HHalloween is now upon us and what better way to celebrate it than by enjoying a thrilling horror film? Fortunately, streaming platforms and cinemas are full of new titles to watch. Since the return of the Eighties slasher to stories inspired by true events, even crazy ones splatter-style reinterpretations of beloved characters from our childhood.
Halloween films: new horror films to watch now
Totally Killer on Prime Video
Nahnatchka Khan’s film tells of Sweet Sixteen Killer, a killer who returns to activity after 35 years just for Halloween night. Trying to escape him, 17-year-old Jamie (Kiernan Shipka) was catapulted in 1987, the year I am Sweet killed three people. Forced to settle into that decadeJamie finds himself teaming up with the teenage version of his mother to try and save her friends and not get stuck in the past. The point is that the hours available to return to the present are only seven.
Totally Killer it’s a perfect horror movie like Halloween, a comedy that resurrects the methods and clichés of the 80s slasher movies and is truly scary, and also an interesting reflection on generational changes. The protagonist is Kiernan Shipka – Sally in Mad Men and the star of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.
The conference on Netflix
A team building conference on the shores of Lake Kolarsjön, expense between encouragement and new ideas on a project that arouses emotions and contrasts, turns into a nightmare. The fault lies with a creepy masked figure who observes them and begins to hunt them as night falls. Not senselessly but with a precise plan of revenge.
Based on bestseller by Mats Strandbergknown as “Sweden’s Stephen King”, The conference it’s a delicious mix between criticism of contemporary society and classic slasher movie, an effective criticism of the modern distortions of the world of work.
A scene from the film “The Conference”. (Netflix)
There’s Nothing Out There on MUBI
Released in 1991this little cult by Rolfe Kanefsky (so far unreleased in Italy and to be discovered just for Halloween) anticipated many themes later seen in Scream. Three teenage couples go to a holiday home in the woods owned by Nick’s (John Carhart) family. Together with them is Mike (Craig Peck), a slightly nerdy and lonely teenager who loves horror films.
Arrived at your destination, Mike immediately notices that many strange things happen, very similar to many horror films he has seen, and becomes convinced that there is a monster in the woods. The friends ignore him, but later that night, an alien reptile attacks David and Janet. David is killed and Janet is knocked unconscious. Later, Mike saves another couple of friends from the monster, but the group doesn’t believe his story and locks him in the basement. Unfortunately the reptile strikes again and using Mike’s knowledge of horror films, the boys build a trap for the monster and lure him into an oven to kill him.
A scene from the movie “There’s Nothing Out There”. (MUBI)
The Enfield Poltergeist on Apple TV+ from October 27th
This is a four-part docu-series which reconstructs the famous case of the Enfield Poltergeist, one of the most well-known and talked about paranormal events in the United Kingdom.
The facts date back to the end of the Seventies, when in a council house in Enfield – a suburb of London – they were recorded strange supernatural phenomenawhich especially affected the two young members of the Hodgson family: Margaret, aged 13, and Janet, aged 11. Many occult professionals were interested in the case, some believing it to be truthfulothers questioning it and denouncing “fabrications” created specifically for the most curious.
The series thus returns to the story and in a decidedly new way: on the one hand he reconstructs the “cursed” house in the studio, on the other he uses 250 hours of original recordingsproduced at the time by paranormal investigator Maurice Grosse, together with testimonies and interviews with those who experienced that case first hand. The controversial case had already inspired fictional works such as the mockumentary Ghostwatch And The Conjuring 2. But she doesn’t stop arousing fears and hypotheses, even on Halloween.
Olivia Booth-Ford in a scene from “The Enfield Poltergeist”. (Apple TV+)
Five Nights at Freddy’s in cinemas from November 2nd
The film is an adaptation of the famous survival horror video game created in 2014. The story is Mike’s (Josh Hutcherson), who cares for his little sister Abby (Piper Rubio) and is haunted by the disappearance of his younger brother. Recently fired and desperate for work to maintain custody of Abby, Mike takes a job as a night security guard in a restaurant-playground closed for some time: the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. A place where nothing is as it seems.
