Britt Hayes

By sheer coincidence, four of this year’s most poignant and effective horror stories are thematically connected by their exploration of familial mental illness and inherited trauma — the concept of traumatic experiences so deeply affecting that they are passed down from parents to children, whether by nature or nurture (or, in some cases, both). This idea is the driving force behind every terrifying moment in Hereditary, The Haunting of Hill House, Sharp Objects, and Halloween, all of which also happen to have another curious thing in common: Miniature houses.

Blumhouse Productions is a name you’ve seen in front of numerous recent hit horror films and franchises, including The Purge, Get Out and this year’s Halloween. With over 70 titles released and another handful on the way, Blumhouse has become a genre film powerhouse — one that has yet to release a single horror film directed by a woman. CEO and founder Jason Blum has an explanation for that, and it sounds pretty ridiculous.

Black Panther broke a few box office records, became a massive worldwide hit, and generated a little Oscar buzz along the way — pretty much guaranteeing a sequel and making Ryan Coogler’s return to the director’s chair seem fairly likely. That likelihood just became a certainty, as Coogler has reportedly signed on to write and direct Black Panther 2 for Marvel.

Tom Cruise is going back down the highway to the danger zone, and this time he’s taking a motorcycle — or at least that’s the case in these new set photos from Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited sequel to the high-flying ’80s hit, in which Cruise reprises his iconic role as the eponymous Maverick.

YEAYUHH! The new trailer for MY MAN Aquaman is here — but it’s not just any old trailer. This super-sized five-minute extended sneak peek gives us new looks at Arthur Curry’s journey from being a son of the land and the sea (and Nicole Kidman, boom) to becoming the king of the ocean…but first, he has to bring Atlantis back to life (or something).

These movies are guaranteed to get you in the mood for Halloween.

Jonah Hill will be the first to tell you (repeatedly) that he’s spent the past 15 years in one of the best possible film schools, working with some of the most beloved writers and directors in America: Martin Scorsese, Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and Bennett Miller, to name a handful. It’s not surprising, then, that Hill’s directorial debut is handsomely-made and well-edited, or that it authentically captures a moment in time — 1995 to be exact — with a specificity that isn’t precious about its own nostalgia. Unfortunately, Mid90s isn’t anything you haven’t already seen numerous times before.

Luca Guadagnino‘s reincarnation of Dario Argento’s horror classic is a stunner with three (!) phenomenal performances from Tilda Swinton.

Let’s get this out of the way up front: Overlord is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a Cloverfield movie. There are monsters — both literal and figurative — and a sci-fi horror plot with a vague whiff of Lovecraft, but the latest film from J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot is entirely its own beast, for better or worse. Unfortunately in this case it’s the latter, as what was clearly intended to be a timely thriller fails to deliver on nearly every level.

Gareth Evans captivated audiences in 2011 with The Raid, a pulse-pounding action-thriller that showcased his fascination with Indonesian martial arts as well as an exceptional knack for editing and fight choreography. For his fifth feature, Apostle, the Welsh filmmaker ditches many of the elements with which his name has become synonymous in favor of a grim fable about a religious cult in the early 20th century. It’s solid enough, though you’d probably never suspect Evans directed it if his name wasn’t in the credits.