Horror Movies That Will Blow Everyone Away In 2018

Hollywood lined up plenty of high-profile horror projects in 2017, from a revival of the Saw franchise to a very creepy-looking take on Stephen King's It — but even after that banner year, fans don't need to worry that the genre's tapped out; instead, the movie industry's major players have ensured that there are plenty  of quality scares on tap for 2018. In fact, the year's horror calendar got off to an early start, and there's no end in sight — after looking over the movie release schedule for 2018, we've come to the inescapable conclusion that filmgoers have a wealth of fright to choose from during these 12 months. From fact-based stories to supernatural action and the chilling reemergence of at least one classic character, the future looks very dark indeed — in the best possible way. Here's a look at the horror movies that will blow everyone away in 2018.

Hell Fest is set at a Halloween-themed amusement park where phony blood and guts and gore are all part of the holiday fun. This means the park's patrons don't immediately realize anything is amiss when a psycho slasher decides to have a little holiday fun of his own. Blumhouse standby Gregory Plotkin (Happy Death Day) took over as director from original helmer Jennifer Lynch, and Amy Forsyth (Hulu's The Path), Reign Edwards (Snowfall) and Bex Taylor-Klaus (Arrow) have joined the cast. "We are going to take audiences on a wild and terrifying ride," promised Plotkin, "and Amy, Reign, and Bex are exactly the talented energetic heroes we have been looking for to face off against our killer." Expectations are high for this one: former James Cameron partner and Walking Dead producer Gale Ann Hurd is involved through her own production company, and CBS Films president Terry Press has been championing the film for years, believing it has the potential to start a new Purge-like horror franchise. You can judge for yourself when Hell Fest debuts on September 28, 2018.

Jeremy Saulnier has quickly established a reputation as a purveyor of mercilessly tense films punctuated with bursts of shocking violence, and his fans have been waiting anxiously to see what color he'd take on next after the one-two gut punches of Blue Ruin and Green Room. True to form, the director has chosen to keep us off-balance by not only ditching the naming convention, but also by releasing his new thriller Hold the Dark directly to Netflix.

Penned by reliable collaborator Macon Blair (whose excellent debut directorial feature I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore likewise found a home on the streaming giant), Hold the Dark is adapted from William Giraldi's 2014 novel, and tells the story of a wildlife expert who gets into more than he bargained for when he's summoned to Alaska to investigate the killing of three local children by a wolf. Blair will of course make an appearance onscreen, with Alexander Skarsgård (True Blood) and Riley Keough (Logan Lucky) also having joined the cast. Saulnier's fans won't need any coaxing, but for the uninitiated in need of a nerve-jangling thriller, Hold the Dark is virtually guaranteed to satisfy when it drops on Netflix this year. 

When Sony announced in early 2017 that they would be moving forward with multiple Spider-Man-related projects apart from Marvel Studios, fans were understandably a bit puzzled as to the appeal of a Spider-Verse without Peter Parker, who has taken up residence in the MCU after Sony and Marvel's historic deal allowed for the rights to the character to be shared. One of Sony's announced projects, Silver and Black — featuring Silver Sable and Black Cat, two Spidey associates — has been put indefinitely on hold, but the other — Venom, based on the classic villain/antihero — has gone full speed ahead.

Its impressive cast includes Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom, as well as Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea) and Riz Ahmed (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story). The first teaser trailer was noticeably light on alien symbiotes and heavy on Hardy in serious distress, but subsequent clips helped set a tone appropriate for what will be the first truly horror-tinged film adapted from a beloved Marvel property (Blade notwithstanding). 

"In the comics, he bites people's heads off and eats brains," pointed out director Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland). "It would be weird to make a movie with Venom if he wasn't doing that. We tried to honor it as closely as possible. This is definitely a darker, more violent, more vicious Marvel character than I think anyone's ever seen before."

Adding to fans' excitement: a rumor, as yet unsubstantiated, that Tom Holland's Peter Parker will indeed make an appearance. In an episode of podcast Collider Heroes, Jon Schnepp reported that Holland was on set for two days filming scenes as Parker (and pointedly not as his web-head alter ego). All signs point to Sony getting it right with their second crack at the deadly symbiote, and we'll see just how right when Venom hits theaters on October 5.

