Primetime to Practical Magic 2: 10 of the best films to watch this September

From Robert Pattinson in a grim drama about a reality TV show, to witchy sequel Practical Magic 2, starring Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock, here are the films to watch at the cinema this month.

Zach Cregger's Weapons was one of 2025's most acclaimed films, so in some ways it's a surprise that he's followed it up with a video game spin-off. But the writer-director told Empire that he has made "a Zach Cregger movie that just happens to be a Resident Evil movie". Far spookier-looking than the previous Resident Evil films, most of which were directed by Paul WS Anderson, this blood-drenched reboot focuses on a medical courier, Bryan (Austin Abrams). He has the job of delivering an organ to a hospital in the game's main location, Raccoon City – but the city's inhabitants are turning into ravenous zombies. "Bryan is very much an everyman who happens to be burdened with this sacred mission that's going to take him into the heart of everything," says Cregger. "It's kind of like Frodo [from The Lord of the Rings] going into Mordor."

Released internationally on 16, 17 and 18 September

The year of Robert Pattinson continues. As well as appearing in The Odyssey, The Drama and the forthcoming Dune: Part Three, the British actor is starring in Primetime, a fact-based drama about a controversial reality television show, To Catch a Predator. From 2004 to 2007, each episode of the programme revolved around sting operations in which men were tricked into thinking that they were meeting children for sexual encounters. They would then be confronted by the journalist behind the sting, Chris Hansen. Pattinson plays Hansen, and he is already being tipped as an Oscar contender – even if Hansen himself would have chosen a different actor for the role. "Years ago I had crafted a screenplay and thought Denis Leary would be a good guy to play me," he said on the Serialously podcast.

Released on 25 September in the US and Canada

Ethan Hawke follows his Oscar-nominated turn in Blue Moon with a very different kind of period drama. Set in Oregon during the Great Depression, The Weight stars Hawke as a single father who is unfairly sent to a labour camp. If he doesn't get home soon, he will lose custody of his young daughter, but the devilish warden (Russell Crowe) promises to free him on one condition: he and a team of other prisoners have to carry knapsacks full of stolen gold bricks across the country. "Hawke is mesmerising," says Chase Hutchinson in The Wrap. "The action scenes are tense and well-executed, though it's the way he grounds it that makes you feel every setback. Hawke makes you buy into every beat, whether haunting or thrilling as the film grows more violent… You can't look away for even a second."

Released on 18 September in the US and Canada

Back in 1998, Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock starred in Practical Magic as Gillian and Sally, two sisters who were also witches. When the film came out, audiences weren't exactly spellbound, but the dark supernatural romance gradually built a cult following. "I don't know any woman who's watched the movie and not wanted Gillian's red hair, Sally's cosy yet witchy outfits, or the beautiful Victorian house by the ocean that the family lives in," wrote Tove Danovich in Country Living recently. Now, 28 years after the first film, a sequel is finally here. Once again, it's adapted from a novel by Alice Hoffman, and once again Kidman and Bullock have the lead roles. Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest are........

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