There are few genres as enduringly popular — and profitable — as the horror flick. Superheroes and disaster movies and spy actioners and movies based on a holiday featuring Julia Roberts as part of an ensemble cast come and go, but since the silent era, people have consistently liked to go to the movies to have the shit scared out of them.
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We’ve been in something of a boom time in the genre in recent years, with all kinds of exciting filmmakers emerging around the world, and last year alone saw films as diverse as “The Witch,” “The Conjuring 2,” “Don’t Breathe,” “Lights Out” and “Under The Shadow” prove to be big hits. The appetite doesn’t appear to have diminished in 2017, either: Already, M. Night Shyamalan’s “Split” has proven a big hit; and this week brings “Rings,” a long-delayed attempted reboot-quel to the J-horror remake of the early ’00s.
How that movie does remains to be seen, but even one-twelfth of the way into this year, we’re only at the tip of the horror iceberg (in more ways than one, obviously). And while our mammoth Most Anticipated Films Of 2017 piece included some horrors, we wanted to zoom in some of the pure genre offerings that we didn’t have space for there, so below you’ll find the 20 most anticipated horror movies to come over the next 11 months. Take a look below, and let us know what you’re cowering in fear of in the comments.
20. “Flatliners”
What You Should Know: On the one hand, this movie, from Swedish ‘Girl With The Dragon Tattoo‘ director Niels Arden Oplev, has one of the higher-profile casts on this list (Ellen Page, Nina Dobrev, Kiefer Sutherland, Diego Luna, Kiersey Clemons), and is a sequel to, rather than a remake of, the 1990 original of the same name — which is a good sign. On the other hand, it’s still “Flatliners,” and the shadow of the Joel Schumacher nonsense movie, which starred Sutherland alongside Julia Roberts, Kevin Bacon, Billy Baldwin and Oliver Platt as med students unleashing malevolent forces when they try to journey, for brief periods, into the afterlife, looms large and ludicrous. It’s likely to be very dumb, and Oplev has yet to really impress us as a director (his ‘Dragon Tattoo’ follow-up “Dead Man Down” was just ok), but if he can banish the kitschy, big-hair memories of the original, however, there’s room for this to be an effectively fun horror in the mold of its studio Screen Gems, and even for the premise to expand into franchise territory (speaking of, where the hell is the next “Final Destination” movie?)
Release Date: September 29th
19. “The Keeping Hours”
What You Should Know: Surprisingly, for a female director, Karen Moncrieff has not has a smooth ride of it, since her 2003 debut drama “Blue Car” picked up very positive notices and a lot of one-to-watch style plaudits for its director. Her follow-up, the 2006 Toni Collette-starrer “The Dead Girl,” was well-received but disappeared after a couple of weeks in theaters — and that was a 3,500-screen wide release in comparison to that accorded her third film, the Kate Beckinsale vehicle “The Trials of Cate McCall.” But “The Keeping Hours” seems like it could be a change of gear, a supernatural horror romance starring Lee Pace (“Halt & Catch Fire,” “The Fall“) and Carrie Coon (“The Leftovers,” “Gone Girl”) that comes from ‘Vampire Diaries‘ writer Rebecca Sonnenshine and has a neat premise, following an estranged, grieving couple drawn back into each other’s lives when one of them starts to see the ghost of their dead son. Will it avoid the potential for sappiness? Will it be fourth-time lucky for Moncrieff? Will we ever stop getting it mixed up with Brit Marling film “The Keeping Room“? Only time will tell.
Release Date: None yet, but it’s been in the can a while, so we expect it soon.
18. “The Babysitter”
What You Should Know: A finalist on the 2014 Black List, Brian Duffield‘s script for “The Babysitter” is described by the Playlister who’s read it as “very, very clever.” It’s a horror-comedy in which a kid (Judah Lewis from “Demolition“) who has a massive crush on his sitter (Samara Weaving from Mensa favorite “Monster Trucks“) discovers she’s actually a occult-worshipping serial killer. All sounds set for some demonic hijinks, therefore, though the one large-ish fly in the ointment is that it’s slow-cinema devotee McG directing, and it’s hard to know if his brand of thoughtful, nuanced social realist drama will lend itself to the challenges of the horr-com genre. McG, whose filmography, including “This Means War,” “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” and “Terminator Salvation,” is so wretched that to date it seems like humdrum sports drama “We Are Marshall” might be his masterpiece, is enough to give us major qualms about this one, but if he can raise his game even halfway to the level of the screenplay, perhaps he will surprise us all.
