Top 20 Movies to see in Fall of 2018 (Part 2)!

Last Updated on August 3, 2021

September already? Good god, where the hell did the summer go? Oh well, as we’ve noted before, the one good thing about the autumn is the number of killer genre outings and Halloween time horror releases. And frankly, this year is so chock full of potential that we’re giving y’all a two-part preview of what you should check out on the big-screen between September and November. There’s a little of something for everyone, we’ve got highly anticipated remakes and reboots, gritty-indie international fare, Marvelous super-villains, schlocky Blumhouse action, and even a goddamn musical zom-com. The works!

Peep our Top 20 Genre Movies to See in the Fall of 2018 (Part 2) below and revisit Part 1 right here!

#1. HALLOWEEN (OCTOBER 19TH)

Now look at this ice cold motherf*cker right here. So insatiably thirsty for fresh warm blood, yet so nonchalantly nihilistic in the way he goes about it. How does Michael Myers do it? We shall find out when a 40-year sequel to John Carpenter’s seminal slasher mega-hit marauds theaters this October. Simply put, Michael Myers is a towering institution in the realm of horror cinema, a bona fide all-time top-5 horror villain, the kind of legend that warrants appointment viewing despite the lackluster recent entries, cash-grabbing rehashes and unneeded reboots. David Gordon Green was a much better director than he’s shown recently, and to be honest, the dudes behind Vice Principals (writers Jeff Fradley and Danny McBride) writing the script is pretty alarming to me. Still, Laurie Strode reckoning with her baleful brother 40 years later is must-see Halloween time terror!

#2. THE PREDATOR (SEPTEMBER 14TH)

I still don’t know how anyone can top the original PREDATOR. The more I see that flick over the years, the clearer it becomes that it’s an untouchable masterpiece. A prefect film. And yet, if anyone can recreate the critical and commercial success of its predecessor, perhaps it’s Shane Black, a man who actually starred in the original, thereby having intimate knowledge of what made the production such an enduring success. We know Black is a superb scribe, so he should at least have a stellar script to serve as a blueprint. A killer ensemble faces off against a race of genetically modified Super-Predators as they return to Earth in order to savagely subsume the human race. The fact Fred Dekker (NIGHT OF THE CREEPS, MONSTER SQUAD) helped Black pen the script warms our hearts. Now let’s hope THE PREDATOR can chill right that f*ck out!

#3. SUSPIRIA (NOVEMBER 2ND)

Truth be told, this is personally my most anticipated horror flick of the fall. Anyone who’s seen the hypnotically mortifying trailer knows CALL ME BY YOUR NAME director Luca Guadagnino is no fluke. This guy takes this shite seriously. And as a native Italian, you know he isn’t about to let SUSPIRIA, perhaps the most celebrated of all Italian horror joints (certainly among Dario Argento titles anyway), be sullied by a 40-year remake. This looks like what Ari Aster made with HEREDITARY, a horror movie for grown-ups, despite being set in a ballet-company for nubile dancers. You can tell Guadagnino is most concerned with making a great movie, not cashing in on a cheaply made PG-13 chiller. No, SUSPIRIA looks to be one of the most genuinely frightening horror films to come this fall!

#4. SERENITY (OCTOBER 19TH)

Anyone else become utterly enraptured by the mysteriously maddening theatrical trailer for SERENITY, the newest movie from LOCKE and REDEMPTION director Steven Knight? Shite’s got that twisty neo-noir tableau – love triangles, double-crosses, violent spouses, and a murder plot squared away by dumping a man’s body deep in the ocean so a school of unrelenting sharks can devour his body. I’m so there! McConaughey, Hathaway, Hounsou, Diane Lane (love her) and Jason Clarke round out the splendid cast of SERENITY, which, again, comes from the mastermind behind PEAKY BLINDERS, TABOO, THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER’S WEB, WORLD WAR Z 2, and on. This Knight cat is one of the hottest writers in town right now, and with SERENITY, his third feature as director could prove to be the charmer!

