17 horror movies to look forward to in 2018

2017 has been one of the best year for horror films ever – with Get Out topping many critics’ best of the year lists, and IT breaking all sorts of box office records.

Next year looks a bit more intriguing – with indie originals mixed with the return of some major franchises (basically, Blumhouse look like they’re going to have a VERY busy 2018).

Here’s 17 of the freshest horror movies that’ll be scaring us long into the new year.

1. Insidious: The Last Key – 5 January

A direct sequel to Insidious: Chapter 3 (which was a prequel), The Last Key sees Elise Rainier investigating supernatural disturbances in a New Mexico family home, a home which also happens to be the house she grew up in – which takes her deeper into The Further. Ooooh, scary.

Starring Lin Shaye, Angus Sampson, Leigh Whannell, Josh Stewart, and Caitlin Gerard, The Last Key will be released in the UK in January.

2. Mom And Dad – 19 January

With a killer premise – a mysterious virus causes parents to turn on their kids – and a cool cast (including Nic Cage and Selma Blair as the titular mum and dad), Mom And Dad is a gleeful throwback to ‘80s cult classics such as Parents and Heathers, with a jet-black sense of humour mixed in with the horror. It’s received glowing reviews from the festival circuit, expect similar praise when it lands on UK shores.

3. The Purge: The Island – 4 July

The fourth Purge movie is technically the first – because it’s the first prequel of the franchise, telling the tale of how the Purge tradition started, tracking the very first event (which is reportedly taking place on Staten Island), and exploring how America reached a point where they decided letting people kill each other for one night every year was a good idea. With a Purge TV series also on the way, expect to hear a lot about this franchise in 2018.

4. The Midnight Man – 19 January

This low-budget indie might look like a collection of tired horror tropes, but there must be something interesting about the script, as it’s attracted genre legends Robert Englund (A Nightmare On Elm Street) and Lin Shaye (Insidious) to join the party.

The plot involves a cursed board game that launches the titular Midnight Man at anyone foolish enough to play it. So far, so Ouija. Let’s hope it’s more like the (brilliant) prequel, Ouija: Origin Of Evil.

5. Strangers: Prey At Night – 9 March

It seems hard to believe, but it’s been ten years since the first Strangers movie terrified us all. A sequel’s been in the works for almost as long, but it finally arrives in early 2018, starring Christina Hendricks as an unsuspecting mother who’s visited by the masked weirdos who made the original such an uncomfortable watch. It’s directed by Johannes Roberts, who’s a bit hit and miss, but with his most recent run including 47 Metres Down and The Other Side Of The Door, there are enough reasons to be tentatively excited about this one.

6. Unsane – 23 March

Speaking of films that could definitely go either way, Steven Soderbergh’s first foray into horror sounds VERY interesting.

Shot in secret on an iPhone, Unsane features a cast to kill for, including Claire Foy, Jay Pharoah, Juno Temple, and Amy Irving.

The premise sounds a tiny bit cliche (involving a woman being committed to a mental institution and confronting her worst fear, which may or may not be a delusion) especially as it sounds a lot like John Carpenter’s The Ward. Given the talent behind the (iPhone) camera, it could also be the next mother!

7. A Quiet Place – 6 April

Looking like a cross between It Comes At Night and Don’t Breathe, this Paramount thriller looks like it could be the best film ever released on Michael Bay’s Platinum Dunes label (well, if the intense trailer’s to be believed, anyway). Following a family who are forced to live in silence thanks to the presence of a supernatural creature that’s attracted to noise, the film brings together real-life couple John Krasinski and Emily Blunt for the first time, for Krasinski’s directorial debut.

8. The New Mutants – 13 April

Okay, so this is technically a X-Men movie, but – continuing the Marvel Cinematic Universe tradition of mixing in different genres to their comic-book films – this is also a full-blown horror flick. The trailer’s packed with gore-flick tropes, to the extent that if you told us Freddy Krueger’s suddenly replaced Professor X as the headmaster of the X-kids, we’d believe you.

It features a cast almost entirely made up of ‘next big things,’ including Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), Maisie Williams (Game Of Thrones), and Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things), who all seem destined for long movie careers (even if the franchise possibly doesn’t, now Disney’s bought Fox). The story involves a group of young mutants held in a secret facility fighting to save themselves, after one of their powers start to make their environment feel a bit like a haunted house.

