While the best film of 2015 may very well have already been released (haven’t seen Phoenix?  well, you must), it doesn’t mean Hollywood won’t be crowding the autumnal multiplexes with high-end genre pieces and prestige flicks stacked like fallen leaves piled up at a suburban curb.

Here’s my Spin on the most anticipated films of Fall 2015:

10.  Spectre – d. Sam Mendes – November 6th – It’s the latest Bond after what many feel was one of the greatest Bonds.  I’m tired of Craig, but Mendes is a force to be reckoned with. And with Blofeld added to the mix finally, this one should set off like a Molotov cocktail.

9.  The Witch – d. Robert Eggers – Wait, this isn’t until 2016 maybe? What the hell, this screams Fall! – Exactly…what in the hell is this?  First time director Eggers displays a style in the trailer that answers the question, what if Terence Malick directed a horror movie?  Well, I’m intrigued.

8.  Beasts of No Nation – d. Cary Joji Fukunaga – October 16th – This will be an interesting one to watch, as this tale of child soldiers in Africa is Fukunaga’s first stab at cinematic greatness coming off True Detective, and it’s the first original film released by Netflix who will be playing it in limited theaters and streaming.  This could change the game on multi-platform releasing (especially of independent films), or it could be met with a shrug.

7. Suffragette – d. Sarah Gravon – October 23rd – Buzz is good, the cast is great, the story is powerful and the trailer is strong.  It would be hard to imagine this one going wrong, but stranger things have happened.  Wanna see Mulligan in another great part?  Check out this year’s earlier Far From the Madding Crowd.

6. Black Mass – d. Scott Cooper – September 18th – Johnny Depp tries to erase bad memories of Pirates, Tonto and Transcendence (oh dear lord what in the world was that piece of crap supposed to be apart from a cure for insomnia?) in this movie that has the right look and swagger to be a mob genre classic.  Will Cooper finally knock one out of the park and join the big boys?

5. The Hateful Eight – d. Quentin Tarantino – December/January – I’m of course intrigued and will do everything in my power to see this in the theaters, but I just have this sinking feeling in my gut that Inglourious Basterds was the best we will ever get out of QT and everything will produce diminishing returns from there.  Django Unchained was the first unfortunate data point in my theory.

4. Macbeth – d. Justin Kurzel – December 4th – My favorite Shakespeare play with Fassbender and Cotillard in the leads?  Could I be any more excited?

3. Carol – d. Todd Haynes – November 20th – The trailer oozed subversive prestige, with director Haynes firmly in his Far From Heaven/Mildred Pierce wheelhouse where he can apply his sumptuous attention to mid-century American period detail to tales of strong women quietly causing waves and rising against the social mores of that period and this.

2. Sicario – d. Denis Villeneuve – October 2nd – Villeneuve is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors working today, and this film looks like it will strengthen that feeling.

And the most anticipated #1 film of Fall 2015 is….

The Revenant – d. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu – December/January – Fresh off his Oscar win last year (for one of his lesser but still enjoyable films, Birdman), Inarritu has clearly thrown all caution to the wind based on the pulse-pounding trailer for this period-piece survival pic showcasing Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy (hot off the astounding Mad Max: Fury Road).  This has all the makings of becoming Inarritu’s biggest commercial smash – and maybe Leo will finally get to dance with a little gold man?

So there you have it.  There’s also something called The Martian starring Matt Damon and some Star Wars thing I’m sure I’ll be bamboozled into seeing.  Won’t it be fun to look back and see which of these bombed and which lived up to the hype?

What are your most anticipated flicks for Fall/Oscar Season 2015?

Written by David H. Schleicher