Strictly speaking, autumn began a week and a half ago, but it’s the calendar’s turn to October that really inaugurates the High Holiday season. This is the most wonderful time of year of denizens of the Macabre Republic, as the month-long lead-up to Halloween delivers an incredible assortment of dark entertainment. Some of the film, TV, and streaming-service items that belong at the top of must-watch lists during this season of the witch:

*Halloween (in theaters October 19)

*Eli Roth’s History of Horror (premieres October 14 on AMC)

*The Haunting of Hill House (available October 12 on Netflix)

*The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell (available October 12 on Netflix)

*The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (available October 26 on Netflix)

*Lore (Season 2 available October 19 on Amazon Prime)

Some of the best Halloween-themed blogs to follow all October long: The Skeleton Key, the Horror Writers Association’s Halloween Haunts 2018, and Pumpkinrot: What’s Brewing. And, of course, there will be various articles on pop cultural horror published online this month; just today I came across a fun one titled “The Horror Oscars: The Best Scary Movies of Every Year Since 1978’s Halloween.”

Finally, as you can see from the header image to my website, the Macabre Republic leads straight into October Country. So be sure to keep an eye out for the special posts I have planned for this Halloween season…