September is the Almost Time. The first stirring of leaves. We watch them curl and desiccate and turn the world into a brief, firelit oil painting. We feel the heat and humidity pushed offstage. Somberness begins to spread, and mortality is in evidence all around us. Spooky season is here. It is the horror lover’s time to shine…usually in front of a movie screen.
I actually watch fewer horror films in September than most other months. Maybe you’re like me and you wait, you build anticipation, you wind yourself up until you flip cumbersome September’s calendar page and reveal the most sacred of months—October. Maybe there is a giddy lightness in you, a strange brew that feels half-nostalgia and half-hope. What movie will you watch on October first? What about the second? Because it is immersion time.
There’s something deeply special about watching scary movies in October. Part of it is the setting of fall, the closeness of Halloween, the colors of the world, the cozy comforting glow of everything. But I think a large part of it is the simple fact that so many others are watching horror films, too. The people who might not watch many outside of this holy month are joining us. There’s a real camaraderie there, and I feel it every year.Yes, I’m someone who titled his debut novel The October Film Haunt and built the story around a horror movie that’s deadly in more ways than one, so this is a subject that’s dear to my heart. I watch a lot of horror films (though not nearly as many as I would like), and as comforting as it is that October drifts back to us every year, it is also wonderful when a horror film franchise worms its way into our hearts. Horror sequels are known to suffer a decline in quality, that’s nothing new, but when our childhoods get tangled up in how we experience movies, we can forgive a lot. There are a lot of horror franchises that are like a slasher, coming back for us over and over, even when we run away from them. They know we want them, and even if the reason they keep churning out sequels is often crass and money-driven, well, we keep watching them, don’t we?
Some franchises have died. Halloween seems to (I emphasize seems to, of course) have put the iconic Michael Myers in his grave. The Paranormal Activity series, once great, sputtered to an underwhelming end (though I would watch another one, fool that I am). And I still stare wistfully out the window a little too often, dreaming of another installment in the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, this time done right. (The 2010 reboot has fallen between the cracks in history’s floor for a good reason.)
But here are five franchises that are still going, or at the very least, seem to have the potential to keep shambling into theaters every year or two.
Final Destination
Talk about comfort food. Death itself makes for the ultimate slasher villain, an invisible entity that targets those who disrupted its grand design by not dying when they were destined to. The Final Destination series is now six movies strong after this year’s Bloodlines, which cleverly took the formula in a new direction when one of its intended victims eluded Death for decades and had children—who also, of course, were never supposed to exist. With inventive Rube Goldberg machine-like kills that are sometimes gruesome, sometimes just plain fun, and always worth the price of admission, I love this series, even when one of the movies itself doesn’t hold up.
The Conjuring
The universe of The Conjuring has spread like a stain to encompass nine films, four of which are official Conjuring stories feature Ed and Lorraine Warren’s paranormal investigations that are sorta kinda based on the real Warrens’ lives. Annabelle the doll has three movies of its own, and the Nun, first introduced in The Conjuring 2, has a pair of movies all to herself. I personally feel that the series is hit or miss, but nearly all the movies are worth watching, especially for the casual horror fan. The recently released The Conjuring: Last Rites is supposedly the final film, but a television series is already in development at HBO Max.
The Exorcist
One of the greatest horror films of all time and a cultural phenomenon in its own right, 1973’s The Exorcist (directed by William Friedkin) hasn’t exactly had a stellar reputation as it slowly expanded into a franchise over the decades. Exorcist II: The Heretic chose to ignore the sequel to William Peter Blatty’s novel (titled Legion) and focus on Regan MacNeil, the possessed girl in the original film, instead. It’s a misguided film that isn’t without its merits but certainly nowhere near great. The Exorcist III, however, is one of my favorite horror movies. Blatty got to not only adapt his novel Legion but also directed it himself, and though it’s disjointed at times, it has some truly incredible scenes. Worth watching and rewatching for the hallway scene alone.
Prequels and reboots followed, none of which were stellar, and 2023’s The Exorcist: Believer had me excited until I actually saw it. Mike Flanagan (of Doctor Sleep and The Life of Chuck fame) is behind the new installment coming out in 2026. I will tentatively get my chills ready for it.
Hell House LLC
I’m a huge found-footage fan and will watch almost anything in this subgenre. The first Hell House LLC (2015, directed by Stephen Cognetti) was a very solid beginning for what has pretty quickly become a beloved staple in the indie horror world. Now five movies deep and treading beyond the haunted house attraction that the first three entries focused on, the franchise is known for avoiding the retread feeling that often comes with found footage storytelling. Though this year’s Hell House LLC: Lineage is said to be the closing chapter, I’m including these movies here because I can sense another story flickering inside a grimy video camera somewhere.
Scream
Last but the opposite of least is the Scream series, my favorite on this list. Sidney Prescott is also my #1 final girl of all time. A Nightmare on Elm Street is my most beloved single slasher film, endlessly rewatchable (with Nancy Thompson a close second or third on the Final Girl List). The mind of its creator, Wes Craven, had an often brilliant, almost always fun career after that seismic start, and it largely culminated with Scream in 1996. The seventh Freddy Krueger movie, 1994’s Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, was the original meta-horror film, in my opinion, and it paved the way to the mystery-slasher subgenre of Scream and a dozen copycats in the 1990s. I can watch all six movies (but maybe not the spinoff TV series) back to back and then do it again the following year.
New filmmakers took over with the fifth movie following Craven’s death. Though they haven’t treated Neve Campbell—the fierce, beating heart of the entire series as Sidney Prescott—as well as they should, they did make some pretty great sequels that kept Ghostface’s hunting knife embedded in the zeitgeist. And as the seventh entry approaches early in 2026, it remains to be seen how the firing of Melissa Barrera, the related departure of Jenna Ortega, and the subsequent recentering of Sidney will play out. The installments have been getting meaner, crueler, more cynical of late, but they are still my north star for now.
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