Remakes and reboots of classic horror franchises haven't exactly been cinematic gold in recent years, with dead-on-arrival revivals of the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises leaving fans and producers alike wondering where the stories have left to go. With yet another Nightmare reboot struggling to get off the ground and a planned second Friday re-imagining also canceled, fans could be forgiven for not getting too excited about the prospect of a new Halloween—but they should be, for one key reason.

Eastbound & Down star Danny McBride and producer David Gordon Green came together to work on the concept for the new film, which they pitched directly to original director/co-writer John Carpenter. Carpenter's reaction, posted to his Facebook page, was enough to get any fan's heart racing: "WOW. They get it. I think you're gonna dig it." For further proof, Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie Strode) and Nick Castle (Michael Myers) are reprising their roles from the original. Castle has said that the filmmakers "honor the tradition of the original movie" and that "everyone who is a fan, of the original especially, should look forward to it."

McBride has explained to CinemaBlend that the new film won't be a remake or a reboot, but will instead serve as a sequel to the first film: "(I)t's gonna continue the story of Michael Myers in a really grounded way. And for our mythology, we're focusing mainly (on) the first two movies and what that sets up." Miramax will release the Blumhouse production on October 19, 2018, just in time for the scariest night of the year.

Horror comedy is notoriously difficult to pull off, but if any filmmakers have earned the benefit of the doubt, it's Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Their 2005 classic Shaun of the Dead remains a sterling example of the genre, and Slaughterhouse Rulez — the first effort from the pair's new Stolen Picture banner — promises to deliver shocks and laughs in equal measure.

The film's official synopsis sums up its premise succinctly: "An illustrious British boarding school becomes a bloody battleground when a mysterious sinkhole appears at a nearby fracking site, unleashing unspeakable horror." While Pegg and Frost will only be serving as producers (the inevitable cameos notwithstanding), the film is in good hands creatively; writer/director Crispian Mills directed Pegg in 2012's bonkers horror comedy A Fantastic Fear of Everything, and the talented Asa Butterfield (Ender's Game, Hugo) gets a shot at displaying his comedy chops in the lead. The film is backed by Sony Pictures, which should ensure a fairly wide release after it hits U.K. theaters on October 31. 

Dario Argento's 1977 masterpiece Suspiria is an exercise in pure, nightmarish atmosphere, which may be the reason it's avoided the remake treatment for four decades. But Italian director Luca Guadagnino (the man behind Sundance darling Call Me By Your Name) has taken his best shot—his modern re-imagining of Suspiria wrapped filming in March of this year, and if the lengthy post-production and interesting cast are any indication, we could be getting a fever dream for the ages.

Dakota Johnson stars opposite Chloë Grace Moretz, Mia Goth (A Cure For Wellness) and Tilda Swinton, lending her otherworldly presence. Also appearing in a small role will be the original film's star Jessica Harper, and none other than Radiohead's Thom Yorke will attempt to outdo the original's classic score. Much has been made of the fact that no remake can possibly match the bizarre color palette and singular tone of the original, but Guadagnino seems quite confident in his approach. Speaking with Variety, he said, "It's a movie about guilt, and it's about motherhood. It has no primary colors in its color palette... [it's] winter-ish, evil, and really dark."

There is some formidable talent on both sides of the cameras for Overlord, a World War II-set horror outing from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot production company. Director Julius Avery, whose first full-length feature was the underrated genre film Son of a Gun, directed from a script co-written by Billy Ray (Captain Phillips) and Mark L. Smith (The Revenant), with a fascinating logline: "Set on the eve of D-Day, a group of American paratroopers are dropped behind enemy lines to carry out a mission crucial to the invasion's success. But as they approach their target, they begin to realize there is more going on in this Nazi-occupied village than a simple military operation."

The cast includes Wyatt Russell (the lead in the stellar Black Mirror episode "Playtest") and Iain De Caestecker (Leo Fitz on Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) along with veteran character actor Bokeem Woodbine (Spider-Man: Homecoming). Since this is a Bad Robot production, speculation was heavy that Overlord was yet another stealth entry in the Cloverfield universe. Despite the rumors, J.J. Abrams says it definitely isn't — but that there is another Cloverfield film in the works, and it will actually show in theaters. Is he telling the truth? We can all find out when Overlord debuts in theaters on November 9, 2018.

