This Halloween week brings a striking range of cinema to television screens, from a genre-redefining horror centred on liminal spaces to a darkly comic adaptation of Stephen King. According to The Guardian, the standout selection includes Chiwetel Ejiofor navigating an endless architectural nightmare and Theo James confronting a cursed wind-up toy that brings death to anyone who winds it.
What makes Backrooms such a bold horror film?
Director Kane Parsons created something genuinely original when he was just 20 years old, transforming the "creepypasta" YouTube series he had been developing since his mid-teens into a feature film. Ejiofor plays Clark, a failed architect who stumbles upon an apparently infinite liminal space concealed behind the strip mall store where he both works and lives. Renate Reinsve portrays Mary, Clark's therapist, a woman grappling with her own psychological wounds related to confined spaces, who nevertheless ventures into these backrooms to attempt a rescue. The monotonously yellow wallpaper creates an unsettling backdrop for scares of every conceivable variety, while underneath runs the visceral excitement of witnessing something genuinely new to cinema.
The film also features Lukita Maxwell, Avan Jogia, Mark Duplass and Finn Bennett in supporting roles. Parsons's feature expands on a web series he began publishing on YouTube in January 2022, bringing years of creative development to the screen. The film received its US theatrical release through A24 on May 29, 2026, following a May 7 premiere in Santa Monica, and an extended edition titled Backrooms: Everything Must Go Edition arrived on July 3 with an additional 15-minute prequel sequence.
Monday 26 October, HBO Max
Why does The Seventh Seal remain essential viewing?
The iconic chess match between the knight (Max von Sydow) and Death (Bengt Ekerot) stands as one of cinema's most recognisable moments, endlessly referenced and parodied by everything from Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey to The Muppets. Yet Ingmar Bergman's 1957 masterpiece deserves appreciation for far more than this single scene. The film's allegorical examination of plague-ravaged medieval Europe, combined with Gunnar Fischer's austere black and white cinematography, creates a work of profound artistic achievement. The climactic rendering of the Danse Macabre, performed before slowly dissolving dark clouds, provides a haunting conclusion that lingers long after the credits roll.
Saturday 24 October, 9.30pm, BBC Four
Is Cat Person a romance or a thriller?
The tonal instability of this 2023 film, adapted from Kristen Roupenian's viral short story, mirrors its thematic concerns about the complexities of modern dating. Emilia Jones stars as Margot, a 20-year-old college student who enters an ambiguous relationship with Robert (Nicholas Braun, recognisable as Greg from Succession), a seemingly harmless if somewhat self-satisfied man. The film deliberately refuses to settle into a single genre, instead oscillating between romantic comedy and psychological horror to explore what it means to be a single, heterosexual woman navigating contemporary dating culture and its inherent power imbalances.
Saturday 24 October, 11.40pm, BBC One
What drives the investigation in The Boston Strangler?
Though Tony Curtis appears midway through the film in an against-type role as the now DNA-identified killer Albert DeSalvo, the narrative's true focus rests on the determined detectives of Boston Police Department. A roster of character actors with distinctive weathered faces—including George Kennedy and Murray Hamilton—work under the leadership of John S Bottomly (Henry Fonda) as they methodically pursue every suspicious figure and eccentric individual across eastern Massachusetts before finally identifying their suspect. Director Richard Fleischer's deployment of split-screen cinematography enhances both the film's momentum and its period authenticity, creating a visual language that reinforces the investigative process.
Sunday 25 October, 10.10pm, Talking Pictures TV
How does All of Us Strangers explore grief and connection?
This film functions as an emotionally intricate, fable-like meditation on regret and the possibility of redemption. Andrew Scott, delivering perhaps his finest performance, portrays Adam, an introverted gay screenwriter living in isolation within a tower block. Seeking creative inspiration, he returns to his childhood home and encounters the spectral forms of his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), who perished in a motor accident when he was 12 years old. Within the same building, he discovers Harry (Paul Mescal), apparently the sole other resident, and begins a tentative romantic connection. These two encounters draw Adam outward from his solitude, enabling him to reconsider his formative years, his identity, and his current circumstances. The narrative balances heartbreak with cautious optimism, offering a profound examination of how relationships—both lost and newly formed—reshape our understanding of ourselves.
Wednesday 28 October, 9pm, Film4
What makes The Monkey both horrifying and hilarious?
Following his creation of 2024's most terrifying film with Longlegs, Osgood Perkins directed The Monkey, which adapts Stephen King's 1980 short story and received its US theatrical release on February 21, 2025. This 2025 follow-up abandons pure terror in favour of raucous comedy-horror that balances genuine scares with moments of dark humour and unexpected wisdom. Theo James plays twins whose traumatic family legacy continually resurfaces through a cursed wind-up monkey. Each time someone foolishly turns the toy's key, a spectacularly gruesome death follows. This premise forces the twins to confront an existential question: how does one continue living when death perpetually surrounds them? The film transforms this morbid concept into something that oscillates between laugh-out-loud comedy and genuine dread.
Wednesday 28 October, 10.40pm, BBC One
What can viewers expect from Apocalypse Z: New World?
The Spanish-language zombie film Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End achieved substantial international success on Prime Video in 2024. This sequel, also helmed by director Carles Torrens, depicts a world where much of humanity has sought refuge in the Canary Islands following the emergence of the blood-borne TSJ virus. Roberto (Carlos Alcaide) participates in a specialised mission returning to the mainland, which rapidly devolves into a desperate struggle for survival as waves of infected creatures advance. The film maintains continuity with its predecessor by featuring Lúculo the cat (still portrayed by Pedrito the cat), offering a touch of levity amid the apocalyptic chaos.
Friday 30 October, Prime Video
