2020 has been a terrifying year - to say the least - but that doesn't mean horror fans
aren't clamoring for some more enjoyable scares in the near future.
Well, they're in luck.
From high-impact sequels to chilling originals, these are the creepiest movies due for release
in 2021.
Directed by Nia DaCosta and co-written by horror legend Jordan Peele, Candyman is a
sequel to the original 1992 horror classic - one that picks up in real time, decades
after the events of the first movie.
The film follows multimedia artist Anthony McCoy, whose obsession with the now fully
gentrified site of the infamous Candyman murders begins to take on an entire life of its own.
The new Candyman trailer offers up a whole lot of hints about what might go down in the
movie, including a number of callbacks to the original, such as the presence of an overwhelming
number of bees and the iconic imagery of Candyman himself.
However, the movie looks like it's diverging from the original by suggesting that Anthony
might actually be getting possessed by the spirit of Candyman, as opposed to simply being
haunted by him, taking things to an entirely new level of scary.
And yeah, Tony Todd, who played the original bee-loving slasher, is returning to the franchise,
too.
Candyman is set for release in August 2021.
The Office alum John Krasinski made a surprising pivot from comedy to horror with 2018's A
Quiet Place, a surprising box office smash that was both written and directed by the
comedian-turned-filmmaker.
Set in an apocalyptic world overrun by human-eating monsters who respond to sound, the Abbott
family has finally figured out how to make their life work.
That is, until a series of tragedies unfold, including the loss of a loved one and a chilling
ending in which a postpartum Evelyn and her surviving family members must face off with
a steadily-growing horde of monsters.
While details about A Quiet Place Part II are sparse, the teasers hint that the remaining
Abbotts will have to leave their farmhouse sanctuary and venture out into a hostile world
- one filled not only flesh-eating monsters, but also other survivors.
A Quiet Place Part II will feature the same original cast, including John Krasinski in
flashbacks, as well as adding Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou to the ensemble.
The tentative release date is set for April 2021.
"Let the game begin."
The Saw franchise has seen its fair share of ups and downs over the years.
Sure, each of the eight installments has more than provided on the gore front, but as for
quality - well, that's been a little inconsistent.
Fortunately, 2017's Jigsaw put some new twists and turns into what had become a rather stale
plot.
Presumably following in Jigsaw's vein, May 2021 will see the release of Spiral: From
the Book of Saw, starring Chris Rock as Detective Zeke Banks, whose current investigation will
lead all the way back to the first movie in the Saw saga.
But Chris Rock isn't just starring in his first ever horror movie - he's actually a
long-time Saw fan and the one who came up with Spiral's concept, and wrote the story's
treatment.
Longtime Saw collaborators are all on board the Jigsaw train for Spiral as well, with
Darren Lynn Bousman directing and both James Wan and Leigh Whannell signed on as producers.
The newest installment of the Conjuring franchise, The Devil Made Me Do It, will be the eighth
film set in that universe - although it's actually a direct sequel to the first two
Conjuring movies.
Featuring Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine
Warren, The Devil Made Me Do It follows the infamous real-life 1981 Arne Cheyenne Johnson
murder trial, which was the first time in American legal history that demonic possession
was used as a "not guilty" defense.
Johnson's defense was laughed out of court, but he served only five years of his 20-year sentence.
It's likely that the third proper Conjuring movie will be suitably dramatic - with plenty
of nail-biting court scenes to break up all those jump scares.
The Devil Made Me Do It is directed by The Curse of La Llorona's Michael Chaves, and
Conjuring franchise "founder" James Wan has signed on as producer.
The Devil Made Me Do It should hit cinemas and video-on-demand services in June 2021.
Having first been introduced to the world of Marvel comics all the way back in 1971,
Morbius the Living Vampire is finally getting his own movie.
2021's Morbius tells the story of Michael Morbius, a human turned bloodsucker thanks
to the side effects of a cure for his rare blood disease.
But while Morbius might be a vamp, he has none of the qualities you've come to expect
from the supernatural species - other than super strength and an extreme lust for blood.
Also starring Doctor Who alum Matt Smith, as well as Jared Harris, Morbius will be part
of Sony's ever-expanding Spiderverse.
From the trailer, Morbius looks suitably brooding, gothic, and action-packed.
It's also set to bring some disturbingly brilliant creature effects to the table, as well as
a cameo or two - specifically, Michael Keaton is reprising his role as Adrian Toomes from
Spider-Man: Homecoming.
This superhero horror crossover should be hitting theaters in March 2021.
Fede Alvarez's chilling 2016 horror feature, Don't Breathe, has had a sequel in the works
ever since it first came out.
The first Don't Breathe followed Norman Nordstrom, a blind veteran who's rumored to live with
loads of cash stashed around his house.
After three robbers break in and try to steal from him, Nordstrom reveals himself to be
far more capable than his reclusive reputation might suggest, brutalizing the robbers one
by one as they attempt to escape his home.
Eventually, Rocky, one of the robbers, manages to escape, and Don't Breathe ends with Nordstrom
surviving to plan his revenge.
But things seem to have taken a turn in Don't Breathe 2.
