Top 10 Most Anticipated Horror Films of 2024

The Top 10 Most Anticipated Horror Films of 2024 article and video were written by Mike Holtz.

We happen to be lucky enough to live in a timeline where horror is unquestionably crushing at the box office and otherwise. People are lining up in droves not only to see men in tights throwing down to save the universe in superhero flicks but to see monsters and ghouls doing horrible and heinous things to human beings. And no, I’m not talking about congress. I’m talking about some good old-fashioned wear your brown pants to the theater and leave the kids at home (or don’t I don’t judge) , horror flicks. I can’t promise you everything is going to be okay in 2024. Not with Ezra Miller roaming the streets, but I can promise you this… we’ve got a lot of great horror flicks headed our way. Probably. Well, they sound cool. Here are our top ten most anticipated horror films of 2024. Starting with the opening monologue of the 2024 Golden Globes. No wait, that already happened.

Starting with ALIEN ROMULUS.

Alien: Romulus is expected August 16th, 2024, and is to be directed by the same man who left us recoiled in absolute disgust, fear and OH MY GOD STOP STABBING THAT PERSONS FACE WITH A NEEDLE SO MUCH I CAN’T TAKE IT repose with the 2013 Evil Dead Remake as well as with a lifelong fear of ripped old men with turkey basters in Don’t Breathe, Fede Alvarez. The film is allegedly to take place between the events of Alien and Aliens but is to be its very own standalone story unconnected to the rest of the franchise mostly… mostly.

The only thing we really know about the story is that it’s set to feature young people from a distant world who come to face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe… Harvey Wein-I’m just kidding, I’m sure it’s a Xenomorph or twelve! I say this as someone who loved Prometheus and liked Covenant a whole lot but with Fede Alvarez and his style of filmmaking behind the camera, this sure is sounding a whole hell of a lot like an Alien movie that’s going to be focused far more on horror than the deeper themes of the previous films and I expect that to be welcomed by alien fans with arms wide open. It’s been said that Ridley Scott himself saw the film and told Fede Alvarez it was “F*ckin’ great”. And this isn’t marketing… this was said to Fede by Ridley Scott. Who, you and I both know would not lie about something like that. If he hated it he would have throat punched him and kicked him into an empty hole in the earth “this is Sparta” style in front of a live TV audience with zero cares. I have high, high hopes for Alien Romulus this August.

Next up? Return To Silent Hill. Currently in post-production with no solid release date yet but expected this year, Return to Silent Hill features the return of the director of the first Silent Hill, Christophe Gans. Not to be confused with Garth Brooks alter ego, Chris Gaines whose album cover is still scarier than any Silent Hill movie will ever be.

Gans first go at Silent Hill was hit or miss but you can hardly deny he nailed the atmosphere and vibe of the games before it. It’s definitely a great candidate for a film that should get a second chance at life which won’t come in the form of a remake as Gans says the film is an adaptation of the video game Silent Hill 2 and will feature the character of James Sunderland (played by Jeremy Irvine) heading back to the town in search of his long-lost love and encountering all kinds of AHHHH! Real Monsters in the meantime. Personally, I’m old enough to remember the smoking section at the Golden Corral Buffet in the mid-90s which was equally frightening and pretty much the same thing. In all seriousness, Gans was onto something in the original film and if some of those kinks are ironed out, this one could be special.

You know who else plans to be special in 2024? MaXXXine. Ti West’s A24 trilogy capper releases sometime in 2024 and will feature Mia Goth’s character Maxine heading to Hollywood after enduring the slicing, dicing and elder love making that was X. To tell you the truth, some nights when I can’t sleep I’m still haunted by that moment. MaXXXine boasts an insane cast that will be the latest addition to the horror film credits of the great Kevin Bacon. The film will be set in LA during the 1980’s and will feature Maxine trying to make it as a star in Hollywood as the bodies pile up around her, unfolding itself to be a whodunit slasher. My Scream senses are tingling too… but SURPRISE SIDNEY! MaXXXine is said to be more of an homage to the Giallo sub-genre instead. Either way, we’re psyched to see all this sex and violence unfold and in no what is that weird.

