You can get lost in the Backrooms of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire on HBO Max later this month. Paramount+ offers both the theatrical and extended cut of Scary Movie. Netflix celebrates the upcoming release of Resident Evil with a collection of animated feature films based on Capcom’s hit video game series. Peacock embraces the Universal classic monsters and collects nearly every Purge film for a survive-the-night marathon.

Get into the seasonal spirit and expect an even bigger slate next month.

Here’s what’s coming to streaming in September.

HBO Max

September 1
A Clockwork Orange
Beetlejuice
Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare
Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare: Unrated Director’s Cut
Carrie (1976)
Final Destination (2000)
Final Destination 2 (2003)
Gremlins (1984)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Interview with the Vampire
MaXXXine
Men (2022)
Misery
Pearl: The X-Traordinary Origin Story
Talk To Me (2023)
The Craft
The Final Destination (2009)
War of the Worlds (2005)
Zombieland (2009)
Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)

September 23
The Meg

September 25
Backrooms

Hulu

September 1
Coraline
Jennifer’s Body
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Ma
ParaNorman
Sinister
Starship Troopers 3: Marauder
Starship Troopers: Invasion
Starship Troopers: Traitor of Mars

September 7
Poor Things

September 8
Heretic

September 11
Rich Flu

Kanopy

September 1
1408
The Ruins

Netflix

September 1
Alien
Aliens
Gothika
Jaws
Jaws 2
Jaws 3
Jaws: The Revenge
Ready or Not
Resident Evil: Afterlife
Resident Evil: Extinction
Resident Evil: Retribution
The Rite
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Unfriended

September 2
Resident Evil: Damnation
Resident Evil: Death Island
Resident Evil: Vendetta

September 3
Smile 2

September 9
Prom Night

September 24
House at the End of the Street
Oculus

Paramount+

September 1
Afflicted
Area 51
Asylum
Below
Case 39
Dracula III: Legacy
Event Horizon
Rumpelstiltskin
Russell Mulcahy’s Tale of the Mummy
Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse
Seven
Shutter Island
Spell
Spontaneous
Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift
Stephen King’s Silver Bullet
Stephen King’s Thinner
Sweetness*
Tales From the Darkside: The Movie
The Crow
The Crow: City of Angels
The Crow: Wicked Prayer
The Dead Zone
The Devil Inside
The Gift

September 3
Scary Movie (2026)
Scary Movie (2026) – Extended Cut

*Title is available to Paramount+ Premium subscribers.

Peacock

September 1
Alien: Covenant
Bride of Frankenstein
Candyman
Creature From the Black Lagoon
Disturbia
Dracula
Drag Me to Hell
The First Purge
The Forever Purge*
Frankenstein
Get Out
Glass
Halloween
Halloween II
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Halloween Kills*
The Happening
Happy Death Day
The Invisible Man
It Follows
The Last Exorcism
The Mummy
Phantom of the Opera
Prometheus
Psycho
The Purge
The Purge: Election Year
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Shaun of the Dead
Signs
Sinister
Sinister 2
The Sixth Sense
The Skeleton Key
Split
Tales From the Crypt: Demon Knight

September 10
The Last Voyage of Demeter*

September 11
Drop

September 26
Bagman*

September 29
Lisa Frankenstein*

* = is exclusive to Peacock

Pluto TV

September 1
The Blackcoat’s Daughter
Bones And All
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
The Dead Zone
The Final Girls
From Dusk Till Dawn
From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money
From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter
The Gift (2000)
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Idle Hands
Jennifer’s Body
Joy Ride
Lamb
Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer
Pet Sematary (2019)
Relic
Rings
Silent Hill
Slice
Smile (2022)
Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift
Stephen King’s Silver Bullet
Stephen King’s Thinner
Tales From The Darkside: The Movie
Urban Legend
Urban Legends: Bloody Mary
Urban Legends: The Final Cut
Vampire In Brooklyn
The Witch

Prime Video

September 1
Army Of Darkness
Cape Fear (1962)
Cape Fear (1991)
Carrie (1976)
Carrie (2013)
Cat People (1982)
Death Becomes Her
Devil
Don’t Breathe
Dracula Untold
George A. Romero’s Land of the Dead
Halloween II
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
Hannibal
It Came From Outer Space (1953)
Morbius
Prince of Darkness
Skeleton Key
The First Omen
The Mummy (2017)
The Purge
The Purge: Anarchy
The Purge: Election Year
The Silence of the Lambs
The Thing (1982)
The Visit
They Live
Trap
Van Helsing
Videodrome

September 15
Demon Slayer – Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train

Screambox

September 1
Deathwoods

September 4
Castle of Blood
The Hands of Orlac
The Virgin of Nuremberg
Wake Up

September 11
Dracula, Prisoner Of Frankenstein
Escape From Women’s Prison
Fit To Kill
Hot Spur
Lux Aeterna

September 18
Evie
Fear
The Nanny’s Night
Spithood

September 22
Nightfall: A Paranormal Investigation

September 25
The Degenerate: The Life And Films Of Andy Milligan
The Occupant
Witches of Blackwood
You Shall Not Sleep Tonight

September 29
Generation Terror

Shudder

September 1
Exorcismo
The Horseman
Irrefutable Truth About Demons
The Silent Scream

September 4
Parasomnia

September 7
Its Name Was Mormo
The Serpent’s Skin

September 11
Descendent
Mārama

Tubi

September 1
3 From Hell
All The Boys Love Mandy Lane
An American Haunting
And Soon The Darkness
The Blackcoat’s Daughter
Bone Tomahawk
Boogeyman
Boogeyman 2
Boogeyman 3
Case 39
Cooties
The Crazies
The Descent
The Descent: Part 2
Dracula 2000
Flight 7500
Fright Night (1985)
The Grudge 2 (2006)
Horns (2013)
The Inhabitant
Lake Placid
Lamb
Legion
The Messengers
Messengers 2: The Scarecrow
The Monster
My Bloody Valentine (2009)
Ouija
Ouija: Origin Of Evil
Perpetrator
The Prodigy (2019)
Rob Zombie’s Halloween
Rob Zombie’s Halloween II
The Ruins
See No Evil
Sleepy Hollow
Slice
Sorority Row
Texas Chainsaw 3D
They Live In The Grey
The Witch
What Lies Beneath
Wrong Turn (2021)
You’re Next

September 7
Presence

September 15
From Hell
Poltergeist

September 24
1408
The Eye (2008)
The Last Exorcism

The post All The Horror Heading To Hulu, Netflix, Tubi & Other Streaming Services In September 2026 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

As the film reaches its climax its protagonist, Margaret (Nell Tiger Free), realizes that she is pregnant with the literal spawn of Satan, and in one of the most striking horror moments of the 2020s so far, seizes and writhes and growls in the middle of a Roman street while her belly distends, signalling that she’s doomed to deal with this baby no matter what. 

It’s a remarkable moment of performance, and a terrific tribute to the one-take wonder that is Isabelle Adjani‘s signature Possession moment, but for me, it’s not actually the most interesting piece of Free’s work in the film. That comes much earlier when, as a young novitiate nun newly arrived in Rome, she lets her roommate and fellow novice Luz (Maria Caballero) take her out for dancing and drinking. Tipsy, scantily dressed, and overwhelmed by what’s around her, Margaret allows a young man named Paolo (Andrea Arcangeli) to lure her out onto the dance floor for something seductive, dangerous, and – though she doesn’t know it yet – terrifying.

Rewatching the film this week, I was lost in Nell Tiger Free’s eyes in this moment, because she’s holding so much there. Margaret is intrigued, thrilled, and eager. She’s also terribly frightened and, as Free’s movements suggest, seemingly not entirely in control of her own body. As a young woman who’s done nothing but live as virtuously as possible for years, she is caught between two worlds, her feet carrying her into uncharted territory. 

The First Omen is unique among the other films in its franchise, in no small part because of its decision to center the narrative entirely on a woman, particularly a woman brought up in the innately patriarchal corridors of the Catholic Church to trust in a system poised to betray her. Like Mary, the Mother of God, Margaret has given herself over to the labors and burdens of her faith, finding salvation in her calling to serve. And like Mary, she will be called to bear a savior, only to be pushed to the back of the narrative when her job is done. 

But Margaret is not so easily dismissed. That look in Nell Tiger Free’s eyes as she approaches the dance floor, stepping out of one world and into another, indicates the start of something much more, a kind of chrysalis state from which she will emerge forever changed, and not just because of her impending motherhood. It’s a rebirth, and because Easter is both a holiday centered on fertility and the bloom of spring and a holiday devoted to resurrection and new life, it makes The First Omen the perfect horror film to turn into an Easter viewing tradition. 

Easter, like every other major holiday in Christendom, is a time of symbols, some of them pagan and some of them relatively new. From the cross to the eggs to the budding flora, it is all an aesthetic appreciation of new life, both spiritual and biological, and because The First Omen is a horror film, Stevenson and co-writers Tim Smith and Keith Thomas immediately latch on to many of those symbols to twist them for their own purposes.

The promise of children living in the orphanage where Margaret starts work seems to be all about new life and fresh starts, and yet the nuns there, led by Sister Silva (Sonia Braga), seem devoted to punishment and order more than celebration and potential. Margaret’s own sexuality, carefully obscured by her faith but emerging nonetheless, becomes both a tool of oppression for those manipulating her and a way to blame Margaret herself for any pain she’s about to experience. Even the nun’s wimples (the white headpiece that runs from their neck all the way over the top of their head) are perverted, converted to sinister black hoods for dark purposes. But even beyond symbolism, there’s the way Stevenson is able to twist gorgeously rendered shots of Christian ritual and architecture into something frightening.

The most famous of these moments is Margaret at prayer, framed by two long iron candelabra that resemble jaws studded with sharp teeth, but that’s far from the only example. Every frame in the film is packed with movement and depth, which serves not just to up the ante on visual motifs but to create the sense that something might lurk in the shadows, or just out of the corner of your eye, in every single frame. 

Because it’s a film about a nun who’s unwittingly impregnated with the Antichrist, The First Omen‘s focus on fertility and its light and dark sides also makes it a great Easter film. There is undeniably a part of Margaret that delights in what happens when she’s unleashed, when she lets herself free of the moral codes by which she’s lived her whole life, even slightly, even if guilt follows. More importantly, though, the horror elements of the film zero in on the contradictions of the powerful people who guide Margaret’s path. Like the Mother of Christ before her, she is simultaneously expected to endure the pains and restrictions of childbirth (in truly horrific fashion) while also withholding all sexual pleasure. In the early days of Christianity, Church Fathers went to great lengths to argue that Mary remained a virgin for life. Here, while she might not be a virgin, Margaret is expected to live the same kind of life and be revered as a Mother of the New Church. 

Which brings us to the most potent element of The First Omen, at least where Easter is concerned. Like every other Christian holiday, symbol, or piece of doctrine, Easter has often been used as a cudgel, a blunt instrument designed to break up dissent, repress believers, and allow the powerful to take advantage of the masses. Margaret’s experience in The First Omen is the ultimate example of precisely that kind of manipulative thinking.

She is pulled in many directions at once, forced into compliance while also given glimpses of the life she could be living without the church’s cudgel hanging over her head, and Stevenson is a smart enough filmmaker to be sure that we always see the distinction. More than that, though, Stevenson uses this power imbalance as the platform for a different kind of resurrection, a kind in which a novice nun pushed into a pregnancy she didn’t want gets to reclaim something of her narrative by the end.

Margaret is, for better and for worse, reborn by the end of this movie. She is Risen, and for horror fans, that’s cause to celebrate. 

The First Omen is currently available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu.

The post She is Risen: Make ‘The First Omen’ an Easter Horror Tradition appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Clearly, the late 60s and 70s were a high-water mark for the twin subgenres of religious and folk horror, and looking back, it is easy to understand why. The world was rapidly shifting, and that instability led to a lack of trust in failing long-standing institutions like political systems and the religious establishments. New religions and cults sprang up like weeds across the world, but especially in the United States, some resulting in reprogramming, abuse, murder (such as the Manson Family), and mass suicide, as in the 1978 Jonestown massacre.

After the shocking fury of that dark episode of history, the trend of religious horror cooled a bit. Though there are great examples from the 1980s, John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness (1987) and Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) come to mind, both films examine religion through the lens of science and academia rather than faith, marking a striking difference from the previous generation. Despite the decade being the height of a major Satanic Panic, most films focused on the influences “corrupting the youth,” such as heavy metal music, as in Trick or Treat (1986) and Black Roses (1988), or even television, as in Poltergeist (1982). There was a flurry of faith-infused horror in the 90s, as in The Prophecy series (beginning in 1995 and stumbling along to 2005), End of Days, and Stigmata (both 1999), but these also have a very different feel from the religious horror of other periods and are often infused with a tongue-in-cheek quality. Again, the trend quickly faded, this time into the remake and torture-obsessed 2000s, though there are notable exceptions like Martyrs (2008).

Then something surprising happened in the mid-2010s; a film featuring a pair of Catholic superheroes made a killing at the box office. That film was The Conjuring (2013) and, despite its tendency to play fast and loose with the facts, it brought renewed interest to religious horror, sparking not just a series of films, but an entire Conjuring universe. Other successful, even genre-defining, religious and folk horror films followed, including The Witch (2015), The Wailing (2016), Mandy (2018), Hereditary (2018), and many more. By the 2020s, the wave of faith-infused horror was set to match or even exceed the 1970s just in sheer volume of films and depth of examination of religious subjects.

The relevant question is—Why now?

Of course, there are many factors, both known and unknown, that contribute to trends such as these, but at its most basic level, horror examines fear. Key underlying roots of fear are mistrust, abuse, and the threat of harm. Mistrust of religious institutions is at an all-time high for several reasons, and as a result, participation in religious communities is at an all-time low. This slide began in the early 2000s with the rise of the “Nones,” or people with no religious affiliation, but has skyrocketed since 2007. According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, 28% of U.S. adults describe themselves as atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular.”

Many young people (and some older folks as well) who were raised in religious traditions have embarked on journeys of deconstruction and re-examination of their childhood faith. Related to this is the sharp rise in those who call themselves “exvangelical” or something akin to that. At the same time, the most conservative element of the religious establishment has dug in its heels, resulting in greater extremes of belief. As a result, political factions within religious communities have become more pronounced, specifically within Christianity, resulting in a highly politicized, firebrand version of the faith usually called Christian Nationalism. All these subjects are fascinating and have been widely explored recently, but when it comes to horror, these factors and others have created a diverse religious ecosystem ripe for exploration by filmmakers.

2019 became a flashpoint for the new explosion of religious horror with several films, big and small, including Midsommar, Saint Maud, Doctor Sleep, Eli, Color Out of Space, Daniel Isn’t Real, Satanic Panic, and The Vigil, among others, exploring various aspects of faith, religion, and spirituality. This wave has only continued to grow in the years since. There are some notable differences this time around, though. With exceptions like the film version of The Warrens (who are quite different from the real-life couple) and Father Amorth (Russell Crowe) of The Pope’s Exorcist (2023), also based on a real person, there are fewer “religious superheroes” in the current trend. There is a palpable distrust of religious institutions that runs through many of these films and more commentary on the extremes of belief.

There is also much more diversity, as attitudes toward the religious pluralism of modern society have evolved. Where the films of the 1970s largely focused on Catholicism, the new crop of religious and folk horror films explores a much wider variety of religious practices.

Most faith-infused horror films from recent years fall into three broad categories: classic and neo-classic religious horror, religious tapestry, and films that use religious imagery and subtext. Classic religious horror is the easiest to spot as it takes on matters of faith head-on, even engaging in on-screen discussion and debate. Tapestry films weave faith and religion into the fabric of the characters and story. Imagery and subtext films follow a similar method of mythic storytelling, like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, but using religious iconography to make a broader point.

One of the best examples of neo-classic religious horror is Heretic from 2024, a recent surprise hit that literally debates the merits of belief and disbelief on screen. In it, Latter-Day Saints (often called LDS or Mormon) missionaries Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (Chloe East) are invited to the home of Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant). They are quickly drawn into his web, where he works to systematically undermine their belief system. The film is a surprisingly nuanced exploration of religious history and the very nature of belief, filled with symbolism and illustration.

Other classic-style religious horror films are the various exorcism movies like The Pope’s Exorcist and The Conjuring films, which are all entertaining even if they do not do much in the way of addressing current religion-intwined fears. The Vigil, on the other hand, follows a young man, Yakov Ronen (Dave Davis), through a shift from the ultra-orthodox Hassidic community of his youth to a new expression of his Jewish faith as he faces a dybbuk during a terrifying night.

Also in 2024, two films released within days of one another tackled the role of church patriarchy head-on. Immaculate and The First Omen share very similar setups—a young American nun joins a convent in a foreign land only to find she is inexplicably pregnant—but tackle the issue in different ways. These films, along with the Rosemary’s Baby prequel Apartment 7A (also 2024), are direct responses to the overturn of Roe vs. Wade, which had stood for fifty years, and the role of the religious establishment, specifically the Catholic church and the religious right, in the reversal. Again, uncertainty leads to fear and horror examines the roots of those fears in ways that few genres can, tackling hot-button issues through story and spectacle in the context of fantasy and the supernatural.

Among the best examples of “tapestry” religious horror films of recent years are The Black Phone (2021), X and Maxxxine (2022 and 2024), and Sinners (2025). All these films feature characters with either current or past religious beliefs that have an impact on the events of the film. Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) in The Black Phone engages in open dialogue with Jesus, one that is refreshing in its frankness. At one point, when the search for her brother Finney (Mason Thames) appears particularly hopeless, she exclaims to her dark room, “Jesus, what the fuck!?” Maxine (Mia Goth) in Ti West’s X trilogy is slowly established as the wayward daughter of a fundamentalist preacher who was clearly an abusive man.

In Sinners, the gifted blues guitarist and singer Sammie (Miles Caton) is given an ultimatum by his preacher father to choose between the church and the blues. He chooses the blues, but if the film’s “This Little Light of Mine” tag is any indication, his father’s insistence on a choice is really a false dichotomy, and Sammie can serve the faith of his youth through his musical gifts.

The subtext and imagery category contains multitudes, some of which are unexpected. Doctor Sleep is a story of recovery through and through, but it uses the three temptations of Jesus as an illustration for Dan Torrence’s (Ewan McGregor) personal struggles with alcohol. Ultimately, he sacrifices himself, with his mother at his side, to overcome the forces of evil, led by Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), and save young Abra Stone (Kyleigh Curran).

One of the truly unexpected uses of religious imagery in the service of storytelling is in Terrifier 2 and 3 (2022 and 2024). The character of Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) experiences a number of Christlike trials, including flogging, death, and finally resurrection, which gives her the power to confront the very Beast of Revelation-like Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton). (I examined this type of imagery more thoroughly for Bloody Disgusting in a piece called “The Beast and the Angel: The Surprising Biblical Imagery of Terrifier 2”). The third film continues this aspect with more specifically Roman Catholic imagery.

The recent, and much maligned, HIM (2025) also falls into this category, which explores the human urge to ascribe religious devotion to celebrity; in this case, sports icons. Using imagery from a variety of establishment and non-establishment faiths, such as Native American spirituality, HIM examines the temptations and pitfalls inherent to the ambition of becoming the “greatest of all time.” Along the way, it evokes the words of Jesus, asking, “What does it profit a person to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?”

Much more could be said, and many more films could be named, along with various other subgenres, including films dealing with Witches, Satanic Serial Killers, Demons, Cults, Religious Fanatics, Visions of Hell, and more. Each year, as I expect the trend to fade, more films continue to be released. So far this year, films with at least some religious element have included 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Mother of Flies, The Severed Sun, and Psycho Killer. Upcoming releases like undertone, They Will Kill You, Hokum, and even Ready or Not 2: Here I Come at least hint at the possibility of religious exploration.

There is no way of knowing how long this wave will last, but it is clear that, at least for now, the resurrection continues.

The post A Modern Resurrection: The Return of Religious Horror Films appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Deadline reports that she’s reuniting with Tim Smith, with whom she co-wrote The First Omen, on an as-yet-untitled horror film from A24.

Josh Hutcherson (Five Nights at Freddy’s), Frank Dillane (“Fear the Walking Dead”), Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out), and Whitmer Thomas (Weapons) are in talks to star.

While the logline remains under wraps, the movie reportedly centers on a bachelor party that spirals into terror.

Hereditary and Midsommar filmmaker Ari Aster will executive produce under his Square Peg banner. Smith, Lars Knudsen, Emily Hildner, Harrison Huffman, and Christina D’Souza are producing.

Hutcherson can next be seen in Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, in theaters December 5. Meanwhile, Landry Jones stars in Luc Besson’s Dracula: A Love Tale, due out in early 2026 from Vertical.

The post Josh Hutcherson, Frank Dillane, More Circling A24 Horror Film from ‘The First Omen’ Filmmakers appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Be sure to catch up on Screambox’s lineup this month, too.

Check out the September 2025 horror streaming lineup below.

