The Spectrum’s fall movie guide

As Halloween creeps closer and closer, it’s hard not to notice the barrage of movies that are being released within the coming weeks that pay homage to the beloved holiday. So save the date for scary night out at the movies or, if scary isn’t your thing, check out some of the other flicks soon to be released.

“Goosebumps”

Release Date: Oct. 16

PG

Directed by Rob Letterman and starring Jack Black (“Sex Tape”), Dylan Minnette (“Prisoners”), Odeya Rush (“The Giver”), Amy Ryan (“Birdman”), Ryan Lee (“This Is 40”) and Jillian Bell (“22 Jump Street”), this movie chronicles teenage boy Zach, who has just recently moved to small town, who meets his new neighbor Hannah, whose father is none other than R.L. Stein. Stein is writing the Goosebumps stories, horrifying campfire tales, which he traps in his manuscripts. When Zach and his friend Champ accidentally open one of the books, they release of all of the ghosts and monsters from the manuscripts. Zach, Hannah and Stein team up to get the not-so-fictitious monsters back into the manuscripts before they start harming people.

“Bridge of Spies”

Release Date: Oct. 16

PG-13

Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks (“Saving Mr. Banks”), Mark Rylance (“The Gunman”), Amy Ryan (“Birdman”) and Alan Alda (“Wanderlust”), this film is based on the 1960s U-2 incident. It tells the story of lawyer James B. Donovan who is given the job of negotiating the return of Francis Gary Powers, a pilot whose U-2 spy plane was shot down in Soviet Union territory.

“Steve Jobs”

Release Date: Oct. 23

R

Directed by Danny Boyle and starring Michael Fassbender (“X-Men: First Class”), Kate Winslet (“Titanic”), Seth Rogan (“The Interview”) and Jeff Daniels (“Dumb and Dumber To”), this film is a behind-the-scenes look at Steve Jobs’ career and life as he finds himself on the rise of his technological success, ending with the release of the iMac in 1998.

“The Last Witch Hunter”

Release Date: Oct. 23

PG-13

Directed by Breck Eisner and starring Vin Diesel (“Furious 7”), Rose Leslie (“Honeymoon”), Elijah Wood (“The Hobbit”), Julie Engelbrecht (“Nicholas on Holiday”), Michael Caine (“Kingsman: The Secret Service”), Rena Owen (“The Dead Lands”), Olafur Darri Olafsson (“A Walk Among the Tombstones”), Isaach De Bankole (“Oppenheimer Strategies”), Lotte Verbeek (“The Fault in Our Stars”), Inbar Lavi (“House of Dust”) and Kurt Angle (“Sharknado 2”), an immortal witch-hunter is given the responsibility to stop the witches of New York City in their actions to desecrate humanity by means of a plague. To do so, he must team-up with an unlikely partner, an attractive female witch.

“Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension”

Release Date: Oct. 23

R

Directed by Gregory Plotkin and starring Chris J. Murray (“Bad Roomies”), Brit Shaw (“Clemency”), Dan Gill (“The Wedding Ringer”), Ivy George (“Curse of the Slender Man”) and Katie Featherston (“Paranormal Activity”), this film features a family of four who moves into a new home in Palo Alto, California. Ryan, the youthful husband, and his brother come across a camera that has a recording of two young girls learning supernatural abilities. When one of the girls in the over 20-year-old video breaks the fourth wall and notices both of the brothers watching, Leila, Ryan’s daughter, begins being targeted by the supernatural. Ryan will do anything he can to protect his daughter.

“Our Brand is Crisis”

Release Date: Oct. 30

R

Directed by David Gordon Green and starring Sandra Bullock (“The Heat”), Billy Bob Thornton (“Entourage”), Anthony Mackie (“Avengers: Age of Ultron”), Joaquim de Almeida (“Fast Five”), Ann Dowd (“St. Vincent”), Scoot McNairy (“Gone Girl”) and Zoe Kazan (“In Your Eyes”), this film features a Bolivian politician who hires an American political consulting firm to help him win the 2002 Bolivian presidential election. The firm, Greenberg Carville Shrum, assigns Jane Bodine to handle the campaign strategies from Bolivia.

“Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse”

Release Date: Oct. 30

R

Directed by Christopher B. Landon and starring Tye Sheridan (“The Stanford Prison Experiment”) and David Koechner (“Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”), in this movie boy scouts Ben, Carter and Augie learn what true friendship really is when they band together to rescue their town from a plague of zombies.

Tomas Olivier is the assistant arts editor and can be reached at arts@ubspectrum.com.