Our favourite new movies to watch at home on digital this Halloween

As Halloween weekend approaches, a run of new films are available to buy or rent on digital platforms across Australia. So, here’s our roundup of the best films from this year to watch for a spooky movie night.

Among the titles now or soon landing at home are the return of the Owens sisters, a low-budget horror that has become one of the year’s biggest box-office stories, and franchise entries that have already completed their cinema runs.

Leading the highlights is Practical Magic 2, the sequel reuniting Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock as the Owens sisters. Directed by Susanne Bier and based on Alice Hoffman’s The Book of Magic, the film opened in cinemas on September 10 and reached digital platforms earlier this month. Kidman and Bullock return with Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing, joined by Joey King, Maisie Williams, Lee Pace and Xolo Maridueña. The original 1998 film developed a cult following. The sequel is fun, romantic, and a great mix of family entertainment with magic and mystery.

Also newly available is Insidious: Out of the Further, the sixth entry in the franchise. Amelia Eve stars as a young mother who discovers she can enter The Further and bring what lives there back to the real world. Lin Shaye reprises her role as Elise Rainier. Directed by Jacob Chase, the film opened on August 21 and arrived on digital on October 6. It is pure franchise horror, with the series’ signature atmospheric dread and the chance to revisit the world of The Further.

YouTuber-turned-filmmaker Curry Barker’s Obsession, which he wrote, directed and edited, has been the breakout horror of the year. The film follows a record-store clerk whose novelty-charm wish goes wrong. It is now available to buy or rent at home. The story is lean, tense and built around a simple idea that turns sinister, the kind of original horror that rewards viewers looking for something outside the usual franchise cycle.

The horror-comedy franchise returns with an extended cut of Scary Movie (2026). The latest instalment reunites Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, Anna Faris and Regina Hall. The extended cut, running roughly nine minutes longer, is available digitally. It is broad, self-aware comedy that sends up the current wave of horror films, best watched with a group that already knows the references.

Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man is also on digital. In the film a suburban ice-cream seller’s treats turn children into killers. It is a short, nasty horror comedy in the vein of Roth’s earlier work, the sort of film that suits a late-night double feature. Fall 2: Deadpoint, the sequel to the 2022 survival thriller, is available as well. Two climbers become stranded on a Thai mountain plank walk. It is straightforward tension and vertigo for anyone who likes high-altitude survival stories.

Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, arrives on November 4. The film, which premiered at Cannes, follows a young filmmaker hired to reboot a fictional 1980s slasher franchise. It plays with the tropes of the genre while folding in desire, identity and the line between film and reality, the kind of elevated horror that has become Schoenbrun’s signature.

DreamWorks Animation’s Forgotten Island is newly available for families. Directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado, it follows two best friends, voiced by H.E.R. and Liza Soberano, who become stranded on the mythical island of Nakali drawn from Philippine folklore. Their memories of each other are the price of getting home. The film is colourful, funny and built around the idea that a long friendship is worth fighting for.

Best of all, these titles are all available to buy or rent now from digital platforms such as Apple TV, Google Play Store, and Prime Video. There’s no need to wait for them to arrive on streaming as digital retailers offer premium new releases shortly after their cinema runs, with all these spooky options available now just in time for Halloween.

More details on current digital and physical releases are available from the Australian Home Entertainment Distributors Association at aheda.com.au.