10 shows arriving in October that we’re excited about

October is spooky season: if you’re after serial killers and creepy conspiracy, these streaming service offerings will keep you happy. On the other hand, there’s big laughs and heartwarming moments to be had, too, if you’re on the squeamish side.

Add titles to your Flicks watchlist to get notified when new episodes drop. Happy streaming!

Anne Rice’s Talamasca: The Secret Order: Season 1

Behind every great boogeyman is a bonkers secret society keeping their supernatural shenanigans under wraps! Based on the beloved gothic fiction of Anne Rice, this spin-off will hopefully be like a bodice-ripping, angsty, vampy take on The X-Files.

I’m extremely into the current Interview with the Vampire series, and yet I don’t think anyone on the planet has watched Mayfair Witches, a tale of dynastic witchy women and the terrible fortunes that befall them. With a cast that includes Elizabeth McGovern, Jason Schwartzman and Aussie actor Nicholas Denton, this extension of the ‘Immortal Universe’ will try to bring some order to these ghoulies (vampires, witches, werewolves, ghosts, etc) and their goings-on.

Boots: Season 1

Based on Greg Cope White’s coming-of-age memoir The Pink Marine, this teen drama promises surprising laughs and frank queer storytelling. Its 90s Marine Corps setting is kind of a big step up from the already-tough, high-school setting of other teen series.

Miles Heizer plays Cameron, a bullied gay teen who faces only more obstacles when he follows his bestie to boot camp—in a time when homosexuality was illegal in the military. Eep. Featuring the tremendous Vera Farmiga and a bright, day-glo aesthetic, the show appears both heartfelt and just a tad irreverent.

The Chair Company: Season 1

Just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they’re not watching you. In his sketch phenomenon I Think You Should Leave and recent film Friendship, Tim Robinson hilariously expressed the surreal, mundane core of our regular lives under capitalism. In this more narrative, intense effort made with collaborator Zach Kanin, that pent-up confusion at the way our stupid worlds work explodes into harebrained delusion.

When his office chair breaks in front of everybody at a big presentation, Robinson’s stressed-out suburbanite becomes entranced by a mysterious and fairly nonsensical corporate conspiracy, putting his sanity and job as a mall designer on the line. Lake Bell and Sophia Lillis play his concerned family, and an insanely funny pack of extras are promoted to bonkers lead roles in the madness that unfolds.

Harlan Coben’s Lazarus

Bloody Harlan Coben! The bloke gets entirely too much screentime, his pulpy thrillers popping up as Netflix series and now this spine-tingling Prime Video thriller. Sam Claflin stars as a son grappling with his father’s suicide (not the lovely Bill Nighy!!), becoming haunted by unsettling and unexplainable visions when he returns to the family home in grief.

Could the experiences our guy is having be connected, somehow, to the mysterious murder of his sister decades before? Nahh, surely not. Over six tantalising, edge-of-your-seat episodes, Harlan and Co. will keep you guessing. And probably hoping desperately that Nighy isn’t the killer.

IT: Welcome to Derry

I wonder how the state of Maine really feels about their dark son Stephen King. Sure, he’s probably boosted tourism to the area in some ways, but with this new show (set in the very fictional town of Derry, plagued by clown-demon Pennywise) one can’t help but imagine some locals rolling their eyes and watching the sewers a little more intently.

Taylour Paige and Jovan Adepo star in the 60s-set prequel to Andy Muschietti’s King adaptations, with Bill Skarsgård thankfully back in his transformative role as the child-terrorising dancing clown. Excitingly, one of the new/old characters we’ll meet is The Shining‘s Dick Hallorann, who can hopefully shine some light on Pennywise’s twisted origins. The producers are hoping for a three-season arc, each new chapter taking another step backward in time to chronicle the town’s history of horror. Halloween perfection!

Monster: The Ed Gein Story

Iconic (fictional) killers like Leatherface, Buffalo Bill or Norman Bates have to come from somewhere—some deep interior pit of Oedipal/all-American violence springing from our real world onto the silver screen. One of Hollywood’s most fruitful sources of true crime inspo has always been Ed Gein, a mild-mannered Midwestern guy whose mommy issues were only matched by his chainsaw handling skills.

Charlie Hunnam plays Gein in this series produced by Ryan Murphy, Netflix’s go-to guy for these sort of lurid, pseudo-biographical psychodramas. The supporting cast is fab, including Vicky Krieps, Lesley Manville, Laurie Metcalf as Mrs Gein— plus horror directors Hitchcock and Hooper as fictionalised characters within the show, searching for dark inspiration. We think they’ll probably find exactly the villain they’re looking for.

Mr Scorsese: Docuseries

The ultimate Marty party, over five worshipful episodes! De Niro, DiCaprio, Day-Lewis, Spielberg and many, many more stop by to gush about Hollywood’s greatest living director in this revelatory docuseries, which includes plenty of intimate time with the guy himself.

Beyond his fantastic filmography, I hope he’s also lauded for his film archival and conservation works, where his deep and true adoration of the genre extends to near-sainthood. What a guy! What pictures! And hey, his cameo as a pufferfish in Shark Tale better get a mention.

Murdaugh: Death in the Family

Every high-profile true-crime story needs 1. a groundbreaking podcast expose, 2. a Netflix docuseries based on that podcast, and finally 3. a prestige fictionalisation, adapting the killers and victims with familiar faces and an HBO or Hulu budget behind it.

You probably have either a glancing familiarity or a bone-deep obsession with the South Carolina Murdaugh murder scandal, so here are Patricia Arquette and Jason Clarke to re-enact the saga of moneyed coverups, failson boating accidents and a family-breaking criminal trial. As the corrupted patriarch and matriarch, the two actors should have plenty of pathos and big chewy accents to wield in breathing new life into a perhaps tired tabloid story.

Nobody Wants This: Season 2 (October 23)

When it comes to dating, you’ve gotta have faith—until faith begins to cause problems between the two of you. Season one of this completely charming rom-com paired up rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) and agnostic podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell), but as their whirlwind romance blossoms into bigger questions and serious moves, their fundamentally different beliefs could make a happy ending impossible.

All we know is that there’s “family drama” and “career struggles” on the horizon—Joanne might not be the praying type, but we’re on our knees begging whichever deity’s up there to help the couple stick it out!

The Witcher: Season 4 (October 30)

Fans of this gnarly fantasy-action series have had some time to sit with their feelings about Henry Cavill’s departure. Two-and-a-half years, in fact: enough of a hiatus to let ’em warm to the idea of Liam Hemsworth taking over as Geralt of Rivia.

In Netflix’s official teaser of the show’s fourth (and Aussie Liam’s first) season, we got to see his fresh-faced Geralt take down a wraith, and the new season’s cast includes the great Laurence Fishburne as Regis: two more reasons to stay hopeful about the grand show’s last few instalments. Let’s toss a coin to Our Liam and see how it pays off.