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The second full week of October is upon us, and once again there’s no shortage of brand new horror being brought to the table on the road to the best day of the year: Halloween, of course!
In fact, this week is loaded with big returns for beloved horror franchises, including Child’s Play, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Halloween, and even Romero’s Day of the Dead.
Here’s everything new you can look forward to this week…
One of the biggest new releases of the week, Don Mancini’s original franchise returns with “Chucky,” which premieres on both SYFY and USA this Tuesday night, October 12th.
In the wake of the Child’s Play remake, the series brings us back to the original continuity of the franchise, with returning fan favorites featured alongside brand new faces.
Brad Dourif is back as Chucky and Jennifer Tilly is back as Tiffany in “Chucky,” which will continue the storylines from the *original* movies and their recent sequels, Curse and Cult of Chucky. Also returning are Fiona Dourif as Nica Pierce, Alex Vincent as Andy Barclay, and Christine Elise as Kyle. Devon Sawa (Final Destination, Hunter Hunter) also stars.
In the series, “After a vintage Chucky doll turns up at a suburban yard sale, an idyllic American town is thrown into chaos as a series of horrifying murders begin to expose the town’s hypocrisies and secrets. Meanwhile, the arrival of enemies — and allies — from Chucky’s past threatens to expose the truth behind the killings, as well as the demon doll’s untold origins as a seemingly ordinary child who somehow became this notorious monster.”
Francesco Giannini‘s indie horror movie Hall will also be released on Tuesday, coming to VOD.
In the film, scattered victims are thrust into the fight of their lives, when a hotel hallway is ravaged by a mysterious virus. You can watch the official trailer right here.
Netflix’s docuseries “The Movies That Made Us” returns with new episodes on Tuesday, and the reason we’re mentioning it here on BD is because the new season is very horror-heavy.
Season 3 premieres on October 12, and the films being covered include A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Aliens, RoboCop and Coming to America!
Moving on to Wednesday, October 13, Netflix’s brand new original Fever Dream (Distancia de Rescate) will begin streaming, directed by Claudia Llosa and based on the novel.
“A young woman lies dying far from home. A boy sits beside her. She is not his mother. He is not her child. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, an invisible threat, and the power and desperation of family.” Watch the trailer here.
The other release for this Wednesday is the new Disney Plus series “Just Beyond,” a kid-friendly nightmare that’s based on the same-titled graphic novels from R.L. Stine.
All eight episodes will begin streaming on Wednesday, October 13th.
Learn more and watch the trailer here.
A brand new Shudder Original, The Medium will be available on Thursday, October 14, the new film from director Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter). In this one…
“A documentary team follows Nim, a shaman based in Northern Thai, the Isan area, and encounters her niece Mink showing strange symptoms that seem to be of inheritance of shamanism. The team decides to follow Mink, hoping to capture the shaman lineage passing on to the next generation, but her bizarre behavior becomes more extreme.”
Watch the trailer for the Thai horror movie here.
And that brings us to Friday, October 15th, which is a MASSIVE day for horror. For starters, Halloween Kills will finally be released, both in theaters and at home on Peacock.
Michael Myers has of course survived the events of Halloween 2018, and this time around Laurie Strode will be joined by the entire town of Haddonfield to take him down… again.
Halloween Kills is a true franchise reunion, with several characters and cast members from John Carpenter’s original classic including Charles Cyphers returning as Leigh Brackett, Kyle Richards as Lindsey Wallace, and Nancy Stephens as Nurse Marion Chambers. As co-writer Danny McBride explains, it was about “finding ways to keep them involved with the story.”
The body count for this one, we hear, will be extremely high…
Another franchise returns this Friday with the premiere of Amazon’s new series “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” based on Lois Duncan’s novel and the 1990s slasher film.
Amazon’s “I Know What You Did Last Summer” is a modern take on the 1997 film that honors the same chilling premise – in a town full of secrets, a group of teenagers are stalked by a mysterious killer a year after a fatal accident on their graduation night.
And then there’s the SYFY series “Day of the Dead,” also premiering this Friday and inspired by/based on/set in the world of(?) George A. Romero’s horror classic of the same name.
“Day of the Dead” is the story of six strangers trying to survive the first 24 hours of an undead invasion. This ode to George A. Romero’s famous flesh-eaters reminds us that sometimes all it takes to bring people together is a horde of hungry zombies trying to rip them apart.
Steven Kostanski (The Void, Leprechaun Returns, Psycho Goreman) directed 4 episodes.
Rachel Nichols stars in Miles Doleac’s new movie Demigod, which will release in theaters and on VOD platforms Friday, October 15, 2021, courtesy of Gravitas Ventures.
“Nichols plays Robin, a woman who travels with her husband (Yohance Myles) to Germany’s Black Forest upon learning that her huntsman grandfather has died and left her all his worldly possessions. Upon arrival, a terrifying secret forces her to reckon with her family’s past and a mysterious ritual she thought was the stuff of fairy tales.”
If you missed the trailer, you can find it here.
The road to Hell is paved with a new anthology horror movie titled Grave Intentions, the final new release you can expect this coming Friday. The late Robert Forster stars.
In this anthology of chills, thrills, and kills, a practitioner of the magical arts teaches the basics of her craft. The most important lesson? You must be mindful of your intention. Five of her customers are about to learn this the hard way: A woman looking to change her luck gets ensnared in a dangerous game; In the quest for justice, a man is transformed into a monster; In an attempt to right a wrong, a woman rescues a stray cat; A father and son are torn apart when a joke goes too far; A young girl needs protection from the demons in her life.
Watch the trailer for Grave Intentions.
The fresh horror continues into the weekend with the SYFY premiere of the Slumber Party Massacre remake on Saturday, October 16, which all of us on BD recommend you check out.
Trace wrote in his review, “Suffice it to say that Slumber Party Massacre is not the film you think it’s going to be, and that’s what makes this such a pleasant surprise.”
Danishka Esterhazy (The Banana Splits Movie) directed this “contemporary twist-filled reimagining of the 1982 slasher cult classic.” In the new movie, “A slumber party turns into a bloodbath, as a psychotic serial killer wielding a power drill disrupts the fun.”
And then on Sunday, October 17th, “Fear the Walking Dead” returns to AMC for the premiere of the show’s seventh season. Here’s the full plot rundown for the new season…
“Teddy (John Glover) brought about his vision of “The End” when he detonated nuclear warheads across the Texas landscape, but it will be up to those who survived to decide what “The Beginning” will look like. And they’ll have to do it in a world devoid of light and hope, where the outside air is just as deadly as the walkers they face.”
Aisha Tyler will also appear in the new season.