From angry tigers to talented spiders, Stranger call-backs to Shyamalan Jr, here’s what to watch – and what to watch out for – in horror over coming months.
Matt Glasby is the author of The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film, available here.
Tiger Stripes
Channelling Carrie, Ginger Snaps and Raw, among others, this Malaysian body horror is the feature debut of writer-director Amanda Nell Eu. It follows Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal), an 11-year-old schoolgirl for whom puberty marks the onset of some unwelcome—and unexpected—physical changes. Part coming-of-age drama, part monster movie, part allegory for religious oppression, it’s already punching well above its budget, winning the Critics’ Week Grand Prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. With what might be considered textbook irony, the Malaysian authorities have censored the movie for local audiences.
Sting
Sting (2024)
Call it Shelob’s Law. While spiders are, obviously, terrifying, most spider films are terrible. Combining practical effects from Wētā FX with a sick sense of humour, the latest from Australian writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner (the Wyrmwood films) promises to buck this trend for the first time since 1990’s Arachnophobia. Twelve-year-old Charlotte (geddit?), played by Alyla Brown, is a lonely soul whose only friend is an “unnervingly talented” spider she calls Sting, perhaps named after the unnervingly talented singer. But when her neighbours’ pets start going missing, then her neighbours, Sting has much to answer for—and we don’t mean the OG Dune.
Tarot
Tarot (2024)
Originally named Horrorscope after its 1992 source novel, this potential franchise-starter from first-timers Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg is clearly after a slice of the Talk to Me pie. It follows a group of college friends (including Pennyworth’s Harriet Slater and the MCU’s Jacob Batalon) who, after breaking the first rule of tarot readings—never use someone else’s deck!—find themselves hunted by different manifestations of fate based on the cards they were dealt. Though the creature designs look suitably spooky, the most ominous detail is a PG13 certificate.
The Strangers: Chapter 1
The Strangers: Chapter 1
The reboot nobody asked for, directed by [checks notes] 1990s action specialist Renny Harlin and starring Madelaine Petsch (Riverdale) and Froy Gutierrez (Cruel Summer), this is the first of a planned trilogy of Strangers films, with Chapters 2 and 3 released later this year. Over the years, Harlin has made more terrible franchise horror movies than most (A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Exorcist: The Beginning), so quite how he ended up in the chair is anyone’s guess. At least the man responsible for Cutthroat Island should know a thing or two about cutting throats.
Cuckoo
Written and directed by German film-maker Tillman Singer, whose debut was the hyper-stylised Luz (2018), and inspired by Davids Attenborough and Cronenberg, Cuckoo is an intriguing proposition. When teenager Gretchen (Hunter Schafer from Euphoria) joins her father (Marton Csokas) and his new family at a spooky Swiss resort, something’s not quite right—could it be to do with his eccentric boss, Mr König (Dan Stevens)? Well, possibly, but the fun’s in the finding out. Stevens is having a great time becoming an unlikely horror icon (see Abigail, The Rental, Apostle), and hopefully any accusations of narrative incoherence can be countered with a dose of midnight movie madness.
I Saw the TV Glow
Jane Schoenbrun’s follow-up to their striking, if divisive, debut, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, expresses similar concerns about the effects of media on impressionable teenage minds—in this case provided by Justice Smith (Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves) and Brigette Lundy-Paine (Ted’s daughter in Bill & Ted Face the Music). As well as garnering some impressive festival reviews, the film has an absolutely stacked cast and crew. Emma Stone produces, Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst so-stars and Phoebe Bridgers appears as herself. Chances are you won’t see anything else quite like it any time soon.
The Watchers
The Watchers (2024)
Proving that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree—even if the tree’s massive—this creepy offering is from first-time writer/director Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of M Night. Based on the book by Irish novelist AM Shine, it follows artist Mina (Dakota Fanning), who finds herself trapped in a bunker in the middle of a forest with three strangers (Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan and Olwen Fouéré), as unseen creatures observe them from outside. If it sounds like the attack sequences from The Village, we say bring it on.
Also out soon:
Canadian slasher In a Violent Nature turns the tables by seeing things from the killer’s POV. Gothic gateway flick The Crow gets a controversial remake starring Bill “Pennywise” Skarsgård
