We’re not even halfway through 2019 yet, but movie studios have to think pretty far into the future if they’re going to get ahead of the competition. The studios set their release schedules months (sometimes years) in advance, especially when it comes to sequels to earlier movies they’ve made that turned out to be really popular with audiences.
There are a lot of horror movies to look forward to in the rest of 2019, but looking even further ahead than there, there are plenty to get excited for in 2020, too. So, here are the 16 Most Exciting Horror Movies Coming In 2020.
Updated January 3rd, 2020: As the studios have given release dates to a handful of upcoming horror movies – and retitled a couple of others – we’ve added a few entries to this list.
Saw
Horror movie buffs were surprised a couple of weeks ago when it was announced that Chris Rock would be shepherding a reboot of the Saw franchise to the screen. Rock will act as executive producer and has also written the story treatment that Jigsaw writers Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger will be working from as they piece the script together.
While fans were baffled as to why the comedian was tackling the gory franchise, Rock has stated, “I’ve been a fan of Saw since the first film in 2004. I am excited by the opportunity to take this to a really intense and twisted new place.”
Brahms: The Boy II
The Boy was one of 2015’s sleeper horror hits. Creepy dolls are always a solid sell for moviegoers, as are shocking plot twists, and The Boy had both. Lauren Cohan is out as the leading lady, with Katie Holmes taking her place. The sequel’s story will shift to an entirely new cast of characters.
A family moves into the mansion from the first one, unaware of its terrifying history, and things start to get complicated when the youngest son of the family befriends Brahms. Brahms: The Boy II will be released on February 21, having previously been slated for July 26, 2019, and December 6, 2019.
The Grudge
Andrea Riseborough will star in this reboot of The Grudge franchise, releasing early next year (three days into next year, actually, on January 3), as a detective investigating the case of a young mother who murdered her entire family.
Of course, she’ll later discover that the mother was influenced by an angry ghost seeking revenge, as is the M.O. of the franchise. Nicolas Pesce, who recently made his directorial debut with the black-and-white horror film The Eyes of My Mother, has been hired to direct the movie as well as rework a draft of the script that the studio has been working from.
Candyman
The original Candyman wasn’t the best-received horror movie ever made, but it has become a cult classic in the years since. The racially charged story of a white woman investigating an urban legend in a black neighborhood struck a chord with Get Out and Us director Jordan Peele, who is producing a reboot to be released next year.
Lakeith Stanfield has been cast as the lead (not the titular villain) and the movie will reportedly be a “spiritual sequel” as opposed to a straight remake, while the setting will be modernized to take place in a newly gentrified Cabrini Green where the original movie’s housing projects once stood.
Last Night in Soho
Last Night in Soho is the latest film by Edgar Wright, the visionary behind the Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy. Unlike his previous movies, which have carried an overriding sense of humor, Last Night in Soho will be an all-out psychological thrill-ride, with its London setting taking a prominent role.
Wright has named such horror classics as Roman Polanski’s Repulsion and Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now as influences on the film, which will reach audiences on September 25. Modern-day scream queen Anya Taylor-Joy and former Doctor Matt Smith will be starring in the film, with Diana Rigg and Terence Stamp occupying supporting roles.
Morbius
Building on their cinematic universe of Spider-Man characters that began last year with the Tom Hardy-starring Venom, Sony is making a movie about Morbius the Living Vampire. Jared Leto has been cast to play the title role, with the actor promising to bring the same “intensity” to Morbius that he brought to the Joker.
Daniel Espinosa, the director of Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal’s 2017 alien attack movie Life, is behind the cameras on this one, with shooting taking place in Manchester, England, disguised as New York via movie magic. This will be more of a comic book movie than a horror movie, but come on, it’s about a vampire. It’s going to be at least horror-tinged, like the Blade movies.
Friday the 13th
LeBron James of all people is reportedly producing a reboot of the Friday the 13th slasher movie franchise to release in 2020. Next year will mark the 40th anniversary of the original film, which is part of the reason for the reboot in the first place.
