The Road is only one film this fall that envisions the end of the world. © Dimension Films.

7) The Road (Dimension Films, Oct. 16)
Fans of Cormac McCarthy's bleak post-apocalyptic tale have been waiting for a year. Australian director John Hillcoat's film version of the story follows a father and son trying to survive in a world where ash rains down from the skies. DIVE, Crazy House Effects and Invisible Pictures all had a part in creating this dreary world where cannibals haunt the countryside. Mark O. Forker, who supervised work on The Lord of Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Peter Pan, knows the demands of creating fantastic worlds.

Hot vampires and werewolves fight it out for the heart of Bella in New Moon.

6) The Twilight Saga: New Moon (Summit Ent., Nov. 20)
For the female teen crowd, The Twilight Saga: New Moon is like getting Thanksgiving a week early. Tippett Studio, Frantic Films, Prime Focus and MastersFX were part of the increase in werewolves for this popular franchise. Legendary Phil Tippett and Susan MacLeod (vfx producer on the Oscar-winning Golden Compass) supervised the vampire on lycan action, which of course is for the guys.

Jim Carrey performs as Scrooge and the ghosts in Robert Zemeckis' A Christmas Carol.

5) A Christmas Carol (Buena Vista, Nov. 6)
Robert Zemeckis and his ImageMovers (with some help from Gentle Giant Studios and Plowman Craven & Associates) have crafted another performance capture epic. This time Jim Carrey takes on Scrooge of all ages as well as the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future in this stylized version of Charles Dickens' classic. With each film, Zemeckis fine-tunes the process, so we eagerly await where he takes performance capture this time around.

The circus of freaks in The Vampire's Assistant has some amazing powers.

4) Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (Universal, Oct. 23)
Based on Darren Shan's young adult book series, this film has a host of various freaks, creatures and fantastic events provided by Rhythm & Hues Cube Effects and others. Vampires, a bearded woman (played by Selma Hayek, no less), a snake boy, a giant, a skeleton man, and more haunt the corners of this scary movie. For vfx fans, this one looks like some nice eye candy just in time for Halloween.