The best new movie releases in October

It’s ‘Gravity’ on the red planet with this one-man sci-fi thriller based on the popular (but, to be fair, kind of awful) bestseller. When his colleagues on the Ares 3 spacecraft are forced to make an emergency takeoff, astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is left behind to fend for himself.  Will space captain Jessica Chastain turn around and come back for him before his food runs out? Ridley Scott directs – which, in the wake of ‘Prometheus’ and ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’, isn’t the draw it once was. But Matt Damon should add some gravitas to the thin storyline.

Archival footage and personal testimonials present an intimate portrait of the life and career of British singer/songwriter Amy Winehouse.

Set in remotest nineteenth-century Cumbria (but shot entirely in Toronto), this old-school spooker follows the travails of a young woman who becomes convinced that her aristocratic hubby is not all he appears to be. After the steel and thunder of  ’Pacific Rim’, we’re thrilled to see horror master Guillermo del Toro getting back to his spooky roots – if this has half the atmosphere of ‘The Devil’s Backbone’ and ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ it’ll be a real treat. Mia Wasikowska takes the lead role, and we’re intrigued to see what Tom Hiddleston does with the role of a scheming, non-supernatural villain.