Few filmmakers have the ability to get under one's skin quite like Lars Von Trier, he of Nymphomaniac, Antichrist and numerous other such provocations. For his next trick, Von Trier has recruited Matt Dillon and previous collaborator Uma Thurman for The House That Jack Built, the story of the development of serial killer Jack (Dillon) throughout his career in the 1970's. 

Von Trier has gone on record warning potential viewers that Jack may be his most brutal film to date, which is really saying something: "There were so many people we sent the script to, who said they would do anything to work with me, except this script," he said during a press conference at Cannes. "And then there were two [Dillon and Thurman], who said yes and I asked, 'Are you sure?' And they said, 'Yeah yeah yeah.' I think we should make a little test of their reading abilities." The film's official synopsis states that it will be told from the point of view of Jack, who views each of his murders as a work of art and take ever greater risks in pursuit of the ultimate artwork. If you're not among the faint of heart or weak of stomach, The House That Jack Built is shaping up to be a late-season treat; distributor IFC Films has slated it for release on November 29.

From writer/director Chris von Hoffman comes another high-concept thriller that sounds like a potential home run: Monster Party follows a trio of teenage hoodlums who break into an upscale mansion with thievery on their minds. However, the mansion happens to be host to a gathering of social elites who are all part of a cult of serial killers.

Veteran actress Robin Tunney heads up a cast that also includes John Wick's Lance Reddick, Captain Fantastic's Erin Moriarty and YouTube star Kian Lawley, who's quietly building a respectable acting portfolio. Producer Eric B. Fleischman is high on the project, saying in a statement: "I think Monster Party serves as a testament to not only Chris' ability to blend genres together (until they bleed) but a commentary on the growing social issues in today's society and just how violent some people actually are." No firm release date has been set, but look for Monster Party to reach theaters sometime in 2018.

1978's Piranha has the distinction of being hands-down the best Jaws ripoff in a sea of them (no pun intended), and it also launched the career of director Joe Dante in much the same way that its less-loved sequel gave a boost to future Hollywood titan James Cameron. The modern reboot series, which began with Piranha 3D in 2010, has nobly carried on the tradition of delivering maximum cheese along with copious amounts of gore and nudity, so we're pleased to report that the next installment—titled Piranha JPN: Teeth of the Piranha—is currently in production in Japan.

As always, the seemingly ageless Roger Corman will be an executive producer, but no further cast and crew details are available yet. According to Dread Central, the fish are undergoing a bit of a redesign due to the locale, looking like more of a hybrid of piranha and tuna—the joke being that since many Japanese people are so fond of eating that particular fish, the fish ought to get a chance to return the favor. Nobody ever accused Roger Corman of being too subtle.

Writer/director Jason William Lee hit the nerve-jangling mark with his 2016 debut feature The Evil In Us, and his sophomore effort for production house Sandcastle Pictures is currently in development. Little is known about Fun House aside from one incredibly creepy teaser image and this insanely awesome synopsis: "When 8 celebrities from around the globe are invited to compete in an online reality show, they soon realize that they are playing for their very lives, as those voted off suffer horrific torture and death, broadcast live to the world."

Sandcastle has announced on their Facebook page that Fun House will be shot in early 2018 in Vancouver, with an eye toward release later in the year—but so far, no other details have emerged. Here's hoping Lee builds on the promise he showed with his first feature, as it sounds like he's working with a truly killer premise.

The Weinstein Company has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons, and prominent subsidiary Dimension Films hasn't escaped mention amid allegations of years of sexual impropriety by co-founder Harvey Weinstein. A fair amount of turmoil at Dimension is one factor affecting the release date of Polaroid, a supernatural thriller originally slated for a Thanksgiving 2017 release, but which has now been pushed back to an unspecified date in 2018—hopefully sooner than later, because it looks absolutely bonkers.

