See/Hear: The Best Movies, TV and Music for October 2025

Welcome to See/Hear, InsideHook’s deep dive into the month’s most important cultural happenings, pop and otherwise. Every month, we round up the biggest upcoming movie, TV and album releases, ask some cool people to tell us what they’ve been into lately, make you a playlist we guarantee you’ll have on heavy rotation and recommend a classic (or unduly overlooked) piece of pop culture we think is worth revisiting.

MOVIES

The Smashing Machine

in theaters Oct. 3

Could we potentially see The Rock get an Oscar nomination? That’s what some critics seem to think after watching him transform into MMA fighter Mark Kerr for this gritty Benny Safdie film, which recently won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Emily Blunt also stars as Dawn Staples, Kerr’s then-wife.

Are We Good?

in theaters Oct. 3 in NY/LA, Oct. 5 nationwide

This isn’t just a Marc Maron documentary — it’s a Marc Maron documentary that was filmed in the wake of the sudden death of his partner, Lynne Shelton, from acute myeloid leukemia in 2020. It features the legendary podcaster doing a lot of self-reflection as he struggles to navigate the loss and his grief.

The Lost Bus

Oct. 3, Apple TV+

The Lost Bus is based on the 2021 non-fiction book Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire by Lizzie Johnson, which chronicles the devastation caused by the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest fire in California history. Matthew McConaughey plays a bus driver who’s trying to navigate his bus full of schoolchildren to safety. America Ferrara plays the kids’ teacher.

Steve

Oct. 3, Netflix

Based on the 2023 novella Shy, Steve features Cillian Murphy as the titular character, a head teacher at a school for boys with behavioral difficulties. Tracey Ullman also stars.

Anemone

in theaters Oct. 3

Daniel Day-Lewis makes his highly-anticipated return to acting in this psychological drama, which his son Ronan Day-Lewis directed. The father and son duo co-wrote the script, which follows a man as he visits his estranged, hermit brother.

John Candy: I Like Me

Oct. 10, Prime Video

This documentary about the beloved late comedian John Candy was directed by Colin Hanks and features interviews with Dan Aykroyd, Mel Brooks, Macauley Culkin, Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Eugene Levy and more.

After the Hunt

in theaters Oct. 10 (limited) and Oct. 17 (wide release)

Director Luca Guadagnino’s latest stars Julia Roberts as Alma Olsson, a well-respected Yale professor who finds herself caught in the middle of a sexual assault allegation made by one of her students (Ayo Edebiri) against one of her colleagues (Andrew Garfield). Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloe Sevigny round out the cast.

If I Had Legs, I’d Kick You

in theaters Oct. 10 (limited release)

Rose Byrne has been earning a lot of buzz for her performance as Linda, a Montauk psychotherapist who seems to be slowly losing her own mind because of the pressures of motherhood. The horror comedy also features Conan O’Brian and A$AP Rocky.

Blue Moon

in theaters Oct. 17 (limited) and Oct. 24 (wide release)

One of two Richard Linklater movies coming out this month, Blue Moon is set primarily during the opening night of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! in 1943. Ethan Hawke plays Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers’s former creative partner, while Andrew Scott stars as Rodgers. Margaret Qualley rounds out the cast.

Frankenstein

in theaters Oct. 17 (limited release)

Guillermo del Toro has been talking about making a Frankenstein movie since 2007, so this one is a long time coming. Jacob Elordi will star as The Creature, while Oscar Isaac plays Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Mia Goth and Christoph Waltz also star.

Good Fortune

in theaters Oct. 17

Aziz Ansari makes his directorial debut with this comedy, which he also wrote and acts in. It features Keanu Reeves as a “budget guardian angel” named Gabriel. If that hasn’t already sold you, it also has Seth Rogen, Sandra Oh and Keke Palmer.

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

in theaters Oct. 24

We were skeptical when we first heard that a Bruce Springsteen biopic was in the works, but Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere — featuring The Bear‘s Jeremy Allen White — actually looks promising. From the clips of White we’ve seen thus far, it’s obvious he completely nails the Boss’s mannerisms. Like Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, White faces an extremely difficult task with Springsteen: He’s gotta sound enough like him to be recognizable but not so much that it sounds like he’s doing a cheesy impression. The fact that White did his own singing as Springsteen and manages to strike that balance is extremely impressive. Beyond White, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere has a stacked cast that includes Succession‘s Jeremy Strong as Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau, Stephen Graham as his father and Gaby Hoffmann as his mother.

