As opposed to the traditional glut of horror movie releases in theaters during the month of October, most studios and streamers this year have decided to keep the gore at home. No less than nine horror features will be available for Video on Demand (VOD) or through streaming services this month, with only two wide releases finding their way to theaters in an attempt to scare up business. The biggest reason studios are running for their lives? Two words: Taylor Swift! The upcoming concert movie has created Bad Blood (Look What You Made Me Do, Swifties) by making a deal directly with AMC Theaters instead of the usual suspects like Universal Pictures. It’s already racking up more than $65 million in ticket sales weeks before its premiere. This caused several studios to push back releases so as not to compete with what is sure to be another culture-defining moment for the pop star, but also leaving several high-profile releases in a fight for their proverbial lives. Here’s a list of what’s coming to local Showplace Cinemas and AMC Theaters this month, but as always, check your local listings before heading out the door.
The Exorcist: Believer (October 6) – 50 years after the original traumatized an entire generation of moviegoers, the devil is at it again. This time, not one but two young girls (Lidya Jewett and Olivia O’Neill) become inexplicably possessed, with Ellen Burstyn (reprising her role as Chris MacNeil) brought in to save the day…and their souls. Fresh from successfully resuscitating Michael Meyers and the Halloween franchise with a trilogy of frightening features, director David Gordon Green takes the helm from legendary directors William Friedkin (The Exorcist) and John Boorman (The Exorcist II: The Heretic). If Green can scare up enough box office, could there be another trilogy in the works?
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (October 13) – Couldn’t get a ticket to The Eras Tour when it was making the rounds over the last year? Well, now you can! Clocking in at a reported running time of two hours and forty minutes, this concert film is sure to give everyone their $19.89 (see what they did there?) worth. Emmy award-winning director Sam Wrench captured Swift’s legendary performances for this once-in-a-generation concert film.
Killers of the Flower Moon (October 20) – Leonardo DiCaprio. Robert De Niro. Martin Scorsese. Need I say more? The two most iconic leading men to work with Scorsese throughout his career collide for the first time since 1993’s This Boy’s Life in this sprawling epic of greed and murder, set in 1920s Oklahoma at the height of the oil boom. Instead of focusing on the FBI’s efforts to investigate the killings, Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (Dune, Forrest Gump) refocused the narrative to chronicle the events from the Osage tribe’s perspective, with what is sure to be an award-worthy performance from Lily Gladstone (Certain Women) as DiCaprio’s wife Mollie Burkhart. Jessie Plemons (The Irishman, The Power of the Dog), John Lithgow (Bombshell, Interstellar), and last year’s Oscar Winner for Best Actor Brendan Frasier (The Whale) co-star. This is sure to be the release to kick off the 2023 awards season, and even at three hours and twenty-six minutes long, you won’t want to miss it.
Five Nights at Freddy’s (October 27) – Gen Z’s favorite animatronic nightmare is finally making the leap from cult video game success to the big screen. In this adaptation, a beleaguered security guard (Josh Hutcherson of The Hunger Games Trilogy) takes a job as the night watchman at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, a popular kid’s restaurant, only to find out that behind the games, prizes, and laughter lies a sinister secret. Will he find out what happened at Freddy’s, or will it be game over? Matthew Lillard (Scream, Scooby-Doo) and Mary Stuart Masterson (Fried Green Tomatoes) co-star, with Emma Tammi taking on the writer/director duties. Most importantly, horror legend Jason Blum (Insidious, Paranormal Activity, The Purge, Sinister, Get Out) produced what is sure to be another low-budget horror hit for production company Blumhouse.