First-time feature director Lars Klevberg adapts from his own short film, telling the story of a teenage loner who discovers an old Polaroid camera in a mysterious store. The budding vintage photo enthusiast soon finds that anybody she takes a picture of is in line for a horrific death at the hands of some malevolent force. While the premise might seem a touch familiar—or, specifically, like a mashup of The Ring and Final Destination—Klevberg's short won Best Short and Best Cinematography awards at the prestigious Los Angeles Horror Competition, and all signs in the trailer point to a stylishly shot and creepy flick.  

Scream queen Danielle Harris (of the Hatchet and Halloween film series) returns with Camp Cold Brook, starring opposite Chad Michael Murray (Marvel's Agent Carter) in a thriller with an intriguing premise: a reality TV show producer (Murray), with his show Haunt Squad threatened with cancellation, brings his team of paranormal investigators to Camp Cold Brook, the site of a mass murder 20 years earlier. They're hoping for a killer episode that will save their sinking show, but they'll end up having to save themselves instead.

Notably, it's being produced by the legendary Joe Dante, the man behind such classics as Gremlins and The Howling. Director Andy Palmer (The Funhouse Massacre) directs from a script by first-time screenwriter Alex Carl; the Oklahoma-based production has wrapped shooting, but no release date has yet been announced.

The creative team of Scott Beck and Bryan Woods are gearing up for a breakout year in 2018. Their script for the forthcoming A Quiet Place has generated massive amounts of buzz, and Haunt—which the duo will also direct—sounds every bit as creepy as that highly anticipated project. The official synopsis: "On Halloween, a group of friends encounter an 'extreme' haunted house that promises to feed on their darkest fears. The night turns deadly as they come to the horrifying realization that some nightmares are real."

The Bold Type star Katie Stevens (who is also starring in the forthcoming chiller Polaroid) leads, opposite Will Brittain (Kong: Skull Island) and Andrew Caldwell (M.F.A.). Eli Roth is among the film's producers, so it's safe to say that a fair amount of shocking gore will be on tap. No release date has yet been announced.

Love him or hate him, Kevin Smith has a distinct sensibility that isn't open to compromise. The first two entries in his "True North" Canadian horror trilogy, Tusk and Yoga Hosers, weren't exactly lavished with praise—and the third, Moose Jaws (like Jaws, but with a moose) is still nowhere to be seen on the horizon after supposedly being in development for years. But Smith seems determined to earn his bona fides as a horror filmmaker, and he just might accomplish that goal with KillRoy Was Here.

Speaking with Variety, Smith described the project as "a monster movie in the sense of a classic morality tale ... no one wants to see you spill the blood of innocents, but when someone crosses the line and goes bad, you get to make them pay in horrible ways, and the audience cheers. We wanted to make an anthology film in the vein of Creepshow. Killroy is like the Golem, the Boogeyman and the Grim Reaper combined." Smith will also act in the film, with practical creature effects being provided by Robert Kurtzman's Creature Corps. 

Fresh off his critically acclaimed turn as Winston Churchill in the historical drama Darkest Hour, Gary Oldman will return to genre films with Mary, a supernatural thriller from American Horror Story cinematographer and director Michael Goi. Goi will direct from an original screenplay by The Shallows scribe Anthony Jaswinski, who seems to be on a singular mission to make us all terrified of the ocean.

Oldman stars as the patriarch of a family looking to start a charter boat business—but their first investment, the titular vessel, holds dark secrets that only reveal themselves on isolated waters. Owen Teague (who had a brief but memorable turn as Patrick Hockstetter in 2017's It) and Stefanie Scott (Insidious: Chapter 3) co-star along with veteran actress Emily Mortimer. No release date has been announced, but the presence of Oldman alone—not to mention a creepy and original premise—make this a flick worth looking out for.

Blumhouse looks to keep serving up the scares with Only You, a thriller with a (perhaps deceptively) innocuous title whose plot is being kept tightly under wraps. Writer/director Jacob Estes, who most recently wrote the 2017 threequel Rings, will direct the film from his own original screenplay—and while we may not know much about the plot yet, he is certainly assembling an absolutely killer cast.