HBO Max

September 1
Evil Dead II (1987)
Misery
Prometheus
Se7en
Splinter (2008)
The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

Hulu

September 1
Devil’s Due
Donnie Darko (Theatrical Cut)
Evil Dead Rise
Jennifer’s Body
The Meg
The Meg 2: The Trench
The Nun II
Trap (2024)
World War Z

September 9
Sister Midnight

September 10
Color Out of Space
Paradise Hills
Swallow (2019)
Werewolves Within
The Rental

September 11
The Shallows

September 12
I Don’t Understand You

September 26
Ghostbusters: Answer the Call
The Man in My Basement

September 30
Bloody Axe Wound

Netflix

September 1
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
Escape Room
The Running Man

Paramount+

September 1
Afflicted
Angel Heart
April Fool’s Day
Area 51
Below
Beneath
Blade
Blade II
Blade: Trinity
Body Cam
Cloverfield
Cursed
Daybreakers
Disturbia
Dracula III: Legacy
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th Part II
Friday the 13th Part III
Friday the 13th Park IV: The Final Chapter
Friday the 13th Part V: A New Beginning
Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
From Dusk Till Dawn
From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money
From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Jacob’s Ladder
John Carpenter’s Escape from L.A.
Life
Margaux
Overlord
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Phantoms
Scary Movie
Scary Movie 2
Scary Movie 3
Scream 4
Sleepy Hollow
Spell
Spontaneous
Student Bodies
Super 8
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Teaching Mrs. Tingle
The Crow
The Crow: City of Angels
The Crow: Wicked Prayer
The Devil Inside
The Faculty
The Gift
The Haunting
The Last Exorcism Part II
The Loved Ones
The Monster Squad
The Relic
The Ring
The Stepford Wives
The Uninvited
The Woman in Black
Vampire in Brooklyn
Venom
Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000
Wes Craven Presents: They
World War Z

Peacock

September 1
1408
Amityville 3-D
Amityville II: The Possession
Amityville Moon
Amityville: The Awakening
The Amityville Harvest
The Amityville Uprising
The Birds
Bride of Chucky
Candyman III
Child’s Play (2019)
Child’s Play 2
Child’s Play 3
Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
The Craft: Legacy
Cult of Chucky
Curse of Chucky
Devil
Drag Me To Hell
Firestarter
Flatliners (2017)
Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman
Goosebumps
Halloween II
Halloween III: Season of the Witch
The Haunting In Connecticut
Haunting In Connecticut 2: Ghosts Of Georgia
I, Frankenstein
The Invisible Man’s Revenge
Knock Knock
The Last Witch Hunter
The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Leatherface
The Mummy
The Mummy’s Ghost
Phantasm II
Psycho
The Raven
Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark
Scream 4
Seed of Chucky
The Sixth Sense
Son of Frankenstein
Tales From The Crypt: Demon Knight
Tales From the Hood
Terrifier 3
The Thing (1982)
The Thing (2011)
The Village
Werewolf of London
When a Stranger Calls
You’re Next
Zombieland

September 5
Brightburn

September 12
Screamboat

September 19
Abigail

September 24
Knock at the Cabin

Pluto TV

September 1
Bats
Children Of The Corn II: The Final Sacrifice
Children Of The Corn III: Urban Harvest
Children Of The Corn V: Fields Of Terror
Children Of The Corn: Revelation
Children Of The Corn: The Gathering
Cujo
Disturbia
The Evil Dead (1983)
The Exorcism Of Emily Rose
The Faculty
Friday The 13th – Part II
Friday The 13th – Part III
Friday The 13th (1980)
Friday The 13th Part – IV:The Final Chapter
Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning
Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
Friday The 13th Part VII:The New Blood
Friday The 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan
In Dreams
The Lazarus Effect
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Pet
Rosemary’s Baby
Scary Movie
Scary Movie 2
Scary Movie 3
Silent Hill
Silent Hill: Revelation 3D
Skinwalkers
Sleepy Hollow
Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift
Stephen King’s Silver Bullet
Stephen King’s Thinner
Tales From The Darkside: The Movie
The Crow
Ultraviolet (2006)
Vacancy
Vampire in Brooklyn
War of the Worlds (2005)

Prime Video

September 1
Crimson Peak
I See You
Lifeforce
Sisters
The Craft (1996)
The First Omen
Winchester

Shudder

September 1
28 Weeks Later
Bride of Frankenstein
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight
Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood
Tales from the Hood
Jawbreaker
The Craft
Spin the Bottle
American Psycho
Haunt
Devoured

September 5
Dangerous Animals

September 15
Hagazussa
Rounding
Medusa (2021)
Candy Land

September 19
Night of the Reaper

September 21
The Autopsy of Jane Doe

September 22
Perewangan
Pabrik Gula (aka Sugar Mill)

September 26
House on Eden

Tubi

September 1
Bones
Coraline
Crawl
Drag Me to Hell
Dream Scenario
Edward Scissorhands
Evil Dead (2013)
Fright Night (1985)
Fright Night (2011)
From Hell
Halloween (2018)
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
King Kong
Lake Placid
Lake Placid 2
Lake Placid 3
Lake Placid: The Final Chapter
Lake Placid vs. Anaconda
Life
Ma
Monster House
Pan’s Labyrinth
Paradise Hills
Paranormal Activity
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
Poltergeist (2015)
Quarantine
Red Eye
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Scream 4
Sinister
Skinamarink
The Cabin in the Woods
The City of Lost Children
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
Triangle
When a Stranger Calls (2006)
World War Z

The post All the Horror Heading to Hulu, Netflix, Tubi & Other Streaming Services in September 2025 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Horror in the 1970s was dominated by the catholic church. With the success of Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Exorcist (1973), audiences hungered for films centered on demonic possession and satanic corruption. Richard Donner’s 1976 film The Omen followed suit with a young Antichrist named Damien (Harvey Stephens) strategically placed in the home of a powerful politician. The story begins with a cursed birth and fraudulent adoption then skips ahead several years to catch up with a strangely sinister little boy.

But lurking within is another story of unthinkable evil. Arkasha Stevenson winds back the clock with The First Omen, a pregnancy horror film centered on Damien’s unwitting mother. Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) is an idealistic young nun who arrives in Rome only to find she’s the target of a sinister cult hiding in her new convent. 

In the latest episode of Bloody FM’s The Lady Killers Podcast, co-hosts Jenn Adams, Sammie Kuykendall, Rocco Thompson, and Mae Shults explore the origin story of one of horror’s most unlikely villains and a prequel with a surprisingly strong point of view. How does the film tie into Donner’s 1976 classic? Does the story need its blunt final scene? How did Stevenson get away with such graphic depictions of monstrous birth and what’s going on with this hypocritical cult? They’ll talk pregnancy, religion, philosophy, and feminism as it exists within this prescient story.

Stream below and subscribe now via Apple Podcasts and Spotify for future episodes that drop every Thursday.

Instagram | Twitter 

The post ‘The First Omen’ Delivers a Female Antichrist [The Lady Killers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The spy thriller follows a CIA field agent who is sent to bring in the ultimate CIA target who’s been out in the cold for decades.

An operative who dates back to the dark times of MK Ultra, the target is a silencer — someone who can read minds, and wipe them from a distance, making him impossible to find or catch.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers, Constantine) is producing as part of his first-look deal with Paramount alongside NeoText Corporation, who published the book last year.

Russell Ackerman, John Schoenfelder, and Jay Schuminsky will produce for NeoText, with Greg Cohen overseeing development for di Bonaventura Pictures.

Jacoby recently co-wrote an adaptation of Alex North‘s crime thriller The Whisper Man, which Robert De Niro is set to star in for Netflix.

The post ‘The First Omen’ Writer Ben Jacoby to Adapt Spy Thriller ‘Silencer’ for Paramount appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

From the mainstream to shoestring-budget YouTube movies, 2024 has continued the creative hot streak horror has been on for the better part of the last decade. Supporting said creative endeavors in the hugely profitable and popular genre is an esteemed group of horror mainstays, A-list stars, and aspiring newcomers working to make the stories as memorable as they can while cementing their individual legacies into the world of cinema.

The diversity of the horror genre has never been more apparent than the output seen in 2024. This year, we’ve seen a devious and bloody concoction of body horror, psychological torment, evil crime stories, and the return of everyone’s favorite clown and that isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. Despite the variety, the common thread binding these subgenres is killer performances from a talented cast of actors elevating their respective films to higher degrees.

Which of these performances are the most notable? Read on to find out!

15. David Dastmalchian – Late Night with the Devil

Character actors are the unsung heroes of movies and TV shows, serving as one of the workhorses of the industry for their willingness to showcase their talents in a versatile set of roles. David Dastmalchian is among the most notable character actors of the modern era, carving out his legacy in Hollywood through small, yet memorable roles in films such as The Dark Knight, Ant-Man, Oppenheimer, and Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, Blade Runner 2049, and Dune: Part One. A consistent supporter while rarely leading the cast, one of the few deviations of this pattern being films that he’s written like 2014’s Animals and 2018’s All Creatures Here Below.

The other deviation is this year’s indie horror breakout Late Night with the Devil, a horror film that was partially sold on the concept of Dastmalchian leading a movie again. A great selling point that was backed up by Dastmalchian’s strong work as film protagonist and fading talk show host Jack Delroy. Tasked with adding tragic humanity to a clout-hungry TV host with some seriously grim secrets, Dastmalchian plays Delroy with a curious and melancholic charisma that simultaneously gives him a classic 70s TV actor charm while highlighting the fact that something is definitely…off about the guy.

While Delroy is ultimately not the main antagonist of the film, the ripple effects of his actions are a driving force for the story and Dastmalchian’s compelling performance turns an already-fun and kooky supernatural horror into a darkly comedic character study. In a film populated with a talented lineup of supporting performances, Dastmalchian’s lead work is disarming in the man’s lowkey charm that morphs into a morbid window into entertainment politics.

14. Justice Smith – I Saw the TV Glow

After the success of Jane Schoenbrun’s breakout horror hit We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, it set forth the expectations that their next project would serve as a bigger and better creative endeavor. What followed was a similar descent into horror through the glow of a bright screen, this time in the form of nostalgic 90s children’s sitcoms in I Saw the TV Glow. Switching up from YouTube challenges to immersive lore dives into old shows, Schoenbrun’s own experience with discovering their identity bleeds heavily into I Saw the TV Glow and is personified through the work of one Justice Smith.

Smith plays a character who, through the exposure of a fantastical children’s show, begins to question the reality of his identity and who he truly is. A potentially upsetting situation in the real world, the horror that Schoenbrun adds to an internal crisis is propelled by Smith’s devastating performance. Playing the isolated Owen with a dash of charm and innocence, Smith makes his eventual decay as heartbreaking as it is horrifying.

Much of the film’s horror comes from Owen’s confusion clashing with the cold reality of a world indifferent to his entire being. Smith’s performance is shy, quiet, physically tiring, and passive to Owen’s detriment, only bursting when he can’t hold it in anymore. It’s a testament to Smith’s ability to take his timid presence as an actor and frame it through Schoenbrun’s identity horror with stellar results. I Saw the TV Glow is simply made better and legitimately scarier thanks to Smith and the rest of the cast.

13. David Howard Thornton – Terrifier 3

Words alone cannot express how genuinely cool it is to finally have a new slasher icon after what feels like an eternity of the classic slasher fading into obscurity. Horror trends change all the time and the move away from old-school slasher mayhem invading the mainstream was simply a casualty to changing times. So it’s refreshing and badass to see David Howard Thornton’s Art the Clown sidestep the trends of modern horror whilst embracing the current social environment that many people argue is the type of environment that’s designed to see Art the Clown’s penchant of bloody ultraviolence disappear.

The reality is that everyone has that secret hankering of seeing balls-to-the-wall slasher violence and the success of Terrifier 3 is proof. Thornton’s now-iconic turn as the macabre madman in clown makeup drove hordes into theaters and became a box office sensation in the process. And all of that success hinges not just on the wacky and wildly over-the-top violence that Art the Clown revels in, but Art himself. Despite two other movies also having Thornton appear as Art, it wasn’t until 3 where Thornton’s silent comedy stylings finally meshed with the playfully deranged clown.

David Howard Thornton’s Chaplin-esque performance is at its strongest in the third installment, being free to interact with a varied and far more memorable cast of supporting characters that occasionally match his manic energy. Hell, the bar scene on its own is a true window into the series’s massive improvement in matching the tone of the film with Art himself. Art the Clown is just as fun to watch goofing around as he is maiming people beyond recognition and David Howard Thornton’s hilarious, charismatic, and genuinely terrifying performance as Art goes to show the hidden versatility of the world’s most dangerous clown.

12. Jung Yu-mi – Sleep

Imagine being married to and carrying the unborn baby of a sleepwalker who not only walks in the middle of the night, but displays the kind of behavior that may or may not be endangering you in the process. It’s this pitch that director Jason Yu ran with all the way to the completion of his feature length debut film, the South Korean dark comedy horror-thriller Sleep. Yu’s story of a woman and new mother dealing with both her infant baby and her husband’s mysterious nocturnal behavior quietly released digitally in the States to minor fanfare and on the back of the film’s central performance, it’s a damn shame this isn’t being discussed enough.

Jung Yu-mi’s captivating performance as our lead Soojin hits the ground running with dramatic and surprisingly hilarious results. Soojin’s plight with her husband (played by the late Lee Sun-kyun of Parasite fame) begins to physically and mentally burden her, leading her down a path of madness that Yu-mi always manages to make both horrific and entertaining. Watching Soojin “husband-proof” their apartment is a morbid delight that blends seamlessly with the reality of watching a woman fall apart at the seams and Yu-mi’s endlessly entertaining screen presence is a joy to watch even at the mental expense of Soojin.

Though it isn’t until the third act where Yu-mi’s blend of horror and comedic timing comes to a boiling point. I won’t spoil exactly what happens, but Yu-mi’s portrayal of Soojin’s worsening mental state goes into some genuinely unexpected places that are a blast to watch. A curiously placed PowerPoint presentation that is somehow crucial to the plot’s progression sounds like a true “jumping the shark” moment, but Yu-mi’s deliberately confusing performance manages to make it work in spades. It’s something I can say about Sleep as a whole, as it is a solid horror-thriller elevated to another level on the strength of Jung Yu-mi’s work.

11. Margaret Qualley – The Substance

When reviews came pouring in for Coralie Fargeat’s latest project, just about all of them raved and glazed The Substance as one of the year’s craziest movies. It was a sentiment proven right by concept alone, using the cyclical nature of an actor’s shelf life in Hollywood to conjure up grade-A body horror insanity. An exceptional showcase of Fargeat’s brand of feminist horror mixed with a directorial flare inspired by the likes of Cronenberg and Carpenter, The Substance is a cracking slice of cinema on her talents alone.

As important as she is to the success of the film though, it’s the commitment of its cast that puts it over the top. Enter one Margaret Qualley. Playing the artificially created younger copy of Demi Moore’s Elisabeth Sparkle, Qualley is tasked with heightening the arrogant and selfish side of Sparkle’s personality while differentiating herself enough from the original base. A pretty TV persona built on bubbliness quickly morphs into a spoiled brat at home and Qualley excels at the balance, ironically enough.

Qualley’s energy builds and builds to a performance that is equal parts fearless and frenzied, completely giving herself to the film’s disgusting body horror in the third act. Anyone willing to go through the makeup process for these films should be applauded and Qualley’s transformation into the abomination known as Monstro Elisasue is no different. A magnetic performance that awards circuits slotted under the Supporting category, but Margaret Qualley is as much a lead as Demi Moore and is an essential aspect of one of the year’s most acclaimed horror films.

10: David Jonsson – Alien: Romulus

Much has been said about the decision to deepfake the late Ian Holm into the latest xenomorph nightmare in space and I certainly don’t believe it to be a necessary addition to the otherwise solid Romulus. But spending my time bemoaning the inclusion of an uncanny digital face reminiscent of a realistic SpongeBob closeup does nothing but besmirch and taint the great work provided by the living actors in Alien: Romulus. In particular, nobody should be sleeping on David Jonsson.

Joining the ranks of Holm, Lance Henriksen, and Michael Fassbender as one of the androids living in the Alien universe, Jonsson’s work as Andy, adopted brother of protagonist Rain, borrows from the best of the android performances while adding in his own unique touches to the universe. A closed-off being with intense loyalty to his sister, Jonsson squeezes sympathy from the audience right from the get-go, despite the memories of Fassbender’s David still fresh in everyone’s minds.

Jonsson’s fantastic work doesn’t stop with his likability either. Effectively switching gears as his programming alters, Jonsson’s performance becomes a complicated combination of emotionless soldier and loyal ally that he sells with ease. And as much as nostalgia bait makes me cringe, his recreation of Ripley’s most iconic line was a gargantuan task that he pulls off with fiery gusto. Whatever the future holds for the Alien franchise, I hope there’s room for David Jonsson in it.

9: Laurie Pavy – MadS

The one-shot in films and shows has occasionally felt like too much of a gimmick in the modern era. Coordinating seamless and sweeping camera movement and blocking are sound technical achievements, but if they don’t serve the story or vice versa, then what’s the point? Director David Moreau avoids this pitfall with his single-take zombie film MadS, depicting a trio of paranoid and toxic friends experiencing a bad trip with a growing zombie outbreak. Seeing just how fast shit hits the fan is the kind of visceral terror you only see in films like Train to Busan and 28 Days Later.

While the main trio of the film are wonderful across-the-board, MadS kicks into high gear with the shift to Anais’s point of view. Anais, the girlfriend of leading man Romain, is played by Laurie Pavy and is one of the three perspectives we’re shown throughout the film. While Romain’s journey is a paranoid drug trip gone horribly wrong, Anais is a far more tragic tale of a woman stuck in a hopeless situation and Pavy’s hypnotic performance as the loopy and eventually feral woman is a sight to behold.

The one-take allure of MadS is practically one-and-one with Pavy undergoing a zombie transformation in real time. We often only get glimpses of a person’s decay into a flesh-muncher, but Anais withering away in front of our eyes is made all the more gut-wrenching by her seemingly denying the reality of her situation. Even when mostly gone, shades of her former self peek out thanks to Pavy’s expertly crafted acting, constantly switching between scared woman and twitchy zombie-in-progress. If there’s any one reason to watch MadS, it’s the frightening work Laurie Pavy puts into her craft.

8: Curry Barker – Milk & Serial

When exactly is the breaking point of content brain? How long can you keep the bit going before it starts to bleed over into reality? Filmmaker and YouTuber Curry Barker attempts to answer such a post-YouTube question with his 3-figure budget found footage horror-comedy Milk & Serial. Starring Barker himself, the unlikely YouTube hit puts content brain and shameless prank videos under a grainy microscope when a couple of prank YouTubers end up going too far during a series of prank-offs between the two.

It’s a short, but impactful trip through one man’s mind and the deterioration accelerated by a combination of YouTube brain rot and an abundance of skeletons in his closet. Said man is played by the filmmaker himself as Curry Barker is front and center of the film and the marketing. The writing, directing, producing and perhaps most strikingly, the unnerving cover star that is but a taste of Barker’s unhinged performance that showcases so much in a mere hour.

Barker’s unsettling work bleeds through in every facet of his acting. The disturbing smile he flashes the camera while talking to the audience, the slimy way he manipulates his friends, the way he can barely hide who he truly is to them and us watching. Barker feels like the personification of the uncanny valley every second he’s onscreen and when he’s playing a heightened version of your average content farm YouTuber, it’s concerningly appropriate and fitting. Easily one of the ickiest performances of the year, horror and beyond.

7: Nell Tiger Free – The First Omen

I feel as though horror audiences (including myself) were genuinely sideswiped by the surprisingly high critical reception to The First Omen. A horror prequel that seemingly nobody asked for was surely a recipe for disaster. What more can you squeeze out of a franchise and through the shameless formula of needless origin story nonsense. Yet here we are at the end of the year glazing The First Omen as an effective possession horror and a spectacular vehicle for Nell Tiger Free.

Serving as a novice nun in the same orphanage where infamous demon child Damien’s mother resides, Free’s Margaret starts off as a promising and kindhearted nun struggling to adapt to a new setting, Needing a push just to let loose and party for a night, Free portrays Margaret as a sheltered soul walking headfirst into a turmoil she can’t even begin to understand as things get progressively worse. And boy do we feel every crushing instance of Margaret’s physical and mental crisis thanks to Nell Tiger Free’s completely hopeless and fearless performance.

Even before the bonkers final act, seeing Free devolve further into fear for both herself and the girl she vows to protect is more frightening than the usual possession tropes present in the film. She sells the hopelessness of fighting an uphill battle against an entire organization and that is before the third act sees her and her physical body become entwined into the demonic conspiracy. Of course, most people will point to the car crash scene as Tiger Free’s acting reel moment (which it definitely is), but her work in the film as a whole is a magnificent exercise in misery and paranoia.

6: Hugh Grant – Heretic

It’s baffling to me that anyone who is only familiar with Hugh Grant’s work post-2012 may not truly realize how insane it is for him to be front and center of an outright horror-thriller. He has worked in the genre before, but anybody who grew up on films in the 2000s likely remembers Grant as the go-to charming comedy actor relying on his wit and good looks to engage audiences. It wasn’t until the 2010s and onward when Grant gradually shifted towards more character actor roles and his starring role in Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’s religious horror film Heretic is only the latest example of his versatility

Playing a seemingly polite Englishman set out to test the faith of two Mormon missionaries through conversation, debate, and a pair of mysterious doors, we see Hugh Grant using his latent charm and warm attitude to disarm the girls in a further instance of the man shedding his previous reputation. The Bridget Jones alum uses the same familiar cadence in his voice and line delivery as he casually tells the girls that they’re locked in his labyrinth-like home to terrifying effect. What’s worse than a callous sociopath that feels at peace with himself even in the face of scared girls begging to be let go? Hugh Grant utilizes everyone’s perception of him in-universe and reality to get his way and he steals the entire show as a result.

Much of his strongest work in the film is him slowly unveiling his intentions to the girls while rigidly, but calmly forcing them to confront their beliefs and the religion they’re attached to. A debate he often starts with innocuous questions related to fast food and board games too. Grant is a blast to watch as he constantly flips the switch on the girls and even as the film becomes more overtly horror over the runtime, he never once feels out of place in a film that simply wouldn’t be the same without his charmingly sardonic performance.

