‘Joker: Folie à Deux’, ‘Saturday Night’, and (Almost) Everything We’re Watching This October

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October traditionally brings scary stuff to screens big and small, and 2024 is no exception. That’s evident in both sequels like Smile 2 and via returning series like American Horror Stories, which returns for another season on Hulu. There’s even the final season of the hilarious What We Do in the Shadows (which isn’t really scary but does have vampires).

Popular returning favorites, meantime, include a new season of Apple TV+‘s Shrinking and a last go-around for Star Trek: Lower Decks on Paramount+. Here’s a few of October’s most promising offerings, scary and otherwise. And yes, there’s even a Bruce Springsteen documentary.

What to Watch: October 2024 Movies and Shows

From Joker: Folie à Deux to Saturday Night, these are the must-see movies, docs, and series that should be on your radar this month.

Joker: Folie à Deux (Theaters, Oct. 4)

Todd Phillips’ 2019 film Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix reimagined the Batman villain through the filter of a couple of Martin Scorsese movies. So what do you pay homage to in a sequel? Classic musicals, apparently. Lady Gaga joins the cast as Harleen Quinzel (hence the “à deux” of the title) in a film that picks up the action a few years after the events of the original. Get Tickets on Fandango

The Franchise (HBO / Max, Oct. 6)

What goes on behind the scenes of a big-budget superhero movie? Chaos, if this show is to be believed. With a creative team that includes Sam Mendes, Armando Iannucci, and Jon Brown and a cast that includes Himesh Patel, Aya Cash, and Jessica Hynes, the series follows the troubled production of a franchise entry that seems like it may never reach the screen. Watch on Max

Teacup (Peacock, Oct. 10)

“Teacup” doesn’t sound like the name of a scary show, but don’t be fooled. James Wan serves as executive producer of a series set in rural Georgia where a cast that includes Yvonne Strahovski and Scott Speedman have to face off against, well, something. The details of exactly what the threat they’re up against remains unclear. Maybe it’s just a scary teacup? (Probably not.) Watch on Peacock

Piece by Piece (Theaters, Oct. 11)

Morgan Neville has a filmography filled with documentaries about famous subjects, including Anthony Bourdain, Mister Rogers, and Steve Martin. Neville’s latest focuses on Pharrell Williams and uses a novel device to recount the musician’s life: Lego. It’s unexpected but, given the subject, kind of makes sense. Get Tickets on Fandango

Saturday Night (Theaters, Oct. 11)

SNL has been an institution for so long now that many of its viewers can’t remember a world in which it didn’t exist. The latest from Jason Reitman dramatizes the staging of the show’s very first episode, when it sometimes seemed like the show might not last to a second episode, much less five decades. Get Tickets on Fandango

Disclaimer (Apple TV+, Oct. 11)

Alfonso Cuarón often goes years between projects, making it that much more of an event when the Gravity and Roma director takes one on. Cuarón hasn’t worked in television for over a decade, and never as extensively as on this miniseries adaptation of Renée Knight’s 2015 novel of the same name, Disclaimer. Cate Blanchett stars as a journalist with a secret alongside Kevin Kline and Sacha Baron Cohen. Cuarón writes and directs all seven episodes. Watch on Apple TV+

The Apprentice (Theaters, Oct. 11)

Who taught Donald Trump how to be the man he became? By most accounts, Trump’s father Fred had a lot to do with it, but so did Roy Cohn, the New York lawyer who first rose to fame by assisting the infamous Joseph McCarthy. A kind of origin story, Ali Abbasi’s film The Apprentice depicts the relationship between the two men during Trump’s early years, with Sebastian Stan starring as Trump alongside Jeremy Strong as Cohn. Get Tickets on Fandango

Anora (Theaters, Oct. 18)

The subject matter of The Apprentice helped make it one of the most talked-about films to play Cannes, but Palme D’Or went to a different sort of New York story, Anora. In the latest from Sean Baker (Red Rocket), Mikey Madison plays an exotic dancer whose life takes an unexpected turn (then another and another) after she meets Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn), the young son of a Russian oligarch. Get Tickets on Fandango

Goodrich (Theaters, Oct. 18)

It’s been a big year for Michael Keaton so far, thanks to the success of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Where that film was an obvious throwback, Keaton’s other 2024 effort sounds a bit like a return to one of his earliest hits, Mr. Mom. In the second film from writer/director Hallie Meyers-Shyer (Home Again), Keaton plays an art dealer who has to figure out how to be a parent when his younger wife enters rehab. Advising him: his daughter, played by Mila Kunis. Get Tickets on Fandango

Hysteria! (Peacock, Oct. 18)

When a football player disappears under mysterious, possibly occult-related, circumstances, a local band decides to cash in by going full evil. Unfortunately, their choice might have unleashed forces beyond their control, including the paranoia of those around them. Co-starring Julie Bowen and Bruce Campbell, the new series’ story unfolds against the backdrop of the Eighties Satanic Panic, when many thought Satan might be lurking around every corner. Watch on Peacock

Conclave (Theaters, Oct. 25)

Adapting a novel by Robert Harris, the latest from All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger stars Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal tapped to facilitate the process of electing a new pope. There’s one problem, however: The old pope seems to have secrets that could throw a wrench in the works. Get Tickets on Fandango

Venom: The Last Dance (Theaters Oct. 25)

One of the few bright spots in Sony’s attempts to create superhero movies featuring Spider-man’s supporting cast, the Venom films have wisely let star Tom Hardy lean into the absurdity of the body-sharing premise. Billed as the last in the series (we’ll see), the third entry is written and directed by Kelly Marcel, who’s served as screenwriter of the previous Venom films. Get Tickets on Fandango

Nickel Boys (Theaters, Oct. 25)

Inspired by an infuriating true story, Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer-winning novel focuses on the friendship between two boys sentenced to an abusive Florida reform school in the Sixties. In this adaptation, newcomers Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson play the boys, Elwood and Turner, joined by Daveed Diggs, Aunjanue L. Ellis-Taylor, Hamish Linklater, and others. It’s the narrative feature debut of RaMell Ross, who made the remarkable documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening. Get Tickets on Fandango

Before (Apple TV+, Oct. 25)

Taking a rare dramatic role, Billy Crystal in this series in which he plays Eli, a child psychiatrist still haunted by his wife’s recent death. (Maybe literally: Judith Light plays her in flashbacks and in spectral form.) A distraction arrives in the form of a mysterious new patient named Noah (Jacobi Jupe), until Noah’s case starts to connect with Eli’s own past. Watch on Apple TV+

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band (Hulu / Disney+, Oct. 25)

Springsteen fans haven’t suffered from a lack of documentaries and concert films the past few years, but who’s complaining? The latest follows Bruce and the band as they prepare for and perform in Tampa on the 2023 tour. Watch on Hulu