Horror cinema is booming right now, and the scares don't seem to be slowing down at all
in 2020.
The next decade of cinema scares will kick off in a big way, with everything from long-awaited
sequels to daring reboots to new takes on some classic ghost stories.
In 2004, two years after The Ring launched a wave of American interest in Japanese horror
cinema, we got The Grudge.
This English-language remake of the 2002 Japanese scarefest Ju-On brought stateside audiences
a look at the curses and hauntings that form in places where angry, violent deaths have
occurred.
The Grudge got two sequels in 2006 and 2009, but the Ju-On franchise has continued in Japan
with nine films and counting.
Now, the American remake franchise is getting its own reboot.
Grudge will serve to reset the American version of the franchise with a new story of a vengeful
spirit haunting a house where past violence took place and formed a curse.
The film features an impressive cast led by Andrea Riseborough, Demian Bichir, and Jacki
Weaver.
The film was originally set to be released in June of 2019, but was later pushed back
to January 3, 2020.
Henry James' novella The Turn of the Screw is one of the most popular and influential
ghost stories ever written, and it's been adapted for the screen numerous times.
In 2020, the classic tale will get a new, modern take with The Turning.
This version of the story will be set in modern Maine, but will still tell the story of a
governess tasked with caring for two young children after the deaths of their parents.
As she settles in for the job, she begins to suspect the mysterious estate where the
family is living may be harboring a number of dark secrets, and may in fact be haunted.
The film is worth getting excited about for any number of reasons.
It's Floria Sigismondi's second feature film after The Runaways, and it'll be fascinating
to see how she adapts her visual style, honed in music videos and episodes of prestige TV,
to this ghost story setting.
The cast is also stacked with talent thanks to the presence of Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard,
and Brooklyn Prince, and the story is iconic.
The Turning will hit theaters January 24, 2020.
In 2014, Universal Pictures tried to revamp its universe of classic movie monsters with
the prequel story Dracula Untold.
It didn't quite land, but in 2017 they tried again with an even more ambitious effort,
an attempt to launch an interconnected "Dark Universe" with The Mummy.
That film also didn't work out, so for now it seems the studio is refocusing its intentions
with more standalone efforts.
The Invisible Man is the first of these, and it will be directed by Leigh Whannell, the
man responsible for giving us Saw, Insidious and Upgrade.
The Invisible Man is scheduled to hit the screen on March 13, 2020.
A Quiet Place was one of the most successful and acclaimed genre films of 2018, and it
didn't take long for talks of a sequel to emerge after it hit big with audiences.
John Krasinski will return to both write and direct the second installment in the franchise,
while his wife Emily Blunt will also return to star.
The film's full plot is still unknown, but we do know it will follow the surviving members
of the Abbott family, now led by Blunt's Evelyn, as they continue to try to survive together
after learning a trick to defeating the creatures at the end of the first film.
Will a third installment follow?
We'll have to wait and see.
A Quiet Place 2 sneaks into theaters March 20, 2020.
In May of 2019, the internet was both delighted and a little confused by reports that legendary
comedian Chris Rock would be venturing into horror territory with a new spin-off film
set in the Saw universe.
The ninth Saw film, working from a story developed by Rock, is in development and will hit theaters
in the spring of 2020.
"Bigs and van der beek are on the set.
Well I don't see them.
Where are the stars of this piece of s---?"
We still don't know much about the film's plot, but we do know that Rock is also set
to star as a detective investigating a killer who likes to build elaborate puzzles for his
victims, and that Samuel L. Jackson has added even more star power to the cast after signing
on the play the father of Rock's character.
The still-untitled ninth Saw film hits theaters May 15, 2020.
In 1992, a new horror legend was born with Candyman, a story about a hook-handed killer
who lived on as a vengeful, murderous urban legend long after he was the victim of a lynch
mob in the 19th century.
Candyman is a modern horror masterpiece that spawned two sequels and lives on through a
devoted fanbase eager to analyze every piece of this often deceptively deep film.
"You and I, our bones will soon be ashes, and we shall never be separated again."
Candyman's ongoing reputation as one of the best horror films of the 1990s was enough
to draw attention from Jordan Peele, who's now helping bring a spiritual sequel to the
original film to the big screen.
Candyman 2020 will be directed by Nia DaCosta from a script by Peele and his Monkeypaw Productions
partner, Win Rosenfeld.
The still-mysterious Candyman arrives on the big screen June 12, 2020.
In 2013, a relatively small scale horror film about a pair of paranormal investigators blew
up at the box office.
That film was The Conjuring, and in just six years, it spawned one direct sequel and five
spin-off films.
The Conjuring Universe has become a horror juggernaut for the 2010s, and in 2020 the
third film in the main series will finally arrive on the big screen.
Not much is known yet about the plot of The Conjuring 3, which will feature the return
of Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as the Warrens and will be directed by Michael Chaves,
who helmed the spinoff The Curse of La Llorona.
We also know that it will veer away from the haunted house format offered in the first
two films.
The Conjuring 3 will be terrifying audiences on September 11, 2020.
In 2018, director David Gordon Green brought star Jamie Lee Curtis back to the Halloween
franchise with a new film that ignored all previous sequels, setting the stage for a
showdown between Laurie Strode and Michael Myers that, in this universe, had been four
decades in the making.
That film, simply titled Halloween, was one of the year's biggest horror hits, and though
it could have closed the book on the franchise, talk of a sequel began to surface.
In July of 2019, we found out that we'd be getting not just one, but two sequels in the
span of two years.
The first of those, Halloween Kills, will arrive in 2020.
Green will return to direct and co-write the film with Danny McBride, while Curtis will
also return as Laurie Strode with Judy Greer and Andi Matichak returning as Laurie's daughter
and granddaughter, respectively.
Given how the past film set up a legacy of strong women in the Strode family, it'll be
very intriguing to see how the next film expands on this new version of the mythology.
Halloween Kills arrives October 16, 2020.
It will be followed by the final film in the trilogy, Halloween Ends, on October 15, 2021.
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