LOS ANGELES — U.S. moviegoers have Finnish action, dystopian politics, and campus scandal to choose from this weekend with the release of “Sisu: Road to Revenge” in theaters, “Anniversary” on VOD, and “After the Hunt” on Prime Video. The studios are booking the trio to appeal to late-fall audiences looking for new releases before the holiday season on Nov. 22, 2025.
For filmgoers sifting through new movies this weekend, the options are as different from one another as could be. “Sisu: Road to Revenge” continues a cult action franchise, “Anniversary” taps into election-year anxiety, and “After the Hunt” rides months of festival buzz out of Venice and New York into living rooms.
A gold prospector named Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila), grizzled and sardonic, confronts Soviet troops and a sadistic commander (Stephen Lang) in 1946 Karelia in “Sisu: Road to Revenge,” which lands on VOD platforms this week, fresh from its premiere at Fantastic Fest and international release. The sequel, which, once more, is the work of the writer-director Jalmari Helander, briefly transforms that postwar frontier into a gauntlet of ambushes, truck stunts, and improvised weaponry.
The R-rated movie is 1 hour 28 minutes long and will open in American theaters with a wide but genre-centric release through major chains and specialty houses. Its tank flips and train finale have been compared by critics to a scrappier, grindhouse riff on “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and Tommila’s near-silent performance has been roundly hailed. The original “Sisu,” released in 2022, established a cult following and was praised by RogerEbert.com, and you probably have an instant fan base for this follow-up.
Seats could be scarce in most smaller markets, so review local listings/the film’s Fandango page for possible opportunities to catch its virtues on a big-screen drenched in blood. The sequel has been on genre radars for months, landing in a GamesRadar roundup of anticipated 2025 releases and signaling strong interest from action audiences leading up to its U.S. release.
For those who prefer dread to detonations, “Anniversary” hits digital rental and purchase platforms Friday, after an Oct. 29 run in theaters. The Lionsgate film tracks the upper-crust Taylor family as their perfectly manicured life collapses under the spell of “The Change,” a sleek, cult-like group that nudges the country toward soft authoritarianism.
Lionsgate itself described the film this way in its own official synopsis: “Academics, collegiate couplings, and a Georgetown professor (Diane Lane) who dabbles with mouthy hookups from her tightrope thrown to Hollywood by her restaurateur husband Paul (Kyle Chandler) must also determine whether to comply or resist when their adult children arrive on an L.A. campus. It first emerged as a star-studded English-language thriller from Polish helmer Jan Komasa, whose work frequently explores notions of nationalism and extremism, according to a 2023 Deadline Cannes market report.
Early reviews have been mixed but intrigued, with many critics acclaiming the performances of Lane, Chandler, and co-stars including Zoey Deutch (as the destructive young Farraday girl) and Phoebe Dynevor, and debating what to make of the film’s refusal to plant a clear ideological flag. Some have observed that its theatrical rollout was modest and reasoned that the studio might have been wary of marketing an overtly political story, using the digital window as a chance to find a wider audience.
Streaming “After the Hunt” takes the action to Ivy League academia, where Julia Roberts portrays philosophy professor Alma Imhoff, whose career and marriage collapse after her protégée (Ayo Edebiri) accuses Alma’s long-suffering husband (Andrew Garfield), a colleague and friend for many years, of sexual assault. It’s directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Nora Garrett; the movie had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival before opening the 63rd New York Film Festival, where it established itself as a major contender throughout the fall awards season.
After a brief theatrical run in October — also in the United States — during which it moonlights as Filmmaking 101, the psychological drama has made its home on Prime Video, where it’s promoted as a new release and is hovering near the top of the service’s movies chart on amazon.com. The Associated Press previewed the film earlier this year, calling it one of Guadagnino’s most controversial projects and noting its difficult questions about truth, power, and responsibility.
Critical response, meanwhile, has been similarly fractured, with overall scores about middle-of-the-road for a film that finds critics singling out both Roberts and Garfield for turning in some of their better work in years. Some view the film’s treatment of #MeToo-era abuses and institutional culpability as admirably ambiguous; others regard its conclusions as too elusive, a discussion that is certain to become more heated now that it is widely available for home viewing.
Whether you’re in the mood for tank-rolling action, a family’s slow slide into authoritarianism, or a professor struggling with the gray areas of ethics, the new movies this weekend speak to very different corners of the cultural conversation. Sisu: Road to Revenge. For those charting out new movies this weekend, “Sisu: Road to Revenge” provides maximalist pulp, “Anniversary” channels political anxiety, and “After the Hunt” transforms a living-room viewing into an edgy seminar about power and complicity.