Bugonia

in theaters Oct. 24 (limited) and Oct. 31 (wide release)

This new Yorgos Lanthimos movie is based on the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet!, and it follows two men who kidnap a CEO because they suspect she’s an alien sent to destroy Earth. It features frequent collaborators Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, as well as Stavros Halkias and Alicia Silverstone.

Ballad of a Small Player

Oct. 29, Netflix

Based on the Lawrence Osborne novel of the same name, Ballad of a Small Player stars Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton. The Netflix logline describes it like this: “Lord Doyle is laying low in Macau — spending his days and nights on the casino floors, drinking heavily and gambling what little money he has left. Struggling to keep up with his fast-rising debts, he is offered a lifeline by the mysterious Dao Ming, a casino employee with secrets of her own. However, in hot pursuit is Cynthia Blithe — a private investigator ready to confront Doyle with what he is running from. As Doyle tries to climb to salvation, the confines of reality start to close in.”

Nouvelle Vague

in theaters Oct. 31, on Netflix Nov. 14

This Richard Linklater film chronicles the filming of the iconic French New Wave film Breathless, and it stars Guillaume Marbeck as Jean-Luc Godard, Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg and Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo. It’s Linklater’s first movie to be shot entirely in French.

TV/STREAMING

Abbott Elementary Season 5

Oct. 1, ABC

You can expect all your favorites from Abbott Elementary to turn up again, but Season 5 also will reportedly introduce a new recurring character, played by Luke Tennie of Shrinking.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story

Oct. 3, Netflix

Do we really need another pulpy Ryan Murphy series about a horrific murderer? No, but if we’re gonna get one, it might as well take a big swing. Monster: The Ed Gein Story features Charlie Hunnam as Ed Gein, the real-life serial killer whose horrific crimes served as inspiration for Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Saturday Night Live Season 51

Oct. 4, NBC

After all the fanfare surrounding Season 50 and a lot of high-profile, semi-controversial cast shakeups, SNL returns for its 51st season with host Bad Bunny and musical guest Doja Cat.

Boots

Oct. 9, Netflix

The military isn’t usually what we think of when we think of comedy, but this coming-of-age story about a closeted gay teen and his friend who join the U.S. Marine Corps on a whim promises some humor. It’s set in the ’90s — back in the peak “don’t ask, don’t tell” days when being gay in the military was illegal — and is based on Greg Cope White’s memoir The Pink Marine.

The Last Frontier

Oct. 10, Apple TV+

This thriller about a U.S. Marshal in Alaska who must investigate a plane crash that set free multiple fugitives in the chaos boasts a pretty stacked cast that includes Jason Clarke, Dominic Cooper and Alfre Woodard.

The Chair Company

Oct. 10, HBO Max

The premise of pretty much every Tim Robinson sketch can be summarized as “something awkward happens to a guy, but instead of moving on from it, he doubles and triples down on it and makes everything worse.” It makes sense, then, that The Chair Company — Robinson’s forthcoming, eight-episode HBO series — is being described as “the story of William Ronald Trosper (played by Robinson), who begins investigating a vast and elaborate conspiracy after an embarrassing workplace incident.” To be clear, it’s a narrative show, not a sketch show a la I Think You Should Leave. But if you’re a fan of Robinson or know his work from Detroiters and recent movie Friendship, this one is a must-watch.

Murdaugh: Death in the Family

Oct. 15, Hulu

There have been all kinds of true crime specials put together about the Murdaugh Murders — in which Alex Murdaugh, a wealthy Southern lawyer, killed his wife and son — but this Hulu series is the first dramatization of the story. Jason Clarke, Patricia Arquette, J. Smith-Cameron and Brittany Snow all star.

Mr. Scorsese

Oct. 17, Apple TV+

How do you condense a career as massive and influential as Martin Scorsese’s into a single documentary film? Easy: You don’t. Instead, director Rebecca Miller has put together a five-part docuseries that chronicles all things Scorsese and features interviews from the likes of Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg and Mick Jagger.

Nobody Wants This Season 2

Oct. 23, Netflix

No one could have predicted how popular the first season of Nobody Wants This turned out to be, and it even resulted in Emmy nominations for both Kristen Bell and Adam Brody. (I mean, the two of them deserve some sort of award for that kiss, right?) Can they capture the magic in a second season now that Joanne and Noah are a full-blown couple?

