2019 is shaping up to be an incredible year for horror films.
Here are some of the intriguing remakes, sequels to smash hits, and awesome original projects
from beloved filmmakers that are making their way to horror fans.
Hereditary was easily one of the most talked-about horror films of 2018.
Its relentlessly slow-building tension and undeniably disturbing images marked it as
an assured debut from writer/director Ari Aster.
For his next film, he'll be moving away from the family homestead and taking his show on
the road.
In Midsommar, we'll go along with a young couple to a festival in rural Sweden laced
with bad emotions that turns even worse when they run afoul of a pagan cult.
“Is it scary?”
Aster describes it as, quote, "a dark breakup movie that becomes a horror film" and the
trailer is definitely intriguing.
Follow-ups to rapturously received first efforts are always tricky to pull off, but we have
a feeling that Midsommar will be a worthy follow-up to the scariest film of 2018.
"You're scaring him!"
"No I am not!”
French director Alexandre Aja established his horror bona fides with the surprise 2003
hit High Tension and a 2006 remake of the classic The Hills Have Eyes.
In 2019, he's back and teaming up with producer Sam Raimi to bring us Crawl.
The film follows a young woman desperately attempting to reach her father during a Category
5 hurricane.
To make things worse: she's trapped inside a house which is slowly flooding.
Fortunately, she's not alone; she's got a bunch of ravenous killer alligators stopping
by to keep her company.
The film is being fast-tracked for a summer release by Paramount, which took a similar
approach last year with John Krasinski's well-received A Quiet Place.
If Crawl's bonkers story and the film's sterling pedigree are any indication, the studio could
very well have another gigantic hit on their hands.
“I’m down here!”
“Pete did you hear that?!”
2016's The Boy was an underrated little thriller, the story of a young American woman named
Greta who is hired by an eccentric English couple to care for their porcelain doll, Brahms.
Greta learns from a local man that the real Brahms - the couple's eight-year-old son - was
killed in a house fire decades prior.
The odd situation is made even weirder by the fact that the doll seems to have a mind
of its own, and has a habit of moving around the house when Greta isn't looking.
At the conclusion, it's revealed that the real Brahms has been alive the whole time,
living inside the walls of the house.
In the upcoming Brahms: The Boy II, the man and his favorite plaything will return for
more atmospheric chills.
The sequel will see a couple move into Brahms' abode with their young son, and this time
around, the supernatural angle may not be a fakeout.
The Boy's team of director William Brent Bell and writer Stacey Menear will return.
We'll see if Brahms can separate himself from the creepy doll pack when the movie hits screens
on July 26.
The '80s and '90s were a great time for childrens' horror literature, and if the Goosebumps series
wasn't quite freaky enough, there was always Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.
The short story collections by Alvin Schwartz initially featured the singularly bizarre
illustrations of Stephen Gammell, which were such pure nightmare fuel for readers that
they were infamously replaced with toned-down versions for later editions.
Guillermo del Toro has long been working on adapting the property for the screen, and
this year, we'll finally get to see the fruits of his labor.
Produced and co-written by del Toro, the feature will focus on a group of young teens who must
solve the mysterious deaths in their small town.
“Sarah Bellows’ book.
When the stories write themselves and it all comes alive.”
In the director's chair is André Øvredal, whose features Trollhunter and The Autopsy
of Jane Doe marked him as a talent to watch.
With that level of pedigree, the long-gestating production looks like a worthy companion for
those horrifying drawings that used to keep so many of us up at night.
It's been rumored for years, and it's finally happening: just in time for the tenth anniversary
of the original Zombieland, Zombieland: Double Tap is on the way to deliver more blood-soaked
comedic madness.
The whole band is getting back together for the long-awaited sequel, including director
Ruben Fleischer and writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.
In addition, the entirety of the original cast is back on board, including Woody Harrelson,
Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, and Jesse Eisenberg.
“Business is good!”
The first official synopsis hints at new kinds of zombies as well as a possible human threat.
Either way, there doesn't seem to be much reinventing of the wheel here, which should
suit fans of the first film just fine.
They've been clamoring for a return to Zombieland for years, and they're finally getting it;
just don't forget the rules.
"And why am I alive when everyone around me has turned to meat?
It's because of my list of rules.
Rule number one for surviving Zombieland: cardio."
Those of us who grew up on the kids' TV network Nickelodeon have fond, if sometimes uncomfortable,
memories of the horror anthology series Are You Afraid of the Dark?
The show featured a group of teens calling themselves "The Midnight Society" who regularly
gathered around a campfire in a secret place to tell scary stories.
Despite the kid-friendly concept, more than a few episodes were surprisingly horrifying.
The forthcoming film adaptation will be leaning into the show's darker elements, courtesy
of co-writer Gary Dauberman.
Best known for his writing work on It and The Nun, Dauberman has said he wants to keep
the deeply scary and dark aspects of the original series alive in the film.
He elaborated that while the film will still feature the Midnight Society and the campfire
setting, he won't be adapting any episodes but will tell a completely original story.
Director D.J.
Caruso, best known for xXx: The Return of Xander Cage, will helm the film, which drops
just in time for Halloween.