Release Date: Netflix bought it up from New Line, but there’s no news on when they’ll be putting it out yet.
17. “The Girl With All The Gifts”
What You Need To Know: Fifteen years ago, just as the zombie movie was starting to feel played out, Danny Boyle gave it a kick in the ass with the visceral “28 Days Later.” The Brits — well, and Irish director Colm McCarthy — come to the undead-genre’s rescue again this year with “The Girl With All The Gifts,” a film that might not be as formally daring as Boyle’s, but takes risks of its own. Set in a Britain overrun with a plague of so-called hungries, it sees a schoolteacher (Gemma Arterton), a scientist (Glenn Close) and a soldier (Paddy Considine) head out on a quest with a young infected girl (excellent newcomer Sennia Nanua) who might be able to provide a cure. It takes some twists and turns that you certainly won’t be expecting, and not every choice it makes works out, but it’s an extremely solid, terrifically executed film that should leave both gore-happy genre freaks and those who want a little more substance in their braaaaaainns happy.
Release Date: February 24th
16. “Housewife”
What You Need To Know: One of the more exciting voices to emerge on the horror scene in the last couple of years is Can Evrenol, the Turkish helmer whose gruesome, mind-bending debut feature “Baskin” was a hit on the festival circuit back in 2015. He’s back in 2017 for a movie that, while Turkish-made, will be his first in the English language, and focus on a woman whose mother murdered her sister and father 20 years earlier, and who starts to lose her grip on reality before seeking out a celebrity psychic for help. According to the director, it’s at once continuous and a departure from “Baskin.” “It’s almost a continuation of my work,” he told Screen Daily, “the recurring themes of sexuality, family, social claustrophobia and nightmares. This time it’s from a female perspective and it’s going to be in the English language. If you say Baskin is like my Carpenter and Stephen King homage, this is going to be Argento and Fulci.” Expect something deeply disturbing any way around.
Release Date: Filming got underway at the start of this month, so this could pop up at TIFF Midnight Madness or Fantastic Fest.
15. “Mohawk”
What You Need To Know: Known as a veteran producer and publicist in the horror-movie world, Ted Geoghegan made an extremely well-received debut as director with 2015’s “We Are Still Here,” a film that managed to take the familiar haunted-house set-up, twist it around and have enormous fun with it. It was a little rough around the edges, but we’re expecting Geoghegan to make a big step-up with his follow-up “Mohawk.” Described as an “historical action-horror.” it stars Kaniehtiio Horn (who is herself part-Mohawk: props to Geoghegan for the casting here) as a woman pursued by American soldiers after a member of her tribe sets their camp on fire, forcing her to use both real and supernatural means to fight back. Also starring Noah Segan, Justin Rain and WWE wrestler Luke Harper, Geoghegan describes it as “a horrifying home invasion film where the home is North America itself.”
Release Date: Filmed last summer, so could be ready as soon as SXSW.
14. “Creep 2”
What You Need To Know: The world needed another found-footage horror like it needed a digital camera to the brain, but Patrick Brice’s “Creep,” co-written with indie legend Mark Duplass and produced by horror king Jason Blum, proved to be an effective spin on the genre that more than lived up to its title. Three years after the original film premiered, with it subsequently having become something of a Netflix sleeper, it’s getting a follow-up. Brice returns to direct, from a script by him and Duplass, who also reprises his role from the original, this time joined by “Appropriate Behavior” and “Girls” breakout Desiree Akhavan. While we’re trying to avoid spoilers, we do wonder whether the film is able to pull off the same games of the original, but we’re confident that Brice and Duplass will find new territory to mine with the sequel (which is supposedly the middle part of a planned trilogy).
Release Date: The original premiered at SXSW, so a return there would be a good bet.