#5. CLIMAX (TBD)

Come now, when the certifiably insane Frenchman Gaspar Noe releases a new film, it becomes Top-5 must-see viewing as soon as it comes out. IRREVERSIBLE, ENTER THE VOID, LOVE, these are not just indelibly visual whirlwinds, they’re full-on sensory assaults of grand hallucinatory proportion. So, when is new film CLIMAX is dubbed a drama/horror/musical – a movie shot in 15 days from a 5-page script and completed in 4 months (from conception to editing) – and is still garnering damn near universal praise, you know we’re in good hands. And by good, let’s be clear. This will be a nightmarishly surreal bombardment of fragmentary dreams, memories, psychic scars and all the rest. I cannot wait!

#6. BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE (OCTOBER 5TH)

Damn, I really hope this isn’t another HOTEL ARTEMIS. Then again, I doubt it will be, as it comes via writer/director Drew Goddard in his first theatrical release since CABIN IN THE WOODS. We all loved the hell out of that one, right? Well, BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE looks like one of those quirkily-comedic but ultra-violent murder mysteries. Hell, anyone knows me knows my love of CLUE, so anything remotely resembling its simple premise (or that of IDENTITY) has won me over before it’s started. The cast though. Bridges, Hamm, Hemsworth, Offerman, young Pullman, Don Johnson’s daughter – good enough to order the Royale with cheese. The story: 7 strangers convene at a rundown hotel in Lake Tahoe and hash out their issues over the course of one night. Check me the f*ck in!

#7. SLICE (TBD)

Straight up, when A24 puts out a genre flick, you must pay attention. Indeed, the premiere distro-house is at it again this fall with the release of the highly anticipated and equally secretive SLICE, a horror-comedy about a werewolf slaughtering pizza delivery boys. Chance the Rapper and Zazie Beetz star in the Austin Vesely film, which promises to hit theaters sometime this fall. The marketing for the film has been pretty ingenious so far, with the cheeky tagline: “Dead. In 30 Minutes or Less” driving the point home. Hannibal Burress, Paul Scheer, Joe Keery, Y’lan Noel, and Chris Parnell round out the supporting cast of the R-rated joint.

#8. HOLD THE DARK (SEPTEMBER 28TH)

Given Jeremy Saulnier’s sterling track record thus far (MURDER PARTY, BLUE RUIN, GREEN ROOM), it only makes sense to expect a similar quality from HOLD THE DARK, the newest collaboration with longtime scribe Macon Blair (whose own directorial debut I DON’T FEEL AT HOME IN THIS PLACE ANYMORE was also quite exceptional) when it hits Netflix September 28th. Don’t front. What’s not to love about Jeffrey Wright squaring off with a pack of ravenous wolves in the frigid Alaskan snow? Wright plays Russell Core, a writer tasked with locating a missing six-year-old boy thought to be eaten alive by wolves in the wilderness. Alexander Skarsgaard, Riley Keough, James Badge Dale and Blair himself also star in the film, the impressive trailer for which recently dropped for the flick that will simultaneous release in theaters and Netflix the same day.

#9. OVERLORD (NOVEMBER 9TH)

War-horror films are a rare breed indeed, and the really good ones are even fewer and far between. That said, there’s something undeniably persuasive about OVERLORD, the J.J. Abrams produced horror-action flick he swears has nothing to do with the CLOVERFIELD universe. Sure! No matter, we’ve got a script by Billy Ray (THE HUNGR GAMES) and Mark L. Smith (THE REVENANT), with SON OF A GUN director Julius Avery returning to the well-tilled battlefield for his explosive newest outing. Wyatt Russell stars as an American soldier during D-Day, who is blitzed and blindsided by supernatural forces brought on by Nazi experimentation. Bokeem Woodbine, John Magaro, Jovan Adepo, and Pilou Asbaek level out the international cast.

#10. MANDY (SEPTEMBER 14TH)

No. No. I appreciate the concern, but no. This is not a selfie of me after losing an argument with my lady. Nor is it my mugshot after the Lions lose a game. Besides, my hairline is pissing on Papa Cage’s. This, in fact, is a still image from MANDY, one of the most universally lauded new horror flicks to come out this autumn. At 135 minutes, the movie comes from the deranged mind of Panos Cosmatos, whose directorial debut BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW I am still trying to decode. WTF! Anyway, in MANDY, Cage plays a man named Red Miller, whose love of his life was slaughtered by an insane religious sect. Old Red sets out to avenge his lover’s death, going to whatever violent lengths needed in order to serve up his bloody brand of recompense. Andrea Riseborough and Bill Duke (BIll Duke!) costar along with Linus Roache and Richard Brake.