Despite the characters' apparent deaths at the conclusion of 2005's The Devil's Rejects,
fans of Rob Zombie have been pining for the return of mass murderers Otis, Baby, and Captain
Spaulding ever since.
It took over a dozen years, but in 2018, Zombie confirmed that he'd be bringing the murderous
trio back in 3 From Hell, concluding the series he started with House of 1000 Corpses in 2003.
The film has wrapped shooting, and Zombie has been screening a teaser trailer for fans
at his shows, grainy images of which have found their way online.
In a year rife with long-awaited horror sequels, 3 From Hell may be the longest-awaited of
them all - here's hoping Zombie ups the disturbing, gory ante in that special way only he can.
Pretty much every horror fan alive has some degree of reverence for Stanley Kubrick's
1980 Stephen King adaptation The Shining, even if King himself was not particularly
impressed.
King's novel was a highly personal project for him, which is probably one reason he chose
to revisit the character of Danny Torrance in 2013 with Doctor Sleep.
With the King Cinematic Renaissance in full swing, it seemed like only a matter of time
before the book would get the big-screen treatment.
Late this year, it's finally happening.
At the helm is Mike Flanagan, who directed the well-received King adaptation Gerald's
Game and all ten episodes of The Haunting of Hill House for Netflix.
King had great things to say about Flanagan's work on Gerald's Game; hopefully, the director
will turn in an adaptation a bit more to King's liking than the famously eccentric Kubrick
was able to.
1997's Spawn is mostly known for sporting some of the most ridiculous CGI 1997 had to
offer, but the character has always been a compelling one.
Created by comic artist Todd McFarlane, Al Simmons is a former CIA mercenary whose soul
is sent to Hell upon his death as punishment for his earthly misdeeds.
But he's resurrected as the demonic anti-hero Spawn, in order to atone for his misdeeds
by wreaking terrible vengeance on the criminal underworld.
In light of the 1997 film's failure, McFarlane himself will be rebooting the character for
a new audience.
He'll write the script and also make his feature debut as a director.
McFarlane has had a vision for what the film would be for a long time.
In a talk with Collider in 2017, McFarlane laid out what the film will be like:
"It's gonna be a dark, edgy, supernatural, scary, messed-up movie."
With Oscar winner Jamie Foxx in the title role and Jason Blum producing, Spawn will
begin shooting in 2019 for a likely release later in the year.
Legendary director David Cronenberg's status as the master of body horror was firmly cemented
with his 1977 feature Rabid.
The film follows adult film icon Marilyn Chambers as a young woman who undergoes a hideous transformation
after an experimental surgery saves her life following a motorcycle accident.
Cronenberg's singular visions don't exactly lend themselves to the reboot treatment, but
if you're familiar with the work of Jen and Sylvia Soska, also known as the "Twisted Twins,"
you won't be surprised that they were willing to give it a shot.
With features like 2009's Dead Hooker in a Trunk and 2012's deeply strange American Mary
under their belts, they'll be taking on an updated version of Rabid for 2019, one which
promises to at least try to out-weird Cronenberg's original.
While it will feature a few modern twists, the Soskas will be leaning into the gory,
unsettling heart of the 1977 film, a task for which they seem uniquely suited.
They promise that their version will be modernized through a female perspective, and will honor
not only the original, but Cronenberg's entire body of work.
Apparently, mastery of horror runs in the family.
Joe Hill, the son of the legendary Stephen King, has made a name for himself as a successful
horror writer in his own right with novels like Horns and NOS4A2, both of w hich have
been adapted for film and television, respectively.
Among Hill's formidable bibliography are a couple collaborations with his dad.
One of the short stories that resulted from their collaboration, In the Tall Grass, is
heading to the small screen this year as a Netflix original film.
The story follows a pair of siblings whose cross-country trip takes a turn for the weird
when they hear the cries of a young boy emanating from a field.
Very quickly, they find out that it's easy to get lost.
Writer/director Vincenzo Natali is best-known for directing the minor horror classic Cube,
and has also recently handled episodes of Luke Cage and Westworld.
Adding a touch of horror pedigree is Patrick Wilson, star of The Conjuring films.
With a team like that, In the Tall Grass might just end up being another Bird Box-type hit
for Netflix.
2016's Don't Breathe, the sophomore feature from director Fede Alvarez, was a claustrophobic
nightmare of the first order.
It told the story of a trio of hoodlums who plan to loot the house of a blind war veteran
for the cash he's supposedly hoarding, only to find the old guy to be much more capable
- and sadistic - than they were ready for.
Veteran character actor Stephen Lang was absolutely terrifying in his role, and even though the
film's conclusion didn't exactly seem to be setting up a sequel, Don't Breathe 2 is on
the way.
The movie has been in the works for some time.
In late 2016, Alvarez's producing partner Sam Raimi called its concept the greatest
idea for a sequel he's ever heard, while Alvarez teased an "anarchic" approach to the second
installment.
Plot, casting, and production details are being kept tightly under wraps, but it's a
safe bet that we'll see Don't Breathe 2 in time for Halloween.
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