The 2024 Election ads won’t be the only thing sucking out our will to live in 2024 as the NOSFERATU remake drops its fangs upon our necks this year as well. Robert Eggers latest effort is set to release this Christmas and feature a version of the titular character unlike any we’ve ever seen. The film stars Bill Skarsgard as Count Orlok himself who’s makeup, according to The Witch and Lighthouse director, leaves him completely unrecognizable. Eggers says, “I’ll say that Bill has so transformed, I’m fearful he might not get the credit that he deserves because he’s just….he’s not there”. Which, worked out really well for Patrick Bateman. Eggers continued to get us all jacked up by promising the film would be scary, saying,“It’s a scary film. It’s a horror movie. It’s a gothic horror movie and I do think that there hasn’t been an old-school Gothic movie that’s actually scary in a while. And I think that the majority of the audience will find this one to be the case.”The film also stars Emma Corrin, Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and WILLEM mother effin’ Dafoe who plays vampire hunter Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz. Jesus. Could your name BE any longer? Will all this talent involved and the promise from Eggers of true fear? Nosferatu easily places itself on our most anticipated of 2024 list.

This August, M Night Shyamalan returns to the dinner table with TRAP. Look, you say Shyamalan horror flick and I’m handing over my ticket money. Yes, I am aware that a Shyamalan film is no guarantee of perfection (cough The Village) but that’s why these films are such an event. The man always swings for the fences and tries to make something special regardless of the outcome. Which is something that will have me in the theater seat every time. In the case of Trap, most of the details are being kept secret at the moment and we wouldn’t have it any other way. What we DO know is that the film is a psychological thriller set during a concert. Trap is the first film of his first-look directorial agreement with Warner Bros and is said to be very different from his last few films. The best part is that the movie will star the far too seldom seen acting talents of one Josh Hartnett who many will notice from his fantastic performance in the recent Oppenheimer. But we all know him and love him as the kid selling drug pens in The Faculty or H20. Maybe Forty Days and Forty Nights? He’s been in tons of great roles but it’s always great to see him on the big screen. It’s a big fat mystery what we’re going to get with Trap in 2024 but isn’t that the funnest part of a Shyamalan project?

Speaking of not knowing what we’re going to get, FACES OF DEATH allegedly started shooting in April of 2023, so you have to imagine we’ll hopefully see it in 2024 as well, despite no release date being set. Faces of Death is indeed based off those VHS tapes we used to watch as teenagers that allegedly featured real footage of horrible murders, dismemberments, and various other activities. Most of these were staged or added onto and exaggerated but by-god we believed it and it scared the living bejesus out of us as unsupervised kids.

The movie, however, is up front with the fact that it is fiction and will feature a story about a video website moderator who comes across videos of some sick buckaroos recreating the murders from the original movie. The movie is directed by Cam director Daniel Goldhaber and will star Stranger Things favorite Dacre Montgomery and Euphoria’s Barbie Ferreira. There’s of course no way of knowing how this will turn out but one has to imagine the possibility we could be looking at a frightening movie that uses disturbing footage style clips. Something like what we saw in Scott Derickson’s Sinister to such great effect.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking right now? Let’s say it at the same time 3, 2, 1….Lawnmower scene! Dear God, that still haunts my dreams. The power of the nostalgia and creepiness that was Faces of Death mixed with a good storyline could make for a great horror movie and that’s why we’re so excited for this one. No promises though. I’d hate to get your hopes up and end up being tranquilized in a parking garage by someone wearing a pig mask. I’ve seen it a thousand times. Well, ten times. And I’m happy to see it an eleventh!

Yes, I am talking about SAW XI people! Game over! Not! The baffling eleventh entry in the “holy guacamole that stings!”, franchise will come out THIS September 27^th, 2024, barely a year after Saw X was met with such rave reviews. That is unfortunately ALL we know about the upcoming installment other than the fact that the writers of Saw X, Pete Goldfinger and Josh Stolberg will surprisingly not be returning for this one. With the quick turnaround and change in writers, one wonders if a script had already been prepared before or during Saw X.

