Best new movies and TV series on Disney+ New Zealand: October 2025

Each month, new films and TV shows are added to Disney+’s New Zealand library. Here’s Eliza Janssen’s recommendations for the titles most worth watching. Scroll down for the full list of everything arriving on the platform.

See also
* The 50 best movies on Disney+ New Zealand
*Best new movies & shows on Disney+
* All new streaming movies & series

Top picks

Naming the Dead (October 8)

October is typically spooky season rather than scary season, especially on Disney+: where we opt for family-friendly scares and adorably-animated ghouls rather than true bone-chilling, hide-behind-the-couch terror. Not so this month. My picks for Disney’s programming over the next month are all pretty grim, so feel free to opt for the gentler horrors of Hocus Pocus and Halloween-flavoured DCOMs if you prefer.

Starting the month off in existential dread is this sobering docuseries about the DNA Doe Project, which strives to put names and faces to some of the 50,000 unidentified dead bodies found all across the US, logged in their system and waiting to be remembered. The true crime aspect of each tragic case is less interesting than the emotional catharsis of their families finding answers, being able to put their beloved Jane or John Does to rest. It’s quite devastating viewing, and a refreshing change from the killer-obsessed, psychological bent of many similar programs.

Murdaugh: Death in the Family (October 15)

See, here we go! Every high-profile true-crime story that comes to public attention needs to get 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.

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (October 22)

Finally, a more fictional kind of creepiness. Genre icon Maika Monroe gets to try out the dark side in this chilling remake, playing Rebecca De Mornay’s nightmare nanny role rather than the heroic scream queen she’s typecast as typically. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Raúl Castillo are the suspicious parents, forced to wonder whether they’re just paranoid or whether their kid is really at risk in the care of Scary Poppins.

It’ll be a nasty thrill to see Monroe and Winstead face off, and if talented director Michelle Garza Cervera is able to bring some of her inventive sonic and visual ideas to the table, this could be one of those remakes that handily surpasses its original.

All new titles arriving on Disney+ Australia in October

October 1

The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Casper
Halloween
Happy Gilmore
Jaws
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit: Seasons 13-17
Love Thy Nader
Lost Treasures of Rome: Season 2
SuperKitties: Season 3

October 3

The Balloonist

October 6

Family Guy Halloween Special

October 8

Naming the Dead
Wizards Beyond Waverly Place: Season 2

October 9

Wandance

October 10

Frankie Quinones: Damn That’s Crazy

October 11

Grey’s Anatomy: Season 22
Would You Marry Me

October 14

Parks and Recreation: Season 1-7

October 15

Murdaugh: Death in the Family
Scam Goddess
Vampirina: Teenage Vampire

October 17

Spidey and his Amazing Friends: Spidey and Iron Man: Avengers Team-Up!

October 22

The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
Pirates: Behind the Legends
Top Guns: The Next Generation

October 23

Entrepeneurs

October 24

LEGO Frozen: Operation Puffins

October 29

Disney Twisted Wonderland: The Animation
Star Wars: Visions: Season 3