Netflix just released their October 2025 schedule — and I just canceled all my plans for that month, including my wedding.
I’m kidding, but if I were going to get married in October, I’d push it back to watch all the streamer’s great content.
Can you blame me? With movies like Steve (a Cillian Murphy drama) and two star-studded thrillers (The Woman in Cabin 10 with Keira Knightley and The Ballad of a Small Player starring Colin Farrell), there’s little time to do anything else.
So lock the doors, turn out the lights, ignore your loving relatives and stream these three Netflix movies I can’t wait to watch in October.
‘Steve’ (2025) – Now Streaming
Ever since the massive success of Oppenheimer in 2023, Cillian Murphy has kept a relatively low profile. Aside from headlining indie drama Small Things Like These last year, the Irish actor hasn’t been as much in the public eye as costars Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr.
That will change in October with Steve, a new Netflix drama based on the novel Shy by Max Porter. Murphy stars as the titular character, an overworked and underpaid teacher at an English school for troubled teens. Steve wants to help his students lead better lives, but most of them resist his attempts to reach out to them. The exception is Shy (Jay Lycurgo), whose curiosity is sparked by Steve’s generosity. Why does someone like Steve care so much about people like Shy? And is he as put-together as he wants everyone to believe?
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Steve sounds like your straightforward inspirational teacher story, but its kinetic visual style is different from similar films like Dangerous Minds. Tracey Ullman and Emily Watson also star as Steve’s fellow teachers, but the main reason to watch the film is to see Murphy give yet another masterclass performance.
‘The Woman in Cabin 10’ (2025) – October 10
On a dark and lonely night aboard a luxury cruise ship, journalist Laura Blacklock sees something she shouldn’t have — a woman being pushed into the sea. She naturally notifies the authorities abroad about the apparent murder she just witnessed, but they tell her no passenger or crew member is missing. No murder occurred, so she must have been hallucinating.
Laura isn’t so sure, so she embarks on an investigation of her own. Who was the woman who was apparently killed? And why is it being covered up by everyone she talks to?
That’s the intriguing hook of The Woman in Cabin 10, a new Netflix mystery starring Pride & Prejudice actress Keira Knightley. Based on a bestselling novel by Ruth Ware, the movie is reminiscent of past hits like The Girl on the Train, which also had a female protagonist who thought she witnessed a murder. The Woman in Cabin 10 promises to be just as compelling as that hit thriller, and with Knightley in the lead, it’s bound to become one of Netflix’s most popular movies of the fall season.
‘Ballad of a Small Player’ (2025) – October 29
Colin Farrell specializes in playing charismatic sleazebags, and they don’t get much scummier than Lord Doyle. A compulsive gambler, Doyle has little left but his hope to strike it rich one last time at the casinos in Macau. But he owes a lot of money to some shady people, and he’s on the run from a private investigator, Cynthia Blithe (Tilda Swinton), who wants something from him. Doyle only has his life and his freedom, but he may not have even that once Cynthia catches up with him.
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Directed by Conclave’s Edward Berger, Ballad of a Small Player is a drama masquerading as a low-stakes thriller. Doyle is constantly running from something — Cynthia, angry casino owners who want their tabs paid, his own conscience — and the film does a good job at conveying Doyle’s increasing desperation. But it’s also a fascinating portrait of a man who knows his luck is running out and can’t do much about it.
