While it may be the middle of summer, horror isn’t taking a holiday this year. This month is set to see an astonishing amount of movies from the genre hitting theaters, with some seriously interesting projects in the line-up. Let’s go through them quickly and see what looks most promising.
Perhaps the most notable is The Nightingale, Jennifer Kent’s highly anticipated follow-up to modern genre classic The Babadook. The film’s about a woman stalking through the Tasmanian jungle seeking revenge on the men who murdered her family. It was released last Friday and has already picked up rave reviews and great word of mouth, with reports of people fleeing screenings in terror.
In a more supernatural vein is Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark, in which director André Øvredal (working with producer Guillermo del Toro) adapts the scary children’s novels. Set in 1960s America, the film follows a group of teenagers who discover a book of terrifying stories that become all too real for them.
A wild card title in all this, meanwhile, is the interesting-looking The Banana Splits Movie, a horror-comedy in which the classic kid’s show is given a twist: the creepy main characters are out for homicidal revenge after their series is cancelled. You can check it out on digital on August 13th.
Then there’s 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, a follow-up to the hit killer shark original. This arrives August 16th and features a group of tourists being terrorized by sharks while stuck in an underwater city.
August 21st, meanwhile, sees the release of Ready or Not, a horror/thriller in which Samara Weaving plays a newlywed bride who discovers her new in-laws have a penchant for ultra-violence and is pursued by them through a gigantic mansion.
Finally, Blumhouse are also bringing something new to the table with Don’t Let Go, which features a detective played by David Oyelowo receiving mysterious phone calls from his niece…his murdered niece. That’s out on August 30th.
So, like we said, a bumper crop for horror fans (and that’s just in theaters, there’s a load more on TV and in gaming). Personally, I hope the modern horror renaissance never ends as it’s truly a great time to be a fan of the genre.