5: Alisha Weir – Abigail

Radio Silence’s follow-up to their hit horror-comedy Ready or Not and Scream 5 and 6 is something that plays to the strengths of a film collective that knows a thing or two about delivering laughs with the blood and guts. Abigail follows closely in the footsteps of Ready or Not by sticking our main cast of characters in a lavish mansion serving as their potential tomb. While Ready or Not’s central performance was Samara Weaving’s badass heroine in a bride’s dress, Abigail flips it around with the central performance of Alisha Weir’s villainous ballerina vampire.

It’s truly unfortunate just how hard the marketing went on Weir’s transformation from would-be kidnapping victim to bloodthirsty vampire cutting rugs and biting necks. Part of the fun is watching Weir play the part of scared little girl in an effort to throw off her captors/lunch menu and even then, it’s obvious there’s something fishy afoot. Abigail’s mocking apology to Melissa Barrera’s Joey for what’s going to happen to them is just sinister enough to cast suspicion on her without revealing outright what that actually means.

Then the vampire shenanigans begin and Alisha Weir is fully unleashed, both in her dropping the facade and amping up her wild and feral side. Learning ballet for the role, the young musical theater actress incorporates the grace of a ballerina to clash with the various instances of her biting, jumping, and stabbing her poor victims to sadistic glee. To go from the lead role in a Matilda adaptation to the lead in a horror film where she dances a nice waltz with a headless body is crazy whiplash on its own, but something that Alisha Weir somehow makes look easy.

“What color are MY eyes, Frank?”

4: Maika Monroe – Longlegs

When the promotion for Osgood Perkins’s newest horror film Longlegs officially began, audiences were immediately captivated by the cryptic marketing and downright evil atmosphere that permeated from every teaser. Depicting Nicolas Cage as a frizzy-haired killer who always sounds like he’s on the verge of either crying or yelling is an immensely smart use of his sensibilities as an actor and it’s fair to say that the marketing is wholly made by him, combined with a great performance in the final product as well.

But I think we’re all kidding ourselves if we can’t see that Maika Monroe is the real star of Longlegs. In-between the Fincher-esque atmosphere and the crazed Cage performance, our lead is reserved and possibly clairvoyant FBI agent Lee Harker. A stark contrast to Cage’s far more bombastic performance, Monroe also plays to her own strengths and delivers a similarly subtle and meticulous masterclass in acting not unlike her performance in the 2022 horror-thriller Watcher. The power in Monroe’s performance is in the subtleties of her facial expressions and body language.

Always looking off as if staring at something we can never see, Monroe displays the kind of reserved cynicism one typically needs to handle a high-stress job like Harker’s. But she always reminds us of her hidden humanity in her interactions with kids and her co-workers and it’s the kind of weathered quirkiness that makes her such an engaging presence to watch in a film where Cage chews the scenery any chance he gets. It’s equally fun watching her attempt to talk to a child as it is watching her decipher a criminal’s location just by sensing it Dragonball Z-style.

Maika Monroe may not get the showy performance recognition that Cage is receiving, but her silence in Longlegs makes her role her most expressive performance to date and the best from the film itself.

3: Hunter Schafer – Cuckoo

Horror can be as physically demanding of a genre as action and thrillers, thanks in large to the wide variety of films and shows under the horror umbrella. Actors need to sell like they’ve just made a narrow escape from a seemingly inescapable hellworld and that’s exactly how Hunter Schafer looked at the end of Cuckoo. A pulpy thrill ride from the director of Luz, Cuckoo borrows from the well of Eurocentric horror, complete with a story set in a small resort town located in the Bavarian Alps.

In that town is melancholic rocker Gretchen, played by Schafer, becoming entangled in an unusual family conspiracy that may or may not involve a strange humanoid woman. And that’s all we need for set-up before we bear witness to almost 2 hours of Schafer getting chased, run off the road, beaten up, you name it. Just about everything and everyone is against her in some way, all the while the mental toll of her mother’s death is weighing heavy on her mind and increasingly bandaged head.

It’s an honest joy seeing the Euphoria actress embrace her inner John McClane in such a maddening horror film, regularly having to get out of situations through clever thinking, luck, and inhuman endurance. Some may not find that believable with a teenage girl like Gretchen, but Schafer communicates the rush of adrenaline one can feel in a life-or-death situation to a tee while understanding the weird vibes of the film. Even when the film begins to flirt with creature feature tropes, Hunter Schafer grounds the story through her determination to live, her ability to absorb insane levels of pain and punishment, and a realistic teenager sass towards the unusual adults in the town. Schafer’s performance is frantic, scrappy, lived in and an undeniable highlight in this year of indescribable horrors.

“That’s a fucking weird way to put it!”

2: Juliette Gariépy – Red Rooms

Each time I’ve done this year-end list for horror performances, I always have an internal debate on what exactly qualifies as something under the horror umbrella. The genre’s sheer expansive library and hybrids with other genres can stir up discourse on what is considered horror or thriller. It’s a surprisingly touchy subject, but I believe the answer is in examining how a film or show tackles transgressive topics and what the filmmaker intends the audience to feel. It’s why I ultimately feel confident in Juliette Gariépy’s unhinged beauty of a performance in Red Rooms fitting this list like a glove.

Telling the story of a woman dangerously obsessed with an alleged serial killer on trial for the murders of young girls, Red Rooms feels procedural on the surface with many scenes set in cold and static courtrooms and a lavish apartment. But Juliette’s level of obsession morphs this morbid psychological thriller into an outright evil and disturbed film right out of your worst nightmares. Gariépy’s Kelly-Anne camps outside of the courthouse just to see him while her gambling habit leads her into a section of the dark web that further fulfills her desire to see the forbidden snuff films he’s made of his victims in the “Red Room.”

Kelly-Anne goes beyond mere fangirling and fully relies on the sensation of the trials just to feel something in her life. It’s this surgical method of looking at a case of a possible child murderer where Gariépy’s alien and inhumane performance truly stands out. She is as calm as an undisturbed pond when reading the gruesome details behind the case, with one scene in particular of her watching a teenage girl brutally slaughtered as though she’s watching an NFL replay displaying the lack of humanity or empathy she feels towards anything at all.

It feels like a genuine nightmare watching the otherwise beautiful face of Gariépy’s Kelly-Anne (a successful model in-universe) coated in the red glare of her computer screen while watching a child’s life end. All the more frightening by her lack of reaction. Yet that doesn’t even compare to the lows she’s willing to go towards in a scene in the courtroom involving fake braces and if you watch this scene and not think that Juliette Gariépy’s performance is arguably the scariest of the entire year, I don’t know what to tell you. It is a brilliant, deeply uncomfortable, and downright freaky performance that can and will be talked about in best-of conversations over the years.

1: Demi Moore – The Substance

Margaret Qualley is one-half of the equation that makes The Substance work as well as it does. But it’s the original that pulls everything together. For all the heightened satire present in Fargeat’s horror-comedy, the peak of the film lies within the deliberately less campy core of its leading star. Elisabeth Sparkle’s career as an Oscar-winning actress-turned fitness TV star pairs a little too well with Demi Moore, an extremely successful actress of the 90s making her monster comeback (literally!) in a film about an industry she knows far too well.

Beyond the meta aspect of casting Moore in this role, it’s rare to see an actress of her caliber give herself so completely into an unhinged horror vision that is only a mere misstep away from turning into a laughable farce. A woman creating a younger copy of herself that leads to a dynamic of one of them literally feeding off the other? It’s a balls-to-the-wall concept and yet Moore’s Sparkle tumbling down the path of obscurity and desirability is an appropriate and realistic fear for a woman in an industry so laser-focused on age and beauty.

Yet when she takes the substance and lives it up as Qualley’s Sue during her week of activity, Moore channels the very real sensation of feeling worthless in your body in the midst of a midlife crisis. Like nothing you do truly matters, so might as well let yourself go. Much of the first half of the film is watching Moore trapped in her bubble of self-hatred and every second of it feels like an eternity in the best way. She’s melancholic, isolated, and too tired to even put up a fake smile in public most of the time, demonstrating Moore’s ability to portray a woman silently suffering.

However, her steep decline as Sue feeds off of her body is where Moore’s performance enters the point of no return. Morphing from sadness to jealousy and anger, her work is suddenly completely in-tune with the world Fargeat has created and it is marvelous. A delightfully unhinged Demi Moore is the stuff dreams are made of and combined with the insane makeup work she goes under, it makes for a wonderful disaster of epic proportions. Demi Moore’s performance is bonkers, hilarious, tragic, and completely deserving of its recognition as one of the best horror performances of the decade, period.

“I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”

What were your favorite horror performances of 2024? Sound off below!

The post Bloody Disgusting’s Top 15 Best Horror Film Performances of 2024 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

That doesn’t even touch on the huge studio earners like Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, or Alien: Romulus. Yet the surprises extend well beyond how well horror performed at the box office; 2024 horror is defined by the way it refused to stay within its tidy genre bounds.

This is reflected in the way that 2024 horror found new angles to push franchises forward through prequels and sequels, with films like The First Omen finding new ways to expand a franchise through stunning artistry and delicate yet dark subject matter. It’s reflected in new shifts in true crime-inspired thrillers like Red Rooms, a cold, clinical depiction of true crime obsession. Slashers like In a Violent Nature got experimental with a familiar formula to an exciting albeit divisive degree, while Exhuma shook up the tired exorcism horror subgenre.

It’s also a year where horror got deeply personal, featuring no shortage of films framed from a singular perspective, including I Saw the TV Glow or Stopmotion. In short, 2024 pushed the genre forward in exciting ways, introducing new voices while finding fresh fertile ground in even some of the more well-trodden corners of the genre.

Without further ado, here are the top fifteen best horror movies of 2024.

15. Oddity

Writer/Director Damian Mc Carthy‘s sophomore effort feels like a narrative and thematic extension of Caveat.  Aside from the brief return of at least one familiar face and a nightmare bunny, Oddity continues the filmmaker’s exploration of supernatural karma and retribution with offbeat characters and a unique vision for scares. Playing like a whimsical Irish folk tale with expertly crafted scares that send icy shivers down your spine, Oddity relies on pared-back storytelling that lets its horror elements and dual performances from Carolyn Bracken shine. While simple in setup, there’s a more assured tone and polished plotting to Oddity that makes it easy to hope Mc Carthy continues his exploration of this strange, frequently haunting cinematic universe.

14. The Coffee Table

A jaw-dropping inciting event transforms the film into a relentless pressure cooker that never gives its audience a moment to breathe in Caye Casas’s grim dark horror comedy- emphasis on dark. The gallows humor here might warrant a trigger warning for its boundary-pushing horror that serves as the catalyst. The filmmaker mines horror from a freak tragedy to a degree that often leaves those on board with the insanity torn between laughter and edge-of-the-seat suspense. A mundane task turns into an unspeakable nightmare that somehow only escalates the insanity until a doozy of a finale. It’s audacious in plot but even more impressive for the way it shreds your nerves with glee.

13. Woman of the Hour

Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut shakes up the true crime format with this stranger-than-fiction tale of serial killer and rapist Rodney Alcala and his bizarre appearance as a bachelor on the TV game show “The Dating Game.” Screenwriter Ian MacAllister McDonald and Kendrick tell this harrowing story nonlinearly, methodically painting a stark picture of Alcala’s tactics as he targets vulnerable women across the country throughout the ’70s. It’s not horror in the traditional sense, but Kendrick wrings abject terror through nail-biting, suspenseful sequences and one bone-chilling performance by Daniel Zovatto as real-life killer Rodney Alcala. An unsettling killer and centerpiece suspense sequences ensure Kendrick’s debut rattles. But it’s the unwavering empathy for Alcala’s victims and a powerful final gasp that earns this stunner a spot on our list.

12. Stopmotion

Horror is filled with stories exploring the lengths an artist will go to for the sake of their art, but BAFTA-nominated filmmaker/animator Robert Morgan fuses Stopmotion with tactile, squelchy stop-motion animation that sets it apart. The film’s deft blending of live-action and stop-motion animation is utterly captivating, grounded by Aisling Franciosi’s portrayal of a woman coming undone by her ambition. It’s not just the animation that stuns while simultaneously inducing revulsion but the unnerving sound design. Open wounds and puppets alike often come with discomforting, squelching sounds and wet noises that ensure an immersive experience.

11. The Devil’s Bath

The latest from Austrian filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala happens to be their most despairing yet, making a powerful show that history is horror sometimes. A grueling depiction of a harsh life in 18th-century Austria, the film follows a dreamer too fragile for this unforgiving world. The Devil’s Bath saturates itself so thoroughly in her misery and psychological distress that it’s difficult not to be affected by Agnes’ plight. It’s a gorgeously made film, shot on 35mm, with an impressive lead performance from Anja Plaschg. The Devil’s Bath isn’t horror in the conventional sense, but Agnes’ journey becomes so despairing that it careens straight into violent, grim horror territory with ease. It’s such an emotional gauntlet that it’s one that you won’t want to revisit anytime soon. 

10. Azrael

The latest from director E.L. Katz (Cheap Thrills) and writer Simon Barrett (The Guest, You’re Next) makes for a fascinating experiment in dialogue-free horror, with a text card establishing the post-Rapture setup behind this apocalyptic horror movie. It’s so devoid of dialogue that modern horror stalwart Samara Weaving can’t even rely on her trademark scream; her character had her voice box severed prior to the film’s events. All of which is to say that Azrael potentially makes for a tough sell on paper. Instead, Katz makes you forget almost entirely that Azrael is devoid of speaking parts. Its nonstop barrage of horror violence gets doled out over the course of 24 hours, making for a gory survival thriller that doesn’t have time to dwell on the story specifics. Weaving’s capable performance and the visceral siege horror ensure this experiment succeeds right up to its memorable final moments.

9. A Quiet Place: Day One

The prequel to 2018’s A Quiet Place merely uses the initial alien invasion that plunges the world into a silent apocalypse as a thrilling backdrop for a soulful, poignant portrait of human connection. A mundane day in New York City gets shattered by a sudden invasion that leaves the city destroyed with a devastating death toll, an easy genre allegory for 9/11, no doubt, but writer/director Michael Sarnoski is more interested in exploring the human triumphs that rise in the face of brutal adversity. Day One ensures the requisite genre thrills and creature feature chase sequences are aplenty, but it’s the tender, unlikely friendship forged between Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn’s characters, along with a scene-stealing cat, that elevate this prequel into something remarkable. It’s the type of deeply stirring storytelling that makes you want a hug and a slice of pizza. Most of all, following a woman determined to meet life and death on her terms fills you with hope.

8. Infested

Director Sébastien Vaniček delivered a shot of adrenaline with his feature debut, ensuring that spiders haven’t lost their touch when it comes to inducing paralyzing fear, even in those not prone to arachnophobia. The simple setup that sees a rare venomous spider loose in a ramshackle apartment building, free to breed and wreak lethal destruction, becomes anything but thanks to class commentary and a terrifying escalation of horror. Vaniček keeps his characters and their conflicts grounded in realism, letting him cut loose with the increasingly intense spider horror. It’s not just that Infested employs real spiders for many of the close, squirmy encounters with the eight-legged beasts, but the filmmaker wrings extreme tension even from the quiet moments. Infested isn’t afraid to kill its characters in excruciating ways, either, making it easy to see why Vaniček was immediately snatched up to helm an upcoming Evil Dead movie.

7. I Saw the TV Glow

A deeply personal examination of identity and dysphoria told with a singular vision. Few films match the striking imagery found within writer/director Jane Schoenbrun’s latest, genre or otherwise. I Saw the TV Glow captures the viscerally jarring, existential horror of ignoring all warnings until you no longer recognize yourself, framed around two outcasts who bond over a ’90s tv show. It’s that specificity and dreamlike vision that mines horror from a relatable touchstone of youth– a period where we often form our identities based on our pop culture obsessions and cling to them like lifeboats in tempestuous waters. It’s a somber, meditative allegory that emotionally devastates, even as its potent visuals cast a haunting spell. More than just an assured piece of arthouse horror surrealism, it’s a stunning and bittersweet cautionary tale to be true to yourself.

6. The First Omen

Richard Donner’s 1976 horror classic centered around the Antichrist spawned three sequels, a 2006 remake, and a direct sequel TV series to diminishing results. When a prequel to the original film was announced, it’s not surprising that it didn’t exactly set the internet on fire; The Omen laid out the details behind Damien Thorn’s birth well enough, after all. What sounded like a typical, uninspired cash grab to extend the life of a fairly dormant horror franchise transformed into a compelling surprise in the hands of director Arkasha Stevenson. Stevenson helms her feature debut with impressive confidence, delivering an exquisitely crafted piece of horror that lends a tactile quality and atmosphere with a piercing score from Mark Korven that also serves a narrative purpose. It’s a breathtaking film befitting of its period setting, anchored by star Nell Tiger Free’s audacious performance. The First Omen finds inventive ways to breathe new life into the franchise while operating within the confines of established IP lore, shifting its focus to bodily autonomy while pushing boundaries with bold subject matter and shocking horror imagery. 

5. Smile 2

As someone who found Smile a solid film bogged down by its familiar horror influences, Smile 2 caught me off guard. In true sequel fashion, the scale is expanded, and the scares are far more visceral and violent this round. But writer/director Parker Finn’s exponential growth between films is what really excites about this sequel; this filmmaker has only honed his scare-crafting chops to the sharpest of edges and is having a blast doing it. This is a filmmaker with mounting confidence, and Finn finds no shortage of ways to keep the lengthy runtime moving at a rapid clip without ever diminishing the oppressive, inescapable horror and tension it yields. It certainly helps that Naomi Scott delivers a career-defining performance, tackling so many layers of her character’s traumas with seemingly effortless ease.  It’s not just the sequel’s razor-sharp and inventive, gory scares that surpass its predecessor, but a profoundly complicated heroine shaping the edgier style of horror.

4. Exhuma

Exorcism horror, for the most part, remains beholden to tired tropes and outdated ideas on faith and religion that make it a tough sell these days. One surefire way to break from convention is by framing exorcisms through a different cultural lens. Writer/Director Jae-hyun Jang (Svaha: The Sixth Finger, The Priests) combines introspective cultural and historical themes with creepy, atmospheric horror told through a yin-and-yang style narrative structure. Exhuma uses a cursed grave to unleash supernatural terror and a potent folkloric examination of the dark history between Japan and Korea. The two distinct story halves highlight the stark contrast between cultures, modern society, and ancient customs without sacrificing the genre’s fun or scares in the process. It’s the type of horror movie that brings cultural depth and worldbuilding while featuring a behemoth samurai oni rampaging through a pig farm. This isn’t your typical exorcism horror movie; its gonzo physical manifestation of past historical trauma makes for one of the year’s biggest horror surprises.

3. Longlegs

It’s safe to say that few films captured the curiosity and attention of audiences this year quite like Oz Perkins’ latest, thanks to the enigmatic marketing behind it. The refusal to reveal much at all ahead of the film’s release also extends to Longlegs’ storytelling, which keeps things close to the vest as it centers on young FBI recruit Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) and her bid to uncover the identity of an elusive serial killer. Longlegs injects a true crime story with putrid Satanism and refuses to handhold, serving as a visceral rebuttal to society’s compulsive need to find logic in the most heinous of crimes. Nicolas Cage’s minimal screentime, combined with his shocking transformation as the eponymous killer, only fuels the film’s elusive, existentially horrifying quality. But it’s the way that evil is a constant, voyeuristic presence in Longlegs that unnerves most; a beastly Satan watches on from nearly every shadowed corner throughout. Yet, as foreboding and palpably evil as Longlegs is, it’s not without a sense of humor. It makes for Perkins’ most accessible horror film yet as well as his most downright unsettling. 

2. The Substance

There’s something remarkable about the way that writer/director Coralie Fargeat’s latest somehow surpasses her debut film Revenge in terms of gory carnage while racking up the accolades, garnering award nominations and a spot on the Oscars shortlist. Fargeat can barely contain her venom as she lambasts Hollywood’s unrealistic beauty standards that fester and, in turn, create vicious cycles of self-loathing. Yet it’s not without humor; there’s an almost whimsy to the insanity that plunges Demi Moore’s Elisabeth Sparkle into a destructive pattern of monstrous body horror in her attempts to stave off aging and forced retirement. The Substance exists in a heightened sense of reality that’s as hypnotic as off-putting, with a protracted finale that unleashes buckets of flesh and gore in Grand Guignol fashion, the precise type of gooey climax that would make Brian Yuzna proud. Fargeat helms with assured confidence, delivering a tactile visual feast for the senses and creating one of the year’s sharpest, most wickedly entertaining entries in horror. 

1. Nosferatu

There’s not a single facet of Nosferatu that doesn’t impress for the sheer artistry on display. Night scenes in Robert Eggers’ macabre masterpiece are re-envisioned as monochromatic nightmares, evocative of black and white gothic horror classics like F.W. Murnau’s seminal vampire tale. Craig Lathrop’s exquisite production design whisks audiences on a tactile, immersive journey filled with dread-inducing decrepit castles, a city torn asunder by plague, gypsy camps, and beyond. Robin Carolan’s triumphant score, combined with Damian Volpe’s unsettling sound design, ensures the twisted love triangle at the heart of this gothic horror movie repulses and delights in equal measure. Bill Skarsgård’s unrecognizable transformation as Count Orlok startles, but it’s Lily-Rose Depp’s mesmeric performance as Ellen, the outcast trapped on society’s margins and forced to become both victim and hero, that stuns. Productions on this scale are rare in horror, and Nosferatu is operatic and dramatic, bold and revolting, with a powerful final shot for the ages.

The post Bloody Disgusting’s Top 15 Best Horror Movies of 2024 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

If you’re stuck trying to find what to watch on streaming, we’re here to help.

Here are the best Hulu horror movies you can stream right now, from new releases to underrated sequels to indie creature features and beyond.

