The 15 Most Exciting Movies To Look Out For This Fall

Despite major box office wins for films like The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day, this summer at the movies otherwise felt a little quiet. The projects that most assumed would be surefire successes — like, say, DC’s Supergirl, or The Mandalorian and Grogu — didn’t make nearly as big a splash as anticipated, making 2026 a subversive year for the world’s biggest franchises. And there’s sure to be more surprises as summer gives way to fall.

Blockbuster season may be reaching its end, but this year’s slate is heating up all the same. Superhero fans will get a bit of a lull until December, when Marvel returns with the latest Avengers film. Meanwhile, it’s a great time to be a fan of freaky horror fests, sticky psychological thrillers, and big performances not-so-subtly designed to put the Oscars on notice. Here are the 15 most exciting movies to keep on your radar this fall.

Onslaught

You can take the man out of The Guest, but you can’t take The Guest out of the man. Though director Adam Wingard has been making monster movies for the past five years, he still hasn’t forgotten the film that put him on the map. His latest film, Onslaught, is a stealthy sequel to The Guest, set in the same world where super-soldiers are trained up to be unstoppable murdering machines — it just so happens to tackle that tale from a more ambitious angle. Adria Arjona is a retired Army sniper who has to protect her young daughter from a squad of super-soldiers turned loose on the local population. Dan Stevens, who starred in The Guest, returns to this world (albeit under unrecognizable prosthetics) as the scientist responsible for these genetic experiments, adding a wild meta twist to what could be the season’s most exciting actioner.

Release date: Sept. 4, 2026

Hope

Alien invasion movies are back in a big way this year, and the weirdest of the bunch is finally set to hit theaters. After a mystifying debut at the Cannes Film Festival, Na Hong-jin’s Hope has been touted as the most “off the rails” thriller we’ll see this year. When an unidentified monster descends on Hope Harbor, a small village near the DMZ between South and North Korea, its ragtag residents are forced to band together against the unseen threat. The less that’s said about this first-contact story, the better — but it’s worth noting how much Na seems to revel in blood-soaked suspense and explosive, erratic action. As far as blockbusters go, Hope might stray a little far off the beaten path, but maybe that’s just what we need after so many glossy, big-budget films.

Release date: Sept. 9, 2026

Resident Evil

If Zach Cregger seemed like a good fit to helm the latest Resident Evil movie, it’s because he’s been stealthily paying tribute to the video game franchise for years now. With Barbarian and Weapons, the director expressed his affinity for grubby, gnarly body horror well enough — but this year, the floodgates will truly open. Cregger’s Resident Evil is set within the world of the games (its closest frame of reference is Resident Evil 2) but exists just outside of them. The film follows a hapless courier (Austin Abrams) as he heads into Raccoon City, totally oblivious to the fact that a mysterious outbreak has turned half the town into zombies. Sadly, Leon Kennedy won’t be around to save anyone, forcing our hero on a harrowing (and hilarious) journey to escape the biohazard before it’s too late.

Release date: Sept. 18, 2026

Primetime

Ask anyone about Robert Pattinson in 2026, and they’ll say he’s been on a generational (if meme-worthy) run. The actor hasn’t been idle in the years following his turn as the Dark Knight in Matt Reeves’ The Batman — after great performances in The Drama and The Odyssey, his hot streak shows no signs of slowing down. If anything, the best is still to come: This fall, just before appearing in Dune: Part Three, Pattinson will star as reporter Chris Hansen in Primetime. The A24 film might be the most fascinating true-crime thriller to date, as it follows Hansen’s rise to fame helming Dateline’s landmark series To Catch a Predator. If you’ve seen the documentary based on the same show, Predators, you know Hansen’s crusade might have done a bit of harm in its quest to clean up the streets. Primetime will dig even deeper into Hansen’s mind and motivations, dramatizing his rise and fall with an all-star cast and an equally stellar team behind the camera.

