The annual shift to shorter days and colder weather also signals a regular shift in the cinematic landscape. In the summer, studios aim their biggest, loudest blockbusters at kids who are out of school and families who are looking to get out of the sun long enough to watch some explosive action. But the fall movie season starts shifting the focus toward adult movies and end-of-the-year awards.
The Verge fall 2018 movie guide
Every fall is a mixed bag: a few superhero movies and supernatural thrillers the studios didn’t think would be competitive with the biggest shows of summer, a handful of indie movies making a quick bow in theaters before finding a home on streaming services, and a pile of new movies from Netflix, which seems to know no seasons in its rush to get more original content online.
some of the year’s most ambitious and complicated movies
But once September wraps up cinema’s transitional season where studios often dump their least-loved projects and October launches an inevitable wave of horror movies to sync up with the Halloween season, November and December traditionally roll out a wave of movies aimed directly at Oscar voters and end-of-the-year best-of lists. These are rarely the most profitable movies of the year that set studio agendas and launch big franchises, but they’re often some of the year’s most ambitious and complicated movies that are most likely to surprise and challenge audiences.
So here’s an assembly of The Verge’s fall movie coverage, including previews of upcoming projects, freshly launched trailers, reviews of the films as they come out to interviews, and behind-the-scenes looks at the people who made them. Follow along for a guidebook to the movies that matter to Verge readers: the speculative stories, science fiction adventures, groundbreaking and trendsetting projects, and some of our favorite films of the year.
September
- The Verge fall movie preview, September 2018
- The Predator could have been the franchise’s chance to finally have an identity
- The surrealist horror film Mandy pits Nicolas Cage against murderous hippies
- Films like The House With a Clock In Its Walls are poisonous to kids’ cinema
- Assassination Nation is a vicious, cathartic horror film about misogyny
- Netflix’s Hold the Dark throws Jeffrey Wright to the wolves
- On Netflix’s complicated Hold the Dark shoot, gratitude was the hardest part
- Freaks is a thrilling science fiction film worth knowing nothing about
- Outlaw King is a purposeful but empty bid for Netflix’s filmmaking legitimacy
October
- The Verge fall movie preview, October 2018
- Venom is a bizarre and baffling mess
- A Star is Born proves some Hollywood stories are timeless for a reason
- First Man is one of the most intense space movies of all time
- The new Halloween is a slasher movie with an actual message
- Suspiria is an ambitious remix of a horror classic
- In You Might Be the Killer, a Twitter thread expands into a horror-comedy — barely
- Logan Paul’s new movie is the zombified husk of a YA dystopian thriller
November
- The Verge fall movie preview, November 2018
- Overlord is a gloriously entertaining piece of B-movie schlock
- Even for the Harry Potter hardcore, Crimes of Grindelwald is one convoluted movie
- Prospect is a stylish science fiction movie that puts world building first
- Benedict Cumberbatch is going to voice the Grinch
- The latest trailer for Ralph Breaks the Internet Rickrolls us all
- Anna and the Apocalypse is everything the words ‘Scottish Christmas zombie musical’ imply
December
- The Verge fall movie preview, December 2018
- Destroyer is a guilt-ridden detective story made by one incredible director
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’s new trailer looks incredible
- Aquaman is already the Justice League’s MVP
- The new trailer for James Cameron’s Alita: Battle Angel adds backstory and battle
- Netflix’s Apostle takes The Wicker Man to a radical new level