10 Best New Movies On Netflix In September 2026

1. Jaws — Sept. 1 (97% Rotten Tomatoes Score)

What It’s About: Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic follows Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), the police chief of the seaside community of Amity Island, after a great white shark begins killing swimmers just as the lucrative summer tourist season gets underway. Brody eventually heads out to sea with marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and hardened shark hunter Quint (Robert Shaw) to kill the predator. Based on Peter Benchley’s bestselling novel, Jaws became a box-office phenomenon and helped establish the modern summer blockbuster.

Why You Should Watch: It’s not just a classic. It still holds up as one of the best thriller/suspense movies ever made and one of Spielberg’s best films. Jaws paved the way for so many other films, and not just “shark in the water” knock-offs, but also movies like Jurassic Park and even modern TV shows like the excellent Widow’s Bay, which also sees a coastal town confronted with horrors just as the tourist season begins. This is probably also my third-favorite Richard Dreyfuss film after Close Encounters of the Third Kind and What About Bob? and he’s done a lot of great movies.

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2. Alien — Sept. 1 (93% Rotten Tomatoes Score)

What It’s About: Ridley Scott’s 1979 sci-fi horror masterpiece follows the crew of the commercial spaceship Nostromo after they respond to a mysterious distress signal and inadvertently bring a deadly extraterrestrial organism aboard. Sigourney Weaver stars as Ellen Ripley alongside Tom Skerritt, John Hurt, Veronica Cartwright, Ian Holm and Harry Dean Stanton. Written by Dan O’Bannon and featuring H.R. Giger’s iconic creature design, the film spawned one of cinema’s most enduring science-fiction franchises.

Why You Should Watch: There will never be another sci-fi horror movie as perfect as Alien. Alien is to sci-fi horror what Jaws is to terrestrial horror. They’re both about the same thing, really: Man vs Monster; predators so beyond anything our heroes have encountered, that they only survive by the skin of their teeth. Ellen Ripley is one of the greatest action heroes of the modern age and the role propelled Sigourney Weaver to stardom. The franchise was never quite as good as the original, and we’ve seen some big misses like the unfortunate Alien: Earth TV show, but Alien is the GOAT, as the kids say. It’s also one of the films, along with Star Wars, that helped define the lived-in, analog-future aesthetic we now call cassette futurism, right around the era when cyberpunk was beginning to take shape.

3. Aliens — Sept. 1 (93% Rotten Tomatoes Score)

What It’s About: James Cameron takes over directing duties for the 1986 sequel, which finds Ripley rescued after 57 years in hypersleep and reluctantly returning to LV-426 after contact is lost with a human colony. This time she’s accompanied by a heavily armed squad of Colonial Marines, including Michael Biehn’s Hicks, Jenette Goldstein’s Vasquez and Bill Paxton’s Hudson, while Carrie Henn plays the colony’s lone surviving child, Newt, and Lance Henriksen plays the android Bishop.

Why You Should Watch: James Cameron’s take on the Alien franchise was . . . quite a bit different than Ridley Scott’s and that was okay, because both movies were great in very different ways and worked better precisely because they were so different. The sequel is much more action-packed and less suspense-driven, shifting from horror to sci-fi heart-pounding action, but it introduced a great cast of supporting characters and still kept the Xenomorphs terrifyingly unsettling.

4. Ready or Not — Sept. 1 (89% Rotten Tomatoes Score)

What It’s About: Samara Weaving stars as Grace, a newlywed who discovers that marrying into the obscenely wealthy Le Domas family comes with a rather nasty initiation ritual. What begins as a game of hide-and-seek turns into a fight for survival when her new in-laws begin hunting her through their sprawling estate with guns, crossbows and other weapons. The 2019 horror film was directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who later went on to direct 2022’s Scream and its sequel, Scream VI. Adam Brody, Andie MacDowell, Mark O’Brien and Henry Czerny also star.