David Oyelowo, who earned critical raves for his portrayal of Martin Luther King Jr. in the historical drama Selma, heads up the cast; also on board is young actress Storm Reid (12 Years a Slave, Sleight), who's poised for a breakout year with this film as well as Disney's forthcoming adaptation of the classic YA novel A Wrinkle in Time. The story is said to focus on a police officer whose family is killed, and the rumor mill has also suggested that there may be a time travel element—but this is unconfirmed, as is the release date, so we'll just have to wait and see what creepy surprises Estes and Blumhouse are cooking up with this one.

Blumhouse is at it again with Seven in Heaven, which was shot last summer in Ontario, Canada. The story concerns a pair of teens who, while playing the titular game, discover that their closet happens to be a gateway to an alternate reality. But the gateway doesn't stay open forever, and the pair must navigate unknown perils to make it home before they're stuck.

Actor/director Chris Eigeman is helming the flick, which will feature Travis Tope (Independence Day: Resurgence) and Haley Ramm (Red State, X-Men: The Last Stand) as its two leads. Little information is available at this time, but there's little doubt Blumhouse is capable of making good on this mind-bender of a premise.

Saw series director Darren Lynn Bousman (who is responsible for the second, third and fourth installments) returns with St. Agatha, a female-centric psychological horror film with a truly weird synopsis: "Set in the 1950s in small-town Georgia, the film centers on a pregnant con woman named Agatha who is on the run and seeks refuge in a convent. What first starts out as the perfect place to have a child turns into a dark layer where silence is forced, ghastly secrets are masked, and every bit of willpower Agatha has is tested as she learns the sick and twisted truth of the convent and the odd people that lurk inside its halls."

The film has four credited screenwriters and doesn't exactly feature a big-name cast, but early images suggest a creepy atmosphere with a distinctly Dario Argento-inspired color palette. The movie is completed, awaiting distribution; Jack Campbell, president of distributor Octane Entertainment, positively raved about the film, calling it "a cut above anything [he'd] seen in a long time." 

Yet another mysterious Blumhouse project, Sweetheart went into production after the House of Blum acquired writer/director JD Dillard's previous film, Sleight, after its Sundance debut. The horror thriller will star Dope and The Flash actress Kiersey Clemons along with Emory Cohen (War Machine), and while the studio is keeping mum about the plot, Dillard himself spilled a few details in an interview with Slashfilm.

He describes the film as being light on dialogue—the script is only 68 pages—and as being "a pure exercise in tone and terror" with a heavy survival horror vibe. He also just barely holds himself back from revealing some sort of unique device—something he describes as a "plus one"—that he can't say anything about until the film's promotional materials appear. With no release date yet announced, we'll just have to wait and see what he means, unless someone can pry it out of him sooner.

The premise of Dead AfterLife is completely bonkers, yet it's hard to believe it hasn't been done before: a man lingers on Earth as a ghost after his murder, only to see his body become a zombie and start attacking his friends and family at his funeral. To complicate things, he's a pharmaceutical scientist whose reanimation is a result of his being administered his own experimental drug, he knows the identity of his killer, and the "gatekeeper" (St. Peter, presumably) has given him a limited amount of time to get his roving, undead body safely back in its grave—or he'll punch his own ticket to hell.

Veteran low-budget horror director Jared Cohn is attached, but the real good news for horror fans is the cast. None other than Kane Hodder, the man behind the hockey mask for four installments of the Friday the 13th film series, is set to star; horror icon Dee Wallace (The Howling, House of the Devil) is also attached. Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes) and Bill Moseley (The Devil's Rejects) round out a cast fully stocked with horror vets; director Cohn thinks the project has "got cult classic written all over it," and it's tough to disagree.

Hilary Duff may not be the most obvious choice for the lead role in a psychological horror film, unless it's this one. Duff has signed on to portray the lead in The Haunting of Sharon Tate, in all likelihood due to her rather unsettling similarity to the late Tate, who was the most famous victim of Charles Manson's murderous "family." The film portrays Tate as tormented by visions of her own demise in the weeks leading up to her murder, and is based on remarks that she allegedly made in an interview a year before her death. 

Tate's family has taken slight issue with this, but the filmmakers aren't exactly presenting their work as factual, and it could be an interesting opportunity for Duff to show off her acting chops. It's the debut feature for writer/director Daniel Farrands, who has helmed several well-received horror documentaries (including the essential Crystal Lake Memories: The Complete History of Friday the 13th), and the supporting cast includes Lydia Hearst (#Horror), the daughter of famed kidnap-victim-turned-terrorist Patty Hearst. Currently in post-production, The Haunting of Sharon Tate will hit theaters sometime this year.

