Either you have, or you finally found an available screening this weekend. I hope you dig it, because I really did. But if you’ve already seen Nathan Fielder’s latest masterwork, you’ll be glad to know that this very crowded October isn’t over.
One week before Halloween, there are still new movies and season premieres to check out. Weeks after the press screening, I can’t stop thinking about it. As we’re forced to put up with yucky AI slop on our feeds, the stop-motion animated Wildwood shines that much brighter as a testament to human creativity.
Don’t let its “family film” looks fool you, either. Adapted from Colin Meloy’s 2011 novel, Wildwood is a dark and deep modern fantasy about a young girl trying to rescue her baby brother from a secret world of talking animals and warring tribes. Created by the same studio that brought to life Coraline, ParaNorman, and Kubo and the Two Strings, Wildwood is a new classic in the making.
But that’s not all that’s playing in theaters. The DC Studios horror movie Clayface is competing with the romantasy drama Wicker. On streaming, Halloween is setting the mood with The Cycle, a buzzy new horror film on Shudder, and Swipe Right on the Devil, a true crime documentary series on Hulu.
Below, check out how Esquire editors are spending the weekend while we put together our last-minute Halloween costumes. I cannot endorse Wildwood enough. It’s one of the most breathtaking movies I’ve seen all year, a storybook-esque fantasy come to resplendent life through studio LAIKA’s signature stop-motion style.
Adapted from the 2011 novel by The Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy, Wildwood follows a Portland preteen girl named Prue (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) who rescues her baby brother after he’s kidnapped by crows and taken into the forbidden Impassable Wilderness. Brimming with imagination, heart, and humor, Wildwood is an awe-inspiring wonder and an ode to bravery, family, and a rebuke to the dehumanizing violence of war. The DC Universe turns to the dark side with the franchise’s first-ever psychological horror movie Clayface.
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