When it comes to October-friendly movies, Paramount+ isn’t messing around; there are over 100 new Paramount+ movies rolling out throughout the month, which is a lot to get through I know, but let me help you narrow it down.
In and among typical Halloween appropriate movies, like Scream (1996) and The Fly (1986), are action and thriller movies, which are getting some time in the spotlight on one of the best streaming services. Starting with Jake Gyllenhaal’s gripping performance in Nightcrawler (2014), there’s also the Coen brothers’ western thriller No Country for Old Men (2007), which sees Javier Bardem assume the role of one of the best movie villains.
Not a fan of action or thriller? No worries, you can jump straight to the full list of new Paramount+ movies below!
Nightcrawler (2014)
RT score: 95%
Age rating: R
Runtime: 117 minutes
Director: Dan Gilroy
Arriving on: October 1
Dan Gilroy scored big with his directorial debut, gaining an overwhelmingly positive critic and audience response as well as an Oscar nomination for ‘Best Original Screenplay’ – although Nightcrawler lost to Birdman.
Louis Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a thief and hustler in Los Angeles, but when he witnesses a brutal accident and sees men gathering video footage for a local news broadcast, he has a lightbulb moment and believes this is a career he could excel at.
When he acquires a video camera and a police scanner, he races to the scenes of crashes, fires and robberies to capture footage for a TV station, developing a working relationship with news director Nina Romina (Rene Russo). The station is impressed with his work, but his success drives him to manipulate events in order to capture the most shocking footage.
District 9 (2009)
RT score: 90%
Age rating: R
Runtime: 112 minutes
Director: Neill Blomkamp
Arriving on: October 1
Another directorial debut in our list is Blomkamp’s District 9, a mockumentary-style movie featuring surveillance camera and fictional interviews footage.
In 1982 Johannesburg, a spaceship landed leaving millions of alien creatures stranded – derogatorily referred to as ‘Prawns’ When humans discover the alien population on board, the South African government confines them to a camp called District 9.
Decades later, the government execute a relocation of the alien species to another camp, tasking MNU bureaucrat Wilkus (Sharlto Copley) to assist the mission. When he’s contaminated by an alien fluid he slowly mutilates into a Prawn resulting him to hide within the camp, but his employers at the MNU see him as a useful key in finding a way to operate the Prawn’s advanced weapons.
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
RT score: 91%
Age rating: R
Runtime: 157 minutes
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Arriving on: October 1
After Bigelow became the first woman to win the ‘Best Director’ Oscar with The Hurt Locker, she came back strong with Zero Dark Thirty, a striking political thriller inspired by one of the biggest manhunts of all time.
After the tragic September 11, 2001 events, Osama bin Laden becomes the target of an international search. CIA operative Maya (Jessica Chastain) is assigned to Pakistan to help locate the Al-Qaeda leader.
Maya’s drive to tracking him down grows stronger over the years, despite the challenges she faces, which includes a terrorist attack that takes the lives of her colleagues. Using the most brutal interrogation techniques, she gets closer to pinpointing Laden’s location, which ends in a tense final act.
No Country for Old Men (2007)
RT score: 93%
Age rating: R
Runtime: 122 minutes
Directors: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen
Arriving on: October 1
Javier Bardem delivers an unsettling yet powerful performance as a psychotic hitman in the Coen brothers’ Western crime thriller.
No Country for Old Men is a chain of violent and intense events set in Texas during the 1980s. While out hunting, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) stumbles upon the gruesome aftermath of a drug exchange that leaves several dealers brutally murdered. Instead of reporting it to the police, Moss decides to flee the scene with the two million dollars left behind, knowing that someone out there is likely looking for the money.
His trail is quickly uncovered by ruthless murderer Anton Chigurh (Bardem), sparking a manhunt. As Moss tries to keep one step ahead, Chigurh will stop at nothing to retrieve the cash, even if it means killing everyone associated with his target along the way.
Searching (2018)
RT score: 92%
Age rating: PG-13
Runtime: 102 minutes
Director: Aneesh Chaganty
Arriving on: October 1
Searching is a modern mystery thriller taking place entirely through a laptop screen – think Unfriended (2014), but with way better reviews.
When widowed father David (John Cho) finds that his 16-year-old daughter Margot (Michelle La) has gone missing, he gets the police to conduct a search. 37 hours into the search and no progress has been made, so David decides to take matters into his own hands and look into he one place the police haven’t – her laptop.
During his search he discovers that, in fact, he barely knew his daughter and is forced to confront her hidden online life. From uncovering suspicious transactions to her absences from class, David continues his frantic search no matter how painful it is, resulting in a shocking plot twist.
Everything new on Paramount+ in October 2025
Arriving on October 1
30 Days of Night
All About the Benjamins
American Gigolo
American Psycho
American Psycho II: All American Girl
Anthropoid
Beautiful Creatures
Beowulf
Breaking In
Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!
Chloe
Cold Mountain
Daddy’s Home
Death at a Funeral
Deep Impact
District 9
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Fight Club
Fight or Flight
Finding Neverland
First Blood
Flashdance
Frank Miller’s Sin City
Gangs of New York
Good Will Hunting
Green Room
Grown Ups
Grown Ups 2
Hard Home
Heat
Hellboy (2004)
Hostel
Hostel: Part II
Hotel Mumbai
House at the End of the Street
Hugo
I See You
Imagine That
In Fabric
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Just Go with It
King Kong (1976)
Lake Placid
Man With No Past
Men in Black
Men in Black 3
Men in Black II
Night Falls On Manhattan
Nightcrawler
No Country for Old Men
Once Upon A Time In Mexico
Panic Room
Prophecy
Proud Mary
Rambo III
Rambo: First Blood Part II
Scary Movie 4
Scary Movie V
Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders
Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire
Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster
Scooby-Doo in Where’s My Mummy?
Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster
Scream
Scream 2
Scream 3
Searching
Selena
Shadow Land
Silence
Single White Female
Spanglish
Swingers
Switchback
Tabloid
Teen Wolf
The Babysitter
The Core
The Craft
The Evil Dead
The First Purge
The Fly
The General’s Daughter
The Hunted
The Last Gunfight
The Machinist
The Manchurian Candidate
The Menu
The Perfect Guy
The Prince and Me
The Prophecy
The Prophecy 3: The Ascent
The Prophecy II
The Prophecy: Forsaken
The Prophecy: Uprising
The Shallows
The Spiderwick Chronicles
The Warriors
Urban Legend
When the Bough Breaks
Zero Dark Thirty
Arriving on October 7
Queen of the Desert
Arriving on October 18
Fifty Shades of Black