Release date: Sept. 25, 2026

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

It’s been a devastating few years for those eager to see Mahershala Ali’s take on Blade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Oscar-winning actor was attached to revive Marvel’s beloved Daywalker since 2019 and spent the better part of the 2020s trying to get a Blade reboot off the ground. After the departure of two directors, five screenwriters, and countless thrown-out concepts, Ali finally put the project to rest earlier this year. That we might not ever see his version of Blade is a disappointment that could have easily been prevented — but this fall we’ll get a major consolation prize in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother. The crime thriller unites Ali with Bassam Tariq, who was originally set to direct Blade, on an original tale about a hit man struggling to provide for his family after losing his wife. With costars like Giancarlo Esposito, John Cho, and Tramell Tillman, Your Mother might be the film we truly deserved instead of Blade. If nothing else, at least Ali will put his newfound sword skills to good use.

Release date: Sept. 25, 2026

Digger

If Tom Cruise never starred in anything other than Top Gun sequels and new Mission: Impossibles for the rest of his days, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. Those movies are great, and give the death-defying actor myriad reasons to tempt fate. That said, he’s also one of the greatest of his generation: It’s important to remember that he can actually hold his own in a “serious” drama. Digger, directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, casts Cruise as the most powerful man in the world — but that power has also, incidentally, thrown the world in abject peril. Somehow he caused a large iceberg to break away from its post in Greenland; now it’s headed for Europe, inciting a tsunami that could destroy the world. Digger has little time to reverse the damage he caused before it’s too late, but the path to redemption will likely be filled with the same twists and turns that made Iñárritu’s Birdman so unmissable.

Release date: Oct. 2, 2026

The Social Reckoning

Nobody asked for a “companion” to David Fincher’s The Social Network, but by Jove, we’re getting one anyway. Writer-director Aaron Sorkin insists that “it’s time to say more” about Facebook and its controversial founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and so he’s pulling double duty for The Social Reckoning. The follow-up explores the buildup and subsequent fallout of the “Facebook Files,” a tell-all published by The Wall Street Journal that aired out the platform’s harmful practices in 2021. Jeremy Strong takes the baton as late-fame Zuckerberg, so at the very least we know we’re getting a legendary performance out of the Succession alum.

Release date: Oct. 9, 2026

Street Fighter

Is 2026 sneakily the year of the fighting-game adaptations? This past spring, the Mortal Kombat franchise delivered its latest offering — and this fall, its fiercest rival, Street Fighter, will get its first live-action film in 30 years. This adaptation leans a great deal zanier than the Street Fighter we got in the ’90s, but therein lies its charm. From its sprawling cast (which includes Warrior’s Andrew Koji, wrestling superstars, and even a musician or two) to its candy-colored visuals, Kitao Sakurai’s Street Fighter is boasting plenty of style. As for substance, well... do we really need that from Street Fighter? This remake could be the turn-your-brain-off fun that’s largely been missing from theaters this year; bonus points if it also does justice to the games.

Release date: Oct. 16, 2026

Whalefall

Austin Abrams is the kind of actor who seemingly loves playing guys who get into Situations. He’s reteaming with Zach Cregger — the director who put him through the wringer in last year’s Weapons — for Resident Evil, but that’s just one of his ordeals this fall. Later comes Whalefall, a story that feels a bit more harrowing than a zombie outbreak, if only because it’s slightly more plausible. Abrams is Jay, an amateur deep-sea diver who heads into the ocean to search for his late father’s (Josh Brolin, another Weapons alum) remains. He gets much more than he bargained for when he’s caught in a scuffle between a giant squid and a hungry sperm whale. When the whale swallows the squid, Jay gets caught up with it; with only an hour of oxygen left in his tank, our hero has to scramble to escape from the belly of the whale... if that’s even possible.

Release date: Oct. 16, 2026

Clayface

Supergirl might not have met DC’s expectations at the box office this summer, but James Gunn and Peter Safran aren’t wavering from their overarching plan for the franchise — whatever that may be. Next up on the slate is the DCU’s wildest offering to date: a straight-up horror movie set in Gotham City, with one of Batman’s oldest villains taking the spotlight. Clayface traces the origins of Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harris), an acclaimed actor who turns to bleeding-edge science when his face is disfigured in an attack. Brilliant as the scientist (Naomi Ackie) treating him may be, her methods eventually turn him into something unrecognizable. With a script by Mike Flanagan and horror director James Watkins at the helm, Clayface will represent a first for DC in many intriguing ways.