9. The Little Stranger – 31 August

Based on the 2009 gothic novel written by Sarah Waters (Tipping The Velvet), The Little Stranger sounds like it could be the next Woman In Black. Taking place in the 1940s, the story follows a country doctor named Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) who makes friends with an eccentric family of declining fortunes who run a very old estate that’s crumbling around them, an estate that once employed Faraday’s housemaid mother…

10. Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built – 2 March

The Spierig Brothers follow up their Saw sequel Jigsaw with a film that also looks like it wants to cash in on The Woman In Black’s success several years too late. But, it does star Helen Mirren, so colour us intrigued. Mirren stars as Sarah Winchester, whose husband William and their child died suddenly, leading the widow to believe she’s cursed. To fix her malady, Winchester builds the Winchester Mystery House, under advisement from a medium….

11. Truth Or Dare – 27 April

Another game-based horror flick, but this one’s from Blumhouse (the studio behind Insidious, The Conjuring, Sinister and Get Out) so you can be fairly sure it’ll be scary.

Directed by Jeff Wadlow and starring Lucy Hale, Tyler Posey, and Sophia Taylor Ali as college students who are punished for lying / not doing dares during the titular game.

12. The Nun – 13 July

Another Blumhouse prequel to one of their most established franchises, The Nun is technically the fifth Conjuring movie, spun-off from The Conjuring 2. Produced by Peter Safran and James Wan, who are keen to expand the Conjuring cinematic universe. “We have a board that we created that has what we hope will ultimately be our series of movies,” Safran said. “We have it in chronological order, so we can keep track of where it all happens.”

And it’ll all start (chronologically) with The Nun, and the story of a priest who investigates a nun’s suicide and finds himself fact-to-face with the demon Valak as a result.

13. Halloween – 19 October

There aren’t many more intriguing premises than Halloween’s in 2018. Originally thought to be a reboot of the John Carpenter original, Halloween’s actually a sequel to the first film – one that takes place in an alternate reality where not only did the original sequels not happen, but the first film ended in a different way.

Add in the fact that it’s written by David Gordon Green and Danny McBride (directed by Green) who are better known for their comedies, and this is a film that’ll stay intriguing right up until its October release.

Oh, and did we mention this is Blumhouse’s first foray into taking on an established franchise? Curiouser and curiouser.

14. Overlord – 26 October

Details are predictably vague on Overlord (it is a JJ Abrams production, after all), with some people wondering if the project’s another stealth Cloverfield sequel. But Bad Robot are describing it as a horror movie, so who are we to argue? What we definitely do know is it’s a war movie – it takes place in 1944 on D-Day eve, and follows a group of American paratroopers, dropped behind enemy lines to carry out a mission crucial to the invasion’s success. But, as they approach, they begin to realise there’s more going on in the Nazi-occupied village than a military operation.

15. Suspiria – TBC

Tilda Swinton becomes an old man called Lutz Ebersdorf in Suspiria.

It’s been talked about for a decade, but in 2018 we’ll finally get the Suspiria remake, but don’t expect it to look anything like the bold original – director Luca Guadagnino’s film is rumored to be walking down a very different path to Dario Argento’s 1977 film. It stars Dakota Johnson, Chloë Grace Moretz, Mia Goth, and Tilda Swinton (as an old man!) in the story of a young dancer who stumbles across a witch’s plot.

16. Slaughterhouse Rulez – 7 September

The first film from Simon Pegg and Nick Frost’s new production company, Slaughterhouse Rulez takes place in a fancy British boarding school that becomes a bloody battleground when a mysterious sinkhole appears at a nearby fracking site, releasing unspeakable horror into the local area.

Starring Peaky Blinders’ Finn Jones and featuring cameos by Pegg and Frost, we imagine this will mix comedy, drama with plenty of gore.

17. Ghost Stories – 5 October

Based on the hit West End play, Ghost Stories blends several individual spook tales together, each scarier than the last, to create a horror experience unlike any other. Starring Andy Nyman (recently seen cameoing in The Last Jedi), Martin Freeman and Paul Whitehouse all at the top of their game – this is definitely on to watch (between your fingers) out for.

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