- Play Hard
- 12th Sep 2025
- 0
- 0 minute
8 movies to kick off cosy season
From spine-tingling horrors and long-awaited sequels to sweeping dramas and fantasy adventures, September’s cinema line-up is stacked, just in time for autumnal vibes.
Here’s what’s hitting the big screen this month.
The Conjuring: Last Rites – out 5th September
The Conjuring: Last Rites is another thrilling chapter in the iconic Conjuring cinematic universe, based on real events. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson reunite for one last case as renowned paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren in this powerful and spine-chilling ninth entry in the horror franchise.
Honey Don’t – 5th September
Ethan Coen (Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Drive Away Dolls) continues his Lesbian B-movie trilogy with this neo-noir detective drama. Ordinarily, private investigator Honey O’Donahue (Margaret Qualley) would have bigger fish to fry than a corpse dangling from a flipped automobile. But what looks like a simple traffic accident leads her down a rabbit hole to the pulpit of Chris Evans’s huckster evangelist Reverend Drew Devlin.
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale – out 12th September
The cinematic return of the global phenomenon follows the Crawley family and their staff as they enter the 1930s. When Mary finds herself at the centre of a public scandal and the family faces financial trouble, the entire household grapples with the threat of social disgrace. The Crawleys must embrace change as the staff prepares for a new chapter, with the next generation leading Downton Abbey into the future. Regulars Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Dominic West, Penelope Wilton and Joely Richardson join the cast for one final last hurrah.
The Long Walk – out 12th Sept
We should all be trying to get our recommended 6,000 daily steps in—but hopefully never like this. Visionary director Francis Lawrence (The Hunger Games) brings us the highly anticipated adaptation of Stephen King’s first novel, in which a group of young men must walk and walk, never stopping nor dropping below pace. Until foot-stumped corpses litter the roadside and only one survivor struggles to victory. The Long Walk is giving us blisters just thinking about it.
Spinal Tap II: The End Continues – out 12th September
The highly anticipated sequel to the infamous mock-rock documentary that gloriously skewered the music business back in 1984. Having failed to reinvent themselves as crypto traders and cheesemongers, the washed-up rock gods of Spinal Tap are on the reunion trail. Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer reprise their roles as members of the fictional heavy metal band who reunite after 15 years for one final show.
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey – out 19th September
In director Kogonada’s life-affirming new fantasy drama, Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell star as two jaded mid-lifers thrown together for a magical mystery tour. What if you could open a doorway and walk through it to re-live a defining moment from your past? Sarah (Robbie) and David (Farrell) are single strangers who meet at a friend’s wedding and soon, through a surprising twist of fate, find themselves on A Big Bold Beautiful Journey—a funny, fantastical, sweeping adventure where they get to re-live important moments from their pasts, illuminating how they got to where they are in the present… and possibly altering their futures.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 – out 26th September
Sometimes in a horror franchise it’s better to just get it over with and be killed outright. Having narrowly survived a frightening night of terror at the hands of the masked prowlers known as The Strangers, Maya Lucas is now the worst kind of small-town celebrity. In Chapter 2, on their way to their honeymoon, a couple’s vehicle breaks down, forcing them to take refuge in a remote Airbnb. As night falls, the three masked strangers terrorise them until dawn. Director Renny Harlin really tightens the screws with this one. Starring Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso and Ema Horvath.
One Battle After Another – out 26th September
Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio Del Toro star in this black-comedy thriller from director Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights). The film follows a frazzled former guerrilla forced to dust off his semi-automatic and save his kidnapped daughter. Also starring Sean Penn and Regina Hall.
Chris Kingston
Entertainment Writer
Chris is Laura's brother and the font of all knowledge when it comes to anything related to TV, film and books. He provides our popular round-ups on what to watch at the cinema, the TV not to miss, and new cultural releases.
Subscribe
Subscribe now to receive our twice-weekly emails and exclusive offers for High Life North readers.