Top 15 Horror Movies to See in 2019!

If you had to boil it down to one choice, what’s your number one most anticipated horror flick of 2019?

Well, instead of our normal Top 10, we’ve got a fortunate farrago of Top 15 horror flicks we’re dying to see between now and 2020. Note, since we recently released our Top 10 Genre Flicks to see in Winter 2018, we’ve done our best to exclude titles on that list here. Also, we apologize to the many films that deserve honorable mention but didn’t make the list, largely due to uncertain release dates. Now dig the f*ck in to our Top 15 Must-See Horror Flicks of 2019!

#15. WORLD WAR Z 2 (TBD)

Will it? Won’t it? Does anyone honestly give a good goddamn if WORLD WAR Z 2 ever gets made at this point? Wait, David Fincher is still nebulously attached to direct? He was confirmed back in June of 2017? Alright then, we can’t front, Fincher and Pitt is way too potentiated a repairing for greatness to cast aside whenever it may or may not drop in 2019. Story intel is dry, but we do know Steven Knight (whose own film SERENTIY we also eagerly anticipate this winter) wrote a script that was amended by Denis Kelley (BLACK SEA), or vice versa. We also know that the flick won’t start shooting until this June, so chances are the flick won’t even be released until 2020 anyway. Still, here’s to hoping – halfheartedly – that Fincher puts a rush on the editing process and somehow sneaks the flick into theaters by Christmastime.

#14. THE NEW MUTANTS (AUGUST 2ND) 

It always raises cause for concern when a movie gets pushed back in its release, so it’s with a bit of caution that we await what Josh Boone was able to do with his final cut of THE NEW MUTANTS, Marvel’s decidedly horror-centric new big-budget action thriller that was supposed to come out last April, then November, then this February, before finally cementing an August 2nd date. The flick is said to draw inspiration from Stephen King to John Hughes, with THE SHINING and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS cited as well. The flick stars horror it-girl Anya Taylor-Joy (THE WITCH, SPLIT), Maisie Williams, Blu Hunt, Charlie Heaton, Henry Zaga, and Colbi Gannett as the titular hybrids, with Antonio Banderas, Alice Braga, Happy Anderson and Thomas Kee lending the adult supervision. As for the plot, based on the Marvel comics by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod, follows five young mutants who discover their horrifying new abilities, using them to escape the secret facility they are being kept in.

#13. IN THE TALL GRASS (TBD)

Vincenzo Natali (CUBE, SPLICE) adapting a story jointly written by Stephen King and son Joe Hill? Okay, we’ll bite, especially given how adept Natali proved still capable of last year with his directorial work on HBO’s mindblowing Westworld. Besides, what’s not to love about the simple set up of a brother and sister driving through the Kansas heartland when suddenly, out of nowhere, strange noises beckon them from the tall grass on the side of the road. Good god, it’s THE HAPPENING meets CHILDREN OF THE F*CKING CORN! Yet, with both Kings presiding over the text, and with genre stalwart Patrick Wilson headlining opposite Rachel Wilson (no relation), Natali should have plenty to work with to deliver a solid horror outing, just as he should’ve with the ill-fated TREMORS TV-movie he was fortunate enough to get Kevin Bacon to reprise his role of Valentine in, but unfortunately got cancelled. 2019 is your year Natali, make it f*cking count!

#12. WOUNDS (MARCH 29TH)

Based almost solely in the harrowing hypnotic hold of one the best horror films of 2016 – Iranian writer/director Babak Anvari’s feature debut UNDER THE SHADOW – with the utmost agog we look forward to seeing what kind of infectious cut he has in store for us when he unstitches his English language debut feature, WOUNDS, this spring. With an increased budget and bona fide movie stars that include Dakota Johnson and Armie Hammer at the helm, the story takes place in the preternaturally eerie New Orleans, Louisiana, where cryptic happenings befall a bartender after the picks up a phone left behind at his establishment. Zazie Beetz (SLICE), Karl Glusman (THE NEON DEMON, NOCTURNAL ANIMALS), Kerry Cahill (The Walking Dead), Brad William Henke and Ritchie Montgomery costar in the film, which is set to premiere at Sundance this month ahead of its official March release. Trust us…this could be THE sleeper horror jewel of the year!

#11. 3 FROM HELL (TBD)

Can Rob Zombie rebound his somewhat sagging directorial career by serializing his best received horror flick to date? 3 FROM HELL will answer that query, however fairly or unfairly, when the flick eventually drops sometime in 2019. As it is, Mr. Zombie is putting the burnishing touch on the film as it awaits an official release date. But as you can see in this sick promo image above, good old Bill Moseley is back as Otis Firefly, as is Sheri Moon, Sid Haig, Danny Trejo to go with new addendums Dee Wallace, Clint Howard, Daniel Roebuck, Richard Riehle, Matthew Willig, Tom Papa and Richard Brake. Plot details are next to nil at this point, aside from being an official sequel to HOUSE OF 1,000 CORPSES and THE DEVIL’S REJECTS. We do know the editing process began last September, with postproduction delayed for five months while Zombie toured with Marilyn Manson.

