This week marks the official start of fall, and that means the end-of-summer box office drought is about to come to an end. But if you’re wondering which films deserve your hard-earned money, we’ve come up with five theatrical movies that you need to watch in October.
For the month ahead, we’ve picked a horror flick that will hopefully revitalize The Exorcist franchise, as well as an adaptation of the horror video game series, Five Nights At Freddy’s. Additionally, Apple Studios is releasing Martin Scorsese’s next crime epic in theaters, while Netflix is also giving David Fincher’s new movie a short run as well. Beyond that, the month belongs to the Swifties. These are the five theatrical movies you can’t miss in October.
The Exorcist: Believer (October 6)
The Exorcist is getting a soft reboot from Blumhouse and Universal called The Exorcist: Believer. Essentially this movie is pretending that all of the other sequels never happened. The film starts when Angela Fielding (Lidya Jewett) and her friend, Katherine (Olivia Marcum), go missing. After they return, Angela and Katherine demonstrate disturbing signs of demonic possession.
Out of desperation, Angela’s father, Victor Fielding (Leslie Odom Jr.), tracks down Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), one of the few survivors from the original film. Chris’ daughter, Regan, fell prey to the same demon five decades ago. Now, Chris may be able to help two families save their daughters from a similar fate.
The Exorcist: Believer will open in theaters on Friday, October 6.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (October 13)
Taylor Swift just might be the biggest name in music right now, as exemplified by her Eras Tour which recently blew through Los Angeles with six sold-out shows at SoFi Stadium. Those dates in particular are important because that’s where Swift filmed her upcoming concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, which is coming to theaters in just a few weeks. The big movie studios made a major mistake by not giving Swift whatever terms she asked for because she went ahead and filmed this project through her own production company before lining up distribution from AMC and Cinemark.
Swift fans are the natural audience for this movie, which features songs from the singer’s 17-year career which she performs during elaborate stage productions. Swift really knows how to command a stage. Note that the major studios ran screaming from the second weekend of October because they know this film is going to dominate. The early presales suggest that The Eras Tour is going to have a $100 million-plus opening weekend.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour will open in theaters on Friday, October 13.
Killers of the Flower Moon (October 20)
Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon is going to be an awards-season contender. This true-crime epic takes place in the 1920s, shortly after the Osage tribe in Oklahoma discovers that they have become unimaginably wealthy thanks to the oil on their lands. Suddenly, members of the Osage are being murdered under very suspicious circumstances. That attracts the attention of the Bureau of Investigation, which sends Tom White (Jesse Plemons) to get to the bottom of the killings. Before long, White strongly suspects that cattleman William Hale (Robert De Niro) is behind the deadly conspiracy.
This leads to trouble for Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), the husband of an Osage woman, Mollie Burkhart (Lily Gladstone), and the nephew of Hale. Regardless of his wishes, Ernest is in the middle of this mess. And it’s unclear if his loyalty belongs to his wife or his uncle.
Killers of the Flower Moon will open in theaters on Friday, October 20.
Five Nights at Freddy’s (October 27)
The hit video game series, Five Nights At Freddy’s, is hitting theaters soon, courtesy of Blumhouse and Universal. During the ’80s, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza was a chain restaurant that famously featured musical performances from its animatronic mascots Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy. For now, we don’t know why the restaurant failed, or how the mascots became murderous creatures. But the film itself should shed some light on those questions.
Security guard Mike Schmidt (Josh Hutcherson) has no idea what he’s in for when he takes a job as an overnight security guard at an abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza location. Everything seems fine until just after midnight when the animatronics come to life. Unfortunately for Mike, he picked a bad time to bring his daughter, Abby Schmidt (Piper Rubio), to work. Because there’s nothing these fiends love more than using children for their evil plans.
Five Nights At Freddy’s will open in theaters on Friday, October 27. It will also be streaming on Peacock the same day.
The Killer (October 27)
Netflix’s The Killer is getting a short theatrical run at the end of October, and fans of director David Fincher are going to want to see this on the big screen while they can. In this adaptation of the French graphic novel of the same name, Michael Fassbender plays the unnamed killer, and he’s the consummate professional who takes his hits from his handler, Hodges (Charles Parnell). And in his quiet moments, the killer even has a girlfriend named Magdala (Sophie Charlotte).
When a hit goes wrong, the killer’s world collapses in on itself. His own organization sends two rival assassins, The Brute (Sala Baker) and The Expert (Tilda Swinton), to kill him. On top of everything else, there’s an international manhunt looking for the killer as well. Even the killer’s immense skills may not get him out of this emergency alive.
The Killer will open in theaters on Friday, October 27.
