Lisa FrankensteinImage: Focus Features
Cheryl Eddy is a senior writer for io9 as well as its news editor. You can follow her coverage here and email tips to [email protected].
The top story:
Cross Jordan Peele’s next chiller off your 2024 list; thanks to the 2023 strikes, it just shifted to 2025. And don’t hold your breath for Scream 7, for a whole host of behind-the-scenes reasons. But 2024 still has plenty of horror in store for fans—especially fans of sequels, prequels, and remakes.
What we’re waiting for:
Here are the 10 horror movies we’re most looking forward to, with some runners-up along the way too. Release dates are subject to change, as always.
Zelda Williams makes her feature directing debut, working from a script by Juno’s Diablo Cody, in what looks to be an energetic high school Frankenstein homage starring Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse. The neon colors of Lisa Frank and the reanimated body parts of Mary Shelley are a blend we never knew we needed so badly. (February 9)
Other monster stories we’re excited for this year include Robert Eggers’ creepy-looking Nosferatu remake (December 25) and bombastic clash of the titans rematch Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (April 12), as well as...
The filmmakers known as Radio Silence—Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella—got their start with the V/H/S franchise, which they’re still involved with as producers, and saw their profile raised with 2019's Ready or Not. But they truly ascended into the horror pantheon by revitalizing an entire franchise with 2022's Scream and 2023's Scream VI. Radio Silence’s next project is still only known as “Untitled Universal Monsters film,” and though rumors have tied its plot to 1936's Dracula’s Daughter, there’s been no official synopsis released. We do know the cast includes Scream’s Melissa Barrera as well as Kathryn Newton and Dan Stevens. (April 19)
A Quiet PlaceImage: Paramount
Michael Sarnoski, who made 2021's critically acclaimed Pig, directs this spin-off of John Krasinski’s blockbuster A Quiet Place series. Sarnoski wrote the script from Krasinski’s story, so there’s narrative cohesion guaranteed in this spin-off prequel starring Lupita Nyong’o (an Oscar winner and Marvel star, but don’t forget her horror bona fides), Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn, Hereditary’s Alex Wolff, Rebel Moon’s Djimon Hounsou, and American Horror Story’s Denis O’Hare. (June 28)
Another prequel on the way in 2024: The First Omen, an Omen prequel we shrugged at until we saw the talent involved, including director Arkasha Stevenson (a veteran of late, great horror series Channel Zero—specifically season three, Butcher’s Block) and a cast featuring Servant’s Nell Tiger Free and screen veterans Ralph Ineson and Bill Nighy. The first trailer looks gorgeous and eerie. (April 5)
Alien (1979)Screenshot: 20th Century Fox
Ti West and Mia Goth’s twisted trilogy comes to an end with MaXXXine—there’s not an official release date yet, but considering the film was finished last year and X and its prequel Pearl both came out in 2022, we’re hoping A24 slates it soon. Goth stars as the sole survivor of X’s Texas porn massacre, and MaXXXine follows her journey to Hollywood—something the fame-obsessed Pearl (also played by Goth in X and Pearl) would no doubt approve of. (Date TBD)
Another trilogy for 2024: Renny Harlin’s The Strangers, a reboot of the cult-beloved 2008 home-invasion horror which will release in three “chapters” across 2024. It’s a refreshingly bold strategy, particularly for a theatrical release, and it stars Riverdale’s always entertaining Madelaine Petsch. (The Strangers: Chapter One releases May 17; other dates TBD)
In a year packed with sequels, we boldly declare Terrifier 3—which comes out at Halloween, with a plot that sets slash-happy Art the Clown loose on Christmas—is the one to beat. Writer-director Damien Leone has a bigger budget to play with this time around, and we’re expecting that to translate into even more gore. (October 25)
We’ll also find it hard to resist Tim Burton’s long-awaited Beetlejuice 2 (the best or the worst idea ever? We’ll find out September 6); the eleventh chapter in the still-lively Saw series, Saw XI (September 27); and Parker Finn’s Smile 2, the follow-up to his surprise 2022 smash (October 18).
M. Night Shyamalan attends a Knock at the Cabin screening on January 31, 2023 in New York City. Photo: Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Universal Pictures (Getty Images)
Announced in early 2023 soon after Knock at the Cabin hit theaters, M. Night Shyamalan’s next horror film will be his first release under his new deal with Warner Bros. Its plot is, well... predictably mysterious. (August 2)
Actually, the list of mysterious films from big-name directors that we hope are coming in 2024 (or still coming at all, depending on the project) is surprisingly robust. There’s Darren Aronofsky’s supernatural Adrift, starring Jared Leto and adapted from a story by The Ring’s Koji Suzuki; it was first announced in early 2021. There’s David F. Sandberg’s return to genre after his Shazam detour, Below, announced as a Netflix project in April 2022. Zach Creggers has Weapons in the works after his 2022 breakout Barbarians; it was announced in January 2023 and a few months later added the red-hot Pedro Pascal to its cast. Chris Weitz’s Blumhouse release They Listen, starring John Cho and Katharine Waterston, has bumped its date around a few times and is still TBD.
And we’re not really sure if John Krasinki’s IF is even supposed to be a horror movie, but the trailer sure scared us. IF, at least, is locked in for a May 17 release.
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