29.
October
The Exorcist: Believer (October 6)
Fifty years ago, Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair) was possessed by a demon in the original Exorcist. The subsequent sequels, two rival prequels, and even an Exorcist TV series weren’t able to recapture the absolute terror and sense of dread that The Exorcist had. But Blumhouse and Universal are trying to revitalize the franchise with The Exorcist: Believer, the first of three new sequels.
The Exorcist‘s Ellen Burstyn is reprising her role as Regan’s mother, Chris MacNeil, while Blair’s Regan is MIA or possibly dead in this sequel. Although Chris is no religious expert, she is called upon for help when two young girls are seemingly possessed by the same demon or demons that possessed Regan.
The Exorcist: Believer opens in theaters on Friday, October 6.
Foe (October 6)
Amazon Studios is behind Foe, an upcoming sci-fi film that will be sidestepping a direct release on Prime Video in favor of a theatrical run. Saoirse Ronan and Aftersun‘s Paul Mescal star as a married couple, Henrietta and Junior, respectively. The story is set in 2065, and it begins when a stranger named Terrance (Aaron Pierre) arrives on Henrietta and Junior’s farm with an intriguing offer for Junior to live and work on a space station for two years.
Since the offer specifically does not include Henrietta, Terrence suggests that an android duplicate of Junior will be created to give his wife companionship during his absence. But as Terrence gathers information on Junior to create the android, Henrietta’s jealous husband suspects that it’s actually Terrence who will be replacing him.
Foe opens in theaters on Friday, October 6.
Totally Killer (October 6)
Totally Killer is best described as a mix of Back to the Future and The Final Girls. Even the film’s trailer invites the Back to the Future comparison when Jamie (as played by Chilling Adventures of Sabrina star Kiernan Shipka) finds herself stuck nearly four decades in the past in 1987. For her entire life, Sabrina has heard about how her mother, Pam (Julie Bowen) lived through the Sweet Sixteen Killer’s rampage when she was a teenager. However, the killer somehow returns in 2023 and murders Pam in front of Jamie before she accidentally finds herself traveling back in time.
Much to Jamie’s surprise, her mother’s teenage counterpart (Olivia Holt) is extremely hostile towards her. But if Jamie wants to save her mother in the future, she has to figure out a way to stop the Sweet Sixteen Killer in the past.
Watch Totally Killer on Prime Video on October 6.
Killers of the Flower Moon (October 20)
Killers of the Flower Moon may or may not be Martin Scorsese’s final movie, but it looks like the acclaimed filmmaker has another crime epic on his hands. Scorsese’s frequent collaborators, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, have two of the leading roles in this real-life tale of terror, racism, and unimaginable greed.
William Hale (De Niro), one of the richest men in Osage County, appears to be offended by the very idea that the Osage tribe has become wealthy after oil was discovered on their land. That’s why Hale sets in motion a wide-ranging conspiracy to murder as many of the Osage as possible, because he wants to claim their land through his nephew, Ernest Burkhart (DiCaprio), who has married an Osage woman named Mollie (Lily Gladstone). Now, the big question is whether Ernest will be loyal to his wife or his uncle.
Killers of the Flower Moon opens in theaters on Friday, October 20.
Five Nights at Freddy’s (October 27)
If Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza is anything like the Chuck E. Cheese restaurants of the ’80s, then the games were fun but the pizza was awful. But at least the animatronic characters in Chuck E. Cheese didn’t come to life and kill people. That’s the central premise of Five Nights at Freddy’s, which is based on the best-selling horror video games.
Mike Schmidt (The Hunger Games‘ Josh Hutcherson) has no idea what he’s in for when he’s hired to be a night security guard at an abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza location. Mike also has the spectacularly bad idea of bringing his daughter, Abby Schmidt (Piper Rubio), to work simply because he couldn’t afford to hire a sitter. The murderous animatronics may happily kill Mike, but they need Abby for something even more insidious.
Five Nights at Freddy’s opens in theaters on Friday, October 27.
The Killer (October 27)
Netflix isn’t letting its next David Fincher movie go to waste. The Killer, which is based on the French graphic novel by Alexis “Matz” Nolent and artist Luc Jacamon, is one of the rare Netflix originals to get a theatrical release before its streaming debut. Michael Fassbender stars as the unnamed assassin whose sterling underworld reputation is tarnished “after a fateful near miss.”
Suddenly the titular killer is under attack by his own employers while he attempts to elude an international manhunt. Sala Baker and Tilda Swinton co-star as The Brute and The Expert, respectively, a pair of assassins who have been sent after Fassbender’s character. The rest of the cast includes Charles Parnell, Kerry O’Malley, Sophie Charlotte, Arliss Howard, Emiliano Pernía, and Gabriel Polanco.
The Killer opens in select theaters on Friday, October 27 before premiering on Netflix on November 10.
November
The Marvels (November 10)
Earlier this year, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania became the first non-pandemic MCU release that actually lost money in theaters. While Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was a big hit, the real stress test for the MCU brand is coming in November with The Marvels. Captain Marvel was a blockbuster in 2019 thanks in large part to its perceived connection to Avengers: Endgame. But there’s absolutely no guarantee that the follow-up will be able to match that success. Brie Larson is reprising her role as Carol Danvers for the sequel, but this time she has to share the spotlight with Kamala Khan (Iman Vellani) aka Ms. Marvel, and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris).
