Horror streaming guide: 12 new movies and shows to watch in October

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It’s October, and you can explore new horror shows now — no need to wait until Halloween. Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and other streaming services are putting horror front and center by offering new TV and movie originals that will make your skin crawl and your heart race.

In addition to those exclusives, streamers continue to raise scares with noteworthy films that have recently spooked audiences in theaters. The result is a terrifying assortment of serial killers, rituals, ghosts, zombies, monsters, killer clowns and more. If this sounds like a spooky party you’d like to attend, here’s what horrors are happening on streaming services.

Moby

Article (October 10, HBO Max)

Demi Moore stars in this wild body horror film as Elizabeth Sparkle, who is fired from her job on a fitness TV show and turns to a product called The Substance to create a different version of herself. The Substance received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture (it won for makeup and hairstyling), and now HBO Max subscribers will be able to watch it.

Paramount Plus

Wicked (October 10, Paramount Plus)

Paramount Plus will present the Dakota Fanning-led film in the US following its world premiere at Fantastic Fest. In Vicious, Fanning’s character endures a harrowing, relentless night after a stranger shows up with a mysterious box and tells her there are three things inside: something she needs, something she hates, and something she loves.

Sony pictures

I Know What You Did Last Summer (October 16, Netflix)

After covering up their role in a fatal car crash, a group of friends begin being stalked by a vengeful killer in this new installment of the I Know What You Did Last Summer series. Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt reprise their roles from the first two films. Note that only subscribers to Netflix’s ad-free plan in the US — not ad-supported plan customers — will be able to stream the slasher film due to licensing restrictions.

Brooke Palmer/Peacock

The Masked Devil: John Wayne Gacy (October 16, Peacock)

Based on Peacock’s 2021 documentary series of the same name, this eight-episode miniseries stars Michael Chernos as notorious serial killer John Wayne Gacy. The series will not show Gacy’s murders on screen and will present the victims’ stories through flashbacks. According to NBC.

Ben Blackall/Prime

Harlan Coben’s Lazarus (October 22, Prime Video)

Mystery and eerie atmosphere are the elements of Harlan Coben’s exciting new six-episode series, starring Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy.

Disney

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (October 22, Hulu)

Hulu has a remake of the 1992 psychological thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle on the spooky calendar. Ominous vibes abound in the new version, which stars regular horror stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Maika Monroe as a new suburban mother and nanny.

Netflix

Elixir (October 23, Netflix)

An upcoming Indonesian Netflix film unleashes zombie horrors after the owner of a herbal medicine company concocts an ominous new recipe.

Amazon MGM Studios

The Host (October 23, Prime Video)

Disturbing incidents occur at an all-girls reform school on a secluded island in this new Thai supernatural horror film.

Video screenshot by Meara Isenberg/CNET

It Is: Welcome to Derry (October 26, HBO Max)

If you’ve seen 2017’s It and 2019’s It: Chapter Two, Bill Skarsgard’s Pennywise needs no introduction. This new HBO prequel will transport viewers to Derry, Maine in the year 1962. Both Skarsgård and Andy Muschietti, director of the aforementioned It films, star in the terrifying series based on the Stephen King novel.

A24

Bring It Back (Now on HBO Max)

Bring Her Back is dark and unsettling, with creepy rituals and foster mothers, and has an eerily good 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. The A24 film has the same directors as 2022’s Talk to Me.

Netflix

Monster: The Ed Gein Story (now available on Netflix)

Season 3 of Netflix’s anthology series Monster revolves around notorious Wisconsin serial killer and grave robber Ed Gein. Whether you watch or read about the eight-episode series inspired by his life The true story of the killerPrepare to be disturbed.

Andscape

Things go from bad to worse for Kiara and Miles, who face the end of their marriage and must then try to survive supernatural forces in this Hulu original.





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