28 Weeks Later

Six months after the rage virus depleted Great Britain’s population, the US Army helps to secure a small area of London for the survivors to return to resume a post-apocalyptic life. After a carrier of the highly infectious pathogen gets brought in for testing, however, the virus takes root in the quarantined city and threatens to destroy them all. Taking on a whole new set of characters, 28 Weeks Later delivers non-stop action thrills while building a bit on the virus. Robert Carlyle makes an unnerving antagonist as a father whose guilt marks the impetus for this viral nightmare.

After Midnight

After ten years together, Abby (Brea Grant) quietly leaves her boyfriend Hank (screenwriter/co-director Jeremy Gardner), with only a cryptic note indicating her disappearance. He expects her to return, but as the days turn into weeks, abandonment and depression take root. However, in Abby’s absence, Hank’s rural family home falls under siege of a strange monster. Gardner and co-director Christian Stella inject genre into the examination of a relationship, alternating between a happier past and a monstrous present. In other words, don’t go in expecting a straightforward creature feature; this one favors love. Do go in expecting an iconic Lisa Loeb song to get cast in an all-new, hilarious light.

Alien

With a new Alien film on the way this year, there’s no better time than now to revisit this stone cold classic. Ridley Scott’s 1979 film introduces the crew of the Nostromo as they awaken from hyper sleep and answer a distress beacon from a nearby moon. Naturally, what they find there plunges them into a claustrophobic nightmare in space. From Sigourney Weaver’s iconic Ellen Ripley to the equally iconic alien, in large part thanks to the design from H.R. Giger, it’s easy to see why Alien launched an enduring franchise.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe

Often the best way to deliver maximum chills is through simplicity. Pared-back characters, settings, and even stories to give the scares and atmosphere center stage can go very far in crafting a memorable experience in terror. André Øvredal’s chamber piece sees a father and son coroner team in over their heads when a mysterious Jane Doe arrives at their morgue. She bears no external signs of trauma but inside reveals a vastly different truth that defies science. The further into their autopsy they get, the more they’re inundated with supernatural activity that indicates Jane’s secrets aren’t meant to be uncovered. Just one single location and three characters – one of which never speaks or moves- gives us one of the creepiest horror movies of the last decade.

Bad Milo!

Duncan (Ken Marino) suffers from severe anxiety and stress. So much so that it triggers gastrointestinal duress. At his doctor’s appointment, they discover a large polyp in his intestinal tract. It grows into a two-foot monster that emerges from his body to destroy anything that it perceives to be a stress trigger for Duncan. He’ll have to learn to reign in his anxiety if he wants to stop the monster’s rampage. Milo, Duncan’s gastro-beast, makes for one of horror’s most adorable creatures. Even when it’s ripping people apart with its teeth, Milo’s heart is in the right place. The film also stars Peter Stormare, Gillian Jacobs, Patrick Warburton, and Kumail Nanjiani.

Birth/Rebirth

Marin Ireland (The Dark and the Wicked) and Judy Reyes (Smile) deliver captivating performances in this dramatic tale by director Laura Moss about reanimating the dead. Moss’ feature leans more into drama, but the foreboding dread and compelling central performances ensure this bleak doozy maximizes its emotional impact. It’s the push and pull between the two leads that captivates, embodiments of science versus heart at odds over the ethics of reviving the dead. 

Bone Tomahawk

When unseen attackers swoop in one night and steal horses and a few town residents, the town sheriff (Kurt Russell) sets off with a small search party to rescue them. The journey getting there is filled with injury, harsh conditions, and ruthless raiders. None of it prepares them for the vicious troglodyte clan they’ll have to battle for their lives and the lives of the townsfolk they’ve come to save. This movie is pure western, right up until the horror barrels into you like freight train; one of the kills this movie is a horrific, grisly all-timer.

Censor

Prano Bailey-Bond’s feature debut is an atmospheric plunge into the Video Nasty era, resulting in a creative and nightmarish critique of the moral scrutiny and censorship that fueled it. Niamh Algar excels as a stern, old-fashioned woman slowly unmoored by seismic shifts in her safe little bubble. Neon hues of frenzied nightmares bleed over into the drab colors of reality, signaling a visually stunning descent into madness. Bailey-Bond crafts a potent love letter to the genre that’s intricate, gorgeous, mesmerizing, and uninterested in hand-holding.

Day of the Dead

The third entry of George A. Romero’s Dead series shows the world entirely inundated by zombies. Though the numbers have vastly dwindled before the film’s start, the future of civilization looks bleak due to the handful of remaining survivors being unable to get along. Dr. Matthew Logan (Richard Liberty, The Crazies), the cheerful lead scientist, and his favorite test subject Bub (Sherman Howard) lie in the middle of warring factions in this zombie movie classic. The docile, loyal, and music-loving zombie will steal your heart.

Escape Room

The rise of escape rooms meant that it was likely inevitable that horror would eventually set its sights on the popular group puzzle solving activity. Director Adam Robitel and production designer Edward Thomas did just that, crafting an intricately themed escape room for six strangers that have unwittingly entered into a deadly game. From burning hot lobby rooms to inverted pool halls to snowy cabins with icy lakes – and despite the very high stakes involved for the players – the set pieces are so extravagant that you can’t help but wish you could play an escape room like this. Though the characters dying in these rooms would likely disagree.

The First Omen

Director Arkasha Stevenson doesn’t just helm a prequel worthy of Richard Donner’s 1976 horror classic but establishes herself as a bold new voice in horror with this stunning feature debut. The prequel delivers chill-inducing imagery and utilizes smart horror influences, including Jacob’s Ladder and Possession. Stevenson helms with confidence, delivering an exquisitely crafted piece of horror that lends a tactile quality and atmosphere with a piercing score from Mark Korven that also serves a narrative purpose. The film’s strongest asset, of course, is star Nell Tiger Free, who fully commits to every stage of her character’s evolution, turning in a breathless physical performance that stuns on more than one occasion.

Get Out

Jordan Peele’s feature debut and Oscar-winner screenplay reinvigorated social horror in such a massive way that, of course, you should start here. Daniel Kaluuya stars as a photographer who visits his white girlfriend’s family for the weekend, only to discover that perhaps they’re not as progressive as they claim. Is there something nefarious beneath their warmth, or is it all in his head thanks to nerves? Peele mixes biting satire with edge-of-your-seat suspense, coiling the tension tighter until a go-for-broke horror finale that’ll leave you gasping and cheering.

Hellraiser

The arbiters of pain and suffering are back in the Hellraiser franchise’s eleventh feature, this time with a reimagining by The Night House director David Bruckner and screenwriters Luke Piotrowski and Ben Collins. Piotrowski and Collins opt for straightforward simplicity here that lets Bruckner’s imagery do the heavy lifting. There’s a deep well of mythology without any handholding. Jamie Clayton’s inspired performance as the Hell Priest, the Cenobite leader, impresses most of all.

The Host

Bong Joon Ho (Snowpiercer, Parasite) is a master of blending genres and tone, and his epic creature feature offers a perfect example. Deftly wrapping up the family drama, dysfunctional humor, and political satire in one thrilling creature feature bow, the plot sees a monster from Seoul’s Han River wreak havoc. When the beast snatches up a young girl, the girl’s family bands together to get her back by any means necessary. This big-budget spectacle will make you laugh one minute and cry the next.

I Saw the Devil

One of the most brutal and unrelenting horror films of the decade, and arguably all time. Jee-woon Kim’s I Saw the Devil gives the revenge thriller one severely bleak, grisly facelift. When a serial killer viciously murders a secret service agent’s pregnant fiancée, the agent becomes driven by vengeance. That results in a cat and mouse game that gets so brutal the lines between protagonist and antagonist blur. Visceral and shocking, this is a must for those who like their horror extremely dark.

In the Earth

While a deadly virus ravages the world, Dr. Martin Lowery (Joel Fry) heads deep into the woods to locate Dr. Olivia (Hayley Squires) with park scout guide Alma (Ellora Torchia). They’re attacked in the middle of the night and left shoeless. It leads them to Zach (Inside No. 9’s Reece Shearsmith), a hippie type living off-grid. Getting in and out of the forest won’t be easy anymore, as reality ceases to hold meaning. Ben Wheatley crafts a wild, hallucinogenic descent into abject terror and includes folk horror mythology and references to witchcraft. It’s a voyage through insanity that doesn’t skimp on the horror or violence, including cringe-worthy body horror moments. 

Infinity Pool

Writer/Director Brandon Cronenberg once again delivers mind-bending, warped horror in the resort-set Infinity Pool. Straightaway, Cronenberg instills an off-kilter, satirical vibe with his fictional setting, and that unravels into deranged madness thanks the fearless, committed performances by Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth. Together, the pair take their characters to places that never fail to leave your jaw on the floor- again and again. More than just a horror-tinged repeating cycle of violence and debauchery, Infinity Pool is funny as well.

It Lives Inside

Little Monsters

Mandy

The quiet lives of Red Miller (Nicolas Cage) and Mandy Bloom (Andrea Riseborough) get irrevocably altered when the hippie cult Children of the New Dawn pass by Mandy on the road. Cult leader Jeremiah Sand (Linus Roache) decides he must have her and unleashes his followers to fulfill his lust. However, Sand doesn’t take lightly to rejection, resulting in a harrowing tragedy that sends Red on a drug-induced quest for vengeance. Panos Cosmatos’s highly stylized, psychedelic revenge thriller delivers vibrant imagery and ultraviolence. It’s grounded by a fantastic cast bringing their A-game, including a raw performance by lead Cage.

Monsters

Written and directed by Gareth Edwards, this giant creature feature is likely responsible for Edwards landing the gig directing the 2014 American reboot, Godzilla. His feature debut is set six years after extraterrestrials crash-landed in Central America and began to spread. The U.S. and Mexican military struggle to keep the giant creatures contained in a quarantined area, creating a danger zone that a cynical journalist must navigate as he escorts a shaken tourist to the safety of the U.S. border. Gareth transcends the shackles of low-budget constraints with impressive visual effects and a story focused on the human condition. It’s innovative and ambitious.

My Friend Dahmer

My Friend Dahmer blends horror, drama, and true crime to create something very atypical and unique. Based on the 2012 graphic novel by cartoonist John “Derf” Backderf, who’d been friends with Jeffrey Dahmer in high school, the film chronicles Dahmer’s attempts to fit in while struggling with emerging dark impulses. It’s a true-crime biopic before the actual crimes take place. That doesn’t make it any less unnerving and often touching. Ross Lynch’s portrayal of Dahmer is captivating.

No Exit

Darby Thorne (Havana Rose Liu) just received a call that her mother is gravely ill and in the hospital. She escapes her rehab center and begins the road trip to see mom. A raging blizzard forces Darby to seek refuge for the night at a highway rest stop along with four other strangers. When she discovers a young girl (Mila Harris) bound and gagged in the back of a van, she realizes one of the strangers inside is the kidnapper, and it kickstarts a harrowing fight to survive. The kidnapper’s identity is only the beginning of an increasingly intense survive-the-night thriller. 

No One Will Save You

Writer/Director Brian Duffield (Spontanteous) unleashes floor-to-ceiling aliens in this sci-fi thriller. No One Will Save You introduces Brynn Adams (Kaitlyn Dever), a creative and talented young woman who’s been alienated from her community. Lonely but ever hopeful, Brynn finds solace within the walls of the home where she grew up—until she’s awakened one night by strange noises from decidedly unearthly intruders.

The Omen

Director Richard Donner is known for his popular action films, but his break-through film was actually one of the best horror films ever made. Donner and screenwriter David Seltzer grounded a supernatural tale of the Antichrist in realism. Moreover, it infused The Omen with an ambiguous paranoia that teased the audience with the possibility that the eerie horror was all in the mind of guilt-ridden father Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck). Of course it isn’t, and that push-and-pull between the Antichrist and his adoptive father birthed a horror classic.

Piggy

In Piggy, it’s not just the bullies and the bullied that deal with the emotional fallout and ramifications of bullying. Spanish writer/director Carlota Pereda adapts her 2018 short, expanding on the complex effects of bullying against a backdrop of horror. It ripples through a small town, exacerbated by the arrival of a serial killer, presenting an immersive, psychological character study. Pereda frames everything through Sara’s (Laura Galán) browbeaten perspective and puts the viewer in her shoes, making us complicit and empathetic to her moral conundrum.

Pilgrim

A woman invites pilgrim re-enactors into her home to give her family an authentic recreation of the first Thanksgiving, hoping it’ll get them to put down their phones and bring them closer together. Her well-intentioned plan backfires when the actors refuse to break character, and their behavior grows more alarming. Written by Noah Feinberg, Patrick Melton, and Marcus Dunstan, the latter of whom directs, Pilgrim builds to a wild finale.

Prey

Prey takes its cues from 1987’s Predator in terms of simplicity and bloody action-horror. Its cultural specificity and period setting lend a sweeping period epic feel and introduce emotional stakes through its memorable characters. Set in the Great Plains in 1719, Prey introduces Naru (Amber Midthunder), a young Comanche woman uninterested in fulfilling the domestic role her tribe expects of her. Naru wants to hunt, like her brother and respected hunter Taabe (Dakota Beavers). She sets out to test her mettle and protect her tribe when an unknown threat emerges across the ridge. Prey may take place three centuries before Predator, but it’s not a prequel so much as it is a thrilling film in conversation with the original.

Saw

Two strangers awaken in a room with no recollection of how they got there, but soon find themselves caught in a deadly game in James Wan and Leigh Whannell’s twisty franchise starter. It’s a modern horror classic, and Hulu has nearly the entire film collection available at your fingertips. Perhaps a marathon is in order?

Splinter

In this fun creature feature, a road trip gets stalled out by the unexpected. A young couple sets off for a romantic camping getaway but gets car-jacked by an escaped convict and his girlfriend. Then they get a flat tire that prompts them to seek help from a nearby gas station. Something is gravely wrong there, and the foursome must team up against a bizarre parasite infecting everything. It’s a single-location thriller with inventive creature work.

Titane

Julia Ducournau finds unique, transgressive ways to use body horror that trigger instant revulsion yet garner instant empathy. Alexia is an anti-heroine, borderline sociopathic, and thoroughly magnetic, thanks to her shocking acts. Alexia’s serial killer instincts evolve into something else as she finds a bizarre father figure as broken as she is. Titane throws everything at its audience in an aggressive style. Visceral, cringe-worthy violence, tenderness, and bizarre sexual encounters.

Tragedy Girls

Starring Brianna Hildebrand (The Exorcist TV series, Deadpool) and Alexandra Shipp (X-Men: Apocalypse) as two social media obsessed teens with an ambition to achieve modern horror legend fame, Tragedy Girls brings equal parts biting wit and a delightfully large, violent body count. Director Tyler MacIntyre does a great job playing with the tropes of slashers while taking it in twisted, new directions, making this one destined for cult classic status. A lighthearted horror comedy that succeeds at its goal to entertain makes this a rare gem amidst the current trend of super serious genre films.

V/H/S

Connected by a wraparound that sees a group of misfits hired to break in and steal a rare VHS tape, this found footage style horror movie offers five separate segments in addition to the framing narrative. This anthology launched a franchise that’s still going strong, and you can also pair it with sequel V/H/S/2 that’s also streaming on Hulu.

When Evil Lurks

The post The Best Horror Movies on Hulu/Disney+ to Stream Right Now (July 2024) appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

This summer’s only getting warmed up for horror releases, with some of the year’s most anticipated titles on the immediate horizon. MaXXXine and Longlegs are just around the corner, with Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus soon to follow. Here’s hoping that means horror is only gaining momentum for the back half of 2024.

As a refresher and to ensure great movies don’t fall through the cracks, here are the ten best horror movies released in the first half of 2024.

Abigail

“Sammy, those are f*cking onions.” It’s the cast and their memorable characters that set this heist-turned-vampire movie apart, making for one highly entertaining horror-comedy with no shortage of comedic one-liners, character gags, and buckets of blood. Abigail just wants you to have a good time seeing its unlucky criminals in over their heads in increasingly deranged and violent ways. With an insane commitment to arterial spray, Abigail winds up another crowd-pleaser from Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. Come for the gore, but be prepared to fall head over heels for an ensemble filled with scene-stealers. It’s a blast.

What You Wish For

Writer/Director Nicholas Tomnay concocts an intense, darkly funny pressure cooker scenario for a chef in over his head. Nick Stahl stars as the weary hotel kitchen cook who finds himself thinking on his feet as he’s repeatedly forced into unthinkable scenarios. It’s a culinary thriller with a distinct horror bent, the reveal of which can likely be surmised, but I won’t spoil it here. Tomnay keeps the pressure applied at a steady clip, building the tension to occasion nerve-fraying results. Stahl’s understated performance lends well to Tomnay’s pitch-black humor and Hitchcockian approach, creating an enticing, elegant dinner party turned horrifically and comically awry in suspenseful ways.

The Devil’s Bath

The latest from Austrian filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala happens to be their most despairing yet, mining period horror from history. It’s an affecting yet grueling depiction of life in 18th-century Austria, immersive in the way it creates profound, methodical empathy for a tender-hearted woman trapped by isolation. That the horror stems from grim reality and historical accounts leaves no room for levity or escapism; it’s two hours of escalating suffering, building toward a horrific finale that packs a potent, somber punch. The Devil’s Bath saturates itself so thoroughly in misery and psychological distress that it’s difficult not to be affected by Agnes’ plight. It’s a gorgeously made film, shot on 35mm, with an impressive lead performance from Anja Plaschg. But it’s such an emotional gauntlet that it’s one that you won’t want to revisit anytime soon. 

A Quiet Place: Day One

It’s difficult not to draw parallels to 9/11 in writer/director Michael Sarnoski’s soulful A Quiet Place: Day One. A mundane day in New York City gets shattered by a sudden invasion that leaves the city destroyed with a devastating death toll, but Sarnoski is more interested in exploring the human triumphs that rise in the face of brutal adversity. Sarnoski delivers plenty of creature feature intensity and breathless suspense, but it’s used more as a backdrop for a deeply affecting drama of human connection and compassion. Day One doesn’t bother to explain anything in the way of the alien invasion, and it doesn’t need to. What’s important is the small details and nuance of its characters, and Day One is rich on both fronts. It’s deeper, more meditative, and more effective than its predecessors, led by powerhouse performances from Lupita Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn.

Infested

Director Sébastien Vaniček has been set to helm the next Evil Dead movie, and it’s easy to see why with his feature debut. It’s not just that Infested employs real spiders for many of the skin-crawling horror moments that make it so effective, though that certainly is a factor. Or in the way the spiders’ venom inflicts a painful, grotesque demise. It’s in the constant escalation of the horror and the way Vaniček captures the arachnids on screen. It’s also in the lived-in world and its characters, earning easy emotional investment and rooting interest. That authenticity, the high octane energy, and the constant rise and fall of palpable tension as the spiders skitter about and wreak devastation are enough to leave viewers curling into the fetal position. 

Stopmotion

Art and storytelling collide in breathtaking yet revolting fashion in the feature directorial debut by BAFTA-nominated filmmaker/animator Robert Morgan. The filmmaker and stop-motion animator finds inventive and creative ways to mine visceral horror through the uncanny, unsettling nature of stop-motion animation and its painstaking process. The film’s deft blending of mediums is utterly captivating, including the way the filmmaker imbues his stop-motion creations with a tactile quality. It’s not just the animation that stuns while simultaneously inducing revulsion but the unnerving sound design. Open wounds and puppets alike often come with discomforting, squelching sounds and wet noises that ensure an immersive experience. An artist’s unraveling isn’t new, but Morgan’s approach is refreshing, stylish, and oh-so squelchy.

The Coffee Table

Horror fans looking to test their mettle should take note of director Caye Casas’s grim shocker, one so dark that it should likely come with a trigger warning. A jaw-dropping inciting event transforms the film into a relentless pressure cooker that never eases up for a minute. One that Casas intercuts with pitch-black humor that only heightens the macabre madness. The filmmaker mines horror from a freak tragedy to a degree that often leaves you torn between laughter and edge-of-your-seat suspense. But more impressive is the way that Casas fearlessly shatters at least one sacred cinematic taboo for a twisted laugh. It’s audacious in plot but even more impressive for the way it shreds your nerves with glee.

I Saw the TV Glow

Writer/Director Jane Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances with its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery. Armed with a bigger A24 budget allows the filmmaker to get even more personal while evolving their voice and visual style to an intoxicating degree. It not only creates a specificity for Schoenbrun’s deeply personal examination but a relatable touchstone of youth– a period where we often form our identities based on our pop culture obsessions and cling to them like lifeboats in tempestuous waters. I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity and dysphoria, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche. More than just an assured piece of arthouse horror surrealism, it’s a stunning and bittersweet reminder that you’re not alone, fictional friends or otherwise. 

Exhuma

Writer/Director Jae-hyun Jang (Svaha: The Sixth Finger, The Priests) combines introspective cultural and historical themes with creepy, gory, and atmospheric horror thrills in an exciting way, making it easy to see why it’s become a runaway box office hit in Asia. Anchored by four “ghostbusters“ of sorts, with charismatic actors behind them, Exhuma uses a cursed grave to unleash supernatural terror and a potent folkloric examination of the dark history between Japan and Korea. The narrative structure highlights the stark contrast between cultures, modern society, and ancient customs without sacrificing the genre’s fun or scares in the process. Jae-hyun Jang balances grim, sometimes bloody folkloric terror with levity and heart. Exhuma offers just about everything, including possession, ghost-induced scares, and a physical manifestation of past historical trauma in the most gonzo way. It’s one of the year’s biggest surprises in horror.

