October’s film selection spans a Colleen Hoover adaptation, another Insidious chapter, Street Fighter and a fresh take on Jane Austen.
This October cinema guide brings together psychological thrillers, supernatural horror, martial arts action and dark fantasy. The 2026 selection also includes a Jane Austen adaptation centred on sisterhood, romance and financial hardship.
Family secrets and desperate survival battles feature across several stories. Meanwhile, other films explore personal rivalries, dangerous transformations and a village unsettled by an unlikely romance.
October cinema guide: Hidden manuscripts and supernatural threats
The adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel follows struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh as she takes an unusual assignment. She must finish a successful book series after a severe car accident leaves its author, Verity Crawford, unable to speak.
However, Lowen’s stay at the Crawford family home leads her to a disturbing hidden manuscript. Its account of harm to Verity’s children draws Lowen into a deadly conflict involving Verity’s husband, Jeremy.
A later letter then challenges the apparent truth, leaving the family’s secrets open to interpretation.
Meanwhile, the sixth Insidious instalment follows Gemma, a dental hygienist with a dangerous supernatural ability. She can bring objects and spirits from the ghostly Further into the living world.
When an evil cult leader seeks to exploit that power, Gemma must protect her young daughter. She also faces the threat of his followers returning from the dead.
Street Fighter rivals reunite as a diver fights for survival
Set in 1993, Street Fighter returns to the classic arcade era with estranged martial artists Ryu and Ken Masters. Investigator Chun-Li recruits the pair for the World Warrior Tournament.
Beyond the competition, however, they uncover a plot involving M. Bison and his criminal organisation, Shadaloo. Ryu and Ken must therefore overcome their differences and join international allies to prevent global chaos.
Another survival thriller places Austin Abrams’s scuba diver, Jay Gardiner, in a far more confined struggle. He ventures off the California coast to recover the remains of his father, played by Josh Brolin.
Instead, an 80-foot sperm whale swallows him, leaving him with only an hour of oxygen. To escape, Jay must draw on his father’s harsh survival lessons while confronting grief and emotional trauma.
Austen’s sisters face hardship while a charity party turns deadly
Georgia Oakley directs a new adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, following the Dashwood sisters after their father’s death. With little money, they move to a modest country home and navigate restrictive social expectations.
Practical Elinor, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, conceals her feelings for an honourable suitor. Her more passionate sister Marianne, played by Esm Creed-Miles, instead falls for an unreliable man.
Romain Gavras’s thriller shifts the action to a lavish charity gathering on a volcanic island. Troubled Hollywood actor Mike Tyler, played by Chris Evans, attends alongside a wealthy businessman and his pop-star wife.
Vincent Cassel and Salma Hayek Pinault play the couple. However, a radical group led by Anya Taylor-Joy’s cult leader attacks the event and takes three hostages.
The captors seek to fulfil an ancient prophecy and save the world. Their actions plunge the guests into a survival struggle threaded with dark humour.
Living clay and a willow husband bring darker fantasy
James Watkins directs a DC story about Matt Hagen, a rising Hollywood actor played by Tom Rhys Harries. After an accident disfigures him, Hagen turns to an experimental treatment that transforms his body into living clay.
He then pursues revenge against those who failed him. Written by Mike Flanagan and Hossein Amini, the film also features Aaron Paul, Naomi Ackie and Max Minghella.
Meanwhile, directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson offer a different transformation in a strict medieval village. Olivia Colman plays a fisherwoman whose neighbours mock her for remaining single.
She hires Peter Dinklage’s basket maker to weave a husband from willow branches. When the creation comes alive as a loving companion, his devotion provokes envy and outrage across the community.
