September
Practical Magic 2 (Sept 11): Celebrate the 25th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks with this legacy sequel to 1998’s Practical Magic. It’s a painful reminder that as Americans, in 2026, we must still contend with grave sins committed decades ago.
Resident Evil (Sept 18): Zach Creggar pitches in to add one more Resident Evil adaptation to the pile of Resident Evil adaptations. Still, Creggar’s previous films—Barbarian (2022) and Weapons (2025)—are about deep-rooted familial violence breaking containment, so expect his take on the horror video game series to be as much a clever creepshow as a trauma-fueled extermination of a whole mess of monsters, both inner and in the flesh.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother (Sept 25): The Marvel Cinematic Universe first announced Blade, their take on the half-vampire hero, in July 2019, starring Mahershala Ali and to be directed by Bassem Tariq. More than seven years, three directors, four scripts, and countless creative differences later, Ali has left the project, and the studio’s pretty much moved on. The consolation? Your Mother x3, starring Ali and written and directed by Tariq, proves that somehow, in 2026, it is easier to get a Muslim hitman movie made than one about an awesome guy in sunglasses who kills vampires with a sword.
Primetime (Sept 25): In Lance Oppenheim’s fiction feature debut, Robert Pattinson gets to do his most favorite thing in the world: talk in a weird voice. This time, he’s Chris Hansen, infamous catcher of predators, and the weird voice is in service to what could be an exorcism of the exploitive demon in each of us, conveyed with skeezy ebullience.
This is one of the many articles in the Mercury’s 2026 Fall Arts Issue. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you’re feeling generous and want to keep these types of articles coming, support us here.—eds.
October
Digger (Oct 2): Tom Cruise leaves his comfort zone to play a megalomaniac in this post-capitalist fairy tale from Alejandro González Iñárritu. But rather than force his A-lister to eat raw bison liver (see: Leo DiCaprio scarfing it down in The Revenant [2015]), Iñárritu’s got Cruise under an exoskeleton of prosthetic—lest we forget that good acting only happens when you’re physically uncomfortable and covered in shit.
Street Fighter (Oct 16): A bloated cast of comedians, martial artists, models, and character actors punches up this third-ish endeavor at filming the fighting game franchise. Also featuring: ICE-loving podcaster dipshit Andrew Schulz and rapping celebrity 50 Cent, who’s settled more than one assault allegation out of court. I think we know the only street on which these guys won’t fight—Accountability Avenue.
Whalefall (Oct 16): In this high-concept adventure thriller based on the high-concept book of the same high-concept name, a deep-sea diver (Austin Abrams) swallowed by a whale must use his instincts, as well as the instructional memory of his father (Josh Brolin), to stay undigested. Vore fetishists, this one’s for you!
Wildwood (Oct 23): Beloved Portland stop-motion animation studio adapts beloved Portland artist’s beloved Portland-based book about how Forest Park is actually a magical world full of talking animals and several secret societies. Like Arthur C. Clarke under Kubrick’s influence while writing the 2001 novel, one imagines author (and Decemberists frontman) Colin Meloy in cahoots with Laika from Wildwood’s earliest conception. The synergy is almost upsetting.
November
Wild Horse Nine (Nov 6): Martin McDonagh’s follow-up to 2024’s The Banshees of Inishirin returns to the sardonic moral gray of In Bruges (2008) with another tale of professional bad guys in repose. We join Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich as CIA officers in 1973—sent from Santiago to Easter Island to distance them from the impending Chilean coup they helped foment. Sources tell me that despite the CIA’s sinister history in South America, this movie will be “humorous.”
Ebenezer (Nov 13): Anthropomorphic decanter Johnny Depp applies elaborate old man makeup to look decades younger in Ti West’s take on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. If it’s not the Scrooge story we want, it’s definitely the Scrooge story we deserve.
I Play Rocky (Nov 20): A young, struggling Sylvester Stallone (Anthony Ippolito) proves he is not a numbskull by writing the script to Rocky—which the trailer shows by having the holistically beefy Italian American scribble “Rocky” on a yellow legal notepad—and then, through sheer punching perseverance, he stars in his own creation, despite everyone telling him he looks and sounds like a dumbass.
Focker-in-Law (Nov 25): In 2004, Meet the Parents reached the apex of comedy by introducing Ben Stiller as a guy named Gaylord “Greg” Focker. More than 20 years later, the fourth entry in the Stiller/Robert De Niro cinematic FU (Focker Universe)—in which Greg’s son (Skyler Gisondo) brings his fiance to meet the rest of the Fockers—continues the series’ tradition of poorly employing the titular pun. Anyway, Ariana Grande’s in this. Lap it up this November, Fock-heads.