IT: Welcome to Derry

Oct. 29, HBO Max

Just in time for Halloween, Bill Skarsgård reprises his role as Pennywise the Clown in this series that serves as a prequel to It and It Chapter Two. The Stephen King adaptation is set in 1962 and follows a young couple and their son and their unfortunate choice to move to Derry, Maine.

Down Cemetery Road

Oct. 29, Apple TV+

This British mystery series, based on the novel of the same name by Mick Herron, is about a woman who hires an investigator to look into the fact that a girl’s disappearance and an explosion took place on the same night in their quiet, suburban town. Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson star.

MUSIC

Taylor Swift, The Life of a Showgirl

Oct. 3

Not much is known about Taylor Swift’s forthcoming album, but in the podcast interview heard ’round the world, she spoke about the ways in which her massive Eras Tour inspired it: “I wanted to sort of like glamorize all the different aspects of how that tour felt,” she said. “And that’s how that felt to like be at the end of the night when all this has gone down. You won’t be able to get to bed till four in the morning after this. But you had to jump through 50 million hoops in this obstacle course that is your show. And you did it. You got two more in a row. But you did it tonight. And the reason I wanted to have sort of like an offstage moment as the main album cover is because this album isn’t really about what happened to me on stage. It’s about what I was going through offstage.”

Jay Som, Belong

Oct. 10

Melina Duterte — better known as Jay Som — is finally releasing her long-awaited follow-up to 2019’s Anak Ko. Belong features guest vocals from Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Mini Trees’ Lexi Vega and Jimmy Eat World’s Jim Adkins. Of single “Float,” Som writes, “This song is about desperately trying to hold on to past versions of yourself for self-preservation. The fear of the unknown is so overwhelming that sometimes the best solution is to sit with it instead of fighting or running from it.”

Madi Diaz, Fatal Optimist

Oct. 10

Madi Diaz is back with the follow-up to her Grammy-nominated Weird Faith. As you might surmise from Fatal Optimist‘s title, the singer-songwriter says the record is about “the innate hope for something magical.” Of lead single “Feel Something,” she writes, “‘Feel Something’ is about the deep yearning and desire to connect. It’s the moment when you’re trying to call in the love that was lost. It’s the first single off the album because it has the sense of urgency and panic that I felt at that first moment I noticed I was alone in my relationship.”

The Antlers, Blight

Oct. 10

The follow-up to 2021’s Green to Gold was recorded in Upstate New York, in frontman Peter Silberman’s home studio. Of lead single “Carnage,” Silberman says, “‘Carnage’ is a song about a kind of violence we rarely acknowledge — violence not born of cruelty, but of convenience. Innocent creatures are swept up in the path of destruction as their world collides with ours, and we barely notice.”

Tame Impala, Deadbeat

Oct. 17

What’s more fitting for October than an album that features a song called “Dracula”? “It’s kind of the oldest song from the album process. It’s kind of one of the ones I started first,” frontman Kevin Parker recently told Zane Lowe. “That’s, like, an example of one of the ones that started in this really raw, minimal way and then just sort of, like, slowly expanded into this sort of, like, pop.”

Steve Martin and Alison Brown, Safe, Sensible and Sane

Oct. 17

Bluegrass fans, rejoice: Steve Martin and Alison Brown have a new collaborative album coming out. Safe, Sensible and Sane features contributions from Vince Gill, Tim O’Brien, the Indigo Girls, Jason Mraz and Della Mae. “With the banjo, there are so many styles you can work with, but Alison and I both have an ear for its more melodic, melancholy aspect,” Martin says in the album’s press materials. “We got together and played music for days and ended up making a record where our entire banjo histories coalesce.”

Brandi Carlile, Returning to Myself

Oct. 24

After a string of high-profile collaborations (including an album with Elton John that was released earlier this year), Brandi Carlile is, well, returning to herself with her first solo album in four years. Of the title track, she writes, “I think people are going to hear that song in different ways. Some are going to hear it as a call to return to themselves. Some are going to hear it as a justification not to. And I love that about it because it is a deeply conflicting feeling. There is no a-ha moment in that song. It’s just a contemplation of, ‘Is enlightenment aloneness or is enlightenment learning togetherness and sacrificial love?’”

Miguel, CAOS

Oct. 24

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a new Miguel album — eight years, to be exact. “To rebuild, I had to destroy myself. That is the core confrontation of Caos,” the singer explains in a press statement. “Through my personal evolution, I learned that transformation is violent. Caos is the sonic iteration of me bending that violence into something universally felt.”

