10 Must-See Movies Hitting Cinemas This October – From ‘Primetime’ to ‘The Social Reckoning’

Alas, Hollywood couldn’t let the prescience of 2010’s The Social Network speak for itself, and is now showing all the ways in which David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin were right to cast the founding of Facebook in such sinister light. Jesse Eisenberg and Fincher aren’t returning, but Jeremy Strong is stepping in as Mark Zuckerberg, while Sorkin wrote the screenplay and directs this time. 

In cinemas Oct 9

‘A scuba diver searching for his father’s remains in the ocean is swallowed by a sperm whale,’ runs this survival thriller’s frankly awesome synopsis, ‘leaving him an hour to find a way to escape’. The source material, American genre writer Daniel Kraus’s 2023 novel, certainly commits, adding giant squid to this ‘127 Hours meets Moby Dick’ premise, which bodes well for whatever mammalian madness ensues. The budding Jonah here is played by Weapons standout Austin Abrams, with Josh Brolin as the dad from beyond the grave.

In cinemas Oct 16

The fantasy book by Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy and his wife Carson Ellis, which began development way back in 2011, finally makes its way to the big screen. Wildwood centers on two kids (voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee and Jacob Tremblay) who venture into a magical forest outside Portland to save one of their infant siblings. Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina and Tom Waits help make up the voice cast. 

In cinemas Oct 23

The path from British telly to the big screen is littered with David Brent: Life on the Roads, Dad’s Armys and (cough) Horrible Histories: The Movies. But the team behind the BBC’s massively popular supernatural series surely has too much comedy know-how to deliver a half-arsed spinoff, especially with all the original cast – Charlotte Ritchie, Lolly Adefope, Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas et al – all back to haunt their creaky old mansion afresh. October needs undemanding fun and silliness. They will deliver it.

In cinemas Oct 23

Jenna Ortega headlines this sci-fi film from director Taika Waititi (who adapted Kazuo Ishiguro's novel with Mad Men's Dahvi Waller) as the Klara in question, a cheery android dubbed an Artificial Friend who is bought to be the companion of an ill young woman (played by Mia Tharia). The cast for this futuristic tale is pretty stacked, boasting Amy Adams, Steve Buscemi, Natasha Lyonne, Youth’s Aran Murphy and familiar Waititi face Rachel House.   

In cinemas Oct 23

It’s a damn good question, Ali. And in these very dumb times, who better to make sense of it all than Staines’ most famous dummy? In his directorial debut, Sacha Baron Cohen returns to the dim-witted interviewer that became a comedic sensation back in the turn of the century. This time around, Morgana Robinson plays his longtime squeeze, Julie, and, unlike Ali G Indahouse, the film is as a man-on-the-street mockumentary à la Borat. Booyakasha! 

In cinemas Oct 23

To which actor does 2026 belong? It could be Robert Pattinson or Anne Hathaway, or maybe one (or both) of Zendaya and Tom Holland. Chin-stroking Criterion types would plump for Sandra Hüller. The German actress went Hollywood with Project Hail Mary, but she’s back on arthouse turf this month in Paweł Pawlikowski’s stunning black-and-white road-trip film. Hüller plays the world-weary daughter of great German novelist Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) as the pair cross the Iron Curtain and grapple with political and family faultlines.

In cinemas Oct 23

Who’s up for watching Alexander Skarsgård as a sexy wicker man who's ‘very easy to swoon’ over, per his co-star Olivia Colman? Writers-directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson's upcoming romantic, comically-tinged fantasy apparently delivers exactly that, with Skarsgård (hot off his turn in the fantastic Pillion) playing the magical husband of Colman's smelly outcast of a fisherwoman. Peter Dinklage, Elizabeth Debicki, Marli Siu and the always welcome Richard E Grant also appear. 

In cinemas Oct 23

‘You see how this looks, right?’ Robert Pattinson is so viral right now, his characters are across the internet before the relevant film is even in cinemas. How this one looks is with fast-narrowing eyes at the bleak phenomenon that was Dateline NBC’s To Catch a Predator show in the mid-2000s – and specifically, its ambitious, pedophile-hunting host Chris Hansen. The TV reporter has been vocal in his thoughts on the film – hates it, basically – which probably means that Lance Oppenheim’s venemous media satire has hit the mark. 

In cinemas Oct 30

Ashley Walters’ directorial debut is informed by his own experiences in a young offenders institute as a younger man. What’s surprising, though, is how thoroughly the Top Boy and Adolescence actor-turned-filmmaker swerves prison flick clichés as he brings Nick Love’s compassionate screenplay to life in vibrant detail. The Long Walk’s Tut Nyuot is a teenager locked up with some proper wrong’uns and one right’un in Vladyslav Baliuk’s gentle Polish inmate in a volatile drama that never stops searching for hope.  

In cinemas Oct 30