For 19 years, New York Comic Con (NYCC) has been the East Coast’s most celebrated gala of geekdom. In 2024, the convention welcomed more than 200,000 attendees. In 2025, that number swelled by 50,000, making it the, or one of the, most highly attended conventions in the U.S.

From novice nerds to masters, every October, the Javits Center teems with enthusiasts attending author, actor and production company panels, autograph signings and fandom meetups. They play console and tabletop games, enter contests and spend their precious gold and silver coins on NYCC exclusives and trinkets. But, arguably, the most exciting thing about the event is seeing the thousands of people who bring their favorite book, comic, movie, television show or video game character to life through cosplay.

“There’s some crossover because Caribbean culture really makes you celebrate yourself and be very comfortable in your skin and always down to party and have a good time. I feel like that aligns well with cosplaying in general,” said Maurice Grant. Kishel Browne (from left), Dimitri Grant, Brianna Streater, Taijah Edgecombe and Maurice Grant pose here for a photo at New York Comic Con 2024 dressed as characters from the anime series Demon Slayer.

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Attendees gather at New York Comic Con, held at the Javits Center in Manhattan, on Oct. 18, 2024.

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Cosplayers are a community unto themselves, and at NYCC, the likelihood of passing by a fully functioning DIY transformer costume is as great as passing someone on the street who had a bodega bacon, egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast. Characters from classic horror movies, the DC Universe and Marvel are always popular choices, as are those from the Star Wars and Game of Thrones franchises. The anime community is well-represented too; fans in Chainsaw Man, Dan Da Dan, Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia costumes can be seen sauntering down the halls, snapping selfies together.

“A way to express yourself here is by going to another world by different design. You can be a fantasy, be anything you want… It feels amazing. It’s the best thing in the world to express yourself, to feel free, to have a great time. You know what? If you have a dream in life, chase it,” said Daniel Thompson dressed as Static Shock.

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Meilani Ambrose as Momo from Dan Da Dan (from left), Leila Baez as Angel Dust from Hazbin Hotel and Isabella Harold as a Brazilian interpretation of the vocaloid, Hatsune Miku.

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Cosplayers dance outside New York Comic Con at the Javits Center in Manhattan on Oct. 18, 2024.

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Finding your tribe within the denizens of cosplayers, when that tribe is a minority group often not expected to engage in the activity, is especially heartwarming. While it’s true that these types of events are generally considered safe spaces that welcome geeks and nerds of all heritages, many Black and Caribbean cosplayers say the community at NYCC is nothing short of thrilling.

The mutual excitement is contagious, because more often than not, they tell NPR, they grew up isolated from their community at large because of their geeky and nerdy interests — as well as from cosplayers of other backgrounds. The people featured here hail from, or have roots in Barbados, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, Haiti, the U.S. Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, Dominica, Saint Lucia and the Dominican Republic. Many speak of cosplay’s power to build or strengthen family bonds and friendships or how it provides an outlet for escape. Seeing others, of all ages, who look like them at NYCC, takes an already electrifying experience to new heights. For four days, Black and Caribbean cosplayers can find each other. Their joy is a powerful affirmation of how glorious it feels to be seen by your scene.

Attendees dressed as a Power Ranger, a stormtrooper and Rogue from the “X-Men” franchise incorporated Puerto Rican flags into their costumes at New York Comic Con 2024.

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“Growing up, I was, like, the Black nerd kid. Knowing the fact that I found people who are like me who have, like, the same interests is actually pretty fun. And I’m gonna be honest: I have never even thought about cosplaying before,” said Kyle Mallett, posed here (from left) for a photo with Kris Mallett, Aiden Graves, Hailey Barnett and Jessica Johnson dressed as characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender.

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Isaac “Soup” Campbell is a photographer based in New York City. You can see more of Isaac’s work on Instagram at @moresoupplease.

2025 has been a ghoulish year for horror, and you can catch all of it this weekend: Doggie dread, a vampiric Oscar contender, thrillers zombified, supernatural, and nuclear.

No tricks, just treats.

Weapons 

Available to stream on HBO Max and rent on demand. 

Weapons begins with something that seems impossible: One night, in the suburb of Maybrook, every student (save one) from Justine Gandy’s third-grade classroom gets up at 2:17 a.m., goes downstairs, walks out of the house, and silently runs off into the night. They are gone, 17 of them. They are caught on doorbell cameras or security cameras, disappearing into the woods or just into the darkness. Suspicion falls on Justine (Julia Garner), for the simple reason that nobody can figure out how these kids could disappear unless something was happening in that classroom, on her watch. In large part, not unlike HBO’s 2014 series The Leftovers and the novel that inspired it, Weapons is a story about a community recovering from an inexplicable trauma that arrives like a natural disaster, wreaks havoc, and then cannot be reversed, only survived. But there is another thing, another Whole Thing going on in this story, which I would not spoil for anything, because it is simply too wonderfully scary and strange. – Linda Holmes

Read the full review here. 

