Welcome to Horror Explorer, a curated column showcasing the month’s best movies, series, books and everything else spooky worth checking out. I’m William Earl, the executive digital director of Variety and the publication’s resident horror enthusiast. Please drop me a line at wearl@variety.com if there’s something I should check out for next month’s missive.

Marquee Madness Image Credit: Sony

“ Five Nights at Freddy’s 2″ (Opening in theaters on Dec. 5 via Universal Pictures) — The second chapter of the spooky video game adaptation brings Josh Hutcherson back as the everyman fighting animatronic robots gone haywire. Bonus points for casting both “Scream” bad boys, Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich, to excite the Gen Xers tagging along as chaperones.

“ Anaconda” (Opening in

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