The Best Movies, TV and Music for October

Welcome to Culture Hound, InsideHook’s deep dive into the month’s most important cultural happenings, pop and otherwise (note: you can find our monthly book guide a little later this week).

WATCH: The Killer

David Fincher’s latest was apparently good enough for Netflix to offer up a theatrical run. The Killer — not to be confused with John Woo’s excellent 1989 film of the same name — stars Michael Fassbender as a hitman who gets embroiled in an international manhunt. It features a script by Andrew Kevin Walker, who also wrote Seven — the film that propelled Fincher’s decorated film career. (10/27 theaters, 11/10 Netflix)

More new films coming to the big screen and small: The Exorcist: Believer (10/6, theaters); V/H/S/85 (10/6, Shudder/AMC+); Dicks: The Musical (10/6, theaters); Anatomy of a Fall (10/13, theaters); Killers of the Flower Moon (10/20)

WELCOME BACK: 30 Coins

The first season of this horror show from Spain was downright creepy. And season two seems equally disturbing: Residents of a small town begin losing their minds when confronted by a series of demonic events. And the enemy? “Someone so perverse that even the devil fears him” is how they describe a new character played by Paul Giamatti. (10/23, HBO)

More returning TV shows: Loki (10/5, Disney+); Lupin (10/5, Netflix); Doom Patrol (10/12, Max); Rick and Morty (10/15, Adult Swim); Shoresy (10/27, Hulu)

BINGE: The Fall of the House of Usher

After a string of critically acclaimed horror series (including The Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass), Mike Flanagan’s final miniseries for Netflix is a loosely adaptation of stories by Edgar Allan Poe, but set in the modern world. Ostensibly, it’s about a CEO of a corrupt pharmaceutical company whose children start dying in a rather brutal way. (10/12, Netflix)

More new TV series: Everything Now (10/5, Netflix); Lessons in Chemistry (10/13, Apple TV+); The Burning Girls (10/19, Paramount+); Everyone Else Burns (10/19, The CW)

LISTEN: The Gaslight Anthem

On History Books, the acclaimed New Jersey punk band reunites for their first new album in nine years. They also shrug off their Bruce Springsteen comparisons by … getting Springsteen to guest on the title track. Expect something a little roots-ier this time out. (10/27)

More new music: Drake (10/6); boygenius (10/13); Crosses (10/13); The Rolling Stones (10/20); The Streets (10/20)

STUDY: Milli Vanilli

A feature-length documentary on one of pop music’s biggest scandals. In 1990 nobody was bigger than multiplatinum the R&B/dance duo Milli Vanilli. The problem? It was a scam, and the two members of the group (Robert Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan) didn’t actually sing on their record. (10/24, Paramount+)

More new documentaries and specials: Beckham (10/4, Netflix); Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul (10/11, Netflix); Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (10/13, theaters); The Mission (10/13, theaters); The Pigeon Tunnel (10/20, Apple TV+)