The First Omen

Director Arkasha Stevenson doesn’t just helm a prequel worthy of Richard Donner’s 1976 horror classic but establishes herself as a bold new voice in horror with this stunning feature debut. The subject matter is dark, but it’s handled with elegance and care without sacrificing the horror. It’s helped by chill-inducing imagery and smart horror influences, including Jacob’s Ladder and Possession. Stevenson helms with confidence, delivering an exquisitely crafted piece of horror that lends a tactile quality and atmosphere with a piercing score from Mark Korven that also serves a narrative purpose. The film’s strongest asset, of course, is star Nell Tiger Free, who fully commits to every stage of her character’s evolution, turning in a breathless physical performance that stuns on more than one occasion. 

The post The 10 Best Horror Movies Released in the First Half of 2024 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

This week’s streaming picks highlight five 2024 horror releases, most of which have quietly flown under the radar. Whether you’re looking to catch up on new titles or revisit recent faves, this week brings everything from found footage creature features to cosmic nightmares.

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

Disappear Completely – Netflix

Tabloid photographer Santiago (Harold Torres) will go to great lengths to get the perfect shot, tact and morals be damned. His insensitivity even extends to his home life, where he learns his girlfriend Marcela (Teté Espinoza) is pregnant. But his professional ambitions and pessimistic outlook get tested when he snaps photos at a particularly grisly new crime scene; Santiago finds himself afflicted with a curse that’s causing him to lose his senses one by one. Director Luis Javier Henaine captures Santiago’s unraveling with a grim atmosphere and inventive camera work that immerses viewers in Santiago’s race against time before he loses everything. It’s a moody, Satanic cautionary tale centered around an unlikable protagonist.

The First Omen – Hulu

The First Omen, set in 1971, follows American novitiate Margaret Daino (“Servant” star Nell Tiger Free) as she’s sent to Rome to work in an orphanage before she takes the veil. As Margaret adapts to not just her new vocation but an entirely new country and a city in the throes of unrest, she finds herself caught in a fiercely guarded conspiracy involving the birth of the Antichrist that leaves her questioning her faith; and puts her life in the balance. Thanks to the exquisite craftsmanship on display, beguiling Gothic horror, an impeccable cast, and an emotional journey that packs a wallop, The First Omen stands strong on its own. Arkasha Stevenson doesn’t just helm a prequel worthy of Richard Donner’s classic but establishes herself as a bold new voice in horror.

Frogman – SCREAMBOX (June 7)

Director Anthony Cousins takes on the cryptic Frogman via found footage in his feature directorial debut, co-written with John Karsko. In the film, a trio of friends embarks on one final filmmaking hoorah before life takes them in separate directions. But in their bid to make one last attempt to capture the elusive cryptid Frogman on camera, they find far more than they ever bargained for. Frogman adheres to the standard found footage blueprint and tropes, drawing heavily from The Blair Witch Project and Willow Creek as the trio starts by interviewing Loveland, Ohio locals about their town’s cryptid mascot. The more the humans invade the Frogman’s turf, the more delightfully weird and gnarly things get, with Cousins’ debut featuring impressive creature effects. And Frogman happens to have a sequel on the way.

Lovely, Dark, and Deep – Tubi

Writer/Director Teresa Sutherland’s (The Wind, “Midnight Mass”) directorial debut applies cosmic horror to a familiar genre setting, the wilderness, to unfurl a twisted, stunningly shot psychological mood piece. It follows Lennon (Barbarian’s Georgina Campbell), the new park ranger filling a coveted, recently vacated position at an isolated outpost. The more she settles into her minimalist outpost and begins her ulterior quest, the more unsettling things become as time derails and bizarre events signal something else is in the woods with her. Much like Robert Frost’s poem that opens the film, Lovely, Dark, and Deep employs lucid dream nightmare logic to spin its vague tale for audiences to infer their own conclusions. It’s a beguiling but lean and elusive slice of cosmic horror.

Stopmotion – Shudder

The feature directorial debut by BAFTA-nominated filmmaker/animator Robert Morgan finds inventive and creative ways to mine visceral horror through the uncanny, unsettling nature of stop-motion animation and its painstaking process. Ella Blake (The Nightingale‘s Aisling Franciosi) is a talented stop-motion animator who longs to escape the shadow of her mother, Suzanne (Stella Gonet), a reputable legend in the world of stop-motion animation. When Suzanne’s health takes a sharp turn for the worse, Ella’s chance to create her own vision instead sends her spiraling when reality blurs in increasingly disquieting ways. Art and storytelling collide in breathtaking yet revolting fashion in Morgan’s knockout debut.

The post Catch Up at Home: Five 2024 Horror Movies You Can Stream This Week appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Here’s all the new horror releasing May 27, 2024 – June 2, 2024!

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

After scaring up $53 million at the worldwide box office, director Arkasha Stevenson’s prequel The First Omen is now available for Digital purchase ($19.99) at home.

The First Omen is available to own at digital retailers such as Apple TV, Prime Video and Fandango at Home. It also arrives on Hulu May 30 and comes to Blu-ray and DVD July 30.

The First Omen is an exceptional expansion on a classic, earning rave reviews across the board and impressing all of us here at Bloody Disgusting. Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “Thanks to the exquisite craftsmanship on display, beguiling Gothic horror, an impeccable cast, and an emotional journey that packs a wallop, The First Omen stands strong on its own.”

“Arkasha Stevenson doesn’t just helm a prequel worthy of Richard Donner’s classic but establishes herself as a bold new voice in horror,” Meagan’s 4-star review for BD continued.

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

From Sony’s Screen Gems, the fresh-out-of-theaters horror movie Tarot is now available at home, up for Digital rental for $9.99 and Digital purchase for $14.99 beginning yesterday.

As we’ve previously explained, artist Trevor Henderson designed the eight unique monsters featured in Tarot, with the Tarot card-based entities including the High Priestess, The Hermit, The Hanged Man, The Fool, The Magician, Death and The Devil.

Larsen Thompson, Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley, Avantika and Jacob Batalon star in the new horror movie Tarot, which was directed by Spenser Cohen & Anna Halberg.

Meagan wrote in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Tarot has the makings of a breezy gateway horror movie perfect for sleepovers, though it’s undermined by surface-level characters and storytelling.” Her review continues, “Still, Tarot has just enough polish and monster fun to make for a straightforward, inoffensive, and easy foothold into the genre.”

Director Quarxx (All the Gods in the Sky) explores the peculiar, welcoming all those hungry for wonder in Pandemonium, a unique cinematic blend of fantasy, drama, genre, and humor.

Pandemonium is now available on VOD outlets and Blu-ray in the United Kingdom, United States & Canada. The film is also now streaming on ARROW in the UK/US/CA/IRE.

Arrow Video previews, “Pandemonium takes the viewer on a chilling journey as three interconnected stories unravel in this macabre exploration of tales depicting fallen souls. From the intricacies of everyday drama to the realms of supernatural intrigue, each narrative weaves a haunting tapestry that blurs the lines between the mortal and the supernatural.”

Nathan (Hugo Dillon) and Daniel (Arben Bajraktaraj) are caught in a road accident that kills them both. As they come to grips with their deaths, Nathan confronts his past and the consequences of his actions. Now trapped in the hellish void of Pandemonium, he encounters tortured souls like Jeanne (Manon Maindivide), a disturbed child; Julia (Ophélia Kolb), a grief-stricken mother; and Norghul (Jean Rousseau), the guide of the great void. Will he find a way to escape the torment that awaits him for eternity?

From producer Sam Raimi, the violent Boy Kills World may not have made a splash in theaters, but Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions are hoping you’ll check it out at home.

Boy Kills World is now available on Digital ($19.99 to rent, $24.99 to buy).

Starring Bill Skarsgård, the film from producers Sam Raimi and Roy Lee is described as “a one-of-a-kind action spectacle set in a dystopian fever dream reality.”

In Boy Kills World, “Boy (Bill Skarsgård) is a deaf-mute with a vibrant imagination. When his family is murdered, Boy escapes to the jungle and is trained by a mysterious shaman to repress his childish imagination and become an instrument of death.”

The cast also includes Happy Death Day star Jessica Rothe, Yayan Ruhian (John Wick 3, The Raid: Redemption), Andrew Koji (Warrior, Snake Eyes), Isaiah Mustafa (It: Chapter Two), Famke Janssen (The Postcard Killings), Sharlto Copley (District 9), Michelle Dockery (“Downton Abbey”), Brett Gelman (Stranger Things), Quinn Copeland (Peacock’s Punky Brewster), and twins Cameron and Nicholas Crovetti (Big Little Lies).

Moritz Mohr directed Boy Kills World, which was written by Arend Remmers (Sløborn) and Tyler Burton Smith (Kung Fury: The Movie).

One of Bloody Disgusting’s 10 Best International Horror Movies of 2023, home invasion nightmare Property was released onto Digital & On Demand by Dark Star Pictures on May 28.

The film won Best Picture at last year’s Fantastic Fest and has since garnered significant attention on the genre festival circuit, including screenings at Sitges, Edinburgh, and Berlin.

Dark Star previews, “Property is a riveting take on home invasion, that boldly delves into the political undertones of violence and power dynamics. Directed by Daniel Bandeira, the film takes place in a stately country house where a wealthy couple’s retreat is disrupted by the laborers from the surrounding farm. With its thought-provoking themes and visceral thrills, Property challenges viewers to confront the reality of violence and resistance in society, leaving a lasting impact long after the credits roll.”

Daniel Kurland, meanwhile, raved in the aforementioned ‘Best of 2023’ piece, “Property is Brazilian filmmaker Daniel Bandeira’s feature film debut that hits extra hard due to its too-real commentary on financial and social inequality. There have been many films during the past few years that put the “one percent” in their crosshairs. Property cooks with the same ingredients, but brings them to a boil with its claustrophobic reverse home invasion execution.”

“There’s a remarkably simple concept in play in Property, but Bandeira never overextends the film’s reach or makes its prolonged assault feel repetitive or formulaic,” he continued. “Property doesn’t cheat its way out of this premise and it’s easily the best trapped-in-a-car horror movie this side of Cujo, albeit with a more socially-minded and modern message.”

While we continue waiting for the Friday the 13th franchise to get off its ass, at least we have fresh new original slashers – inspired by the 1980s classics – to keep us entertained.

Like Terrifier 2 before it, upcoming slasher movie In a Violent Nature is being released into theaters on May 31 in its UNRATED form. It’s also coming soon to Shudder.

The unique arthouse slasher movie frames the slayings from the killer’s perspective, and audiences have already been losing their minds at the gory kills during preview screenings.

In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”

Chris Nash wrote and directed In a Violent Nature. Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, Reece Presley, Liam Leone, Charlotte Creaghan, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Sam Roulston, Alexander Oliver, and Lauren Taylor star in the slasher film.

Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but Nash’s approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”

A twisty story of greed, murder, and gourmet food, the psychological thriller What You Wish For starring Nick Stahl will be released by Magnet in theaters and on VOD this Friday.

Nicholas Tomnay wrote and directed the tasty thriller.

In the film, “Ryan (Nick Stahl) is a talented, down-on-his-luck chef with crushing gambling problems. Circumstances being what they are, he leaves town in a hurry for the safe haven of an unnamed Latin American country where his friend Jack (Brian Groh), a more prestigious chef with his own unique troubles, welcomes him into his home. Ryan has no idea how Jack’s able to afford his extravagant lifestyle cooking for the elite in paradise; he doesn’t want to feel envious, yet he can’t help but want this life for himself as well.

“Soon, a grim twist of fate will give that to him. Ryan assumes his friend’s identity and soon discovers just what Jack’s been doing to maintain the lifestyle he so desperately craved.”

Tamsin Topolski, Randy Vasquez, Penelope Mitchell, and Juan Carlos Messier also star.

Prolific genre filmmaker Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer) is back this week with Lumberjack the Monster, an adaptation of Kaibutsu no Kikori by Mayusuke Kurai. 

Lumberjack the Monster debuts on Netflix on Friday, June 1.

In the film, “Akira Ninomiya is a remorseless lawyer who doesn’t hesitate to eliminate anyone who stands in his way. One night he is brutally attacked by an unknown assailant wearing a monster mask. Although he miraculously survives the assault, Ninomiya becomes fixated on finding the attacker and getting revenge.

“Meanwhile, a series of gruesome murders occur where the victims are found with their brains removed from their bodies. While police conduct an intensive investigation, Ninomiya seeks revenge against the assaulter. Who will uncover the truth first?!”

Hiroyoshi Koiwai (Blade of the Immortal, Bleach) wrote the screenplay. Kazuya Kamenashi, Nanao, Riho Yoshioka, Shota Sometani, and Shido Nakamura star.

The post 8 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘In a Violent Nature’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The First Omen is available to own at digital retailers such as Apple TV, Prime Video and Fandango at Home. It also arrives on Hulu May 30 and comes to Blu-ray and DVD July 30.

Certified-Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, The First Omen comes with never-before-seen bonus extras on the May 28th digital release and also on the Blu-ray/DVD release arriving July 30.

Additionally, the Limited edition Blu-ray and DVD packages include collectible artwork and special edition packaging designed to celebrate the legacy of The Omen franchise.

One of the bonus features included with the release is titled “The Mystery of Margaret,” and you can watch an exclusive sneak peek clip from that featurette down below.

Director Arkasha Stevenson explains, “When I first read the script, one of the biggest reasons I wanted to be part of the project was because of the character of Margaret (Nell Tiger Free). There’s a lot going on with his woman, and there’s so much backstory to this character.”

The First Omen is an exceptional expansion on a classic, earning rave reviews across the board and impressing all of us here at Bloody Disgusting. Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “Thanks to the exquisite craftsmanship on display, beguiling Gothic horror, an impeccable cast, and an emotional journey that packs a wallop, The First Omen stands strong on its own.”

“Arkasha Stevenson doesn’t just helm a prequel worthy of Richard Donner’s classic but establishes herself as a bold new voice in horror,” Meagan’s 4-star review for BD continued.

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

The post ‘The First Omen’ Now Available at Home; Unravel “The Mystery of Margaret” With This Featurette Clip appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

20th Century Studios will release director Arkasha Stevenson’s The First Omen, a prequel to the original horror classic The Omen, on at-home Digital on May 28, 2024.

The film will also hit Hulu on May 30, followed by Blu-ray & DVD on July 30.

Bonus Features include:

• ‘The Mystery of Margaret’
• ‘The Director’s Vision’
• ‘Signs of the First Omen’

The First Omen is an exceptional expansion on a classic, earning rave reviews across the board and impressing all of us here at Bloody Disgusting. Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “Thanks to the exquisite craftsmanship on display, beguiling Gothic horror, an impeccable cast, and an emotional journey that packs a wallop, The First Omen stands strong on its own.”

“Arkasha Stevenson doesn’t just helm a prequel worthy of Richard Donner’s classic but establishes herself as a bold new voice in horror,” Meagan’s 4-star review for BD continued.

Nell Tiger Free stars in The First Omen.

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

The post ‘The First Omen’ Comes Home to Digital on May 28 and Hulu on May 30 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Horror has always served as a frightening mirror to reality. In his 1981 treatise on the genre Danse Macabre, author Stephen King writes, “we make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones”; it seems scary movies have been helping us do that since the earliest days of storytelling. Modern examples include The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) now considered a reaction to the 1973 oil crisis, Dawn of the Dead (1978) which stands as a horrific condemnation of consumerism, and the explosion of the torture porn subgenre in the wake of 9/11. As the United States enters a new phase of fear, two films have converged in an exploration of horrific pregnancy caused by religious abuse. As reproduction becomes more dangerous, Michael Mohan’s Immaculate and Arkasha Stevenson’s The First Omen both follow nuns impregnated against their will and forced to carry fetuses intended to save the world. 

It’s no coincidence that both films hit at a time of increased threat to reproductive rights. The 2022 Dobbs decision plunged the United States into medical chaos and rescinded the right to bodily autonomy for millions of women. A pregnant person’s access to care now depends on her zip code and laws regulating routine medical procedures are creating gynecological deserts which threaten the health and safety of all women. The opinions of politicians and lawyers weigh more than those of doctors and strangers have the right to challenge a person’s private medical decisions. Regardless of belief or ideology, the reality is that childbirth in the US is less safe than it was two years ago and becoming pregnant feels more like a horror movie with each passing day. Both films explore this horrific atmosphere by taking us to convents where women have willingly given their lives to the Lord. But even in this restrictive environment forced impregnation is an egregious violation and innocent women are treated as nothing more than available wombs. 

Though their stories vary wildly, both Immaculate and The First Omen begin in similar places. Two novitiates fly to Italian convents and prepare to take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney) has just moved into an abbey that doubles as an assisted living facility when she discovers that she is pregnant seemingly by immaculate conception. At first honored as a holy vessel, she quickly becomes a prisoner on the grounds, forced to carry whatever has been placed inside her womb. Serving as a mirror image to Cecilia, Stevenson’s novitiate Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) is still preparing to join the cloth when a priest approaches her with an ominous warning. As the pieces of this sinister story fall into place, Margaret realizes that she is pregnant with the devil’s child. She quickly gives birth to twins; an unnamed baby girl and a boy who will come to be known as Damien. Only concerned with her male offspring, the murderous clergy steal the baby and place him in the arms of an American ambassador, hoping to spread their dark influence across the world. 

Both films show the trauma of pregnancy and the violent nature of birth, but neither story concerns itself with the resulting babies. Aside from brief glances, these stories belong to the mothers and it is their experiences that bring the horror. However, the characters they engage with care only for the contents of their wombs. When Cecilia is attacked and nearly killed by a fellow sister, doctors immediately check the status of her pregnancy. They’re relieved to see that the fetus is fine, but the frightened young woman reminds them that she is not. She asks to be seen by an outside doctor and must fake a life-threatening miscarriage to be taken seriously. Margaret faces similar abandonment moments after giving birth. A priest carries her son to a waiting crowd and it’s not until she calls for the child she just delivered that they remember she’s still in the room. Both films also feature a pregnant woman pleading for release through a locked door – a haunting parallel to the experience of being trapped in an unwanted pregnancy. 

It’s important to note that neither woman gives consent for their conditions. We don’t see the moment Cecilia conceives, but we eventually learn that a priest dabbling in genetics has impregnated her with the ancient DNA of Jesus Christ. Margaret has been bred under a specific set of circumstances to create a mother capable of bearing the Antichrist. To achieve this evil goal, her fellow clergy drug and assault her in a hideous ritual that has been repeated many times before. Both Cecilia and Margaret have chosen a life of chastity and neither woman shows anything but horror at the traumatic months of gestation to come. Even though they have willingly dedicated their lives to God, they are forced to give up their bodies as well, sacrificing their mental and physical health for babies they never expected or wanted. 

Immaculate unfolds in three chapters, mirroring the major stages of a typical pregnancy. Sometime during the second trimester, Cecilia notices that she has lost a tooth. Likely a nod to superstitions about the loss of one tooth per child, this harrowing moment also reflects a larger truth. Growing and birthing another human being forever changes a person’s body. In addition to more well-known symptoms like nausea and postpartum depression, expectant mothers also experience gum disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, nosebleeds, and hair loss. Even the size of a woman’s feet have been known to change after giving birth. As her due date nears, Cecilia watches with trepidation as her belly begins to move on its own. While this can be an exciting feeling with a wanted child, Mohan presents these baby kicks with horror. An alien being has taken root inside Cecilia’s belly. Her body has been commandeered by a stranger and she can do nothing but wait for it to emerge. It’s easy to remember the bookends of pregnancy – conception and birth – forgetting that the pregnant person is “with child” every minute of 280 days. Mohan shows us the messy details in the middle and reminds us that reproduction is so much more than two isolated events. 

Also during the second trimester, Cecilia goes through what appears to be a miscarriage. She wakes up screaming and notices heavy blood pouring from between her legs. The frightened mother-to-be begs a priest to take her to a hospital and wails that she doesn’t want to die. This terrifying scene likely hits home to any woman who’s ever suffered pregnancy loss. The brutal experience is often marked by heavy bleeding as the body tries to expel the nonviable fetus. If emergency care does not follow, the mother could die due to excessive blood loss. If the uterus is not cleared of all fetal tissue, sepsis, infection, organ failure, and death may follow. We eventually learn that Cecilia has faked this miscarriage to escape the convent. With chicken’s blood covering her legs, she runs through a field as two priests drag her back to an idling car. While Cecilia’s life is not in immediate danger, this scene presents a horrifying reality playing out across the country. Cecilia simply wants medical care, but the men in control of her fate must believe that she is minutes away from death before they will act. 

Margaret only has a few hours to experience her awful pregnancy, but her labor is intense. Due to the baby’s demonic parentage, her belly rapidly balloons as the unholy twins expand inside her. On the chosen hour, she experiences debilitating spasms and falls to her knees as fluid gushes from between her legs. Cecilia’s water also breaks in the film’s final act, preceding a daring escape while she experiences active labor. After murdering her caretakers, she staggers through the convent halls seeking to kill anyone who stands in her way. But as she goes on her righteous rampage, contractions start to rip through her body. It’s a powerful depiction of this unique type of pain. The massive cramps drown everything else out and Cecilia has no choice but to wait for the current contraction to abate. She may be running from a murderous priest who will surely cut open her stomach and leave her for dead, but even then, the pain is so great that it stops her in her tracks. 

In addition to the trauma of labor, both films accurately depict the brutality of birth. While delivery can be a beautiful process, many women report a shockingly violent experience. Moments after her belly enlarges, Margaret is strapped to a gurney and rolled into a secret operating room. Stoic faces ignore her pleas for help and inject her with drugs to calm her down. Ominous medical tools are presented as instruments of torture and Margaret watches in helpless horror as the surgeons begin their work. They cut into her belly and jostle around inside her abdomen as they search for a membranous sac containing the twins. This terrifying scene reflects the experience of cesarean birth. Numb from the rib cage down, it’s still possible to feel the surgeon’s hands moving your body from side to side, rearranging internal organs and clearing a passage to pull out the baby.