Release date: Oct. 23, 2026

Klara and the Sun

Kazuo Ishiguro’s seminal sci-fi novel Klara and the Sun is kind of the perfect story for someone like Taika Waititi to adapt. The book follows the adventures of an “Artificial Friend” — one of many androids available for purchase in the dystopian near-future — who’s adopted by a domineering mother and her sickly daughter. As the strife between mom Chrissie and daughter Josie unfurls, Klara decides to ask the sun for help healing the family. A sweet fable unspools into something a little bleaker, and a lot more mature, than most might have expected. In a way, it’s a fitting companion to Waititi’s Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit, which used its prickly historical context to tell a fairly sweet coming-of-age story. Don’t let the cheeky Star Wars references fool you: Waititi’s Klara might be just as devastating as the book it’s based on. There may be some laughs in store, but Jenna Ortega’s naive AF will likely stay close to the source material to deliver the emotional gut punch fans are expecting.

Release date: Oct. 23, 2026

Wildwood

Laika has kept details about Wildwood tightly under wraps, but with its first trailer, we’ve got a few new reasons to get excited about the film. The stop-motion studio has touted Wildwood as its most ambitious story yet, and it’s easy to see why. The film follows Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee), a young girl who lives at the border of the titular forest. When her baby brother disappears, she sets off to rescue him, only to come face-to-face with Alexandra (Carey Mulligan), a mysterious woman who hails from that wild wood. Alexandra is mourning the loss of her young son — and from what we see in the Wildwood trailer, she might be using Prue’s brother to fill that void. Prue’s efforts to get him back will involve some dark magic, a sprawling battle, and plenty of stunning visuals from a studio that never fails to outdo itself.

Release date: Oct. 23, 2026

Godzilla Minus Zero

Godzilla might have been thwarted at the end of Godzilla Minus One, but it won’t be that easy to get rid of the classic monster. Director Takashi Yamazaki is back to pit his brave heroes against Godzilla once more, this time in Japan’s first film shot exclusively for IMAX screens. Godzilla Minus Zero picks up a few years after the titular kaiju was seemingly defeated by a thermonuclear blast in Minus One. He’s set to emerge stronger than ever now — but with the introduction of Kanji Murakami (Min Tanaka), a biologist keen to conduct an experiment or two on old ’Zilla, the monster’s return might be the least of anyone’s worries.

Release date: Nov. 6, 2026

How to Rob a Bank

If there’s one subgenre that never gets old, it’s the Hollywood heist. From Ocean’s Eleven to The Italian Job, there’s something intoxicating about a classic, well-planned caper — though director David Leitch is about to take a hatchet to the formula. His latest, How to Rob a Bank, reinterprets the cat-and-mouse game between cops and robbers for the doomscrolling generation. Nicholas Hoult is a streamer who, alongside his merry band of outlaws, broadcasts robberies live to entertain the masses. With a skilled hacker (Zoë Kravitz) hot on his trail, however, his fun may soon come to an end — but with a premise this wacky, our fun is just beginning.

Release date: Nov. 13, 2026

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

As much of a phenomenon as the Hunger Games films were in the 2010s, no one could have predicted that the saga would continue to bear fruit a decade later. Shockingly, though, the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes recently got its second wind: Author Suzanne Collins has been penning prequels to Katniss Everdeen’s dystopian misadventures, and this November, we’ll get a big-screen adaptation of her latest book. Sunrise on the Reaping depicts the 50th Hunger Games, which brought Katniss’ future mentor, Haymitch, to the world stage. His Games (also known as the Second Quarter Quell) were infamously bloody: With twice the number of children drafted into this battle royale, there was also double the carnage. Sunrise on the Reaping might be the most devastating installment of this saga thus far — but with visuals borrowed from something like Midsommar, it could easily be the most dynamic, too.

Release date: Nov. 20, 2026