A24 Thriller Update: Jeremy Saulnier Adds Stephen Root, Young Mazino, and Stanley Simons to His Next Shocker
A24 sharpens its Halloween blade as Jeremy Saulnier’s October recruits Stephen Root, Young Mazino, and Stanley Simons.
Jeremy Saulnier is back in the Halloween sandbox with a new A24 movie called 'October,' and honestly, that alone has me grinning like a jack-o-lantern. If you know him from 'Murder Party' (his scrappy debut that unfolds on Halloween night), 'Blue Ruin,' 'Green Room,' 'Hold the Dark,' a run on 'True Detective' season 3, and the long-gestating 'Rebel Ridge,' you already get the vibe: tense, mean, and sometimes surprisingly funny.
Last year Saulnier teased that the new one is about 'music and Halloween and fun shit.'
That tracks. And since then, the project has gone from intriguing tease to a stacked, very Saulnier-sounding thriller that keeps quietly adding interesting people.
What 'October' actually is (as far as they'll say)
Details are locked down, so no character info yet and no official plot synopsis. What is out there: it is a fugitive thriller set around Halloween, with Deadline framing it as a horror-action blend. Saulnier also says this one leans closer to the nasty, propulsive lane of 'Green Room' than his more recent work.
He called it 'a little more in the Green Room universe.'
The pieces on the board
- Title: 'October' (A24 is financing and producing)
- Premise snapshot: A Halloween-set fugitive thriller with a horror-action charge and a baked-in music angle
- Cast (previously attached): Cory Michael Smith ('Saturday Night'), Chase Sui Wonders ('I Know What You Did Last Summer'), Sophie Wilde ('Talk to Me')
- New additions: Stephen Root ('Office Space'), Young Mazino ('Beef'), Stanley Simons ('The Iron Claw')
- Producers: Jeremy Saulnier; Rich Peete (Neighborhood Watch); Eli Bush (Central); Skei Saulnier (Niteowl Films) — yes, Jeremy Saulnier’s wife
- Executive producers: Ronald Bronstein and Josh Safdie (Central); Traci Carlson and Elliott Coley (Neighborhood Watch); Macon Blair (Bonneville Pictures)
Why this has my attention
I have a soft spot for 'Murder Party' and still think it is Saulnier’s sneakiest gem, so hearing he is doing another Halloween-adjacent story immediately hits the sweet spot. The 'Green Room' energy shout-out suggests sweaty, claustrophobic set-pieces and barbed-wire tension. Add Stephen Root (always money), rising stars like Young Mazino and Stanley Simons, and a trio of leads who’ve all been strong in recent genre work, and the casting feels dialed in.
Between the music angle, the Halloween canvas, and A24 backing, this sounds like Saulnier letting the leash off again — which is exactly where he tends to do his best work. Consider me very ready for 'October,' whenever it drops.