October offers a nice mix of horror films for Halloween, along with some of the year’s most anticipated releases.

We have a brand new Tom Cruise film in Digger, the follow-up to The Social Network, with its writer taking the director’s chair for The Social Reckoning and Primetime with Robert Pattinson going for an Oscar.

Alongside those in the creepy and scary, there are the releases of Other Mommy, which has had one of the year’s best trailers, Whalefall, and Clayface from the DC Universe.

Here are all the new films coming to Australian cinemas in October 2026.

---

OCTOBER 1

Digger

The most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s saviour before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.

Verity

Lowen Ashleigh is hired to ghostwrite for Verity Crawford. After she uncovers what appears to be Verity’s autobiographical notes, she wrestles with the confessions about Verity’s husband, and finds it hard to separate fiction from reality.

Beware Boiúna

A team of doctors embark on a local mission in the Amazon rainforest, but it soon becomes clear that not everybody – or everything – is happy to see them. Their sudden appearance draws the attention of an animal predator, the “Boiúna”.

Demon Agent

Set in a fantastical version of Tang dynasty Chang’an where humans and demons live side by side, the film follows an unlikely detective duo as they investigate a bizarre murder that threatens the city’s fragile harmony.

OCTOBER 8

The Social Reckoning

Follows Frances Haugen, a young Facebook engineer, who enlisted the help of Jeff Horwitz, a Wall Street Journal reporter, to blow the whistle on the social network’s most guarded secrets.

Big Girls Don’t Cry

Over one transformative summer in rural New Zealand in 2006, 14-year-old Sid discovers desire, identity, and the internet as she imitates the people she longs to be loved by.

READ OUR REVIEW

Other Mommy

Bela, an 8-year-old girl living in a home with marital problems, confronts a sinister entity that comes out of her closet. The presence, who she calls “Other Mommy,” becomes increasingly threatening to her and her family.

Stitch Head

Follows Stitch Head, a small creature awoken by a Mad Professor in a castle to protect the professor’s other creations from the townspeople of Grubbers Nubbin.

Tad and the Magic Lamp

Tad, his girlfriend Sara and their friends Momia, Jeff and Belzoni embark on an adventure after Tadeo accidentally unleashes an ancient spell.

OCTOBER 9

The History of Concrete

A filmmaker applies lessons from a Hallmark movie writing workshop to pitch a documentary about concrete.

OCTOBER 12

Always Lalisa

Feature-length documentary following global superstar LISA during a transformative year away from Blackpink, the K-pop phenomenon that made her one of the world’s most recognisable performers.

OCTOBER 15

Street Fighter (2026)

Street Fighters Ryu and Ken reunite when Chun-Li recruits them for the World Warrior Tournament. As they face a hidden conspiracy, they must confront each other and their past-or face destruction.

Whalefall

A scuba diver in search of his deceased father’s remains gets swallowed by an 80-foot, 60-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out. From the director of No One Will Save You, adapting the novel by Daniel Kraus.

Jebediah: Are We OK?

This is the story of a band that grew up but never grew apart. Jebediah’s thirty-year journey is a celebration of friendship, creativity, and staying connected against the odds.

Sense and Sensibility (2026)

Sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood must leave their Sussex estate and move in with a distant relative, facing romance and money troubles.

Sgt. Haane

Haane Manahi DCM of B Company, 28th Maori Battalion, whose remarkable bravery was crucial in the 1943 battle for Takrouna’s fortified summit in Tunisia.

OCTOBER 16

Prahaar

Revisits defining criminal trials in Indian history, exploring public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam’s role in legal battles surrounding the 1993 Bombay Blasts and 2008 Mumbai Train Attacks.

OCTOBER 22

Clayface

Rising Hollywood star Matt Hagen descends into a horrifying revenge-filled monster when scientific ambition strips him of his identity and humanity.

Ali G: Who Iz I?

After twenty years spent “chillin’, tokin’ and bonin’”, Ali G is shocked to discover that his long-term girlfriend, Julie, is 8 months pregnant. Faced with an extra mouth to feed, he gets off his batty and heads to America to reclaim his former glory… but soon encounters adversaries who will ultimately threaten his and his child’s very existence.

Holy Cannoli

A lonely and gluttonous real estate agent meets his soulmate through their shared passion for Sicilian pastries.

Klara and the Sun

A robot girl designed to prevent loneliness tries to save a heartbroken family of humans.

Possible Love

Four strangers’ paths cross by chance, leading to complex emotional entanglements that challenge their existing relationships and force them to confront uncomfortable truths about love and commitment.

Rose of Nevada

A mysterious boat returns to a village 30 years after vanishing. Two men join its crew hoping for better fortune. After one voyage, they find themselves transported back in time, mistaken for the original crew.

Wildwood

The adventures of Prue McKeel as she sets off to the forests outside Portland to find her kidnapped brother.

OCTOBER 29

Primetime

In 2006, To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen sets out to make television history.

Crawlers

Tenants at Paradiso Palms apartments fight a deadly spider invasion while the cunning building manager might be their only hope for survival.

Pressure

In the tense 72 hours before D-Day, General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Captain James Stagg face an impossible choice–launch the most dangerous seaborne invasion in history or risk losing the war altogether.

Sundays

17-year-old Ainara is a student at a Catholic secondary school, and is about to take her final year exams and choose her future university course. To everyone’s surprise, this brilliant young girl announces to her family that she wants to take part in an induction period at a convent in order to embrace the religious life. Nobody was expecting this. While her father seems to be won over by his daughter’s aspirations, for Maite, Ainara’s aunt, this unexpected vocation is the manifestation of a deeper problem.

The Fix (2026)

Disillusioned by the end of the war in Afghanistan, a group of disgraced, war-torn ex-CIA operatives set out to Tehran to take down a life-changing score.

---

What films are you most excited to see in cinemas this month? Let me know in the comment section below.

Is there anything missing from this list? If so, let me know, and I’ll add it!

You can also check out what’s coming to streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, and more on our ‘What’s Streaming’ page.

[Descriptions & cinema dates gathered from Flicks.com.au & IMDB]