#10. SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK (AUGUST 9TH)

Still basking in his radiant Oscar glow, it seems Billy the Bull can do no wrong. As such, who cares if it may be aimed at a slightly younger crowd, we must include the sighting of del Toro’s long-awaited passion project, SCARY STORIES TO TELL IN THE DARK, when it alights in theaters this August. Based on the Alvin Schwartz book trilogy that ran from 1984-1991, this grislier GOOSEBUMPS-like children series follows a group of kids who must face their deepest darkest fears in order to save their small town from eternal ruin. Said children will be played by Zoe Margaret Colletti, Michael Garza, Austin Zajur, Gabriel Rush, Kathleen Pollard, and Natalie Granzhorn. The adults come in the form of Dean Norris, Javier Botet, Lorraine Toussaint and Jane Moffat. Underrated Norwegian director Andre Ovredal (TROLLHUNTER) helms from a script shared by del Toro himself, Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton (THE COLLECTOR, SAW 4-7), John August (FRANKENWEENIE), and the brothers Hageman (HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA).

#9. GRUDGE (JUNE 21ST) 

At first blush, begrudgingly is the only way to receive the news of another superfluous GRUDGE flick headed down the lane. But upon further inspection, it’s clear that the flick – said to be a direct sequel to the American trilogy – has great potential due its largely to its source material and preeminent pedigree. Directed by Nicolas Pesce, whose previous outing THE EYES OF MY MOTHER seriously stirred all who saw it, and whose new film PIERCING could just as easily rest upon this list, GRUDGE stars Andrea Riseborough, Demian Bichir, Lin Shaye, Jacki Weaver, John Cho, William Sadler, Frankie Faison and Betty Gilpin. The story is what you might expect from a straight-up GRUDGE sequel, as a family’s homestead is suddenly fashed by a malevolent presence sure to materialize in the visage of a wan, long-black-haired specter hovering about the darkened halls. I can’t wait to see what Pesce does with a studio budget and eclectic cast of cool character actors, and how much or little he hews to Takashi Shimizu’s original.

#8. GRETA (MARCH 1ST)

Can’t speak for everyone, but damn if films come more unctuously packaged than GRETA, in which the venerable Neil Jordan (THE COMPANY OF WOLVES, INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE), directs the sultry French jewel Isabelle Hupert (ELLE, THE PIANO TEACHER) as she taunts, torments, tantalizes and terrorizes the young unsuspecting Chloe Grace Moretz (CARRIE, LET ME IN). So simple and sweet. Take the logline for instance: a young woman strikes up a bond with a lonely widow. Yeah, not quite, as Hupert basically goes HAND THAT ROCKS THE FATAL F*CKING ATTRACTION on Chloe’s unwitting ass, with Maika Monroe, Zawe Ashton, Stephen Rea and Colm Feore along for the duplicitous drive. GRETA is Jordan’s first feature since 2012’s BYZANTIUM, so it’ll be interesting to see how he handles a script he co-wrote with Ray Wright (PULSE, THE CRAZIES) after spending a few years directing The Borgias on Showtime.

#7. PET SEMATARY (APRIL 5TH) 

While I do believe Mary Lambert’s 1989 original still holds up well enough today to render the remake all but a warrantless exercise (Zelda still gives me the goddamn shivers), there remains something balefully buried deep in the bindings of Stephen King’s PET SEMATARY that’s worthy of exhuming for further autopsy. You agree? Besides, with those capable STARRY EYES directors Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer working from a script by Jeff Buhler (JACOB’S LADDER, GRUDGE) and David Kajganich (BLOOD CREEK, SUSPIRIA), we should be in good hands when the flick hits theaters this April. The ubiquitous Jason Clarke stars as Louis Creed, Amy Seimetz as his wife Rachel, with the great John Lithgow as old man Jud Crandall. The last casting tidbit almost atones for Zelda being played by a woman this time around rather than a man (I see you Andrew Hubastek). As for the plot, expect the skeletal structure of King’s tome to hold serve, with the crux of the action deriving from the Creed’s dead cat Church, now a menacing Maine Coon rather than British shorthair, reanimates from the grave!

#6. IT: CHAPTER TWO (SEPTEMBER 6TH)

Pretty sure I’m the only asshole on planet Earth to NOT see IT until like nine months after it shattered records in theaters. Again, pretty shitty thing to do (or not to do), for when finally catching the flick on HBO one night, the unanimous good word of mouth about Andy Muschetti’s retelling was wholeheartedly confirmed. And I’ll paraphrase my man Eric Walkuski’s keen observation in his review when he attributed much of the film’s success to its synergistic cast of kids and how well they get play off of one another. Of course, IT CHAPTER TWO looks to up the wicked wattage with the additions of James McAvoy, Bill Hader, James Ransone, Jay Ryan and Jessica Chastain (reuniting her with MAMA director Muschetti) as the grown up version of the Losers Club, 27 years later. Oh, and Bill Skarsgard is back playing the huge-headed-putrid-mouthed Pennywise!

