The best new horror movies to watch this Halloween
- 31 Oct 2020
While going trick-or-treating and attending ghoulish get-togethers may seem like a scary prospect at the moment with a killer virus lurking, horror hounds can still make the most of Halloween by digging the latest scary movie offerings.
Spooky tales of witches ("The Witches" on HBO Max), more witches (Blumhouse's "The Craft: Legacy," Paramount's "Spell"), vampires ( Netflix charmer "Vampires vs. The Bronx") and even monsters in your children's iPad ( Focus Features' "Come Play") abound, but dig further and discover unexpected frights with these new and recent horror gems:.
So are you ready for a frightening fest?
‘His House’
Terror strikes beyond cheap jump scares in one of the best new horror movies of the Halloween season as an immigrant couple seeking asylum in the United Kingdom discovers a sinister presence lurking within the walls of their new home in Remi Weekes' haunting feature debut "His House."
‘Bad Hair’
Elle Lorraine stars in writer/director Justin Simien's ("Dear White People") hirsute horror-comedy as an aspiring VJ in 1989 Los Angeles who goes to desperate lengths to transform her looks and chase her dream career.
‘Synchronic’
A volatile new designer drug wreaks havoc in the lives of two New Orleans paramedics (Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan) in this time-travelling sci-fi horror from indie duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead ("Spring," "The Endless").
"May The Devil Take You Too"
The sequel to filmmaker Timo Tjahjanto's Indonesian haunted house pic "May The Devil Take You" serves up some of the most exciting "Evil Dead"-esque frights of the year.
‘Influenza’
Remember when "Parasite" won the Oscars in the beforetimes? Inject more Bong Joon Ho into your veins with "Influenza," his 28-minute 2004 short tracking a man through a series of escalating violence seen entirely via security camera footage.
‘Relic’
Filmmaker Natalie Erika James, writing her own experiences into her critically acclaimed debut feature, mines psychological and emotional dread from the tale of a mother, a daughter, and a dementia-suffering grandmother confronted with the inevitability of mortality as well as a mysterious black mould.
‘Hubie Halloween’
While the relatively wholesome yet inane delights of "Hubie Halloween" don't make up for the previous five comedies Adam Sandler unleashed on audiences in his ongoing and lucrative Netflix deal, it's the purest and most Halloween-y tale of any new spooky release of 2020 — a perfect flick to turn on while sipping hot chocolate and digging into the candy stash while dreaming of future Halloweens.