Why You Should Watch: As I noted, a couple of the movies on this list are on my watch-list also. I’m including them because they’re newer releases rather than my own favorites. This is one I’ve been meaning to see since it came out just before COVID. The sequel, Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come, just came out in 2026 and while it didn’t get quite as high a Rotten Tomatoes score as the original, it did remind me that I still hadn’t watched the original. Lucky for me, it’s out on Netflix!

5. Smile 2 — Sept. 3 (86% Rotten Tomatoes Score)

What It’s About: Parker Finn’s sequel to his 2022 horror hit shifts the supernatural curse to pop superstar Skye Riley (Naomi Scott), who begins experiencing terrifying visions and inexplicable events just as she’s preparing to embark on a major world tour. Rosemarie DeWitt plays Skye’s mother and manager, while Lukas Gage, Dylan Gelula and Ray Nicholson join the cast and Kyle Gallner reprises his role from the first movie. Finn once again writes and directs.

Why You Should Watch: The only other film on this list that I haven’t watched yet is another modern horror picture that I have on my backlist. I was reminded that I need to watch these movies while watching Apple TV’s excellent Seth Rogen series, The Studio (yes, another Apple TV show in this list – what can I say, there are so many good shows on Apple TV!) In one episode the producer Sal Saperstein (who I’d like to thank, personally) is trying to get Parker Finn to direct a project for the fictional Continental Studios. As usual, things do not go according to plan. But I’m getting sidetracked! Smile 2 looks super creepy, and I’m waiting to watch it with someone – anyone! – rather than all by my lonesome. Still, Smile 2’s 86% Rotten Tomatoes score is considerably better than most horror sequels manage.

6. Scarface — Sept. 1 (77% Rotten Tomatoes Score)

What It’s About: Brian De Palma’s ultra-violent 1983 crime epic stars Al Pacino as Tony Montana, a Cuban immigrant who arrives in Miami and ruthlessly claws his way to the top of the city’s cocaine trade. Michelle Pfeiffer stars as Elvira Hancock, with Steven Bauer as Tony’s friend Manny, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as his sister Gina and Robert Loggia as crime boss Frank Lopez. Written by Oliver Stone, the movie is a remake of Howard Hawks’ 1932 gangster film and has since become one of the most famous crime movies ever made. It holds a 77% critics score and a much higher 93% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Why You Should Watch: “Say hello to my little friend!” is one of the all-time greatest lines in cinema. This is not debatable. This is fact. Al Pacino is absolutely wonderful in Scarface as the ambitious Tony Montana. Frankly, I was shocked when I saw this only has a 77% critics score on RT. That’s downright criminal! The critics must be crazy. (The wonderful Robin Williams / Steven Spielberg movie, Hook, has a 37% RT score, which is just embarrassing). In any case, this is up there with Goodfellas and The Godfather as one of the best mobster movies ever made, and the Miami / Cuban angle really sets it apart from those films.

7. Conan the Barbarian — Sept. 1 (68% Rotten Tomatoes Score)

What It’s About: Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Robert E. Howard’s legendary warrior in John Milius’ 1982 sword-and-sorcery epic. After his village is destroyed and his family murdered by the forces of cult leader Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones), Conan grows from an enslaved child into a formidable warrior and sets out for revenge alongside Valeria (Sandahl Bergman) and Subotai (Gerry Lopez). Oliver Stone co-wrote the screenplay with Milius, while Basil Poledouris composed the film’s score.

Why You Should Watch: “To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women” is yet another of the very best, most iconic lines in all of modern cinema. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the perfect Conan the Barbarian and this is one of the greatest fantasy / sword and sorcery films ever made, a really badass adaptation of the Robert E. Howard stories. It’s a cult classic and not without its issues (it’s a product of its time, let’s just say that) but it holds a special place in my heart because it really introduced me to this side of fantasy before I ever started reading the old stories. I was always a Tolkien kid, and then D&D, so mostly “high fantasy” stuff until Conan opened my eyes to sword and sorcery and then eldritch horror and so much other great pulpy fantasy.