#5. ZOMBIELAND 2 (OCTOBER 11TH)

Wichita. Columbus. Tallahassee. Little Rock. Yup, the whole mother*cking gang is back for another riotous round of brain-gorging rock’n’roll in ZOMBIELAND 2. We’re talking Emma, Woody, Abigail, and oh, that Zuckerberg f*cker. Hell, even Bill Murray is confirmed to make an appearance in the sequel set for release a decade after the original proved to be a hilarious and horrifying surprise hit. Even more assuring is the fact director Ruben Fleischer is back at the helm, working from a script by the cats who wrote the first flick (Dave Callaham, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick). Plot details are scant 10 months out from release, but there’s little doubt that after ten years, all involved have only grown wiser and more mature in knowing how to make a good film. Stone’s won an Oscar, Woody’s been nominated twice, Breslin is all grown up now, and Zuckerberg…well whatever. Add Dan Aykroyd and Zoe Deutch though and we’re in for a damn good treat come Halloween!

#4. VELVET BUZZSAW (FEBRUARY 1ST)

Not sure how y’all feel, but NIGHTCRAWLER is truly one of my favorite movies of the last five years or so, perhaps of all time. Love that shite! So much so that we could not, in good faith, omit the above the line talent reunion of which in perhaps the best film title I’ve ever heard. F*ck yes, Dan Gilroy’s VELVET BUZZSAW – starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo (Gilroy’s wife) – is way too intriguing to let slide by the wayside this winter. With only a cryptic logline to guide us, the film, which also stars greats Toni Collette John Malkovich, revolves around the deadly collision of art and commerce when high-paid artists and fat-cat collectors commingle in some insidious form or fashion. Billy Magnussen, Natalia Dyer, Daveed Diggs, Zawe Ashton and James Paxton (son of the late great NIGHTCRAWLER star Bill Paxton) level out the supporting roster.

#3. THE LIGHTHOUSE (TBD)

Since serving his simmering feature debut in 2015, Robert Eggers’ THE WITCH has cemented itself as one the preeminent horror films of not just the last three years, but perhaps the past three decades as well. Lord, I’m still shook! It only stands to reason then that we await with the utmost anticipation his follow up film, THE LIGHTHOUSE, starring the sublime Willem Dafoe and continuously impressive Robert Pattinson. The film is still in post as it awaits an official release date, shrouding a folkloric story co-written with Eggers by his brother Max, about an aging Lighthouse keeper named Old (Dafoe) who dwell in coastal Maine in the early 1900s. The flick was shot on black and white 35mm film stock using camera lenses from the 1920s and technical equipment used in the 1940s, sure to rightly recreate the time period just as Eggers did with THE WITCH. Eggers even had a complete replica of a lighthouse built in Nova Scotia, where the film finished principal photography last spring.

#2. US (MARCH 15TH)

Don’t front, who else sharted in their pants a tad at the trailer sighting of Jordan Peele’s US? You liar. I know I did. Indeed, even with the impossibly high bar of expectations he set for himself after last year’s Oscar-winning breakout horror hit, GET OUT, Peele appears up for the challenge when unleashing his harrowing new charnel-house-invasion-horror on the masses come mid-March. Can’t f*cking wait! The great Lupita Nyong’o headlines a cast that includes Yahya Abdul Mateen II, Evan Alex, Shahadi Wright, Elisabeth Moss, and Anna Diop in a story that follows an idyllic family’s summer day at the beach morph into a lethally nightmarish home-incursion at the hands of deadly doppelgangers, one of which rocks a ghastly and nastily skeletal white skin-mask that even f*cking Claude Rains would blush at (the INVISIBLE MAN to all you youngsters). Given the smashing commercial and critical success of GET OUT, US is a surefire Top 2 must-see horror flick in 2019!

#1. MIDSOMMAR (AUGUST 9TH)

No doubt about it, after Ari Aster delivered the best goddamn horror film of the past decade in HEREDITARY last June, it’s only right we fire his follow up film – however lofty the expectations may be –atop our alacritous must see genre list of 2019. Aster’s aptly titled new film MIDSOMMAR takes place in Sweden, and follows the rocky relationship between characters played by Jack Reynor and Florence Pugh (reuniting from LADY MACBETH) as they try to enjoy a vacation amid a surreal summer festival. Already at odds with one another, the couple must contend with a series of sinister shenanigans perpetrated by the hands of a ritualistic cabal practicing ancient pagan worship. Aster penned the script himself, as he did with HEREDITARY, meaning we should again be treated to a very clear yet unthinkably dark vision. Will Poulter, William Jackson Harper, Isabelle Grill, Anki Larsson and Julia Ragnarsson round out the killer cast!