13 new horror movies to give you nightmares this Halloween

Want to exorcize — sorry, exercise — your right to watch some horror movies this Halloween season? Here are 13 new films guaranteed to have you checking under your bed before you go to sleep.

The Nun II

Taissa Farmiga reprises her role from 2018's The Nun as Sister Irene, whose investigation of a priest's death leads our heroine to her old pal, the now-possessed Maurice, played by Jonas Bloquet. Director Michael Chaves explains that the film "follows the two stories of Irene, as she's trying to track down Maurice, and Maurice, who's now settled down, [is] this unwitting host to the Nun, and working in this boarding school in France. It's these parallel stories as they build and collide together."

Chaves shot more footage, with additional mayhem, after test screenings of his horror sequel. "People wanted more violence," says the director. "There was already a good degree of violence and gore in the movie, but people wanted more of it. So, we did a little bit of additional photography and we ramped that up."

The Nun II is in theaters now.

Saw X

Con artists make the grave mistake of pretending they can cure the brain cancer of Tobin Bell's engineer and torture trap-enthusiast John Kramer, a.k.a. Jigsaw, in Saw X, which returns the franchise to familiar ground after 2021's Chris Rock-starring Spiral. Set between the events of 2004's James Wan-directed Saw and the following year's Saw II, the ten-quel costars fan favorite Shawnee Smith as Jigsaw's similarly unhinged helper Amanda. "She's a character that the fans absolutely adore and so it seemed natural to have the two of them together again," says producer Oren Koules.

Saw X is in theaters now.

No One Will Save You

Writer-director Brian Duffield's alien invasion movie is deliberately short of dialogue but thrillingly long on scares as Kaitlyn Dever's heroine fights extraterrestrials at her remote home. Duffield explains that he came up with the idea of the movie being speechless pretty late in the game. "I knew there was a scene where Kaitlyn was going to try to get help at a police station," he recalls. "I wrote that scene and subsequent scenes of Brynn having a breakdown because no one would help her. Then I realized, I don't think she's talked in this movie yet. And sure enough, she had not." The director decided to continue not having Brynn speak. "Most of the movie there's not really a good reason for her to talk because she's trying so hard to not make a sound," Duffield continues. "She's not going to say, 'It's an alien in my house!' Also, when you have Kaitlyn Dever, she doesn't need to say anything. She can monologue with her eyes in a really impressive way."

No One Will Save You is streaming on Hulu.

It Lives Inside

Megan Suri from the Netflix comedy series Never Have I Ever plays Sam, a high schooler keen to reject her Indian heritage who accidentally unleashes a demonic spirit. The cast of Bishal Dutta's skilled directorial debut also includes Neeru Bajwa, Mohana Krishnan, and Get Out actress Betty Gabriel who plays one of Sam's teachers.

It Lives Inside is in theaters now.

The Exorcist: Believer

The first Exorcist film in almost two decades stars Olivia O'Neill and Lidya Jewett as demonically-possessed young friends, Leslie Odom Jr. as the father of Jewett's character, and the great Ann Dowd as a nurse. Director David Gordon Green also convinced Oscar winner Ellen Burstyn to reprise her iconic role of Chris MacNeil for the first time since the late William Friedkin's original 1973 shocker.

"Her character ended up becoming fascinated by exorcism and studying the rites and rituals of possession throughout culture," Green says of MacNeil's life following the events depicted in Friedkin's movie. "[She] became a bit of an expert. Not an exorcist herself, but renowned for the books that she's written."

The Exorcist: Believer opens Oct. 6 in theaters.

When Evil Lurks

Director Demián Rugna's supernatural shocker Terrified became an instant horror classic when it debuted in 2017, and the Argentinian filmmaker may have actually bested himself with his new film, a tale of demonic possession like no other. This is a film not to be spoiled, so let's just say that the early sequence in which farmhouse-dwelling brothers Pedro (Ezequiel Rodríguez) and Jimmy (Demián Salomón) come across a pair of severed legs is among the movie's least disturbing.

