Top 10 Horror/Thrillers To See This Fall!

Last Updated on August 3, 2021

Sad I know, but as Labor Day approaches, it’s time we start thinking about life post-summer. A real bummer. Yet as much as we all despise packing away the swimsuits and sunscreen, remember, the end of summer movie season finally gives way for some gnarly genre joints. Movies for grown ups is how I like to describe the autumn movie going season, and thankfully for us horror heads, 2015 boasts a passel of promising pictures in that regard. Del Toro, Shyamalan, Roth, Bousman, Marshall…just a few old vets ready to unleash new efforts this year. And like you, we can’t wait!

Enough chatter friends, cop a peek at out Top 10 Horror/Thrillers To See This Fall!

#1. CRIMSON PEAK (OCTOBER 16TH)

That’s right y’all, the top of the mountain! After the somewhat dizzying mess of PACIFIC RIM, preeminent visualist Guillermo del Toro finally returns to the genre that subsumes the biggest portion of his heart: Gothic Horror! CRIMSON PEAK not only has the same sumptuous spectacle of del Toro’s PAN’S LABYRINTH, it also features an A-list roster including Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston and one of my favorite young actresses, Mia Wasikowska. Throw in the fact that Guillermo co-wrote the R-rated script about a lavish mansion that has a dark and sordid life of its own, and yeah, the peak soars above all!

#2. SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE (OCTOBER 30TH)

Okay, so maybe being on set to witness a gnarly climactic party sequence has a bit to do with my anticipation (stay posted for our set-visit write-up), but real shite, SCOUTS GUIDE TO THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE could be the sleeper horror hit of the fall. Not only is it an R-rated horror comedy, I can report first hand that it features almost entirely practical FX and a whole arsenal of never-seen-before DIY weaponry. Throwback shit! Better yet, the film was shot entirely on location, no phony sets, in some of L.A.’s most historical sites. Not to spoil anything, but get ready for an epic pool party sequence!

#3. KNOCK KNOCK (OCTOBER 9TH)

Say what now…two Eli Roth movies released in as many weeks? Wow. Any chance that means this dude is back at the forefront of horror moviemaking? Let’s hope so. Truthfully, we’ve been a bit hard on Roth in the past, but only out of our desire to see the man not only direct again, but get back to the kind of material that made his name in the first place. And despite casting his wife in his newest, KNOCK KNOCK looks to be the kind of small, simple, stripped down effort to get Roth back on track. Ah, who am I kidding, we just want to see those gals disrobe while torturing Keanu!

#4. THE GREEN INFERNO (SEPTEMBER 25TH)

Despite the Jack Sparrow lookalike cannibal seen up top, Eli Roth’s THE GREEN INFERNO has been on our radar too damn long to omit when it finally drops into theaters this September. Sure, the flick was completed way back in 2013 and is just now finding the light of day (never a good sign), but this one should go a long way in determining if Roth still has the directorial chops or if he’s merely better off shepherding international talent as a producer. As for the plot, much like CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, a group of white foreigners crash land in the heart of the Amazon jungle to find a hungry horde of natives.

#5. RINGS (NOVEMBER 13TH)

After 10 years of quietude from the wan, long haired Samara, the crustily decrepit ghost-girl finally makes a return with RINGS set to do the rounds this November. This time F. Javier Gutierrez is at the helm, marking only his second feature after 2008’s sci-fi thriller BEFORE THE FALL. Aimee Teegarden and Johny Galecki headline the flick scripted by Jacob Aaron Estes (MEAN CREEK) and Akiva Goldsman (I AM LEGEND). Little about the plot is known three months out, but suffice it to say a newfangled social media element will (or should) be incorporated into the updated RING saga.

#6. TALES OF HALLOWEEN (OCTOBER 16TH)

It’s no secret we love a good horror anthology around here, and given the cool indie genre filmmakers behind TALES OF HALLOWEEN, I’m declaring now this has the chance to eclipse recent such flicks as V/H/S and ABCs OF DEATH. Consider half of the talent behind the lens: Darren Lynn Bousman, Lucky McKee, Neil Marshall, Adam Gierasch (AUTOPSY) and Paul Solet (GRACE). Yup, them and five others each helm roughly a 10 minute short segment that, when spliced together, could be the sweetest, most decadent Halloween treat of the year!

#7. KRAMPUS (DECEMBER 4TH)

Yeah yeah yeah…so KRAMPUS is clearly a Christmas horror flick, but since it happens to open on the fall-side of the winter solstice, we’re including it here. Besides, what a gift to have such talented actors as Toni Collette and Adam Scott headlining a subverted yuletide terror! And even better perhaps is the fact TRICK OR TREAT director Michael Dougherty is back in the saddle for another holiday horror yarn. The story is a simple but delicious one. A demonic Santa lookalike is going around gorily punishing those who’ve been naughty.

#8. VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN (NOVEMBER 25TH)

I’m not sure there is a reason to have such faith in the major-budgeted studio horror flick VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN, outside the fact it stars James McAvoy and Danny Radcliffe as the demented doc and his scrupulous sidekick Igor. Oh, and that British director Paul McGuigan is at the reins. I really hope he brings the same verve and vigor of early works like GANGSTER NO. 1 and THE RECKONING. I mean, dude hasn’t done a feature since 2009s PUSH, instead spending the last 5 years in television. So not just the monster the infamous line refers to, if VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN is good, “It’s alive…alive!” is hopefully said about McGuigan’s movie career!

#9. BEFORE I WAKE (SEPTEMBER 25TH)

Only because we were pleasantly surprised by Mike Flanagan’s murderous mirror movie OCULUS, are we excited to see his follow up film BEFORE I WAKE. Sure it’s a PG-13 flick about a kid’s twisted nightmares, even flirting with subject from A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and Wes Craven’s other biblically titled MY SOUL TO TAKE, but any film with Thomas Jane and Dash Mihok can’t be ALL bad. Add Kate Bosworth and Annabeth Gish to the story of a young couple who adopt an orphan whose deleterious dreams become all too real in the flesh, and we should have some eye-opening horror!

#10. THE VISIT (SEPTEMBER 11TH)

In what clearly has a chance to surpass M. Night’s THE HAPPENING as a movie of unintelligible absurdity, the only difference in THE VISIT is that it is a knowing horror-comedy. Still, after seeing the trailer, the so-bad-it-must-be-seen sentiment remains intact. Props to Shymalan for going back to basics, paring down his cast and setting to tell a tale of sadistic grandparents who are fed up (or maybe just fed) with their young kin. Hopefully the humor is dark enough to compensate for the PG-13 rating.