There's no question that He's Out There has a wealth of talent assembled on both sides of the camera. Director Dennis Iliadis already has one highly anticipated fright flick on the way this year with Delirium, and he directs from a screenplay by Mike Scannell (who worked on See No Evil) under the eye of producers Brian Bertino (director of The Strangers and its sequel) and Adrienne Biddle (Stephanie). Throw in stars Yvonne Strahovski (Dexter) and the young-but-accomplished Abigail Pniowsky (Arrival), and you've got a team more than capable of bringing this tense, throwback thriller home.

The official synopsis: "On vacation at a remote lake house, a mother and her two young daughters must fight for survival after falling into a terrifying and bizarre nightmare conceived by a psychopath." Iliadis proved himself to be adept at jangling nerves with the 2009 remake of Last House on the Left, and he looks to cement his reputation with this year's one-two punch of psychological horror.

Author Shirley Jackson only published six full-length novels (alongside a slew of short stories, including The Lottery, which you probably read in high school) before her death in 1965, but her influence reaches far and wide. Stephen King has often cited her work as an inspiration for himself and many of his contemporaries, and her final novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle is widely regarded as her masterpiece. Her surreal, atmospheric writing style is seen by some as defying adaptation — but the one currently in the works boasts a sterling cast and crew, and just might emerge as this year's sleeper horror hit.

The story follows a pair of sisters who may or may not have played a role in the poisoning of their entire family, who must use supernatural means to protect themselves from suspicious townspeople. Scream queen Taissa Farmiga (American Horror Story, The Nun) appears in a lead role, along with Sebastian Stan (best known for his role as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe) and the great Willem Dafoe. At the helm is Stacie Passon, directing her second feature (after 2013's Concussion) from a script she co-wrote with Mark Kruger, who has done solid work in television on shows like The 4400 and Teen Wolf. Here's hoping they've cracked the code of adapting Jackson to the screen; a certain Master of Horror will be watching, and he's not known for gentle criticism.

Lindsay Lohan has been notoriously hit-or-miss as an actress, from the highs of her well-received starring role in 2004's Mean Girls to the lows of 2007's spectacularly ill-conceived I Know Who Killed Me, which is often cited as being among the worst films of all time. But at only 30 years old, Lohan is attempting a comeback by way of The Shadow Within, another horror-thriller with a totally insane premise.

The official synopsis reads, "In a world where supernatural creatures roam amongst us, Kristy Wolfe, a tough private investigator, tries desperately to keep her secret hidden. She has descended from a long line of werewolves. When her uncle is brutally murdered, Wolfe must use her natural instinct and risk her secret to unravel the mystery before she becomes the next victim." Charlotte Beckett (Penny Dreadful) appears in the lead, while longtime producer Tiago Mesquita makes his directorial debut. The film was shot in 2015 and is currently awaiting distribution; Lohan began teasing it to her fans on Instagram late last year, so we can expect to see a release date soon.

Production house A24 has offered up a diverse slate of interesting films over the last five years, but they're beginning to develop a reputation as having a nose for a great horror script. Recent efforts such as It Comes At Night, Killing of a Sacred Deer, and Hereditary have all hit the critical sweet spot — but the forthcoming Slice, starring Chance the Rapper in his feature film debut, represents a bit of a departure for the studio with its horror-comedy feel and utterly insane-sounding plot.

Chance finds himself caught up in a string of murders of pizza delivery drivers, who are being targeted for unknown reasons by assailants who might be drug dealers — but then, they might also be werewolves. The film's secretive marketing has done little to fill out the plot's details, instead playing up its comedic slasher-movie vibe and Chance's affable onscreen presence. Writer/director Austin Vesely, who has previously worked with Chance on numerous music videos, makes his feature film debut; the supporting cast includes comedian Paul Scheer (The Disaster Artist) and Zazie Beetz, whose star is on the rise thanks to her recurring role on the TV series Atlanta and her recent high-profile supporting gig as Domino in Deadpool 2.