Apparently, Nordstrom has moved to a remote cabin in the woods, where he now cares for
an orphan girl - a kind of replacement for the daughter he lost before the events of
the original movie.
Eventually, people from her past track her down, not realizing who her new adopted father is.
The big question, of course, is whether Rocky will appear in this sequel.
But there's no news on those plot details yet.
What you certainly can expect, though, is that Nordstrom will pull out all his incredible
tactical skills to protect his surrogate daughter, just like he did in the original.
Don't Breathe 2 is set for an August 2021 release.
In what will be the fifth and final installment of James DeMonaco's Purge franchise, The Forever
Purge is one of the upcoming 2021 releases that we know the least about.
No teaser trailer has been released, and plot details have been scarce, other than DeMonaco
telling Entertainment Weekly that he had come up with a "really cool" way to round out the
last of his ultraviolent, socially-aware horror series.
Set in an America that allows a 12-hour window once a year where all crimes are legal, each
installment of The Purge franchise has deepened its cultural critique regarding the roots
of violence, state-sanctioned crime, and social control through fear.
While some installments of the franchise have hinted at changes in legislation to end the
Purge in this fictional America, the title of the final film suggests that an end to
this horrific event might not actually be on the horizon.
The Forever Purge is slated for a July 2021 theatrical release, followed quickly by a
video-on-demand release.
Adam Robitel's 2019 movie Escape Room capitalized on the new entertainment trend of, you guessed
it, escape rooms.
Also known as puzzle rooms, these are those stylized locked rooms in which participants
must solve clues to find their way out.
However, in the movie itself, the titular room turns out to not be a game at all, but
rather a twisted experiment to see who's the fittest in a group of already-traumatized
survivors.
The whole affair is orchestrated by an enigmatic figure named the Puzzlemaker, and by the end
of the film, the two survivors begin spying on the escape room organizers, waiting for
their moment of revenge.
Escape Room 2 stars both survivors as leads once again, suggesting the sequel will pick
up where the first left off.
Orphan actress Isabelle Fuhrman will also join the Escape Room 2 cast, along with Pose
star Indya Moore.
There's no release date announced yet, other than that it will be released in the later
half of 2021.
Expect scores of fiendishly clever traps, a bunch of cleverly designed rooms, and some
very disturbing kills.
While Oren Peli's Paranormal Activity series has been one of the most lucrative horror
franchises of all time, raking in piles of cash thanks to its low-budget filmmaking,
the critical reception towards the films themselves has been fairly inconsistent.
With Peli's bump to producer after the first film and Christopher Landon taking over writing
- and eventually directing — most of the subsequent movies, Paranormal Activity has
followed the Featherstone family's demonic curse as it reaches out into the lives of
the people who have met them.
Details about the seventh installment - including its subtitle, cast, and plot - remain a mystery
at the moment, but the film is still planned for a 2021 release.
But what we do know is that Landon will be returning to the project in some capacity,
although he's confirmed he won't be involved in the script or production, as he had been
in previous installments.
Run Sweetheart Run is based on a terrifying real-life encounter that began with a sexual
assault and ended with director Shana Feste barefoot in the Hollywood Hills, with no phone
or wallet, and forced to walk to her home in West Hollywood.
Ella Balinska stars as the titular "sweetheart," across from Game of Thrones star actor Pilou
Asbek as her date-turned-stalker in the urban landscape of Los Angeles.
"I think every woman could relate to something like that, because every woman has their own
real-life horror film to tell."
Inspired by the social justice style of horror put to use in Jordan Peele's Get Out, Feste
wanted to draw attention to the daily misogyny that women deal with - and take it to its
most devastating extreme.
In that sense, Run Sweetheart Run is the true story of most women's ultimate nightmare,
and although it's not going to be an easy watch, it might just be the sleeper horror
hit of the year.
Run Sweetheart Run also features Sense8's Aml Ameen and Marvel's own Clark Gregg.
The film premiered at Sundance to an excellent critical reception in 2019, and will be hitting
Amazon Prime in early 2021.
After the surprising success of the 2018 sequel to the '70s classic slasher Halloween, horror
fans were thrilled at the news there was a full Halloween sequel trilogy in the works,
one which will explore the long-term trauma suffered by Laurie Strode and her family at
the hands of serial killer-stalker Michael Myers.
Picking up exactly where the 2018 Halloween left off, Halloween Kills finds the Strode
women newly traumatized by a deeply disturbing encounter with the Shape; one that results
in more than double the original body count of Halloween.
Featuring Judy Greer as Laurie's daughter Karen and Andi Matichak as her granddaughter
Allyson, Halloween Kills will also focus a good chunk of its story on the many denizens
of Haddonfield who've also been living in the shadow of Myers' rampages.
These include Laurie's original babysitting charges Tommy Doyle, now a grown man played
by Anthony Michael Hall, and his friend, Lindsey Wallace, played by the original movie's Kyle
Richards.
So, where 2018's Halloween explored the trauma of the Strode women, Halloween Kills looks
to examine the collective trauma of the town - as Myers embarks on yet another rampage.
Originally slated for an October 14th 2020 release, the new premiere is scheduled for
October 15th, 2021.
A follow-up, Halloween Ends, is due for release in October 2022.
"Goodbye, Michael."
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