Logan Skrzypek ‘27, Print Editor-in-Chief
The Halloween season is just around the corner once again, and with it comes an annual stride of up-and-coming blockbuster films heading to theaters near you. From slasher-thriller scares to films jam-packed with jumpscares that will likely make your popcorn fly across the theater, to bloody and intense stories that keep you on the edge of your seat, these new horror movies stir up ominousness and terror that helps to define the end of October’s spooky season.
Resident Evil:
Released on Sep. 18 by Columbia Pictures—in partnership with PlayStation Productions—, Resident Evil is the eighth movie-adaptation of the infamous Resident Evil video game series. This film served as a reboot of the franchise containing an original plot that morphs into its own standalone feature. The director, Zach Cregger, commented, “To try and shoehorn in any of those characters [from previous games or movies] would feel inorganic to this self-contained story.”
The plot revolves around a medical courier named Bryan—played by Austin Abrams—who agrees to a last-minute package delivery to a general hospital in Raccoon City, a metropolis surrounded by Colorado’s snowy mountains. Chaos unfolds as Bryan accidentally rams into a woman with his vehicle, where she appears to be possessed or mentally ill at a first glance. He equips himself with various weapons throughout the movie, such as a double-barrel shotgun and multiple pistols, in an attempt to kill off mutated animals and humans hindering his journey to the hospital. The intensity escalates as the mutations appear to be more gory and frightening, including a dog shooting tentacles out of its face, combinations of arms and legs rolling at a rapid pace, and hoards of zombie-like creatures seeking Bryan’s flesh.
As of early October, the film has garnered around $250 million worldwide, five times its planned budget. On the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes, a selection of 281 critics scored the film a 96 percent, targeting Resident Evil as the highest-grossing video game movie-adaptation in history and the highest scoring horror movie of 2026.
Other Mommy:
Other Mommy is a supernatural, psychological thriller directed by Rob Savage, released on Oct. 9. The film stars Jessica Chastain, as a mother who must do everything to protect her eight-year-old daughter Bela from a supernatural entity that is an identical clone of herself. The entity—a sinister, shape-shifting creature taking on the same likeness as Bela’s mother—invades Bela’s room to “enter herself into Bela’s heart” in order to avoid the aftermath of the lies her parents have been telling her for years. The conflict: Bela’s parents struggle to eliminate the monster whilst protecting their daughter from the demonic force that could possess her. However, a lot of key plot points remain up to the audience’s interpretation, including Bela’s inner thoughts and the clues to the lies her parents have been telling her.
Savage states that the movie contains over 50 jumpscares, averaging to one for every 1.6 minutes. He explained that, “They are not all traditional ‘quiet-quiet-loud’ noises. Instead, many rely on dread, set pieces, and ongoing paranoia about whether a character on screen is real or the entity.”
The film has gathered tons of fans before its release, due to the unique aspect of the amount of jumpscares and the concept of the plot not being replicated in horror films prior to Other Mommy. Junior Meredith Gateman commented, “When I was in the movie theater, I thought it was very scary and intriguing to go see. I liked how the trailer had tons of jumpscares, which made me want to see it even more.”
Clayface:
Clayface, a classic DC Comics supervillain who is one of Batman’s recurring enemies, is having a dedicated movie release in a new take on the character. Directed by James Watkins, in partnership with Warner Bros. Productions, Clayface stars Tom Rhys Harries as Matt Hagen (Clayface), an actor whose face is disfigured, turning into a scientist who transforms his body into clay. However, he begins to lose his sanity as he is unable to recognise the face he had before.
Hagen rises from a Gotham street kid to a Hollywood leading man, horribly disfigured by a local crime boss. Desperate to restore his appearance, Hagen seeks out cutting-edge treatment from a scientist. The procedure initially works, but goes wrong after his flesh starts to melt, warping his grip on reality and morphing him into the monstrous villain known as Clayface. The film is heavily influenced by the rise of body horror in media, which is the showcase of morphing bodies and disturbing imagery of body parts to influence a take on the horror genre. Set to release on Oct. 23, Clayface takes advantage of the Halloween season as it interprets an iconic DC character into its own perplexing take on the horror genre.
Whether you are a fan of traditional horror films, or new takes on the genre that drag the eyes of movie lovers alike, the theaters have many horror movies in store for this Halloween season.