Cecilia experiences a different kind of birth – arguably the film’s most powerful scene. After escaping the convent, she finds herself on the edge of a cliff surrounded by wilderness. The camera hovers inches from her face as she bears down and screams through her final contractions. The baby soon passes out of her body and Cecilia desperately tries to recapture her breath. Though we hear tiny coughs and gurgles from the product of her womb, we never see the so-called savior’s face. Cecilia severs the umbilical cord with her teeth and steps away from the reddish-brown creature wriggling on the ground. After locating a heavy rock, she braces herself and then slams it down on the newborn creature. This shocking moment perfectly captures her rage at this tiny stranger. She did not give permission for a fetus to grow inside her and she resents the way it has turned her life upside down. 

Both films explore the concept of good and bad women by following nuns who draw the line at sacrificing their wombs. Margaret tells a misunderstood orphan that she is not “bad,” explaining, “They just tell you that you are because you’re not doing what they want you to do.“ The Catholic church has been telling these two women what to do since birth. They have always been governed by someone else’s religious ideals and given no choice in the way they live out their own faith. As long as Cecilia and Margaret are playing their assigned roles in a hellish plot, they are considered good, even holy. But the minute they exert any will of their own, they are vilified and targeted for death. Another nun tells Cecilia that “suffering is love,” hoping to convince her to allow the abuse of her body. But suffering is only love when it is a choice. Cecilia never chose to be in this position and what happens to her can only be considered punishment. She and Margaret are punished simply because they have fertile wombs – a powerful reflection of what it feels like to be a woman in the US today. 

When Margaret realizes she has been impregnated, she immediately asks for an abortion, insisting, “I need it out of my now.” While upsetting, this sentiment is familiar to millions of women facing pregnancy in a country where religious ideology has taken precedence over medical care. Both films explore these relatable horrors and follow women who refuse to let their bodies be sacrificed to someone else’s understanding of God. Traumatized, assaulted, and violated in every conceivable way, Margaret and Cecilia attempt to murder their unholy offspring with varying levels of success. Though horrific, their actions challenge a patriarchal system that sees them as nothing more than vessels for reproduction. Neither woman renounces her faith and both stand against the hypocrisy that would harm one child of God to produce another. Though their stories end in different places, both women decide that a church that doesn’t care about the mother does not deserve the child. 

The post First Omens and Immaculate Conceptions: Pregnancy Horror Is Having a Moment appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Stream the episode below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. New to the Halloweenies? Catch up with the gang by revisiting their essential episodes on past franchises such as Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Scream, The Evil Dead, and Chucky. This year? Alien.

You can also become a member of their Patreon, The Rewind, for hilariously irreverent commentaries (e.g. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Gremlins), one-off deep dives on your favorite rentals (e.g. Saw, The Changeling), and even topical spinoffs like this past summer’s greatest adventure Fortune & Glory: An Indiana Jones Podcast.

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Patreon | Store

The post Now Showing: On ‘The First Omen’, ‘Late Night with the Devil’, ‘Stopmotion’, and More [Halloweenies Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Here are the coolest horror collectibles unveiled this week!

King Kong (1976) SteelBook 4K UHD from Paramount

The 1976 remake of King Kong is now available on SteelBook 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray via Paramount. The 134-minute theatrical version is presented in 4K with HDR., while the 182-minute TV cut is included on Blu-ray. No other special features are included.

From producer Dino De Laurentiis (Army of Darkness, Flash Gordon), the monster movie is directed by John Guillermin (The Towering Inferno, Death on the Nile) and written by Lorenzo Semple Jr. (Flash Gordon). Jeff Bridges, Charles Grodin, and Jessica Lange star.

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter Apparel from Gutter Garbs

Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter turns 40 tomorrow, and Gutter Garbs is celebrating with a design by Sam Coyne.

T-shirts for $30, long sleeves for $40, zip-up hoodies for $50, and 12×18 prints for $36 are available to pre-order through Sunday, April 14. They’ll ship the week of May 5.

The First Omen Vinyl Soundtrack from Mutant

The First Omen’s soundtrack is available on vinyl for $40 from Mutant. The score is composed by Mark Korven (The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Black Phone).

The 2xLP album is pressed on 140-gram gram vinyl with red and black variants. It’s housed in printed inner sleeves within a die-cut jacket designed by Mo Shafeek.

The Blair Witch Project Print from Gary Pullin

Hot on the heels of the news that Blumhouse is rebooting The Blair Witch Project, Gary Pullin is commemorating the landmark found footage film’s 25th anniversary with ominous artwork.

18×24 prints are available for $50. They’re expected to ship in May.

Dune: Part Two Steelbook 4K UHD from Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. is bringing Denis Villeneuve’s epic sci-fi sequel Dune: Part Two to Digital on April 16 followed by physical media on May 14, including a SteelBook 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital edition.

Villeneuve co-wrote the script with Jon Spaihts (Dune, Prometheus), based on Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel. Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Christopher Walken, Léa Seydoux, Souheila Yacoub, Stellan Skarsgård, Charlotte Rampling, and Javier Bardem star.

Over an hour of featurettes are included: Creating the Fremen World, Chakobsa Training, Finding the Worlds of Dune, Buzz Around the New Thopter, Worm-Riding, Becoming Feyd. A New Set of Threads, and Deeper into the Desert: The Sounds of the Dune.

For more merch madness, peruse the Killer Collectibles archives. You can also visit Broke Horror Fan.

The post 5 of This Week’s Coolest Horror Collectibles Including ‘The First Omen’ Vinyl Soundtrack appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In fact, there are a handful of specific horror films that informed most of the fears we now associate with the Satanic Panic, with some of the most influential being Richard Donner’s 1977 classic The Omen and its numerous follow-ups. Despite playing fast and loose with their religious influences, these movies would go on to popularize then-obscure bits of biblical lore (like the Satanic connotations of “666”) that most scholars had already dismissed as being figurative.

This is why it makes so much sense that Damien’s legacy continues to scare audiences to this very day, with the latest entry in the saga of the devil’s child raking in over $17 million during its debut weekend alone. And with nearly 50 years of Omen films to choose from, we’ve decided to celebrate the series with a definitive ranking of all six movies.

And while it’s technically a TV show, I’d also like to give a shout-out to A&E’s short-lived Damien series, an admittedly uneven show that still boasted an undeniably interesting premise (with the plot following an amnesiac Damien being forced to confront his Satanic origins).

With that out of the way, onto our The Omen franchise ranking…

6. Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981)

Watching an older Antichrist finally fulfill his promised role as the emissary of Satan sounds like an obviously thrilling conclusion to the Omen movies – especially when you bring in Sam Neill to portray the adult Damien and original director Richard Donner to produce the feature – but I guess there really are no guarantees in Hollywood.

Much to the dismay of horror fans, The Final Conflict feels a lot more like one of those hyper-Christian Omen knockoffs like The Omega Code rather than an official climactic conclusion to the series. And while Sam Neill is my favorite incarnation of Damien since Harvey Spencer Stephens, not even his demonic charms can save this one from being the worst in the franchise.

5. The Omen IV: The Awakening (1991)

The horror genre has always been fascinated with evil children, so it makes sense that original Omen producer Harvey Bernhard insisted on continuing the franchise after Damien’s inevitable death by bringing the story back to its roots. In this made-for-TV sequel, audiences are introduced to Delia York, Damien’s homicidal daughter and protector of the newly reborn Antichrist destined to continue Satan’s plans for humanity.

In all honesty, the TV budget and derivative storytelling make The Awakening an objectively worse product than every other film in the franchise, but I actually think that the flick’s schlocky thrills are what make it more entertaining than Part III. Delia certainly can’t compete with her predecessors, but a series of cartoonish deaths and new age mumbo jumbo make this a fun time for B-movie aficionados.

4. Damien – The Omen II (1978)

Following up on a bona fide classic is no easy task, so you’ve got to give Don Taylor and his team at least some credit for not taking the easy route and simply rehashing the events of the first movie. Chronicling the demonic exploits of a 13-year-old Damien as he uncovers his destiny while attending a military academy, The Omen II stands about by actually depicting the Devil’s Child as a real character this time around.

Of course, the added pathos can’t quite make up for a general lack of narrative direction – as well as a collection of sub-par scares. While there are a handful of exquisite death scenes here (with the elevator maiming being one of the best in the entire franchise), The Omen II simply isn’t as thrilling or as interesting as its predecessor even if it still works as a fun standalone horror movie.

3. The Omen (2006)

We’ve been retelling horror stories since time immemorial, so it was only a matter of time before one of the most influential scary movies of all time would be updated for a new generation. However, in the case of 2006’s inevitable Omen remake, the retelling wouldn’t really need to be updated all that much in order to make the film a massive box office hit.

A faithful recreation of much of what made the original so effective, the remake feels like a familiar new take on a classic play – which is both a good and a bad thing. The film can’t quite capture the same level of artistry and atmosphere as the original (even if the new cast is phenomenal), but it’s definitely a thrilling experience if you can separate it from its studio-mandated origins.

2. The First Omen (2024)

Many critics will tell you that prequels are an inherently bad idea because if a detailed backstory is good enough to warrant being told, it would have been told the first time around. That’s why I think Arkasha Stevenson’s The First Omen is a fascinating miracle of a film, using Damien’s history as a jumping off point to examine and expand on horrific concepts that were merely hinted at in the original film.

Sure, the end product is held back by a handful of fake-out jump-scares and completely unnecessary (and possibly studio-mandated) sequel bait that doesn’t jive well with the thoughtful craftsmanship that came before, but this prequel is still proof that passionate creators can breathe new life into even the most familiar of properties.

1. The Omen (1976)

Is it any surprise that the film that started it all would take the number one spot here? Richard Donner was one of the best filmmakers of his generation and the esoteric zeitgeist of the 70s made it the perfect time to tell a chilling story about the Antichrist, so I think it’s pretty clear that The Omen is a seminal example of “lightning in a bottle” filmmaking that can never be replicated.

From the incredibly memorable deaths to scenes and dialogue that are still referenced and parodied to this very day (with projects like Little Evil and Good Omens clearly being inspired by the story of Damien), there’s a reason why this film became such a big hit that it made the devil popular again.

The post ‘The Omen’ Franchise Ranking: All Six Movies from Worst to Best appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The First Omen is the franchise’s first movie since the lackluster remake back in 2006, which ended its worldwide box office run with $119 million. How will the new movie stack up?

In its debut weekend, The First Omen scared up $8.3 million in the States and another $9.1 million internationally, for a worldwide box office debut of $17,463,000.

For the sake of comparison, that worldwide number almost matches the domestic opening weekend total of The Omen back in 2006, which debuted to $16 million in the United States.

The reported production budget for The First Omen was $30 million – about $5 million more than the 2006 remake – so it needs to make quite a bit more before it’s profitable.

But the story here isn’t about box office but rather quality. Unlike the remake, The First Omen is an exceptional expansion on a classic, earning rave reviews across the board and impressing the hell out of all of us here at Bloody Disgusting. Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “Thanks to the exquisite craftsmanship on display, beguiling Gothic horror, an impeccable cast, and an emotional journey that packs a wallop, The First Omen stands strong on its own.”

“Arkasha Stevenson doesn’t just helm a prequel worthy of Richard Donner’s classic but establishes herself as a bold new voice in horror,” Meagan’s 4-star review for BD continued.

The First Omen is now playing in theaters nationwide. Don’t miss it.

Nell Tiger Free stars in The First Omen.

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

The post ‘The First Omen’ Debuts With $17 Million Worldwide Opening Weekend appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The First Omen, set in 1971, follows American novitiate Margaret Daino (“Servant” star Nell Tiger Free) as she’s sent to Rome to work in an orphanage before she takes the veil. As Margaret adapts to not just her new vocation but an entirely new country and a city in the throes of unrest, she finds herself drawn to socially withdrawn orphan Carlita (Nicole Sorace). It’s through her bond with and concern for Carlita that Margaret notices something amiss within the convent. It unlocks a fiercely guarded conspiracy involving the birth of the Antichrist that leaves her questioning her faith; and puts her life in the balance.

Visually, The First Omen impresses for the way it captures the period and Gothic atmosphere. It’s not just the soft lighting and sepia hues that evoke the early ’70s setting but the rich details from production designer Eve Stewart (Eternals) and costume designer Paco Delgado (Death on the Nile). It’s also in the way that Stevenson packs the frame with extras; this vision of Rome is picturesque, lively, and bustling, as it should be. It all lends a sense of scale, dropping the meek Margaret into a large city with few allies.

The screenplay by Tim Smith & Stevenson and Keith Thomas takes great care in handling its ties to the original film. There are obvious callbacks and relevant plot details, from the convent itself to Father Brennan, now played by horror stalwart Ralph Ineson. However, Stevenson finds inspired ways to expand beyond any limitations imposed by The Omen. For example, Mark Korven’s piercing score harkens back to Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar-winning score with its haunting choir vocals and the inclusion of “Ave Satani.” But Stevenson ensures it’s even more unsettling here in the way the score becomes diegetic sound, its haunting vocals interacting with and tormenting Margaret in parts.

Then there’s the matter of the Jackal; how The First Omen interprets the lore behind Damien’s birth is nothing short of incredible. Through this symbolic interpretation, The First Omen explores thematically heavy themes of sexual abuse within the Church without getting overly heavy-handed, thanks to its stunning vision of body horror. The subject matter is dark, but it’s handled with elegance and care without sacrificing the horror. It’s helped by chill-inducing imagery and smart horror influences, including Jacob’s Ladder and Possession.

The film’s strongest asset, of course, is Nell Tiger Free. The First Omen dedicates itself to delivering complex characters with rooting interest (or not), ensuring a compelling, robust arc for Margaret that transforms her from timid, sweet nun-to-be into a panic-stricken but resolute woman determined to thwart her superiors’ plans for destruction. Free fully commits to every stage of her character’s evolution, turning in a breathless physical performance that stuns on more than one occasion.

While The First Omen can’t completely avoid its prequel constraints, with certain plot elements easier to guess in advance for fans of the original, it does expand the story and offer new avenues for the franchise’s future. Thanks to the exquisite craftsmanship on display, beguiling Gothic horror, an impeccable cast, and an emotional journey that packs a wallop, The First Omen stands strong on its own. Arkasha Stevenson doesn’t just helm a prequel worthy of Richard Donner’s classic but establishes herself as a bold new voice in horror.

The First Omen releases in theaters on April 5, 2024.

The post ‘The First Omen’ Review – A Haunting, Powerful Prequel Worthy of the Horror Classic appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The new prequel movie from 20th Century Studios will unleash hell in theaters on April 5, 2024. It’s rated “R” for “Violent content, grisly/disturbing images, and brief graphic nudity.”

The First Omen is based on characters created by David Seltzer (The Omen), with a story by Ben Jacoby (“Bleed”) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas (Firestarter). It follows young novitiate Margaret (Nell Tiger Free) as she’s sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church. There, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.

Ahead of the film’s release, Bloody Disgusting spoke with filmmaker Arkasha Stevenson about tackling a prequel to a heralded classic, including a unique approach to sound and capturing period authenticity.

Creating a horror prequel comes with the unenviable task of keeping savvy audiences on their toes when the ending seems preordained. How do you keep viewers invested in a story with a seemingly forgone conclusion?

Stevenson walks us through her approach to that, “I think you actually stated the key to that is that we know what’s going to happen at the end, right? I think the script, we were just so in love with it because it dovetails into the ’76 version so seamlessly and answers the question of how Damien came into existence. For us, I work with a creative partner, Tim Smith, who is my co-writer on this. For us, there’s a lot of anxiety involved in trying to expand upon The Omen franchise. The original Omen is one of my favorite movies, and it’s a perfect film, so you kind of can’t touch it. But what the script allowed us to do was, it allowed us to explore a whole new character and a whole new world and journey that allowed us to bring our own personal thoughts and perspectives to it.

“I think that’s what Richard Donner did so well in the original, and why that film is such a classic is because everything’s very grounded. These relationships are very grounded. The camera and the way everything is covered is very egoless and un-stylistic, but very elegant. So, you’re constantly just aware of these relationships on screen, and then it’s really just in these very dramatic horror set pieces that you start to see a little bit more style, which I really loved and really appreciated. We wanted to emulate that a bit in this film by making it really character first and keeping the camera quite quiet until you start to feel the presence of something supernatural. This world is starting to swirl, and then the camera can take on a life of its own and become a little bit more stylish.“

Stevenson’s prequel takes place in 1971, a time and place familiar to The Omen fans. The director took care in establishing the period through sepia tones, soft lighting, and a robust cast of extras to further flesh out this lived-in world. Getting the period right was vital for Stevenson, and she credits her crew for bringing her vision to life.

She explains, “I think something that was really important to us was to make it feel like we’re in the 1970s. A big hope dream of mine was that maybe if somebody watched this in a double feature with the 1976 Omen, that maybe they would think our film was filmed in the same era. So aesthetically, really trying to couch it within that aesthetic. We got to work with these incredible collaborators. Eve Stewart was our production designer. Paco Delgado was our costume designer, and then our cinematographer was Aaron Morton. They had such a keen attention to detail that they were able to really transport us back in time.

“Then also, we got to shoot in Italy and we got to shoot in Rome. I think everybody, no matter what they do in Italy, is just an artist. It’s just in their blood. And so even the extras brought so much passion to what they were doing in the scenes. The riot scene was really daunting to me thinking about shooting that. We wrote it in and then realized, ‘Oh, we have to put this on camera.’ There was 300 extras.”

The First Omen also has a rather recognizable name among the crew in the credits: director Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey At Night). Collaborating with Roberts on The First Omen brought Stevenson full circle when it came to her love of horror.

“He did our second unit in principal photography, and he is just one of the most delightful humans on earth,” Stevenson said of Roberts. “He had known our producer, Keith Levine, who brought him on. It was really fun because his DP was Ryan Samul who did, have you seen this movie? We Are What We Are. He shot that. That was one of the films I saw going into film school that got me really excited about making films. So it was just this really interesting full circle moment.”

While The First Omen offers a myriad of ties to the original film in narrative and style, Arkasha Stevenson also pays tribute to Jerry Goldsmith‘s iconic score and “Ave Satani” from the original film. But it’s more than just a tribute; Stevenson evolves the score in The First Omen and brings it more directly into the horror.

“We got to work with Mark Korven, who I think is just such a dark genius,” Stevenson tells Bloody Disgusting. “It’s very intimidating to work with him just because I think he has a hand in a whole other world. The assumption would be in an Omen prequel that you’re going to use the Oscar-winning Goldsmith score. Something that was really important to both Mark and me was to be able to create something that felt like it could be a sister of that score but also was its own creature. Using vocals was really exciting because a lot of this has to do with Margaret’s suppressed intuition and trying to hear her own voice, while these exterior voices are also telling her so much.

“So, to create that feeling with the score by using these vocals that were slowly escalating throughout the entire film. But also, there are these moments where Margaret and the score interact with each other. There’s a moment where she hears the score and pays attention. Then there’s a moment later where the score is feeling what Margaret’s feeling, and physically, she gets pushed down on the bed, and the vocals go, ‘Whoop,’ like they just got pushed on the bed, and it created this feeling of a Greek choir was constantly surrounding her. I thought that was brilliant on Mark’s part.”

Much has already been teased about the near NC-17 rating the prequel almost received for a graphic scene, but there’s one key horror moment that’s sure to get horror fans talking that sees Nell Tiger Free channel her inner Isabelle Adjani from 1981’s Possession. That nod wasn’t accidental, either, as Stevenson walks us through what it was like filming this riveting scene.

“I mean, of course, we did a shameless Possession homage. That was, I think, one of my favorite moments in any film ever. I am obsessed with it, and it felt like such a natural climax for what Margaret was going through. Nell is a force of nature. One of the things that’s so amazing about her is that she is very aware of her body and very intuitive and very instinctual. So, in that scene, we didn’t know each other that well yet. That was the second week. It was, I think, maybe the first day of the second week. The crew was still getting to know each other. She was still trying to get to know the crew. And it was 4:00 AM. We had just smashed a car. Then it’s like, Nell walks on, and I’ve never been more nervous in my life.

“I don’t know why. Just because this, in itself, is such sacred territory and there’s a lot of pressure to bring your own vision to it. I was worried, ‘Does Nell feel comfortable?’ I was like, ‘Do you want music? Should we block it out? What do you want to do?’ And she was like, ‘I just want to do it.’ Okay, rock on. She did two takes, and that was it. Each take lasted over three minutes. I mean, I would just play the whole take. In the director’s cut, the whole takes in there.”

The post ‘The First Omen’ Director Arkasha Stevenson Reveals How The Score Plays a Unique Role in the Horror appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The prequel to The Omen is directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer (The Omen), with a story by Ben Jacoby (“Bleed”) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas (Firestarter).

The First Omen sees the shy Margaret sent to Rome in 1971 and explores the events surrounding the birth of the Antichrist. Ahead of the film’s release, Bloody Disgusting spoke with actor Nell Tiger Free about the film and the tribute she pays to 1981’s Possession with an impressive physical performance.

In The First Omen, Margaret finds herself drawn to an isolated young woman, Carlita (Nicole Sorace). In her bid to comfort and befriend the young girl, Margaret notices something may be deeply amiss at her new convent, and her superiors may have sinister designs on the young girls within the Church. It falls to the shy novitiate to attempt to thwart it. In other words, The First Omen taps into controversial themes of sexual abuse within the Church, something that Arkasha Stevenson and Nell Tiger Free took great care in approaching.

