We preview the scares, chills and thrills coming your way, horror-heads.
Matt Glasby—author of The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film, available here—takes a look at what horror to watch (and what to watch out for) in September and October.
Starve Acre
Written and directed by Daniel Kokotajlo (Apostasy), this British folk horror went down a storm at the BFI London Film Festival 2023. It’s based on the book by Andrew Michael Hurley (The Loney), a master of creeping dread, and stars Matt Smith (Doctor Who) and Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud)—two actors you believe could actually be married to each other. They play a couple who, along with their young son, move to the remote Yorkshire farm where Smith’s character grew up. Here, they live happily ever after. Just kidding.
Speak No Evil
Speak No Evil (2024)
A strange one this. While there’s no absolutely need for an English-language remake of Christian Tafdrup’s bleaker-than-bleak Danish shocker TWO YEARS AFTER IT CAME OUT, it’s still possible to conjure some excitement. James McAvoy seems to be having spiteful fun as the English patriarch who, along with wife Aisling Franciosi, menaces the meek American family (headed by Scoot McNairy and Mackenzie Davis) they meet on holiday. Plus writer/director James Watkins really knows what he’s doing—he made The Woman in Black and Eden Lake, after all. If you haven’t seen the original, this might be worth a punt. Just don’t watch the spoiler-filled trailer first.
The Substance
The first ever horror film to win Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival (second if you count The Killing of a Sacred Deer in 2017) this audacious offering from Coralie Fargeat (Revenge) looks set to revitalise Demi Moore’s career. She plays an aged-out TV aerobics instructor who’s offered a mysterious procedure to make her younger and more beautiful. But, of course, there’s a catch. Critics have compared the film to everything from Stanley Kubrick to Showgirls, with one likening Moore’s performance to Isabelle Adjani’s unforgettable turn in 1981’s Possession. Yikes.
Strange Darling
Strange Darling
The less you know about JT Mollner’s twisty horror-thriller, the better. Produced by the company that made Barbarian and Cobweb, it stars genre favourites Willa Fitzgerald (TV’s Scream, The Fall of the House of Usher), Kyle Gallner (cinema’s Scream 5, Smile) and Barbara Hershey (Black Swan, Insidious, The Entity), as well as Giovanni Ribisi, who’s about due his own Gio-naissance. Combining cat-and-mouse suspense, serial killers and 1970s exploitation flick vibes, there’s truly something for everyone.
Never Let Go
Never Let Go
Alexandre Aja’s movies work best when their characters are in survival mode (High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes remake, Crawl, Oxygen), so hopes are high for this one. Halle Berry stars as a mother to two boys (Anthony B Jenkins and Percy Daggs IV ). They live in a creepy cottage in the woods and are only allowed out into the—weirdly empty—world while holding a rope (hence, “Never let go!”) because something’s out there waiting for them. Whether it’s a demon, an alien or a big old A24-style trauma metaphor is anyone’s guess.
Terrifier 3
Whatever you make of Art the Clown and his SFX-heavy lady-slaying, you’ve got to admit the guy’s got a great PR. Despite having only appeared in three films—the little-seen All Hallows Eve; the controversial Terrifier; and the 138-minute-long Terrifier 2—he’s already shouldering his way into the ranks of slasher legends. Part three sees the main cast—including Lauren LaVera as Sienna Shaw and David Howard Thornton as Art—returning for a slice (and dice) of Christmas evil.
Salem’s Lot
Salem's Lot
The third—yes, look it up—adaptation of Stephen King’s 1975 vampire novel is more famous for what’s been happening offscreen. Written and directed by Gary Dauberman, who wrote several Annabelles and both ITs, it stars Lewis Pullman (son of Bill) and a cast of familiar faces (William Sadler, Bill Camp, Pilou Asbæk), and sounds decent enough. So how come it’s been delayed for two years? Not even King knows. He tweeted: “Between you and me, Twitter, I’ve seen the new Salem’s Lot and it’s quite good. Not sure why WB is holding it back; not like it’s embarrassing, or anything. Who knows. I just write the fucking things.”
Smile 2
You couldn’t make it up. Smile, a modest 2022 horror about a viral curse, written and directed by Parker Finn, was headed for streaming before a test screening changed its fate. Upon release, it made $216m on a $17m budget thanks to a genius viral campaign. Well, now the beast is back. The new heroine this time is Naomi Scott’s pop star, although Kyle Gallner’s cop returns—who knows for how long? “There certainly are stones that I left unturned by design,” Finn told The Hollywood Reporter, intriguingly. In other words, this one could run and run.
ALSO COMING SOON:
Canadian serial killer thriller Red Rooms; more goth gateway antics in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice; a 4K restoration of the King/De Palma classic Carrie.
