The 16 Horror Films We Can't Wait To See In 2024
We've only just made it out of January, but as we look at the list of upcoming horror movies through the rest of the year, we're incredibly excited. As we put this list together, we had to cut some of our favorites out because there's just so much coming this year, in this genre, that it's impossible not to be salivating. This list includes sequels, prequels, and new stories. Franchises that have lain dormant for many years appear alongside new takes on beloved classic monsters.
Further, there's something on this list for every type of horror fan. If you love the wild traps of Saw, we have great news for you. If you like to cuddle up with a good home invasion movie, you're all set. If you like to mix humor in with your horror, you're covered too. So let's look at what scary stories are coming down the pike for the rest of the year.
1. The First Omen
Director: Arkasha Stevenson
Expected Release Date: April 5, 2024
A prequel to the 1976 horror classic The Omen, The First Omen (trailer) follows a young American woman sent abroad to Rome to serve the church there, but she uncovers a conspiracy to, you guessed it, bring about the birth of the Antichrist.
2. Abigail
Director: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett
Expected Release Date: April 19, 2024
Abigail (trailer) is the latest film from the directors behind Ready or Not and Scream VI. It follows a group of kidnappers who capture the daughter of a powerful underworld figure, only to discover that she's a powerful vampire. She's not locked in there with them; they're locked in there with her.
3. The Strangers: Chapter One
Director: Renny Harlin
Expected Release Date: May 17, 2024
If the 10 years between The Strangers and The Strangers: Prey at Night was too long a wait for you, you'll be stoked to know that you won't have to wait much longer for the next installment. The Strangers: Chapter One (clip), directed by Renny Harlin, will release this spring, followed shortly by two more planned films. The film follows a similar premise to the original, with Maya (Madelaine Petsch of Riverdale) and her boyfriend stopping at a secluded Airbnb, only to fight for their lives as they're besieged by three masked strangers. Director Harlin says that this is neither a remake nor a reboot, and that the film will begin to explore the origins of the strangers themselves.
4. The Watchers
Director: Ishana Shyamalan
Expected Release Date: June 7, 2024
Like father, like daughter. Ishana Shyamalan will follow in her father's footsteps this year as she brings her first film to the big screen. The Watchers, starring Dakota Fanning, is based on the novel of the same name by Irish author A.M. Shine, so here's the synopsis for the book:
"This forest isn't charted on any map. Every car breaks down at its treeline. Mina's is no different. Left stranded, she is forced into the dark woodland only to find a woman shouting, urging Mina to run to a concrete bunker. As the door slams behind her, the building is besieged by screams.
Mina finds herself in a room with a wall of glass, and an electric light that activates at nightfall, when the Watchers come above ground. These creatures emerge to observe their captive humans and terrible things happen to anyone who doesn't reach the bunker in time."
5. A Quiet Place: Day One
Director: Michael Sarnoski
Expected Release Date: June 28, 2024
Aside from the basic premise, the team behind A Quiet Place: Day One has revealed very little about the film. From just the title, we know it's a prequel set during the initial invasion by the sound-sensitive alien creatures that plagued the family we met in the first film. The film stars Lupita Nyong'o and Joseph Quinn, while Djimon Hounsou will reprise his role from A Quiet Place Part II.
6. Trap
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Expected Release Date: August 2, 2024
Details about Trap are still under wraps. Shyamalan is directing, and the stars include Josh Hartnett, Saleka Shyamalan, and Haley Mills (The Parent Trap). Based on the title and the presence of Haley Mills, we're hoping for a horror-themed twist on her classic film.
7. Alien: Romulus
Director: Fede Alvarez
Expected Release Date: August 16, 2024
Directed by Fede Alvarez (2013's Evil Dead, Don't Breathe), Alien: Romulus is a movie set in the chronology of Fox's Alien film series, but is not directly connected to the other films. It will reportedly be set between Alien and Aliens, but will follow a group of young people encountering Xenomorphs for the first time.
8. Beetlejuice 2
Director: Tim Burton
Expected Release Date: September 6, 2024
Beetlejuice won't immediately register as horror for lots of people, but if you just take a short synopsis of the story, it starts to become apparent: A small family moves into a new house. When strange things begin happening, only their daughter can see the true danger. As her parents ignorantly play with forces they don't understand, will she be able to save her family and keep their home safe from a demonic trickster? James Wan could direct that movie.
And that's why the charismatic demon Beetlejuice ends up on our list. Details on the story are sparse, but it picks up almost 30 years later. Lydia (Winona Ryder) has a daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), and Beetlejuice re-enters their lives and tests their relationship. We're most interested, though, by what some of the other casting suggests. Monica Bellucci plays the part of Beetlejuice's wife, and Willem Dafoe will appear as an afterlife detective who was a B-movie actor in the world of the living. Bellucci's role suggests a potentially very different Beetlejuice, and Dafoe's character makes us think BJ might not even be the villain this time around.
