Five New Films to Watch in UK Cinemas This Week

UK cinemas have a particularly varied slate arriving this week, ranging from full-blooded survival horror and Aardman animation to dark comedy, intimate drama and an extraordinary real-life love story.

All five of these films open in UK cinemas from Friday 18 September 2026, giving audiences plenty to choose from beyond the usual blockbuster fare.

Resident Evil

The Resident Evil franchise gets another cinematic reboot, this time in the hands of Barbarian and Weapons filmmaker Zach Cregger.

Rather than revisiting the characters and storylines of the earlier films, Cregger has created a new story within the world of the Capcom games. Austin Abrams stars as Bryan, a medical courier whose seemingly routine assignment turns into a night-long fight for survival as events around Raccoon City descend into chaos.

The film also stars Zach Cherry, Kali Reis and Paul Walter Hauser, with Cregger co-writing the screenplay alongside Shay Hatten.

After several very different attempts to translate Resident Evil from games to cinema, the new version appears determined to get much closer to the survival-horror atmosphere of the source material. Early responses have highlighted the film’s mixture of tension, gore, dark humour and references to familiar gameplay mechanics.

For horror audiences, it is easily the biggest mainstream release of the week.

Director: Zach Cregger
Starring: Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser
In UK cinemas: 18 September

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom

At the completely opposite end of the horror spectrum, Aardman has given Shaun the Sheep a Halloween adventure of his own.

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is the third feature-length outing for Shaun following Shaun the Sheep Movie and A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon.

This time the residents of Mossy Bottom Farm are preparing for Halloween when the Farmer accidentally destroys the flock’s pumpkin patch. Shaun attempts to solve the problem through a little scientific experimentation, but inevitably makes matters considerably worse. Soon the Farmer has disappeared and a mysterious beast is roaming the woods around Mossingham.

Directed by Steve Cox and Matthew Walker, the film continues Aardman’s extraordinary tradition of handcrafted stop-motion animation while gently sending up the conventions of classic monster movies.

Justin Fletcher returns as Shaun and Timmy, alongside familiar voices including John Sparkes and Kate Harbour. New additions include Nina Sosanya, Paul Whitehouse, Roman Kemp and Dani Dyer, while Rizzle Kicks have also recorded a new version of the familiar Life’s A Treat theme.

Thirty years after Shaun first appeared in Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave, the character remains one of Britain’s most successful animated creations.

Directors: Steve Cox and Matthew Walker
Featuring the voices of: Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes, Nina Sosanya, Paul Whitehouse
In UK cinemas: 18 September

Bad Apples

Saoirse Ronan takes an unexpectedly dark turn in Bad Apples, a black comedy about a teacher pushed spectacularly beyond the limits of conventional classroom discipline.

Ronan plays Maria Spencer, a primary school teacher struggling with one particularly disruptive pupil, Danny. Following an escalating confrontation, Maria makes the extraordinary decision to imprison the boy in her basement.

The disturbing twist is what happens next. With Danny removed from the classroom, Maria’s other pupils begin to flourish and her professional life improves. The increasingly absurd situation leaves her attempting to maintain the appearance of normality while hiding a child beneath her home.

Adapted from the Swedish novel De Oönskade, the film is directed by Jonatan Etzler from a screenplay by Jess O’Kane. The cast also includes Eddie Waller, Jacob Anderson, Rakie Ayola, Robert Emms and Nia Brown.

It is certainly one of the week’s stranger premises, mixing social satire, thriller and very black comedy while giving Ronan a role far removed from many of her better-known performances.

Director: Jonatan Etzler
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Eddie Waller, Jacob Anderson, Rakie Ayola
In UK cinemas: 18 September

Queen at Sea

One of the more serious releases this week comes from director Lance Hammer, returning with his first feature since the acclaimed Ballast in 2008.

Queen at Sea stars Juliette Binoche as Amanda, whose mother Leslie is living with advanced dementia. Her stepfather Martin, played by Tom Courtenay, remains devoted to his wife, but a deeply uncomfortable incident raises fundamental questions about Leslie’s ability to consent and make decisions for herself.

What follows is less a conventional family drama than an examination of love, responsibility, ageing and personal autonomy. Amanda and Martin find themselves on opposing sides of an increasingly difficult moral and legal situation, with consequences neither can fully control.

The film brings together three formidable performers in Binoche, Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall, who plays Leslie. Courtenay and Calder-Marshall both received acting recognition at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

Rather than offering easy answers, Hammer appears interested in precisely the opposite: the uncomfortable territory where compassion, protection and individual freedom begin to conflict.

Director: Lance Hammer
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Tom Courtenay, Anna Calder-Marshall
In UK cinemas: 18 September

The Cycle of Love

Finally, documentary The Cycle of Love tells a story that would probably seem implausible if it had been invented.

Directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Orlando von Einsiedel, the film follows the true story of Indian artist PK Mahanandia and Swedish traveller Lotta von Schedvin.

The pair met in Delhi during the 1970s and fell in love, but Lotta eventually had to return to Sweden. Unable to afford the airfare to follow her, PK bought a second-hand bicycle and set out to reach her anyway.

His journey ultimately covered around 6,000 miles, taking him from India towards Sweden in an extraordinary four-month adventure across countries and continents.

Von Einsiedel, whose previous work includes Virunga and The White Helmets, combines the couple’s recollections with dramatic reconstruction to tell a story that encompasses romance, identity, caste discrimination, determination and the kindness PK encountered from strangers along the way.

Nearly half a century after the events depicted, PK and Lotta’s story also provides something increasingly unusual in contemporary documentary cinema: a film built around optimism.

Director: Orlando von Einsiedel
Featuring: PK Mahanandia and Lotta von Schedvin
In UK cinemas: 18 September

Something for almost everyone

It is an unusually broad week for UK cinema releases. Resident Evil offers large-scale horror, while Aardman provides its own considerably less terrifying monster movie with The Beast of Mossy Bottom. Bad Apples heads into darker comic territory, Queen at Sea tackles a complicated moral dilemma and The Cycle of Love provides the week’s most remarkable true story.

For audiences willing to look beyond a single headline release, there is quite a lot arriving on British screens this weekend.

All five films are in UK cinemas from Friday 18 September 2026.