When Evil Lurks opens Oct. 6 in theaters and premieres Oct. 27 on Shudder.

V/H/S/85

The found footage horror anthology franchise presses play on another entry with tales about a camping trip that goes horribly wrong, a family reunion that goes horribly wrong, and a murder investigation that goes delightfully right (okay, just kidding — that goes horribly wrong too). Filmmakers this time around include David Bruckner (the recent Hellraiser reboot), Scott Derrickson (Doctor Strange, The Black Phone), and Gigi Saul Guerrero (The Purge TV show).

V/H/S/85 premieres Oct. 6 on Shudder.

Totally Killer

Michael Myers meets Marty McFly (well, sort of) in this time-travel slasher-comedy from Always Be My Maybe director Nahnatchka Khan. Kiernan Shipka plays the teenage Jamie who accidentally travels back to 1987, the year three of her mother's friends were killed by the "Sweet Sixteen Killer."

Totally Killer premieres Oct. 6 on Prime Video.

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines

Jackson White stars in this '60s-set prequel as Jud Crandall, the character played by John Lithgow in 2019's adaptation of Stephen King's novel about why you shouldn't bring pets (or people!) back from the dead. Directed by Lindsey Anderson Beer, Pet Sematary: Bloodlines opens with White's Jud becoming alarmed by the behavior of his childhood friend Timmy Baterman (Jack Mulhern), a soldier who recently returned from serving in Vietnam. "Timmy is a boy who comes back from the war not exactly himself," says Beer, who also co-wrote the film's script. "That is because his father (David Duchovny) buried him in the 'sour ground' that is famous in Pet Sematary lore."

Pet Sematary: Bloodlines premieres Oct. 6 on Paramount+.

The Mill

Set in a near-future hyper-capitalist America, The Mill stars Get Out actor Lil Rel Howery as Joe, a rising star at Mallard, a mega-corporation whose market dominance surpasses Amazon and Apple combined. Devoted to his family and fixated on success, Joe's life turns into a nightmare when he wakes up in an open-air prison cell with no memory of how he got there. Surrounded by unexplained screams in the darkness and whispers from unseen cellmates, he begins to grapple with the chilling revelation: Mallard operates this prison and Joe is taking part in some "Advanced Career Training."

The Mill premieres Oct. 9 on Hulu.

Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls

Writer-director Andrew Bowser stars in this horror-comedy as hapless fast-food restaurant employee Marcus J. Trillbury, who is invited to take part in a demon-raising ritual at the abode of his hero Bartok the Great. If Onyx the Fortuitous... is definitely more comedy than horror movie the film can boast appearances by Re-Animator stars Barbara Crampton and Jeffrey Combs as well as Olivia Taylor Dudley from the TV show The Magicians.

Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls screens at Screamfest in Los Angeles Oct. 17 and opens Oct. 19 in theaters.

Five Nights at Freddy's

Josh Hutcherson engages in hunger games of a rather different stripe as a security guard named Mike who must battle animatronic mascots at an abandoned theme restaurant. "We went through an intensive process for this role, because he really anchors the whole film, and I talked to Josh early on and we just kept coming back to him," director Emma Tammi tells EW. "He had such a grasp for the character and gave Mike a real lived-in feeling, which was what the character needed. I'm excited for people to see Josh in a slightly new light." Based on the wildly popular video games, Five Nights at Freddy's also stars Matthew Lillard, Elizabeth Lail, and Piper Rubio.

Five Nights at Freddy's opens in theaters and streaming on Peacock Oct. 27.

Suitable Flesh

Heather Graham, Barbara Crampton, Johnathon Schaech, and Judah Lewis lead the cast of this body-swap tale. Inspired by an H.P. Lovecraft short story, Suitable Flesh is directed by Mayhem filmmaker Joe Lynch, who promises his story will be this Halloween season's horniest horror movie. "This will hopefully incite anger, maybe some sexy feels, maybe some laughter, maybe some thrills," he says. "I'm excited to see what the fallout's going to be like."

Suitable Flesh opens in theaters and on VOD Oct. 27.

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