9. Saw XI
Director: TBA
Expected Release Date: September 27, 2024
If you couldn't get enough fo the Shotgun Carousel, the Reverse Beartrap, the Brazen Bull, the Razor Box, or the Needle Pit, then good news: Jigsaw is back this fall with more diabolical traps intended to teach people suspect moral lessons that they almost certainly won't live to put to use. The movie has a confirmed release date for this fall, despite the fact that a director has not yet been announced.
10. Terrifier 3
Director: Damien Leone
Expected Release Date: October 25, 2024
Terrifier 2 reportedly had fans losing their lunch. This fall, Terrifier 3 hopes to up the ante. After the stomach-churning ending to Terrifier 2, the third film in the series will dive deeper into Vicky and her motivations. Terrifier 3 is reportedly set to start filming in February, and will release just before Halloween. Despite the October release date, Terrifier 3 is set around Christmas, and the poster for the film features Art the Clown, covered in blood and wearing a bearded face as a bib, standing in front of a Christmas tree. Maybe Terrifier 3 will replace Nightmare Before Christmas as the film that unites Halloween and Christmas. Maybe not.
11. Nosferatu
Director: Robert Eggers
Expected Release Date: December 25, 2024
Robert Eggers, director of The Witch, The Lighthouse, and The Northman, has been trying to get a film about cinema's original vampire, Nosferatu, off the ground for years. Finally, it has a release date this Christmas. The movie is a remake of the 1922 film directed by F.W. Murnau. But with the source material being literally a full hundred years old at this point, we're not too worried about it being too soon. The film stars modern horror icon Bill Skarsgard (IT, The Barbarian) as the titular vampire Count Orlok. Alongside Skarsgard, the film will also feature Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult (relatively fresh off of his own Dracula movie, Renfield), Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Willem Dafoe. With Eggers' previous filmography in mind, we expect this to be an intense, terrifying thriller despite its seemingly primitive source material.
12. MaXXXine
Director: Ti West
Expected Release Date: 2024
Ti West will conclude his X trilogy this year with MaXXXine. The trilogy began with X, in which an elderly couple attempted to slaughter a group of aspiring pornographic filmmakers. The series continued with Pearl, which told the story of X's primary antagonist, and what early events drove her to become the person we saw in X. MaXXXine picks up a few years after X, in 1985, and focuses on Maxine (once again played by Mia Goth), the sole survivor of the trilogy. Plot details are sparse; Maxine is looking to find fame and success in the Hollywood of the early 1980s. The film also features Giancarlo Esposito, Kevin Bacon, Bobby Canavale, Lily Collins, Elizabeth Debicki, and Halsey.
13. Year 2
Director: Steven C. Miller
Expected Release Date: TBA
While Year 2 doesn't have an official release date, we expect it this year. It was filming as of 2022, and has plenty of time to stew in post-production. Year 2 stars Frank Grillo (the MCU's Crossbones, The Purge: Election Year), and the film follows two scientists trying to stop a werewolf outbreak.
14. Return to Silent Hill
Director: Christophe Gans
Expected Release Date: TBA
The original Silent Hill film, directed by Christophe Gans and released in 2006, is a divisive movie. Over on Metacritic, the film holds a 31% rating with critics, but a 7.8 with fans. The movie's plot and characters struggle to connect, but the movie was a hit with fans of the games who loved Gans' devotion to the source material, to the point of using the PlayStation 2 game Silent Hill 2's soundtrack and replicating camera movements from the original game at points. Now, 18 years later, Gans has returned to "that town, Silent Hill" for another story. While that movie roughly adapted the first Silent Hill game, Return to Silent Hill will use Silent Hill 2 as a starting point, with James Sunderland as the protagonist. Gans says, however, that his tastes have evolved, and that he sees Silent Hill as a source for an anthology of different kinds of horror stories. This one, he explained, will lean toward the psychological. While Sony hasn't announced a release window for Return to Silent Hill, the picture completed filming last summer, and we wouldn't be surprised to see it release later this year.
15. The Toxic Avenger
Director: Macon Blair
Expected Release Date: TBA
The Toxic Avenger does not have a release date, but it premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 21, 2023, so we're expecting it to get a general release sometime this year. This film is a remake of the 1984 film from Lloyd Kaufman and Troma Entertainment. The film stars Peter Dinklage as the titular Toxic Avenger. The original film was as funny as it was gory and grotesque; the Toxic Avenger's name was Melvin Ferd Junko III, and the villain's name was Cigar Face. That should give you an idea of how wild the original could be. We can only hope this new incarnation shoots for the deepest depths of the toxic waste pit.
16. Untitled Jordan Peele Horror Film
Director: Jordan Peele
Expected Release Date: TBA
Jordan Peele's next film was set to go up against Nosferatu on December 25, 2024, but the film has since been pulled from the calendar due to strike-related delays. A 2024 release isn't impossible, but we're mostly just crossing our fingers.
Image credit: Getty Images/Eugene Gologursky