The Lemonheads, Love Chant

Oct. 24

Yes, you read that correctly: The Lemonheads are back with their first album of all-new, original material in nearly two decades. The follow-up to 2006’s self-titled LP features contributions from J Mascis, Juliana Hatfield, Tom Morgan, Bryce Goggin, Erin Rae, John Strohm, Nick Saloman of The Bevis Frond and The Moldy Peaches’ Adam Green. It was recorded in Brazil, where frontman Evan Dando currently lives, and it’s not the only Lemonheads-related media coming out this month. Dando is also releasing a memoir called Rumors of My Demise on Oct. 7.

Florence + The Machine, Everybody Scream

Oct. 31

Florence Welch has been giving witchy vibes for the majority of her career now, so an album called Everybody Scream released on Halloween feels like a no-brainer for her sixth full-length release. Not much else has been revealed about the record yet, though we do know it features contributions from The National’s Aaron Dessner, Mark Bowen of IDLES and Mitski.

Guided by Voices, Thick, Rich and Delicious

Oct. 31

The outrageously prolific Robert Pollard and company return for their 42nd studio album. At this stage in their career, it’s not hard to tell what fans can expect from a new Guided by Voices release, but this one is said to include some material that dates back to the band’s early days but was never previously recorded. “I’m a student of hooks — that perfect combination of a lyric and a chord pattern that gives you that chill up the back of your spine,” Pollard says.

YOUR MONTHLY PLAYLIST

I know what you’re thinking: “Didn’t I see a giant Halloween playlist in this very space last year?” You did, but since then, I’ve added a bunch of new tracks to expand it, bringing its run-time to a whopping seven hours and 19 minutes — more than enough time to soundtrack your entire Halloween party or set a spooky mood while you’re handing out candy. Whether they were written specifically about the holiday or just happen to fit the vibe, there are tons of songs about ghosts, monsters, demons, werewolves and witches. Some are kitschy novelty tracks, some are downright creepy tales of murder or violence, and some are Halloween-adjacent in name only. But all of them make a welcome addition to any party soundtrack this time of year. So to help you celebrate Halloween this year, we’ve put together a monster (pun intended) playlist featuring 115 of our favorite ghoulish tracks. Give it a spin — if you dare.

ARTIST RECOMMENDATIONS

Each month, we catch up with a few musicians, actors, comedians or otherwise cool people whose opinions we respect to hear about a piece of pop culture they’re particularly excited about. This month, it’s Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards and Jason Narducy.

I’m a Virgo

“Normally, we wouldn’t pat ourselves on the back and recommend something we’ve made music for, but Boots Riley’s series I’m a Virgo was criminally overlooked by most. A coming-of-age story about a 13-foot Black teenager growing up in East Oakland, hidden by his parents, who awakens from a fantasy life to a politically-minded group of new friends who oppose a technofascist Walton Goggins. Watch it now before Amazon gets wise and shuts it down!”

Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

“Martyr! is a phenomenal book by Kaveh Akbar. Each chapter heads in a new, inspired direction. It was invigorating to read such a daring work. Kaveh’s imagination is inviting and original.”

WORTH REVISITING

Mister Heavenly, Out of Love (2011)

There are some bands whose music, while not actually about Halloween or things that go bump in the night, just feels like the right vibe for this time of year. That’s the case with indie supergroup Mister Heavenly, which consists of Man Man’s Honus Honus, Nicholas Thorburn of Islands and The Unicorns, and Joe Plummer of The Shins and Modest Mouse. (Michael Cera also famously served as their touring bassist for a while.) Their 2011 debut Out of Love will always feel like fall to me, probably because it was released in mid-August that year and went on heavy rotation in the months that followed.

Honus Honus (aka Ryan Kattner) and Thorburn trade vocals on most of the record, and there’s something about the way their voices — each incredibly distinct in its own way — play off of each other that works extremely well. There’s a heavy doo-wop influence here, especially on tracks like “I Am a Hologram,” “Diddy Eyes” (not that Diddy) and “Hold My Hand,” but there’s also an edge and elements of mischief and danger on the record. Maybe it’s Kattner’s feral howl, or maybe it’s the fact that I’ll always remember going to a junkyard full of heaps of twisted metal to fish this album — along with a bunch of other gasoline-soaked CDs — out of my totaled car. Spooky, right?

But you don’t need to crash your car to enjoy this album. There’s a reason I listened to it every day on my drive into work for months: It’s really fun. Give it a spin, but be sure to keep your eyes on the road.

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