The five best horror offerings coming to Shudder the first week of October

Shudder is kicking off the first week of October by adding 24 new horror offerings to their streaming platform, and we are 100% here for it! There is a little bit of everything coming to Shudder this month, including a well-known iconic horror franchise and a Mike Flanagan film that has been hard to find recently.

As you may remember from our recent article, Shudder is hosting the Season of Screams, which runs from now through December 13. We currently only know the September through October schedule, so that gives us plenty to look forward to in the next few months!

Here are the top five additions that I am personally most looking forward to. Each of them are hitting Shudder October 1, with one exception that will be noted.

The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula Season 666 – I originally overlooked Dragula, only catching on to its greatness when Dragula: Resurrection came to Shudder in October of 2020. It was a pared-down “season”, consisting of one two-hour-long episode, filmed during COVID by the contestants themselves. I was immediately hooked.

After watching the first three seasons, I stayed on top of everything Dragula, and I always look forward to a new season. It’s got everything: great, gory costumes and makeup, thrilling challenges, enthralling competitors and thoroughly entertaining floor shows.

The names of the sixth-season competitors and the special guest judges have been announced, and the Boulets have promised that everything to do with the Dragula competition has been stepped up. If you aren’t up-to-date, all five seasons of Dragula, along with Dragula: Resurrection and Dragula: Titans are available to stream on Shudder.

Hush – I saw Hush during its very long run on Netflix, and tried in vain to find it on DVD or Blu-ray (I am still a big believer in physical media). I was sad when it left Netflix last year, then thrilled at Flanagan’s recent announcement that Hush would again be available to stream and would also be available on 4K in November.

Hush stars Flanagan’s muse (and wife) Kate Siegel as a deaf-mute author named Maddie, who lives in a remote house in the woods with her cat. One night, her friend Sarah stops by for a visit shortly before being attacked by a masked man with a crossbow. When the man gets to Maddie’s house, he quickly realizes she is deaf, and proceeds to stalk and torment her.

Hush is an intense film, made with Flanagan’s usual heart, and Siegel makes us really root for Maddie. In fact, she co-wrote the script with her husband, and it’s one of my favorite Flanagan projects. If you missed it on Netflix, you can (and should) remedy that on October 1.

The Houses October Built – “Something goes wrong at a Halloween haunted attraction” has become a relatively new horror movie trope, and 2014’s The Houses October Built was one of the early films to explore this idea. It’s a found footage movie that introduces us to five haunt enthusiasts who set off in late October on a road trip to check out haunted house attractions across the US. Their intent is to record their adventures and interview people who work at the haunts.

One of the haunts they are desperate to find is known as Blue Skeleton; it is supposed to be beyond extreme, and is basically an unadvertised “pop-up” attraction. As the group gets closer to tracking down Blue Skeleton, they find themselves stalked by people in spooky costumes, and end up in very real danger.

The Houses October Built is one of my Halloween staples, and you should check it out if you haven’t already seen it. There is also a sequel called The Houses October Built 2, but it is not on Shudder’s schedule currently.

It Follows – This is one of those films that people seem to either adore or absolutely hate, but either way, you have to admit that it was unique. Maika Monroe (Longlegs) stars as college student Jay who has sex with her boyfriend in his car shortly before he chloroforms her. When she comes to, he tells her that he has passed something on to her – and it’s not an STD.

Instead, he informs her that she will now be stalked by an entity that nobody else will be able to see, and it will continue hunting her until it kills her. The only way to escape her fate is to pass this curse on to somebody else through having sex with them.

I am firmly in the “love it” camp with It Follows, and Monroe gives a fantastic performance. For me, part of how successful a horror film is depends largely on whether or not you care about the fates of the characters, and I really wanted Jay to make it out alive.

V/H/S Beyond (releases October 4) – I haven’t seen this installment in the popular V/H/S franchise yet, but I enjoyed the other six installments, so I feel confident placing it on this list. As with the prior V/H/S projects, this is an anthology film with multiple writers and directors.

And, hey, Mike Flanagan wrote one of the stories, titled Stowaway. Flanagan is never a bad bet, and his wife/frequent star Kate Siegel directed it. Another familiar name is actor Justin Long, who appeared in such popular horror movies as Jeepers Creepers and Barbarian. He both wrote and directed another of the stories, titled Fur Babies.

WNUF Halloween Special – You can’t beat this one for a fun/scary Halloween-themed movie. Although it was released in 2013, it looks and feels like something we are watching on a video tape in the 1980, which is intentional. The premise is that we are viewing a recording of a local news station’s Halloween special.

Reporter Frank Stewart is broadcasting live as he and his cameraman, along with three others go into a local house that is said to be haunted. A man murdered his parents in the home, claiming demons made him do it. At first, Frank treats it like a joke, and is having fun, but soon enough, things become terrifying.

WNUF Halloween Special commits fully to its 1980s setting and atmosphere, right down to including local tv commercials (sometimes fast forwarding). It’s just really a delightful film, but it also includes some genuinely scary moments.

Also coming to Shudder during the first week of October:

• Dominion: Prequel to The Exorcist

• Exorcist III

• Nightbreed

• Friday the 13th collection (includes the first film, and the first seven sequels)

• 3 From Hell

• Rob Zombie’s 31

• The Devil’s Rejects

• Lords of Salem

• Rob Zombie’s Halloween

• Rob Zombie’s Halloween II

• Chucky (season three)