Each month The A.V. Club does our part to keep you up to date on the best of what’s coming out on Blu-ray and 4K UHD, which is especially important as streaming services become less and less reliable homes for films worth watching. This month isn’t pure horror, though that’s represented with a few favorites of the genre getting much-needed upgrades. October 2025’s Blu-ray and 4K releases include the interactive midnight movie, an oddball superhero film, a Chinese ghost story trilogy, and some slept-on classics from killer filmmakers. Read on and find films from David Cronenberg, Werner Herzog, Mario Bava, John Carpenter, and more.
Let’s do the Time Warp again (in 4K). The Rocky Horror Picture Show is turning 50, which means it’s getting another physical release in celebration—but at least this time, it’s getting a visual upgrade along with it. The midnight musical’s latest disc includes all the special features that have accumulated over the years, including a new Trivia Track, which means that you’ll be set up to host your very own karaoke nights with the film if, for some reason, you’re unable to find a theater encouraging its audience’s loudest and proudest behavior at a screening.
Shout! is bringing Mario Bava’s debut to 4K alongside a handful of commentary tracks, giving Barbara Steele’s searing stare its best-looking edition yet. The Gothic classic, with its castles and magic and melancholy eroticism, introduced a scream queen and inspired a whole generation of filmmakers with its creeping atmosphere.
Spawn 4K
Available October 7, 2025
Todd McFarlane, your goofy creation deserved so much more. So too did Michael Jai White, whose portrayal of McFarlane’s comic creation never quite broke him away from the direct-to-video mines or the excellence of indie fare like Black Dynamite. But at least Arrow’s 4K of the superhero film offers up two restored cuts of the film as well as a ton of extras making the case for the sometimes-maligned adaptation.
A History Of Violence 4K
Available October 21, 2025
Recently named one of The A.V. Club‘s best movies of 2005, A History Of Violence celebrates its 20th anniversary with a 4K upgrade via The Criterion Collection. One of David Cronenberg’s most straightforward films, the drama of interior rot and reinvention is nonetheless as shocking and engrossing as his more goopy works. Excellent turns from Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello power the story of a man whose past catches up with him, but it’s Cronenberg’s insistence that the layers of a person can’t ever be fully papered over that gives the film its lasting power. A making-of doc and a new interview with screenwriter Josh Olson bolster some familiar special features, but it’s the crisp look of this classic that should be the real draw.
Nosferatu The Vampyre 4K
Available October 21, 2025
Werner Herzog. Klaus Kinski. Isabelle Adjani. A plague-bringing Dracula. Nosferatu The Vampyre is a sickly, enrapturing take on the bloodsucker’s tale, given a new 4K restoration by Shout!. A Herzog commentary track sweetens the pot, but with Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu not such a distant memory, it’s certainly worth checking out (or revisiting) one of that film’s more influential predecessors.
In The Mouth Of Madness 4K
Available October 28, 2025
Arrow is handling the final entry in John Carpenter’s loose Apocalypse Trilogy, bringing the hellscape of author Sutter Cane into 4K alongside some of the label’s signature special features. Work through the Lovecraftian horrors with the help of new commentary tracks, interviews with Jürgen Prochnow and Sandy King Carpenter, featurettes, and a stacked criticism booklet. If you and Sam Neill can make it through the film without fully losing your marbles, a bounty of supplemental treasures await to help bring you back to sanity.
A Chinese Ghost Story Trilogy 4K
Available October 28, 2025
Assembling A Chinese Ghost Story and its two sequels into a Blu-ray box set, Shout! is also adding a new feature-length documentary about Leslie Cheung to its special features—a worthy subject that makes these restorations even more appealing. These fantastical, silly, and emotional fables from producer Tsui Hark are rich supernatural films, building off one another into an engrossing, self-referential mythology.