All three women have cosmic powers that have become tangled up with each other. So much so that they physically trade places if they even try to activate their superhuman abilities. There’s also some serious tension between Carol and Monica, while Kamala’s hero worship of Carol may not last long once she spends an extended amount of time with her idol. But if these three heroines don’t come together then they may all fall to a new alien threat.
The Marvels opens in theaters on Friday, November 10.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (November 17)
Rachel Zegler was one of the few bright spots in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, but she may have an even bigger breakout role in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Jennifer Lawrence became a superstar for playing Katniss Everdeen in the original Hunger Games films over a decade ago, so this franchise does have that tradition in place. Zegler is headlining this prequel story as Lucy Gray Baird, one of the reluctant conscripts for the 10th Hunger Games.
To survive the bloody fights to come, Lucy makes an alliance with Coriolanus “Coryo” Snow (Tom Blyth), the man who went on to become President of Panem during Katniss’ lifetime. And if Lucy doesn’t watch her back then she may learn the hard way why Snow can not be trusted.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes opens in theaters on Friday, November 17.
Next Goal Wins (November 17)
You may have heard of a previous movie called Next Goal Wins, which was a documentary that was released in 2014. Co-writer and director Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins is a dramatization of the documentary’s story about the American Samoa national football team and their goal to escape the stigma of being known as one of the weakest football teams in the world.
Coach Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) is hired to lead the American Samoa team to the previously out-of-reach goal of qualifying for the World Cup tournament. Given that this is an uplifting sports comedy, you can expect a lot of training sequences and wacky athletic team-building drills. The rest of the cast includes Oscar Kightley, Kaimana, David Fane, Rachel House, Beulah Koale, Will Arnett, and Elisabeth Moss.
Next Goal Wins opens in theaters on Friday, November 17.
Thanksgiving (November 17)
It looks like Thanksgiving is coming early this year, but you may want to avoid sitting down for the traditional turkey dinner with John Carver. This enigmatic serial killer has come to Plymouth, Massachusetts to literally carve his way through the town and its people. So far, we’re not even sure which cast member will portray Carver in the movie.
This project is based on the fake Thanksgiving trailer that director Eli Roth created for Grindhouse in 2007. Now that Thanksgiving is a real movie, Roth has lined up Patrick Dempsey, Addison Rae, Milo Manheim, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Nell Verlaque, Rick Hoffman, and Gina Gershon for the primary roles. And if this is anything like Roth’s previous horror movies, most of them will be chopped up into pieces by the time that the credits roll.
Thanksgiving opens in theaters on November 17.
Napoleon (November 22)
As much as we’d love to see ABBA’s Waterloo song on Napoleon‘s soundtrack, we suspect that this film might be too serious for that to work. Director Ridley Scott is taking viewers on a deep dive into the life of Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix), a French military leader who navigated the French Revolution and became the emperor of France before setting his sights on even larger conquests beyond France’s borders. Even after being deposed, Napoleon famously managed one last grasp at reclaiming his empire before his defeat at Waterloo as referenced by the ABBA song.
Vanessa Kirby costars as Napoleon’s wife, Empress Joséphine, alongside Tahar Rahim as Paul Barras, Ben Miles as Caulaincourt, Ludivine Sagnier as Thérésa Cabarrus, Matthew Needham as Lucien Bonaparte, Youssef Kerkour as Marshal Davout, Phil Cornwell as Sanson ‘The Bourreau’, Édouard Philipponnat as Tsar of Russia Alexander I, and Rupert Everett as Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. This film will eventually be on Apple TV+, but it’s getting a theatrical run first.
Napoleon opens in theaters on November 22.
Wish (November 22)
2023 marks the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney Pictures, and Wish is the perfect film to celebrate the occasion. Many of Disney’s previous movies have featured heroes and heroines wishing upon a star to change their lives for the better. This is the film where the wishing star itself comes to the forefront after a teenage girl named Asha (Ariana DeBose) makes a heartfelt wish to save the Kingdom of Rosas from its malevolent ruler, King Magnifico (Star Trek’s Chris Pine).
Asha’s wish is answered when a Star literally falls from the sky and accompanies her on her adventures. The Star can also grant wishes on Earth, which it does for Asha’s goat, Valentino (Alan Tudyk), who suddenly finds his voice thanks to the Star’s power. But it may not be enough for the trio to overcome the wishes that Magnifico has hoarded for himself.
Wish opens in theaters on November 22.
Saltburn (November 24)
The Banshees of Inisherin standout Barry Keoghan headlines Saltburn as Oliver Quick, a student at Oxford University who doesn’t fit in with his classmates and also has trouble making friends … with one exception: Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi). It turns out that Felix comes from a fabulously wealthy family of aristocrats, and he personally invites Oliver to spend his summer vacation on the family’s estate, Saltburn.
From there, Oliver’s life at Saltburn is like stepping into the past as Felix guides him through his family’s archaic social rituals. Rosamund Pike and Richard E. Grant co-star as Felix’s parents, Elsbeth and Sir James Catton, respectively. Alison Oliver plays Felix’s sister, Venetia Catton, alongside Carey Mulligan as Felix’s aunt, Pamela Catton, and Paul Rhys as the family butler, Duncan.
Saltburn opens in select theaters on November 24 before going wide on December 1.
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