“We had very frank, open conversations about it,” Free explains. “Nothing was off the table as far as things to discuss with me and Arkasha. There was no limit to what she and I would talk about in every walk of life and sense of life. It found its way into our conversation very naturally because, politically, at the time, there were some serious things going on, and it just very naturally found its way into the conversation. We spoke through these things and worked out what we were both comfortable with and what we were both comfortable with being in this film and showing.

“I never for a second worried that anything was going to be gratuitous or that anything was going to be there for the sake of it. At the end of the day, this is a horror film. It’s here to entertain. It’s here for people to enjoy. We’re not trying to spoon-feed you any sort of message or anything, but it is an exploration of assault, and it is an exploration of being in control of your own body. Thematically, these things just made sense with the story that we were telling. And we tried to tell it in a way that is something that is not there to shock or offend. It’s not there for those reasons. It’s there because it makes sense for the story. Because Arkasha and I were working it out together, there was never a moment where I felt like I was pushed too far or felt uncomfortable, not for a second, because we wanted to tell the story. We wanted to tell it right.”

When asked whether she had a pre-existing relationship with the franchise before taking on the role, Nell Tiger Free reveals she’s a massive horror fan.

She tells us, “I loved the original. I’ve seen it countless times. I’m a big horror buff, so naturally, The Omen would be in my wheelhouse of things that I love to watch. Coincidentally, it was also something that I absolutely enjoyed performing. So it was just an all-around lovely full circle moment for me.”

The actor’s horror fandom is never more apparent than in a scene that sees Margaret grappling with an unseen force, resulting in a daunting physical performance that pays tribute to Isabelle Adjani‘s unforgettable tunnel scene in Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession. Even more impressive is that this stunning moment took only two takes.

“Oh my God, I could not tell you for all the money in the world what was going through my mind in that sequence,” Free says of her mindset during this performance. “I honestly couldn’t. We didn’t have any rehearsals, and we didn’t choreograph it or do anything like that. We had Possession as a reference, which was a brilliant reference, and we just went for it. If memory serves, it was two takes. I’d like to dispel any rumors that I was on sort of a pulley device or CGI. There’s none of that.

“It was just 4:00 AM somewhere in Northern Italy, and we were all deranged and halfway through shooting anyway, and it just happened. Do I know if it could happen again? I don’t know. I don’t know. But I’m lucky enough that Arkasha created an environment where I just wanted to push myself as hard as I possibly could for her. It was an exhausting thing to perform, but it was such a satisfying exhaustion. Even though it was a very difficult thing to do, I just have nothing but really, really fond memories of performing at that moment. I’m just happy that it seems to be being received well and that just means the world. So yeah, I’m grateful people are happy to watch this weird, freaky thing that we decided to do.”

More than just delivering a powerful horror moment on screen, playing Margaret helped Nell Tiger Free focus less on vanity and more on her performance. The actor encourages everyone to tap into their inner Adjani, too.

“This film has helped me so much because there is not a lot of opportunity for beauty in this movie, in the typical sense,” she explains. “That was a beautiful thing in itself; it was like the dance that we were talking about, that was an opportunity to tap into the ugliest, most brutalist, intense, animalistic side of myself and show it to the world. It felt amazing and liberating, as well as incredibly feminist and cathartic. I would implore you to go home and do it in the mirror because I’ve been telling people this.

“You should honestly give it a go. It feels amazing.”

The post ‘The First Omen’ Star Nell Tiger Free Pays Tribute to 1981’s ‘Possession’ Through Physical Horror [Interview] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

First released in 1976, The Omen stars Gregory Peck as affluent diplomat Robert Thorn. It begins on June 6, at 6 am in Rome, where Robert Thorn learns his newborn has died, and the Church convinces him to accept an orphaned infant in its place. Robert’s wife, Kathy (Lee Remick), is none the wiser.

As the child, Damien, turns five, it coincides with a wave of strange happenings and coincidences that leads Robert down a harrowing journey where he’ll discover his adoptive son may be the Antichrist.

Written by David Seltzer, The Omen was a massive commercial success upon release in theaters. Donner injected plenty of dread and shocking deaths, but the film also earned its place in the pantheon of horror classics for an unsettling performance by child actor Harvey Spencer Stephens as Damien and a number of iconic scenes, including the “All for You, Damien!” hanging that arrives a mere 13 minutes into the film.

Watch the featurette below to learn more about The Omen‘s legacy and its connections to the upcoming prequel, The First Omen.

Nell Tiger Free (“Servant”) stars in The First Omen, alongside Tawfeek Barhom (“Mary Magdalene”), Sonia Braga (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”), Ralph Ineson (The Witch, Onyx the Fortuitous), and Bill Nighy (“Living”).

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

The new movie is directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer (“The Omen”), with a story by Ben Jacoby (“Bleed”) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas (Firestarter).

The First Omen releases in theaters on April 5, 2024.

The post Exclusive ‘The First Omen’ Featurette Video Previews Connection to the Original Horror Classic appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

This new retro-style trailer isn’t merely a past trailer with a ’70s aesthetic applied to it, as it also features some bits of new footage from the movie that we hadn’t previously seen. The period-authentic trailer hypes the film as “a film of psychological suspense… about an occurrence of earth-shaking importance.” It’s a damn good trailer, nailing that retro vibe.

Tickets for The First Omen went up for grabs today, so you can navigate over to Fandango or your favorite movie ticketing website to grab yours if you like what you’re seeing below.

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

Nell Tiger Free stars in The First Omen.

The original 1976 horror classic, which starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, followed an American ambassador who believes his five-year-old son is the Antichrist.

The franchise to date includes five movies and the short-lived television series “Damien.” It’s been almost 20 years since the franchise was last seen on the big screen with a 2006 remake.

The post ‘The First Omen’ Embraces a 1970s Vibe With Retro Trailer and Poster Art appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Without spoiling anything, Stevenson explains to Fangoria that there’s a sequence in The First Omen where a woman is forced to give birth, and the “graphic nudity” in that scene is what almost landed the upcoming prequel movie an NC-17 rating from the MPA.

Stevenson previews, “The horror in that situation is how dehumanized that woman is. This has been my life for a year and a half, fighting for the shot. It’s the theme of our film. It’s the female body being violated from the inside outwards. If we were going to talk about female body horror, we were going to talk about forced reproduction, and we have to be able to show the female body in a non-sexualized light. I’m very proud of this shot.”

Producer Keith Levine adds, “We had to go back and forth with the ratings board five times. Weirdly, avoiding the NC-17 made it more intense.”

The article from Fangoria goes on to note that the shot originally lasted 13 seconds but was trimmed back to achieve the R rating. Learn more by reading the full article on Fangoria now.

Nell Tiger Free (“Servant”) stars in The First Omen, which 20th Century Studios will unleash on April 5. In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

The post One Graphic Scene Almost Gave ‘The First Omen’ an NC-17 Rating appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Nell Tiger Free (“Servant”) stars in The First Omen, which 20th Century Studios will unleash on April 5. Check out a new poster below, courtesy of Creepy Duck Design.

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

Tawfeek Barhom (“Mary Magdalene”), Sonia Braga (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”), Ralph Ineson (The Witch, Onyx the Fortuitous), and Bill Nighy (“Living”) also star.

The new movie is directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer (“The Omen”), with a story by Ben Jacoby (“Bleed”) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas (Firestarter).

The producers are David S. Goyer (Hellraiser) and Keith Levine (The Night House) and the executive producers are Tim Smith, Whitney Brown (“Rosaline”), and Gracie Wheelan.

The original 1976 classic, which starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, followed an American ambassador who believes his five-year-old son is the Antichrist.

The post ‘The First Omen’ – Blood Red Official Poster from Creepy Duck Design Witnesses the Birth of Evil appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The new prequel movie from 20th Century Studios will unleash hell in theaters on April 5, 2024. It’s rated “R” for “Violent content, grisly/disturbing images, and brief graphic nudity.”

Watch the official trailer for The First Omen below, which seems to again suggest that the new movie will introduce us to the mother of Damien – and show us the birth of true evil.

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

Tawfeek Barhom (“Mary Magdalene”), Sonia Braga (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”), Ralph Ineson (The Witch, Onyx the Fortuitous), and Bill Nighy (“Living”) also star.

The new movie is directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer (“The Omen”), with a story by Ben Jacoby (“Bleed”) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas (Firestarter).

The producers are David S. Goyer (Hellraiser) and Keith Levine (The Night House) and the executive producers are Tim Smith, Whitney Brown (“Rosaline”), and Gracie Wheelan.

The original 1976 classic, which starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, followed an American ambassador who believes his five-year-old son is the Antichrist.

Get all the latest headlines, reviews, and interviews along with exclusive podcasts, videos, and more with the Bloody Disgusting mobile app available on Apple or Google Play! 

The post ‘The First Omen’ – New Trailer for ‘The Omen’ Prequel Introduces You to the Mother of All Evil appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Nell Tiger Free (“Servant”) stars in The First Omen. Watch the new TV spot below, which features some new footage and promises “the most terrifying movie of the year.”

The new prequel movie from 20th Century Studios will unleash hell in theaters on April 5, 2024. It’s rated “R” for “Violent content, grisly/disturbing images, and brief graphic nudity.”

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

Tawfeek Barhom (“Mary Magdalene”), Sonia Braga (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”), Ralph Ineson (The Witch, Onyx the Fortuitous), and Bill Nighy (“Living”) also star.

The new movie is directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer (“The Omen”), with a story by Ben Jacoby (“Bleed”) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas (Firestarter).

The producers are David S. Goyer (Hellraiser) and Keith Levine (The Night House) and the executive producers are Tim Smith, Whitney Brown (“Rosaline”), and Gracie Wheelan.

The original 1976 classic, which starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, followed an American ambassador who believes his five-year-old son is the Antichrist.

The post ‘The First Omen’ – New TV Spot Promises the Most Terrifying Movie of the Year [Video] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Nell Tiger Free (“Servant”) stars in The First Omen. Check out the new shot below.

The First Omen is rated “R” for…

“Violent content, grisly/disturbing images, and brief graphic nudity.”

The brand new prequel movie from 20th Century Studios will unleash hell in theaters on April 5, 2024. You can watch the previously released official trailer down below.

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

Tawfeek Barhom (“Mary Magdalene”), Sonia Braga (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”), Ralph Ineson (The Witch, Onyx the Fortuitous), and Bill Nighy (“Living”) also star.

The new movie is directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer (“The Omen”), with a story by Ben Jacoby (“Bleed”) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas (Firestarter).

The producers are David S. Goyer (Hellraiser) and Keith Levine (The Night House) and the executive producers are Tim Smith, Whitney Brown (“Rosaline”), and Gracie Wheelan.

The original 1976 classic, which starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, followed an American ambassador who believes his five-year-old son is the Antichrist.

The post ‘The First Omen’ – New Image of “Servant” Star Nell Tiger Free in Franchise Prequel Movie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The First Omen is rated “R” for…

“Violent content, grisly/disturbing images, and brief graphic nudity.”

The brand new prequel movie from 20th Century Studios will unleash hell in theaters on April 5, 2024. You can watch the previously released official trailer down below.

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

Nell Tiger Free (“Servant”), Tawfeek Barhom (“Mary Magdalene”), Sonia Braga (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”), Ralph Ineson (The Witch, Onyx the Fortuitous), and Bill Nighy (“Living”) star.

The new movie is directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer (“The Omen”), with a story by Ben Jacoby (“Bleed”) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas (Firestarter).

The producers are David S. Goyer (Hellraiser) and Keith Levine (The Night House) and the executive producers are Tim Smith, Whitney Brown (“Rosaline”), and Gracie Wheelan.

The original 1976 classic, which starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, followed an American ambassador who believes his five-year-old son is the Antichrist.

The post ‘The First Omen’ Has Been Rated “R” for Disturbing Images and Graphic Nudity appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

From the spectral spirits of the Ghostbusters franchise to the masked maniacs who call themselves The Strangers, this year is going to be home to several new installments in iconic horror franchises. Here are 10 horror franchises being reanimated in 2024.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – March 22

The firehouse freezes over in director Gil Kenan’s new installment in the classic franchise, which brings back the original Ghostbusters and the brand new characters from Ghostbusters: Afterlife for a chilly sequel that returns the franchise to its most iconic location: NYC.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire – March 29

The fifth installment in Legendary’s Monsterverse should get a nice box office boost from the ongoing success of Toho’s Godzilla Minus One, and this time around the King of the Monsters and the King of Kong are teaming up to face a common enemy. Let them fight unite!

The First Omen – April 5

It’s been 18 years since The Omen franchise was last seen on the big screen, but that box office dry spell is broken this year with The First Omen. This one’s a prequel to the original classic, presumably giving us a front row seat to the birth of evil incarnate.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 – May 17

The Man in the Mask, Dollface and Pinup Girl are back in 2024 with the new release of The Strangers: Chapter 1, the first installment in a new reboot trilogy from director Renny Harlin. This one is set at a secluded Airbnb, with the sequels possibly coming this year as well.

A Quiet Place: Day One – June 28

After two installments in the Quiet Place saga, this summer’s A Quiet Place: Day One will be the first spinoff tale set in the universe. In other words, it’s not centered on the Abbott family, and it’s expected to be a prequel tale seemingly set in NYC. Lupita Nyong’o leads the cast.

Untitled Alien Event Movie – August 16

It’s likely that the marketing campaign for director Fede Alvarez’s untitled Alien movie will be kicking off soon, and all we know at the moment is that it’s set to return the franchise to its smaller scale 1979 roots. The untitled movie is reportedly set between the first two films.

Beetlejuice 2 – September 6

Tim Burton is back, Michael Keaton is back, Winona Ryder is back, and Jenna Ortega is Lydia’s daughter in the long-long-long-awaited sequel to Beetlejuice from Tim Burton that’s likely to be a smash hit at the box office. Stay tuned for that first trailer, coming soon!

Saw XI – September 27

Last year’s Saw X brought Jigsaw and Amanda back and successfully revived the franchise, so it’s no surprise that Saw XI is already in the works. We expect Jigsaw will return once more in the eleventh movie, which could very well serve as a direct sequel to Saw X.

Smile 2 – October 18

Parker Finn’s box office hit Smile becomes a franchise with Smile 2 this Halloween, with Finn returning to write and direct and Lukas Gage and Naomi Scott on board to star. Not much is known about the sequel at this time, but it’s expected to go bigger than the first film.

Terrifier 3 – October 25

A true modern horror icon, Art the Clown is back in Terrifier 3 this Halloween, though don’t let the release date fool you: the new sequel is a Christmas movie! Lauren LaVera will return as badass final girl Sienna, and Art will surely decorate the halls with chunks of bodies.

Wolf Man – October 25

Following in the wake of his bold new take on The Invisible Man, Leigh Whannell returns to the Universal Monsters arena with Wolf Man, a fresh spin on the classic werewolf tale that’s being led by Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner. With Whannell in charge, we’re in good hands.

Nosferatu – December 25

The genre’s Christmas gift to all fans this year is Nosferatu, a new version of the original classic that’s being directed by Robert Eggers. Bill Skarsgård stars as iconic vampire Count Orlok, and the film is set in 19th century Germany. Expect a classic horror feast for the senses.

MaXXXine – ?

Ti West and Mia Goth are back this year with A24’s MaXXXine, a sequel to X and Pearl that will continue the twisted adventures of Goth’s “final girl” character from X. The final film in the trilogy is set in the 1980s, once again giving this franchise a whole new twist.

Salem’s Lot – ?

Director Gary Dauberman’s re-adaptation of the classic Stephen King horror novel has been pushed off the release calendar completely, leaving us to wonder what the hell is going on with this one. But we hear it’s expected this year, likely going to straight to Max. Stay tuned.

Friday the 13th – ?

Another project without a release date, Jason Voorhees and Mrs. Voorhees will FINALLY return in “Crystal Lake,” a television series from A24, Peacock and “Hannibal” creator Bryan Fuller that might be coming this year. It’s said to be a prequel tale for the Voorhees family.

The Toxic Avenger – ?

One of the most bizarre horror movies of the year is likely to be director Macon Blair’s new twist on Troma classic The Toxic Avenger, with Peter Dinklage starring alongside Kevin Bacon and Elijah Wood. And don’t worry. It’s rated “R” for violence and extreme gore.

Witchboard – ?

The last horror franchise return on our radar this year (so far) is Witchboard, with the 1986 horror movie getting a remake from director Chuck Russell (Dream Warriors, The Blob). Madison Iseman stars, and you can check out a first-look image above.

The post These 17 Horror Movie Franchises Are Coming Back to Life in 2024 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Thankfully, the horror genre seems to be especially blessed with filmmakers that see prequels as an opportunity to tell original stories within an established world. I mean, some folks even thought that last year’s Pearl was even better than X, and the trailer for Arkasha Stevenson’s upcoming The First Omen looks like it kicks all kinds of ass – and that’s precisely why we’ve decided to come up with a list highlighting six underrated horror prequels for your viewing pleasure!

While we’ll be shying away from acclaimed prequels like Prey and Orphan: First Kill in order to focus on films that deserve a bit more love, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorites if you think we missed a particularly fun one.

Now, onto the list…

6. Cube Zero (2004)

While none of its follow-ups could quite match the quality of the original, I’d still argue that there are no bad Cube movies. Finding creative ways to get around their limited budgets and extract tension from what basically amounts to a single location, all four of these movies have their unique merits – which is why Cube Zero makes it onto the list.

Sure, it’s guilty of the cardinal sin of explaining things that were better left unknown in the original, but dividing our focus between the victims of the titular cube and its voyeuristic operators makes this a refreshingly unique experience. Zero may lack some of the mystery of its predecessors, but I love how the ending ties in with the original film, and you can still enjoy this one even if you haven’t seen the others.

5. Psycho IV: The Beginning (1990)

A&E’s Bates Motel is now known as the definitive Psycho prequel (which makes sense, given the show’s iconic performances by both Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore), but it wasn’t the first attempt at fleshing out Norman Bates’ twisted backstory. Back in 1990, genre filmmaker Mick Garris teamed up with the original screenwriter of Hitchcock’s horror classic (Joseph Stefano) to bring us an extremely underappreciated made-for-TV movie concerning the origins of one of cinema’s most iconic killers.

Told through a series of flashbacks as Anthony Perkins reprises his role as a seemingly rehabilitated killer and calls into a radio show in order to share his life story, Psycho IV dives into the disturbing details of Norman’s upbringing and his eventual homicidal tendencies. It doesn’t quite live up to the original (and how could it?), but there’s no denying that this is one hell of a fun time despite its network limitations.

4. Leatherface (2017)

I’ve stated numerous times that I think every single Texas Chainsaw Massacre sequel is worth watching for one reason or another, and that’s why I’ve always found it surprising how many people dislike the 2016 prequel Leatherface. From the family secretly working for the illuminati to Alexandra Daddario adopting her flesh-eating cousin like an elderly guard-dog, this franchise is versatile enough to tell nearly any kind of story – so I don’t understand why so many fans draw the line at a down-to-earth tale about troubled youths fleeing a mental institution.

Yes, the film borrows freely from The Devil’s Rejects and could have used some more genuine scares (which were present in the original script but ended up being toned down during production), but I really appreciate the flick’s character work and how it gets around the predictable prequel issue by playing with our expectations regarding which one of these runaways will grow up to be the titular Leatherface. It may not be a masterpiece, but it’s a guaranteed good time for fans of neo-exploitation.

3. Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)

Shot back-to-back with Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, Grant Harvey’s Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning is a curious case of a prequel set so far into the past that it only tangentially relates to the original. Telling a peculiar story about the 19th century incarnations of the Fitzgerald sisters who find themselves trapped in Fort Bailey while being hunted by werewolves, you really don’t need to have seen the other films in order to enjoy this low-budget period piece.

And while you could spend hours debating about how exactly Ginger Snaps 3 ties into the modern-day timeline of the series (I mean, are Brigitte and Ginger destined to reincarnate indefinitely due to the Werewolf curse or is this meant to be a “what if” situation?), I enjoy this schlocky prequel due to its impeccable atmosphere and practical werewolf effects.

2. Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)

Multiple different versions of films have existed since the dawn of cinema (especially when producers began to meddle in the affairs of directors in order to appeal to broader audiences), but there are very few cases of conflicting versions of the same project being released as completely different movies. Case in point, the heavily reworked Exorcist: The Beginning may have been a messy schlock-fest that cheapened an iconic franchise, but its restored counterpart is a much better experience that even managed to impress William Peter Blatty.

This 2005 release still isn’t quite Paul Shrader’s original vision, as the studio refused to give him enough money to properly finalize post-production, but it’s much better than what they put out in 2004 and worth a watch if you’re a fan of slow-burn faith-based terror.

1. Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

The idea of a found footage prequel sounds silly on paper, but Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman knocked it out of the park when it came time to bring Paranormal Activity into the 1980s with their unexpectedly fun threequel.

Sure, the flick doesn’t re-invent the wheel when it comes to found footage frights and it’s a lot harder to justify the excessive amount of recordings (and high-definition widescreen video) in the days of VHS, but this lo-fi prequel boasts some of the most memorable scares in the franchise – not to mention an ending that ties up the original trilogy’s mythology with a neat little bow.

The post Six Underrated Horror Prequels to Watch Ahead of ‘The First Omen’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

Today’s first-look trailer ran only a minute long and featured very little footage from the upcoming movie, giving us only a small taste of the prequel storyline. All of the footage was eerily presented in reverse – the new movie is, after all, going back to the beginning – giving us glimpses of the new characters played by Nell Tiger Free, Ralph Ineson and Bill Nighy.