You have to imagine that the film will be another mid-quel that features Tobin Bell back as Jigsaw considering the fact that his presence and performance were in large part responsible for both the box office and critical reception. Everyone knows Tobin Bell was the bomb in Saw X, yo! Considering the post credits sequence teased the return of Detective Hoffman or as I like to call him “the dude with the huge yet exceedingly handsome face” a betting man would also wager we get some more of his story in Saw XI as well as the return of Shawnee Smith as Amanda Young. Will that kid who REALLY loves to kick the soccer ball at that wall at very inconvenient and inappropriate hours return as his apprentice? We’ll have to find out on this years version of “Do you want to play a little game? Again? Again-gan? AGAIN?

TERRIFIER 3 will grace the big screen this year just in time for the Halloween season on October 25^th and we’ll have Halloween on Christmas asArt the Clown will be terrorizingfolks on Christmas Eve in the town of Miles County. That’s right! Terrifier 3, much like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon is a Christmas film and no one ever argues over it! The teaser trailer for the movie had some folks feeling rather rageful as it hints at the idea of Art The Clown coming down the chimney and then possibly harming a little girl who mistakes him for Santa Clause….but there’s no telling if that scene is even in the film or not as it may have just been filmed for the advertisement. Either way, the film is sure to be a nice family event, a perfect pairing with The Buttercream Gang and a nice fire. Perhaps some chianti. In all seriousness, Terrifier 2 shocked audiences with not only its extreme gore but its fun storytelling and surprisingly in-depth lore. Not to mention the amazing performances from Lauren LaVera and David Howard Thornton. I can’t wait to watch Terrifier 3 the same way I watched part 2….in a packed movie theater so that I can get extreme joy out of watching the shocked and appalled faces of the audience members around me. It’s an absolute blasty blast. Count me among those who thought a 3-hour long Art The Clown movie wouldn’t work but was absolutely proven wrong with Terrifier 2. We can’t wait to see what kind of absolutely degenerate and despicable behavior Director Damien Leone and crew come up with next. You should be ashamed of yourselves, sickos! Keep it up!

Hopefully you’ll forgive me for having so many sequels on this list…..nothing gets me more excited than a great looking original horror film but you can only be excited for what you know, you know? And what I know is that one of the funnest of those aforementioned original horror movies was 2022’s Smile which makes us very excited for the next film on our list, SMILE 2, releasing this October. The plot details for Smile 2 are kept smartly under wraps but what we do know is that the Director and Writer of the first film, Parker Finn, will return in the same capacity. We also know that Naomi Scott (who played the Pink Ranger in the latest theatrical Power Rangers movie) will star. For my money, the best part of Smile was the way it mixed several horror movie tropes together like the ones seen in It Follows or The Ring but was able to do so in a creative and original way that had its own identity. Oh, and that mother effin teeth monster head thing! Absolute metal! Practical Horror FX for the win every single time and twice on Sunday. Whether Chick Fi-La is open or not.

Nicolas Freakin’ Cage is on our list with LONGLEGS releasing some time in 2024, or atleast we assume, as the film has been completed and rated (R in case you were wondering! Up top!). Though we don’t have a trailer or anything to go off of yet the reason Longlegs managed to make the list is because if Nicolas Cage doing another horror project isn’t exciting enough (and it is), his pairing with The Blackcoat’s Daughter director and son of Anthony Perkins, Osgood Perkins, directing this project takes it over the top. Along of course with the addition of It Follows star Maika Monroe who’s creating quite a horror filmography for herself if I might add.

Longlegs is about an FBI agent on the hunt for a serial killer who murders innocent families and has ties to the occult. But what’s REALLY fun about all this is that Maika Monroe plays the FBI agent and Rage Cage plays the serial killer. Which, you just know is going to be amazing whether he plays it reserved or completely unhinged. I think we all know what we’re hoping for.

Well, if we don’t get out of here soon it’s going to be 2025 already, so I unfortunately must leave the list at ten but would be remiss if I didn’t atleast mention some other films we’re all looking forward to in 2024 which include (deep breath) A Quiet Place Day One, Beetlejuice 2, The Crow, Lisa Frankenstein, The Strangers: Chapter 1, Late Night With the Devil, Monolith, The Wolf Man, The Untitled Universal Monster Project from Radio Silence and shockingly The First Omen.

Thanks for watching and cheers! Here’s to a great 2024 in horror and not a horrific 2024 in real life! Remember, movies don’t create psychos! Movies make psychos more creative!