Good Boy 

In limited theaters; available to rent on demand. 

No harm befalls the deeply sympathetic canine protagonist of Good Boy, a low-budget horror film based on those eerie moments when pets seem to have a heightened sense of a presence humans can’t detect. The dog in question, named Indy, is the director’s dog in real life, and we experience the events of the film through his soulful eyes. The film features indie horror auteur Larry Fessenden in a surprise supporting role, and in some ways, it belongs to his lineage of scary movies that explore humanity’s rapacious relationship with nature. While some horror fans have expressed disappointment over Good Boy’s deliberate pace and absence of jump scares, critics have celebrated the film’s emotional, innovative storytelling from the point of view of a very good boy. — Neda Ulaby 

Sinners 

Available to stream on HBO Max and rent on demand. 

This trailer includes an instance of vulgar language. 

It’s 1932 in Clarksdale, Miss., and enterprising twin brothers Smoke and Stack, both played by Coogler’s longtime muse Michael B. Jordan, have returned to town after some years away in Chicago. What the siblings got into while up North in all likelihood wasn’t on the up-and-up; think robbing, stealing, and doing business with Irish and Italian gangsters. But now back home, they’re flush with cash and booze and eager to set up a new venture: a juke joint. It’s possible you’re aware that Sinners involves vampires, and it does. In a straightforward metaphor for all the ways Black culture has been co-opted by whiteness, the raucous pleasures and sonic beauty of the juke joint attract the interest of a trio of demons led by Remmick (Jack O’Connell); they wish to literally leech off of the talents and energy of Black folks. And — this is not a spoiler — some of those Black people make it pretty easy for Remmick and his ilk to taste blood. – Aisha Harris 

Read the full review here. 

28 Years Later 

Available to stream on Netflix and rent on demand. 

The apocalyptic horror film 28 Years Later takes place in the same world as the 2002 film 28 Days Later, where a deadly virus transformed the citizens of England into rabid, blood-spewing creatures with really impressive lung capacity. Seriously, those zombies were just as good at wind sprints as they were at cross-country. This year’s film picks up almost three decades later on a small island connected to the mainland by a causeway, where a group of survivors eke out a modest existence. A desperate expedition to the mainland reveals new allies and new horrors — because the infected have evolved. — Glen Weldon

Listen to the Pop Culture Happy Hour panel discuss the movie.

Presence

Available to stream on Hulu and rent on demand. 

The haunted-house thriller Presence has a formal conceit so clever, I’m surprised it hasn’t ever been done or attempted before. Maybe another movie has done it that I’m not aware of. This is a ghost story told entirely from the ghost’s point of view: We see what the ghost sees.

The ghost cannot leave the house, and so the movie never leaves the house, either. You could say that the ghost is played by the director, Steven Soderbergh, who serves as his own cinematographer, as usual, working under the pseudonym of Peter Andrews. That’s Soderbergh holding the camera as it glides up and down the stairs, following the characters from room to room, and hovering over them as they try to figure out what’s going on.

Soderbergh’s camera movements are so delicate and expressive, he can convey empathy with a mere twitch or shudder, or rage with a sudden, violent lurch. Before long, we realize that the ghost isn’t trying to scare this family; it’s trying to warn them. — Justin Chang

Read the full review here.

Frankenstein 

In theaters; on Netflix Nov. 7. 

Guillermo del Toro has made several monster movies of a particular bent — soulful, swoony, feverish films about grotesque-looking creatures who prove themselves more deeply human than the humans who reject them. Which is why Frankenstein seems like the perfect match between story and muse; certainly del Toro’s been talking about making his own version of the tale for decades, calling it his “lifelong dream.” That dream is now realized, and while the resulting film captures the tone and spirit of the original novel in all its breathless zeal and hie-me-to-yon-fainting-couch deliriousness, the many narrative tweaks del Toro has made — some of which work, some of which don’t — ensure that you’d never mistake his Frankenstein for anyone else’s. – Glen Weldon

Read the full review here. 

A House of Dynamite 

Available in limited theaters and streaming on Netflix. 

This trailer includes instances of vulgar language. 

An entirely plausible nuclear horror story from the Oscar-winning director of The Hurt Locker, this nerve-jangling thriller begins with a ballistic missile headed toward the continental U.S. Origin unknown, but consequences cataclysmic, the missile plays into doomsday fears so primal, most of us bury them. Nuclear war is unthinkable, we tell ourselves, because mutually assured destruction means no government would ever start one. But suppose, as director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim have, that a seemingly rogue threat can’t quickly be traced, that a missile will strike a major American city in just 19 minutes, and that fallible, increasingly frantic civilian and military leaders haven’t a clue how to finesse the possible obliteration of humankind. This explosive scenario, played for farce in Dr. Strangelove, leads here into white knuckle territory. – Bob Mondello