8. Liar Liar — Sept. 1 (83% Rotten Tomatoes Score)

What It’s About: Jim Carrey stars as Fletcher Reede, an unscrupulous Los Angeles attorney whose career depends largely on his ability to “bend” the truth. After Fletcher repeatedly disappoints his young son, Max makes a birthday wish that his father won’t be able to lie for an entire day—and the wish comes true just as Fletcher is handling a crucial court case. It’s essentially a modern morality tale in the tradition of A Christmas Carol or It’s a Wonderful Life, with a supernatural intervention forcing a deeply flawed man to reconsider the way he’s living his life. Curiously, it doesn’t take place during the holidays, which in retrospect feels like a missed opportunity to make that lineage even clearer. Directed by Tom Shadyac, the 1997 comedy became one of the defining hits of Carrey’s blockbuster ’90s run.

Why You Should Watch: I was such a huge Jim Carrey fan when I was a teenager in the ’90s. I was annoyingly into Jim Carrey, doing the voice and quoting Ace Ventura relentlessly. Yeah, I know. But there was something a little sweeter and a little more bittersweet and thought-provoking and even emotionally poignant about Liar Liar that has always stuck with me. It’s one of my favorite Carrey films, up there with Bruce Almighty, The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. It’s been a long time since I’ve watched any of these (probably Bruce Almighty most recently) but it’s actually The Cable Guy that’s next on my watch-list. Still, I need to watch this one again. He’s so funny in it and even though I didn’t love the ending, I think it’s a better “divorced dad tries to connect with kids” comedy than Mrs. Doubtfire and a lot funnier than Kramer vs. Kramer.

9. T2 Trainspotting — Sept. 1 (81% Rotten Tomatoes Score)

What It’s About: Danny Boyle reunites the central cast of his 1996 cult classic Trainspotting two decades later, with Ewan McGregor returning as Mark Renton alongside Ewen Bremner as Spud, Jonny Lee Miller as Sick Boy and Robert Carlyle as the terrifying Begbie. Renton returns to Edinburgh after years away and quickly gets pulled back into the lives, grudges and schemes of the friends he betrayed at the end of the original film. Screenwriter John Hodge also returns for the sequel, which draws from Irvine Welsh’s characters and revisits the original’s themes through the considerably less romantic lens of middle age.

Why You Should Watch: Trainspotting is such a brilliant film. It was my introduction to Ewan McGregor, to the travails of heroin addiction, the druggies of Scotland and the absolutely horrific image of a baby crawling on the ceiling. I love that movie even though it’s kind of depressing. Depressing and funny and uplifting and gonzo. The sequel isn’t as good, but it’s still very much worth watching. I was a teenager when I watched the original. Fifteen years old. Thirty years later, watching these middle-aged dudes is . . . weird, as a middle-aged dude. I still haven’t read the books these films are based on, though. I’m intimidated by how dark they sound. But they’re on the list. Lord almighty, my book backlog is even more daunting than my film and TV backlog!

10. The Blues Brothers — Sept. 1 (72% Rotten Tomatoes Score)

What It’s About: John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd star as Jake and Elwood Blues, the black-suited musicians originally created for Saturday Night Live. After Jake gets out of prison, the brothers decide they’re “on a mission from God” to reunite their old band and raise enough money to save the Catholic orphanage where they grew up. Directed by John Landis, the 1980 musical comedy mixes enormous car chases and deadpan comedy with performances from Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Ray Charles and Cab Calloway; Carrie Fisher and John Candy also appear. Its Rotten Tomatoes scores are 72% from critics and a much higher 92% from audiences.

Why You Should Watch: This movie I first saw as a kid and I really didn’t get a lot of the jokes but I loved that Rawhide song and all the music in the movie. I’m pretty sure this was where I was first introduced to Aretha Franklin and probably a few others when I was but a wee lad. I haven’t seen this one in such a long time, I suspect that watching it now would be an entirely different experience. This was the template for future SNL-musical spin-off films like Wayne’s World and A Night at the Roxbury. John Belushi remains an absolute legend. He overdosed two years after this film released. He was just 33 years old. His over-the-top personality and humor lives on in movies like this and Animal House.

Any movies on this list make your favorites list? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. You can see the entire slate of new movies and TV shows hitting Netflix this month right here.

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