If you love horror movies, you don’t need to wait for October to get your fill of frights this year. It’s a massive summer of scares at the cinema, with Hollywood leaning hard into the genre currently most locked in to pull in big crowds on a Friday night.
Will we emerge with nerves intact? Will we emerge at all? These seven upcoming releases will be raising heart rates long before Halloween season arrives.
28 Years Later
Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland return to the post-apocalyptic landscape of 28 Years Later (also back in cinemas this month) to remind us that, as the tagline goes, time hasn’t healed anything. In fact, the infected seem to have the run of the place, leaving the human cast – Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jodie Comer, Ralph Fiennes, Jack O’Connell – fighting for survival. This could be epic.
Anticipation levels: 😱😱😱😱
In cinemas worldwide Jun 20
M3GAN 2.0
The killer doll is back to remind us that AI isn’t just going to take our jobs, it’s going to do cute, meme-able dances too. If that isn’t upsetting enough, this sci-fi-horror sequel will be adding to the giddy shocks of the 2022 hit with more uncanny kills as M3GAN gets retooled to take on a weapons-grade AI called AMELIA.
Anticipation levels: 😱😱😱
In cinemas worldwide Jun 27
I Know What You Did Last Summer
This franchise reboot knows what everyone did in the summers of 1997, 1998 and 2006 and hopes they want to do it all over again. Five friends cover up a deadly car accident, unleashing a malevolent force that survivors of the first movie (Freddie Prinze Jr! Jennifer Love Hewitt!) can maybe help. Director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson will be hoping to pull off a Final Destination: Bloodlines rather than a Scream VI.
Anticipation levels: 😱😱
In cinemas Jul 18
Bring Her Back
Aussie horror bros Danny and Michael Philippou delivered a breakout horror sensation with 2023’s possession horror Talk to Her. They’re back with more millennial-friendly frights in a supernatural frightener that might do for Sally Hawkins what Hereditary did for Toni Collette.
Anticipation levels: 😱😱😱
In US and Australian cinemas now. In UK cinemas Aug 1.
Weapons
Zach Cregger, director of 2022’s excellent what’s-in-the-basement horror Barbarian, looks like he’s cranking up the menace a few notches in this modern-day Pied Piper riff about a whole class of kids who disappear one night. Julia Garner is the teacher, Josh Brolin an outspoken dad. The trailer looks terrifying.
Anticipation levels: 😱😱😱😱
In cinemas worldwide Aug 8
Him
Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw production company tosses the ball to debut director Justin Tipping (Dear White People) for a sports-themed horror that channels the obsessive nature of elite athletes into something dark and distressing. Think The Substance with more creatine.
Anticipation levels: 😱😱😱😱
In cinemas Sep 19
Horror not your bag? Check out the other anticipated movies of the summer.
The 100 greatest horror movies ever made.