What you may not have noticed is that the final seconds of The First Omen‘s trailer feature a short soundbite that’s also played in reverse. This was noticed by @BreaktheProblem over on Twitter, who cracked the code and reversed the soundbite back to normal. What he found was a hidden Easter Egg in the trailer, one that calls back to the original classic.

The soundbite is from the moment in Richard Donner’s The Omen (1976) when Damien’s nanny hangs herself and utters the iconic phrase: “Look at me, Damien. It’s all for you.”

Check out @BreaktheProblem’s tweet below to hear The First Omen‘s hidden trailer soundbite un-reversed, along with the clip from the 1976 horror classic that it was taken from.

The new movie is directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer (“The Omen”), with a story by Ben Jacoby (“Bleed”) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas (Firestarter).

The original 1976 classic, which starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, followed an American ambassador who believes his five-year-old son is the Antichrist.

They threw in a nice call back to the original at the end. Here it is reversed. pic.twitter.com/mgMuSgn8jQ

— Ken (@BreaktheProblem) January 3, 2024

The post ‘The First Omen’ Trailer Features a Hidden Reverse Soundbite That Calls Back to the Original Classic appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The brand new prequel movie from 20th Century Studios will unleash hell in theaters on April 5, 2024, and as promised, the first official trailer has debuted online this morning.

Watch the trailer for The First Omen below, which comes along in the wake of four installments in the original franchise, a 2006 remake, and the aforementioned television series.

“To control those who don’t believe,” the trailer teases of the new movie’s approach, “create something to fear.” The film seems to be about the birth of Damien, the devil child from the original classic, though we could be witnessing the rise of a different force of evil altogether. This first look is surprisingly retro and restrained in its approach – as is the official poster art that you’ll also find below – suggesting a new take on the 1970s horror movie that’s at least trying to channel some of that classic spirit. It’s a good start, and we’re excited to see more.

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

Nell Tiger Free (“Servant”), Tawfeek Barhom (“Mary Magdalene”), Sonia Braga (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”), Ralph Ineson (The Witch, Onyx the Fortuitous), and Bill Nighy (“Living”) star.

The new movie is directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer (“The Omen”), with a story by Ben Jacoby (“Bleed”) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas (Firestarter).

The producers are David S. Goyer (Hellraiser) and Keith Levine (The Night House) and the executive producers are Tim Smith, Whitney Brown (“Rosaline”), and Gracie Wheelan.

The original 1976 classic, which starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, followed an American ambassador who believes his five-year-old son is the Antichrist.

The post ‘The First Omen’ – First Trailer for New Prequel Movie Creates Something to Fear appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The First Omen will open in theaters on April 5, 2024, and the official trailer will arrive online tomorrow, January 3. While you wait, check out a short teaser video below.

And come on back tomorrow to watch The Omen prequel trailer right here on BD!

In the film, “When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

The First Omen stars Nell Tiger Free (“Servant”), Tawfeek Barhom (“Mary Magdalene”), Sonia Braga (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”), Ralph Ineson (The Witch, Onyx the Fortuitous), and Bill Nighy (“Living”).

The film is directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer (“The Omen”), with a story by Ben Jacoby (“Bleed”) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas (Firestarter).

The original 1976 classic, which starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, followed an American ambassador who believes his five-year-old son is the Antichrist.

That film spawned three sequels, including 1978’s Damien: Omen II and 1981’s The Final Conflict, as well as the 2006 reboot. There was also a short-lived “Damien” television series.

The producers are David S. Goyer (Hellraiser) and Keith Levine (The Night House) and the executive producers are Tim Smith, Whitney Brown (“Rosaline”), and Gracie Wheelan.

The post ‘The First Omen’ – First Footage from ‘The Omen’ Prequel Movie Previews Tomorrow’s Full Trailer appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Welcome to Bloody Disgusting’s 2024 Horror Preview.

How massive will 2024 be for horror? If this preview of the year’s looming horror offerings is any indication, horror fans may be spoiled for choice. Of course, expect some release dates to shift and many surprises yet to get announced in the coming months. In other words, this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Here are 51 horror movies we’re excited to check out in 2024.

Mayhem! – January 5

Xavier Gens, the filmmaker behind New French Extremity entry Frontier(s), is kicking off the new year with a violent actioner follows a boxer’s quest for bone-breaking, merciless revenge. Enough said.

Night Swim – January 5

It’s not the house that’s haunted here, but a swimming pool. Wyatt Russell (Overlord) and Kerry Condon star in this high concept horror movie from writer/director Bryce McGuire, based on the acclaimed 2014 short film by Rod Blackhurst and Bryce McGuire.

Destroy All Neighbors – January 12

Alex Winter and Jonah Ray Rodrigues star in this Shudder original splatter-comedy that combines gory practical effects with prog-rock mayhem. Rodrigues leads as the aspiring musician who unwittingly leaves a pile of dead (and undead) bodies in his quest for rock stardom.

I.S.S. – January 19

When war breaks out globally, astronauts aboard the International Space Station receive orders to take control by any means necessary. Tensions and paranoia escalate in what appears to be an intense zero gravity thriller with an impressive cast that includes Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina (The Boogeyman), Pilou Asbaek (Run Sweetheart Run, “Game of Thrones”), John Gallagher Jr. (10 Cloverfield Lane, Hush), Costa Ronin, and Masha Mashkova.

The Seeding – January 26

The feature debut of director Barnaby Clay evokes the gritty horror of the ‘70s and centers on a hiker lost in the desert. He seeks refuge from an isolated woman living alone, a setup ripe for grim horror.

Lisa Frankenstein – February 9

An ‘80s set coming of rage love story between an unpopular high school student and the perfect dead she’s resurrected for herself. The goth lovebirds with a penchant for murder are played by Kathryn Newton (Freaky) and Cole Sprouse (“Riverdale”). The Weird Science-inspired tale was written by Diablo Cody (Jennifer’s Body) and directed by Zelda Williams.

Out of Darkness – February 9

Stone age horrors will be unleashed in the upcoming Out of Darkness, which had previously been titled The Origin. The paleolithic set film follows a group of survivors attempting to find a new home in an unforgiving land, only to find themselves being hunted.

Monolith – February 16

Evil Dead Rise star Lily Sullivan plays a podcaster drawn into a strange alien conspiracy when embarking on her latest project. Expect a quiet, meditative chiller centered almost entirely around Sullivan.

History of Evil – February 23

A family on the run from an oppressive rule takes shelter in a remote safe house. But the house harbors a dark, insidious past that seems to awaken with the arrival of the family.

Stopmotion – February 23

Aisling Franciosi (The Last Voyage of the Demeter, The Nightingale) stars as a stop-motion animator who is struggling to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. To cope, she begins a new creepy puppet feature, which winds up becoming the battleground for her sanity as the puppets take on a life of their own.

Imaginary – March 8

A stuffed bear named Chauncey gets bloodthirsty in the upcoming horror movie from Jeff Wadlow (Cry Wolf, Kick-Ass 2, Truth or Dare, Fantasy Island, The Curse of Bridge Hollow). DeWanda Wise (Jurassic World Dominion) leads the cast as the woman who must take on a sinister imaginary friend.

Love Lies Bleeding – March 8

Revenge gets ripped in Saint Maud director Rose Glass’s romantic thriller starring Kristen Stewart as a gym manager Lou, who falls for a body builder (Katy O’Brian). The couple get embroiled in vengeance and violence thanks to Lou’s criminal family.

Late Night with the Devil – March 22

Up next from Australian writing-directing team Colin and Cameron Cairnes (100 Bloody Acres, Scare Campaign) is found footage horror Late Night With the Devil, with David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) starring as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare.

You’ll Never Find Me – March 22

A torrential downpour late one evening brings an unexpected Visitor (Jordan Cowan) to a stranger’s door in a quiet RV park. The man, Patrick (Brendon Rock), invites the Visitor inside to dry off and take refuge from the raging storm outside. It sparks an eerie cat-and-mouse game where not everything is as it seems in the feature directorial debut by Indianna Bell and Josiah Allen.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – March 29

In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the Spengler family returns to where it all started – the iconic New York City firehouse – to team up with the original Ghostbusters, to battle a supernatural threat that’s rendered the city an icy wasteland. Gil Kenan (Monster House, Poltergeist) directed the upcoming sequel.

The First Omen – April 5

The prequel to the classic horror film franchise sees a woman travel to Rome to begin a life in service to the Church, only to uncover a dark conspiracy that seeks to birth a great evil. Nell Tiger Free (“Servant”) leads a cast that also includes Ralph Ineson (The Witch, Onyx the Fortuitous) and Bill Nighy (“Living”).

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire – April 12

The fifth entry in Legendary’s MonsterVerse sees titans Godzilla and King Kong teaming up to combat a world-ending new threat. This sequel was written by Simon Barrett (You’re Next, The Guest) and directed by franchise returnee Adam Wingard.

Untitled Universal Monster Thriller – April 19

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett helm this currently untitled Universal Monster movie that sees a group of criminals bite off far more than they can chew when they kidnap a young girl. As if this isn’t enticing enough, the untitled film stars Melissa Barrera and Dan Stevens.

Infested – April 26

Arachnophobes beware: this creepy crawly horror movie sees a venomous spider let loose upon an apartment building, where it quickly spawns hundreds of offspring.

Horrorscope – May 10

College friends find themselves dying in fates revealed by mysterious horoscope readings, based on the novel by Nicholas Adams. Jacob Batalon (“Reginald the Vampire”), Alana Boden (The Invitation), Adain Bradley (Wrong Turn: The Foundation) and Avantika (Senior Year) star.

The Strangers: Chapter 1 – May 17

Based on the original 2008 cult horror franchise, the project features Madelaine Petsch, who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend (Froy Gutierrez) to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest. The couple soon runs afoul of the masked strangers. Chapter 1 marks the first of three installments from director Renny Harlin.

The Watchers – June 7

Director Ishana Night Shyamalan‘s feature debut stars Georgina Campbell (Barbarian) and Dakota Fanning, and adapts A.M. Shine‘s novel. The plot sees a woman trapped with three strangers, all stalked by mysterious creatures every night.

A Quiet Place: Day One – June 28

The next installment in Paramount’s hit horror franchise, A Quiet Place: Day One is set to be a universe-expanding spinoff movie. Plot details are currently under wraps, but Lupita Nyong’o (Us),  Joseph Quinn (“Stranger Things”) and Alex Wolff (Hereditary) star.

Trap – August 2

The latest from writer/director M. Night Shyamalan is a psychological thriller set at a concert. Details remain scarce, other than the upcoming feature stars Josh Hartnett.

Borderlands – August 9

Unlikely heroes must battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect a missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power in Eli Roth’s video game adaptation. The ensemble cast includes Jack Black as Claptrap, Florian Munteanu as Krieg, Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis, Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Kevin Hart as Roland, and Gina Gershon as Moxxi.

Speak No Evil – August 9

In this remake of the 2022 Danish horror movie will follow a family’s descent into an unimaginable psychological nightmare when they accept a holiday invitation from another family they’ve just met. What could go wrong? James McAvoy stars.

Untitled Alien Event Movie – August 16

An original Alien feature set between the events of the first two films, directed by Fede Alvarez (Evil Dead, Don’t Breathe).  Cailee Spaeny (The Craft: Legacy, Pacific Rim Uprising) leads the cast alongside Isabela Merced, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu. Ridley Scott produces.

Beetlejuice 2 – September 6

Tim Burton is back with the long awaited sequel Beetlejuice 2, which will feature Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder alongside several faces fresh to Burton’s afterlife. No word yet on plot details, but it’s known that Jenna Ortega will be playing the daughter of Lydia Deetz, the character Winona Ryder is of course returning to play.

Saw XI – September 27

Tobin Bell’s Jigsaw returned in 2023’s Saw X and it was a huge success, making this sequel no surprise. While plot details haven’t been revealed, it feels safe to predict that Saw XI might explore the epic showdown teased in the end credits of Saw X.

Smile 2 – October 18

Parker Finn’s Smile, an adaptation of his own short film Laura Hasn’t Slept, will expand its world with this year’s Smile 2. Plot details, of course, are under wraps at this time, but Naomi Scott has been announced as the lead.

Terrifier 3 – October 25

The third entry in Damien Leone’s popular film series sees Art the Clown expanding his slaying ground. The ruthless killer is set to unleash chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve.

The Wolf Man – October 25

Leigh Whannell is reteaming with Universal and Blumhouse to direct a new take on the Wolf Man, with Christopher Abbott (Possessor, Poor Things) in the lead role.

Nosferatu – December 25

Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu is a gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman in 19th century Germany and the ancient Transylvanian vampire who stalks her. Willem Dafoe, Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Emma Corrin and Lily-Rose Depp star in the highly anticipated feature.

Blackout – Quarter 1, 2024

The latest from Larry Fessenden follows small town artist Charley (Alex Hurt), a tortured man whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might likely be a werewolf. Dark Sky Films will release the werewolf tale in the first quarter of 2024.

Ash – TBD

Musician-turned-director Flying Lotus (Kuso) recently directed a segment in Bloody Disgusting’s V/H/S/99, and his next project will be a sci-fi thriller titled Ash. Eiza Gonzalez and Aaron Paul star in the paranoid horror movie, and recently released first look images signal strong potential for a 2024 release.

Blacula – TBD

Deon Taylor (The Intruder) helms this reboot that picks up where the original saga left off, after the 1973 sequel Scream Blacula Scream, and will be set in a metropolitan city post-coronavirus pandemic. In a recent Variety piece, the outlet noted that the upcoming Blacula reboot movie is “slated for release next Halloween.”

Caddo Lake – TBD

This M. Night Shyamalan produced feature revolves around an eight-year-old’s disappearance on Caddo Lake, linking past deaths and disappearances that’ll irrevocably alter a broken family. The cast includes Dylan O’Brien, Eliza Scanlen, Lauren Ambrose, Eric Lange, Sam Hennings and Diana Hopper. That Caddo Lake received an MPA rating indicates that a release date shouldn’t be too far behind, making this a likely 2024 release.

The Crow – TBD

From director Rupert Sanders (Snow White and the Huntsman, Ghost in the Shell), Bill Skarsgård (IT) is leading the cast of a brand new take on The Crow as Eric Draven, with singer/actor FKA Twigs co-starring. Danny Huston (30 Days of Night) also stars, alongside Laura Birn (Foundation), Sami Bouajila (A Son), and Jordan Bolger (The Woman King). The reboot is expected to release sometime in 2024.

Cuckoo – TBD

Luz director Tilman Singer is back with another horror movie. Plot details remain scarce, but production images suggest a potential slasher. We’re in either way, between Singer and a cast that includes Dan Stevens (The Guest) and Jessica Henwick (Underwater) as well as Hunter Schafer (“Euphoria”), Marton Csókás (Freelance), Greta Fernández (Santo) and Jan Bluthardt (Luz).

Frankie Freako – TBD

Psycho Goreman filmmaker Steven Kostanski‘s latest stars Conor Sweeney (The Editor, Father’s Day) as he accidentally lets loose “a trio of tiny trouble-makers into his home, led by the maniacal rock-n-roll party monster Frankie Freako.”

Handling the Undead – TBD

A strange phenomena erupts across Oslo, causing a strange spike in electricity that resurrects people who recently died. The Norwegian film is the feature-length directorial debut of filmmaker Thea Hvistendahl. The horror drama feature is based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let the Right One In). Lindqvist co-wrote the script along with the director.

Hostile Dimensions – TBD

Found footage sci-fi horror film Hostile Dimensions is poised to unleash multiverse madness in 2024. Two documentary filmmakers investigating a missing artist instead find themselves in an interdimensional nightmare.

I Saw the TV Glow – TBD

Two teenagers bond over a scary TV show, but the series’ cancellation causes a rift in reality. Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) helms this A24 horror film starring Justice Smith (Jurassic World Dominion) and Brigette Lundy-Paine (Bill & Ted Face the Music, Bombshell).

In a Violent Nature – TBD

Shudder’s upcoming slasher follows “the enigmatic resurrection, rampage, and retribution of an undead monster in a remote wilderness.” The streaming service acquired this slasher ahead of Sundance and is expected to debut the film sometime in 2024.

Longlegs – TBD

Up next from writer/director Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel & Hansel) is the Nicolas Cage horror movie Longlegs, which sees the actor playing a serial killer. Maika Monroe also stars. That the MPA gave this an R-rating teases that NEON will likely target a 2024 release.

MaXXXine – TBD

The third entry in Ti West’s slasher trilogy that began with X and continued with Pearl “follows Maxine (Mia Goth), after the events of X, as the sole survivor who continues her journey towards fame, setting out to make it as an actress in 1980’s Los Angeles.”

Salem’s Lot – TBD

The James Wan-produced reboot of Stephen King’s novel, directed by Gary Dauberman (It, The Nun, Annabelle Comes Home), has been delayed and shelved so frequently that we’re not holding our breath. Instead, we’re hoping 2024 is the year it finally surfaces and gets a proper release.

Shelby Oaks – TBD

YouTube critic Chris Stuckmann’s feature debut follows a paranormal investigation that dates back to childhood and will include found footage elements. It stars Camille Sullivan (Hunter Hunter), Brendan Sexton III (Don’t Breathe 2), Michael Beach (If Beale Street Could Talk), Robin Bartlett (Shutter Island), Keith David (The Thing), Charlie Talbert (The Big Short), Emily Bennett (Alone with You) and Sarah Durn (Where the Crawdads Sing).

Starve Acre – TBD

A ‘70s set folk horror movie. Starring Matt Smith (His House, Morbius) and Morfydd Clark (Saint Maud) in the lead roles, Starve Acre is written and directed by Daniel Kokotajlo based on the book by Andrew Michael Hurly. That it was acquired for NA distribution in October 2023 gives strong indication that a 2024 release is likely.

The Toxic Avenger – TBD

Macon Blair’s update on the Troma cult fave seems all but destined for a 2024 release. It even received a red-band teaser already. The zany horror-comedy follows Winston Gooze (Peter Dinklage) as he transforms from corporate janitor to mutant superhero.

Witchboard – TBD

A remake of Witchboard is on the way from Dream Warriors and The Blob director Chuck Russell, expected sometime in 2024. Madison Iseman (I Know What You Did Last Summer), Aaron Dominguez (Only Murders in the Building), Antonia Desplat (Shantaram) and Charlie Tahan (Ozark) star.

The post 2024 Horror Preview: 50 Horror Movies We Can’t Wait to See This Year appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The film, which is a prequel to the classic horror film franchise, will open April 5, 2024, exclusively in theaters nationwide.

In the film…

“When a young American woman is sent to Rome to begin a life of service to the church, she encounters a darkness that causes her to question her own faith and uncovers a terrifying conspiracy that hopes to bring about the birth of evil incarnate.”

The First Omen stars Nell Tiger Free (“Servant”), Tawfeek Barhom (“Mary Magdalene”), Sonia Braga (“Kiss of the Spider Woman”), Ralph Ineson (The Witch, Onyx the Fortuitous), and Bill Nighy (“Living”).

The film is directed by Arkasha Stevenson, based on characters created by David Seltzer (“The Omen”), with a story by Ben Jacoby (“Bleed”) and a screenplay by Tim Smith & Arkasha Stevenson and Keith Thomas (Firestarter).

The original 1976 classic, which starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, followed an American ambassador who believes his five-year-old son is the Antichrist.

That film spawned three sequels, including 1978’s Damien: Omen II and 1981’s The Final Conflict, as well as the 2006 reboot. There was also a short-lived “Damien” television series.

The producers are David S. Goyer (Hellraiser) and Keith Levine (The Night House) and the executive producers are Tim Smith, Whitney Brown (“Rosaline”), and Gracie Wheelan.

The post ‘The First Omen’ – First Image From ‘The Omen’ Prequel Goes Up In Flames! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Deadline reports today that Nell Tiger Free (“Servant”) will star in the upcoming film.

“Legion,” “Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block” and “Brand New Cherry Flavor” director Arkasha Stevenson will be making her feature directorial debut with The First Omen.

Stevenson will also handle the rewrite of the film, alongside writing partner Tim Smith. Smith is set to executive produce with Phantom Four producing.

The original 1976 classic, which starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, followed an American ambassador who believes his five-year-old son is the Antichrist.

That film spawned three sequels, including 1978’s Damien: Omen II and 1981’s The Final Conflict, as well as the 2006 reboot. There was also a short-lived “Damien” television series.

The post ‘The First Omen’ – Nell Tiger Free Starring in Upcoming ‘The Omen’ Prequel Movie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

“Legion” and “Brand New Cherry Flavor” episodic director Arkasha Stevenson will be making her feature directorial debut, reports Deadline. She also helmed every single episode of Syfy’s “Channel Zero: Butcher’s Block”.

Stevenson will also handle the rewrite, alongside writing partner Tim Smith. Smith is set to executive produce with Phantom Four producing.

The original 1976 classic, which starred Gregory Peck, Lee Remick and Harvey Stephens, followed an American ambassador who believes his five-year-old son is the Antichrist.

The pic spawned two sequels, 1978’s Damien: Omen II and 1981’s The Final Conflict, as well as the 2006 reboot, not to mention other follow-ups on the small screen.

This prequel has been in development for years. Back in 2016, Antonio Campos (Christine) was in negotiations to direct the prequel to the 1976 horror classic, with David Goyer and Phantom Four on board to produce then, too. At some point, writers Chad and Carey Hayes (The Conjuring, The Conjuring 2) were also brought on board to develop. Their idea was to explore how the son of the Devil came into our world as a creepy little human boy.

It’s unclear if Smith and Stevenson are working from scratch as there are no story details as of this writing.

“Look at me, Damien. It’s all for you!”

The post ‘The First Omen’- 20th Century Studios Calls Upon the Antichrist Once Again With Official ‘The Omen’ Prequel appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.