Don’t get us wrong; there are plenty of classic and cult genre movies getting the 4K treatment in the next few weeks. However, studios know that there are just as many scaredy-cats as there are gorehounds, and there’s an eclectic selection of films getting the rerelease treatment too.
Here’s our week-by-week breakdown of October’s releases. As always, these are always subject to change, and you should keep an eye on our site for updates – there will be at least one title we’ve listed here that’ll have changed release dates between the time we write this and when it gets published!
Monday, 7th October
Every single week this month is an embarrassment of riches for horror fans: but is the first week of October the best? It’s the only week with a whopping four steelbooks for fans of all things spooky, with the Halloween lega-sequel trilogy, Five Nights At Freddy’s, A Quiet Place: Day One and Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow offering very different nightmares in gorgeous 4K.
They’re not the only horror titles this week either. Arrow Video are launching limited-edition rereleases of the second and third Exorcist movies, Criterion are bringing Night Of The Living Dead to 4K, Paramount are giving us Friday The 13th Part II in 4K, and Treasured Films are giving us meta slasher thrills with You Might Be The Killer.
Non-horror thrills this week include the 4K steelbook of Studio Ghibli’s The Boy And The Heron, as well as 4K rereleases of films as varied as Kurt Russell thriller Breakdown, the Mel Gibson/Robert Downey Jr. Two-hander Air America, and swashbuckling fantasy adventure The Sword And The Sorcerer. Finally, Vintage Classics are bringing the iconic screen adaptation of An Inspector Calls to 4K.
Monday, 14th October
The fright-fests keep on coming this week, courtesy of 4K steelbooks of A Nightmare On Elm Street and the US remake of The Ring. Throw in classic scares from Criterion’s double bill of I Walked With A Zombie and The Seventh Victim, and you’ve got yourself an incredible Halloween movie marathon.
There are still high-octane thrills outside of that genre though, courtesy of the UK exclusive 4K steelbook of The Northman, Zavvi’s exclusive Furiosa steelbook, and the arrival of Twister and its 2024 sequel Twisters on 4K. For an old-school thriller, how about a classic from the undisputed master of the genre, Alfred Hitchcock? To Catch A Thief makes its 4K debut in a must-have collector’s edition.
Finally, the first instalment of Netflix’s anime sensation Arcane gets a 4K steelbook, the entire six season run of The Crown gets a massive Blu-ray boxset, and Curzon are releasing a limited-edition boxset of Hungarian auteur Béla Tarr’s filmography.
Monday, 21st October
Leading the horror pack this week is the 4K collector’s edition of World War Z, the blockbuster genre title in a week of cult (re-)discoveries. Indicator have two ghoulish boxsets – Columbia Horror and El Vampiro: Two Bloodsucking Tales From Mexico – and the BFI have the underseen Vincent Price/Christopher Lee vehicle The Oblong Box.
Three films regularly considered to be amongst the best ever made also make their 4K debuts this week. There’s a Collector’s Edition 75th anniversary rerelease of The Third Man, a BFI remaster of Seven Samurai, and a new restoration of screwball adventure The African Queen hitting shelves.
Elsewhere, Eureka Classics are adding to their vintage martial arts catalogue with Broken Oath, whilst two very different 90s movies – Oscar-winning supernatural romance Ghost and Pamela Anderson action vehicle Barb Wire – are getting the high-definition transfers they deserve.
Finally, there are dual treats for anime fans, with a 4K release of One Piece Red, and a Limited-Edition release of My Hero Academia Season 6 Part II.
Monday, 28th October
This bumper month of horror releases ends with the most varied selection of titles yet. Second Sight lead the way with their limited edition 4K release of recent found footage hit Late Night With The Devil, followed closely behind by Arrow’s 4K of spooky noughties anthology Trick r Treat.
If that leaves you hungry for more, Arrow has a seven film, four-disc selection of underseen Japanese imports in their J-Horror Rising boxset, which highlights the eclectic, inventive nature of the country’s horror scene. Going back even further, Radiance have remastered silent scarefest Haxan, which leads their slate alongside disreputable giallo including Planet Of The Vampires, I Vampiri and Dogra Magra.
Hate horror films but want something spooky? Then the Addams Family Values 4K should be at the top of your Halloween watchlist. And if you want to be at the edge of your seat without feeling the fear, then one of the year’s biggest blockbusters – Dune: Part Two – is getting a double steelbook collector’s edition.
Next up, 88 Films have four additions to their ever-expanding collection of classic Asian action and exploitation cinema, Eureka Classics have remastered the kitschy 90s comic adaptation Tank Girl, and Kris Kristofferson gets behind the wheel in 70s trucker adventure Convoy, which gets the 4K steelbook treatment.
Finally, two more anime titles are getting limited edition boxsets – Trigun Stampede and season 1 of Hell’s Paradise – whilst vintage children’s entertainment is coming from the remaster of the original How The Grinch Stole Christmas, and a limited-edition pop-up Blu-ray of the complete Paddington Bear series.
Explore all upcoming releases here
