The spooky season known as October was filled with scary movies and also some comedies, and if you missed any of them, there is still time to catch them in your local theater or at least be ready to catch them when they hit the cable and subscription pay services or come out on DVD. 

The box-office champion of October and the best movie of the month is Joker. Released on Oct. 4, Joker immediately rose to the top of the charts. eventually becoming the top grossing rated “R” movie of all time, bringing in a total of over $1.4 billion as of November 1. 

In this version of the story of Batman’s most infamous nemesis, Arthur Fleck is played by Joaquin Phoenix who delivers a fantastic performance as Arthur Fleck, a skinny man, who lives in Gotham City with his mom, and works as a performer who dresses up as a clown. He has a mental illness that causes him to constantly laugh, and his laugh is not a pretty one. Arthur begins to cause mayhem throughout Gotham and is seen as a leader for the underprivileged living in poverty. He slowly transforms into the evil and insane clown we all know as the Joker. 

Joker was by far the most excited I’ve been to see a movie since Avengers: Endgame back in April. The performance Phoenix delivers as the crazed clown is phenomenal in all aspects. Also, the soundtrack to this movie is on point with bizarre songs that fit the style of this movie. Phoenix should most definitely earn an Oscar nomination if not the win for his outstanding performance. The film is also deserving of Oscar consideration in other categories as well. I highly recommend you see this movie if you haven’t seen it yet, and if you have, you should see it again. 

Joker might’ve been one of the biggest movies of the month and one of the biggest of the year, but there were still some other October releases that were popular and worth a look. Zombieland: Double Tap, the sequel to the horror comedy that came out in 2009, features Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, and Abigail Breslin. Stone won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role In 2016’s La La Land, and Harrelson, Eisenberg, and Breslin are all Academy Award nominees for their acting with Harrelson having earned three nominations to date.Personally, I loved Zombieland: Double Tap because of the comedy relief perfectly placed at tense moments. 

There were also a handful of other worthwhile October releases, including Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, the sequel to the 2014 Disney film that almost equaled Joker at the box office and has Oscar winner Angelina Jolie reprising the title role. The Addams Family, the animated version of the classic movie that came out in 1991 and the TV show in 1964, is also an entertaining diversion.

Countdown, a horror movie about an app that tells you the exact moment you will die, but not how you will die came in at third on the October box office winners list, and for money, is the second best movie of the October releases.  Lastly, Gemini Man, featuring Will Smith in the lead role as a soldier fighting his government-created clone, is an entertaining action film.