And in which, together with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lai), a local police officer, Mike collides with the supernatural until he is dragged into an unspeakable nightmare. Or face it the disturbing animatronic mascots – no longer robots but bloodthirsty creatures who kill anyone still in the building after midnight. Unlike the CGI used by most studios, to animate the puppets director Emma Tanni chose to rely on the Muppet father (Jim Henson).
A scene from “Five Nights at Freddy’s”. (Blumhouse)
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey on Prime Video from October 27th
Christopher Robin is a child who, in a forest called “100 Acres”, meets various anthropomorphic creatures: Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit and Uffa.. He cares for and feeds them for much of his youth. Until, after high school, however, he abandons them to go to college. Alone and in order not to die of hunger, the friendly group turns into a pack of cannibals, pouncing on each other.
Five years later, having returned to the woods as an adult and with his girlfriend, Christopher discovers that Pooh and Piglet – the only survivors of the carnage – have become humanoid beings thirsty for death. Attacked and kidnapped, the couple is dragged into the darkest part of the forest. Objective: to be brutally tortured. What’s better for Halloween than Winnie embracing the dark side?
Movie Halloween: a scene from “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey”. (Jagged Edge Productions)
Saw in cinemas from October 25th
Halloween together with tenth chapter of the saga Saws with John Kramer, aka Jigsaw (Tobin Bell), and his deadly puzzles. This time the story takes place between the events of Saw I And Saw II with Kramer, suffering from terminal cancerwho goes to a hospital in Mexico after reading in a newspaper article that a miraculous experimental cure is being practiced there.
So he decides to leave to undergo an operation that could save his life but, after the operation, he discovers that the tumor was never removed and that the entire procedure is a colossal financial scam which exploits the desperation of the sick. The man thus matures the decision to use the time he has left to take revenge on the doctors who cheated him, and in true Jigsaw style begins a ruthless game with them. Where future victims are subjected to lethal puzzles and traps conceived by his deranged and brilliant mind.
A scene from the movie “Saw X”. (Eagle Pictures)
Nobody will save you on Disney+
This sci-fi thriller centers on the life of Brynn Adams (Kaitlyn Dever), a young woman sentenced to one life as a recluse to have unintentionally killed her best friend, Maude. The house is in fact the only place where he finds comfort and protection from the hostility of his neighbors.
Full of talent and creativity, Brynn is also full of hope and optimism, two qualities that allow her to move forward despite everything thanks to her profession as a seamstress. But something totally unexpected is about to upset his already troubled existence: one night some noises make her believe that someone is attempting a break-in. And indeed someone is penetrating her little world, but they are not human intruders, but rather an alien invasion.
Kaitlyn Dever in a scene from “No One Will Save You”. (Disney+)
Sister death on Netflix from October 28th
Horror movie prequel Veronicareleased in 2017 and again directed by Paco Plaza, Sister death And set in post-war Spain. It tells the story of Narcisa (Aria Bedmar), a young novice with supernatural powers. The girl reaches a former convent now transformed into a girls’ school, where she will become a teacher, but As the days pass, strange events and increasingly disturbing situations occur. Which torment the girl’s soul and push her to unravel the horrible tangle of all the secrets surrounding the structure and persecute her sisters.
Movie Halloween: a scene from “Sister Death”. (Netflix)
The Boogeyman on Disney+
Released in cinemas last June, the film is taken from the story The bogeyman written by the master of thrills Stephen King, a guarantee of a Halloween of terror. After his mother’s death, sisters Sadie (Sophie Thatcher) and Sawyer (Vivien Lyra Blair) begin to sense a disturbing presence in the house, but the father (Chris Messina) is too focused on his own grief to pay them any attention. One day, a mysterious man (Lester Billings) shows up at the door of the girls’ father’s psychotherapy officetelling of his story and the death of his three children.
From there on they will follow a series of events that demonstrate the presence of the so-called “boogeyman” or the boogeymanthe typical sinister figure who hides in the depths of dark wardrobes, or under the beds of the little ones.
This figure he lives with the incessant need to feed on the essence of the poor terrified souls and full of incessant moral problems. Sadie and Sawyer will fight and try to survive the boogeyman’s constant attacks but dad Will, however, believes in the two girls. And his skepticism risks destroying their family forever.
Vivien Lyra Blair in a scene from “The Boogeyman”. (Patti Perret/20th Century Studios)
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