Eight months of horror releases down, four to go! We’re officially entering the “spooky season” portion of the year, the build-up to our favorite holiday, Halloween, and with our 2024 Fall Horror Movie Preview, we’re looking ahead at some of the horror movies we can’t wait to check out in the remaining months of this year. For now, we’re only including movies that have a known release date, so films like the remakes/reboots of The Toxic Avenger and Witchboard are currently absent because they don’t have a release date yet, even though they might still show up at some point in 2024. Below, you’ll find a list of the movies we’re anxious to see this Halloween season and beyond… so, here we go:
AFRAID – Theatrical, August 30
Originally scheduled to receive a theatrical release in August of 2023, director Chris Weitz’s Blumhouse-produced horror film They Listen was delayed an entire year by Sony and has been renamed Afraid. The cast includes Katherine Waterston, John Cho, Havana Rose Liu, Lukita Maxwell, Riki Lindhome, Keith Carradine, Ben Youcef, and Wyatt Linder. Details were being kept under wraps until the unveiling of
BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE – Theatrical, September 6
Thirty-six years after the classic Beetlejuice was released, we’re finally getting a sequel. Director Tim Burton is back at the helm, Michael Keaton is reprising the role of the title character, and Winona Ryder is back as Lydia Deetz, with Catherine O’Hara returning as her stepmother Delia. Joining the party are Monica Bellucci as Beetlejuice’s wife, Willem Dafoe as a law enforcement officer in the afterlife, Justin Theroux in an unspecified role, and Burton’s Wednesday star Jenna Ortega as Lydia’s daughter. Depending on whether or not Burton and his cast were able to recapture some of the original magic, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice could be a blast, and a great way to celebrate Halloween time.
THE FRONT ROOM – Theatrical, September 6
While The Witch director Robert Eggers will be closing out the year with the release of his long-awaited Nosferatu remake, his younger brothers Max and Sam Eggers are bringing us the horror film The Front Room in the build-up to Halloween. An A24 release based on a short story by Susan Hill, this one stars I Still Know What You Did Last Summer‘s Brandy Norwood as a pregnant woman dealing with a diabolical mother-in-law. Max Eggers co-wrote The Lighthouse with his brother Robert and was a production assistant on Robert’s 2008 short film adaptation of the Edgar Allan Poe story The Tell-Tale Heart. Sam Eggers was also a production assistant on that short film, and on The Witch. Sam also co-wrote and co-edited the 2018 documentary Olympia, about actress Olympia Dukakis.
SPEAK NO EVIL – Theatrical, September 13
Director James Watkins and Blumhouse have teamed up to bring us a remake of the 2022 Danish film Gæsterne, a.k.a. Speak No Evil – and if this is as intense as the original film was, it sounds like it’s going to be a real endurance challenge for a lot of viewers. The story centers on “a family who takes a dream holiday to an idyllic country house, only to have the vacation turn into a psychological nightmare,” and the cast includes James McAvoy, Mackenzie Davis, Scott McNairy, Aisling Franciosi, and Alix West Lefler.
SUBSERVIENCE – Digital/VOD, September 13
Megan Fox and director S.K. Dale, who previously worked together on the thriller Till Death (about a woman who has to deal with a pair of killers while handcuffed to the corpse of her husband), have reteamed for a sci-fi thriller that sees Fox taking on the role of a lifelike artificially intelligent android who is purchased by a struggling father to handle the housework when his wife gets sick… and, of course, this AI android ends up becoming both self-aware and a danger to the man and his family.
THE SUBSTANCE – Theatrical, September 20
Seven years after director Coralie Fargeat made her feature directorial debut with a very cool revenge movie that was appropriately titled Revenge, Fargeat has returned with The Substance, which has been described as an explosive feminist take on body horror. Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, a past-her-prime A-lister who takes an injection of a drug called the Substance and is reborn as the gorgeous, twentysomething Sue (Margaret Qualley). Problem is, they have to share equal time, spending one week in the body of Elisabeth, the next in the body of Sue, then back to Elisabeth, etc. Dennis Quaid co-stars as a repellent studio head named Harvey, a role that Ray Liotta had signed on to play right before he passed away.
NEVER LET GO – Theatrical, September 20
The latest film from genre regular Alexandre Aja stars Halle Berry as a mother struggling to raise her two young sons in a world that has been taken over by a mysterious evil. If they even want to step outside, they have to be tethered to each other with ropes… So, of course, this is a situation that’s just waiting to fall apart. Aja’s previous directing credits include High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes, Mirrors, Piranha 3D, Horns, The 9th Life of Louis Drax, Crawl, and Oxygen, so there’s no way we’re going to miss Never Let Go.
AZRAEL – Theatrical, September 27
Samara Weaving has earned “modern genre icon” status through her roles in the likes of Ready or Not, Mayhem, The Babysitter, Guns Akimbo, Scream VI, and episodes of Ash vs. Evil Dead, and she’ll be back in horror territory with the action horror film Azrael, which was recently picked up by IFC Films and the Shudder streaming service. Directed by E.L. Katz from a screenplay by You’re Next and The Guest writer Simon Barrett, this one sees Weaving taking on the role of a young woman fighting for her life against a devout female-led community that wants to sacrifice her to an ancient evil.
BAGMAN – Theatrical, September 27
Colm McCarthy, who previously directed The Girl With All the Gifts, pits Sam Claflin of Peaky Blinders and Daisy Jones & the Six against “his deepest inner fear” in this film, which is about a father who has to fight to protect his family when “the childhood monster he once vanquished returns to haunt him.” Not only does this involve facing off with a supernatural being that carries a bag like the title promises, but the