Horror buffs will remember that we already had a Friday the 13th reboot about ten years ago, produced through Michael Bay’s company, but it was instantly forgettable and favored excessive blood and gore over well-crafted suspense and tension. This new one will mark the 13th installment in the franchise, so it’ll be quite an event.
The Witches
Roald Dahl’s dark fantasy horror novel The Witches was previously adapted for the screen in 1990 starring Anjelica Huston. ‘90s kids will remember it for the fact that it scarred them emotionally by being scarier than a children’s film had any right to be.
Well, Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis is directing a new version starring Anne Hathaway, Octavia Spencer, Chris Rock, and Stanley Tucci. This version is set in Alabama in the 1960s and Zemeckis has written the script with Black-ish creator and Girls Trip writer Kenya Barris. The re-adaptation will hit theaters on October 16 next year.
The Invisible Man
Written and directed by Leigh Whannell, best known for his work on the Saw and Insidious franchises, The Invisible Man will be released on February 28. It stars Elisabeth Moss as a woman who gets out of an abusive relationship. Her ex supposedly kills himself, but she begins to suspect that he faked his death and he has actually turned himself invisible and is using his newfound power to stalk her.
The movie is technically adapted from the H.G. Wells novel of the same name, but this plot is totally different. This take on the story is set to tackle such timely themes as toxic relationships and paranoia.
The Turning
This haunted house movie based on Henry James’ classic novella The Turn of the Screw has gone through a long and troubled development process. At one point, executive producer Steven Spielberg pulled the plug on the project, despite having already sunk $5 million of the studio’s money into the movie, since the script had been rewritten away from his original vision.
He pretty much started from scratch before it finally went back into production. The Turning is set in the Maine countryside, which gives it a Stephen King allusion, and next year, the movie will finally get released, with Finn Wolfhard and Mackenzie Davis starring.
Purge
After the prequel The First Purge showed how the ludicrous “Purge Night” legislation got passed and a TV series gave us a glimpse at the other 364 days of the year in this world, the mainline Purge franchise is set to continue (and conclude) this year with a fifth movie, simply titled Purge. According to Thomas Kelly, the showrunner of the TV series, it could be a heist movie set on Purge Night.
Everardo Gout is directing the movie, which is due to arrive at theaters on July 10. James DeMonaco, creator of The Purge franchise, has said that the intention with this one is to end the series.
Fear Street trilogy
For some viewers, it was overload when the MCU released 22 movies in 11 years, but the film trilogy based on R.L. Stine’s Fear Street books will release across three months in 2020. It’s the story of some teenagers in the ‘90s – which will give audiences a change of historical pace from the ‘80s settings of It and Stranger Things – who stumble across a dark and frightening past in their small Ohio town.
According to Stine, the last he heard about the adaptation was that the first film would release in June 2020, the second would release a month later in July, and the third would release a month after that in August.
Army of the Dead
Zack Snyder is returning to the realm of zombie movies after spending the last six years laying the groundwork for the DC Extended Universe. Dusting off an old project that ultimately went unproduced, he’ll be helming a retooled Army of the Dead for Netflix.
While the movie was initially conceived as a sequel to Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead remake and had a very dark script involving zombie rape, the new version will be a standalone piece with a completely rewritten script. Dave Bautista will star as a mercenary hoping to pull off a heist in post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested Las Vegas.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
The third movie in The Conjuring franchise – well, the third movie in the core series of haunted house stories; the wider cinematic universe is seven movies deep and going strong – is set to be released on September 11, 2020, with the subtitle The Devil Made Me Do It.
James Wan, the director of the previous two films, is too busy bringing Atlantis to life in the DCEU to return to helm this threequel, so he is instead handing the reins to Michael Chaves, who previously directed The Curse of La Llorona as a spin-off from the franchise. Wan will still produce, and has said that The Conjuring 3 will be set in the ‘80s with a focus on werewolves.
Halloween Kills
After the surprise success of 2018’s Halloween reboot, directed by David Gordon Green with franchise godfather John Carpenter’s blessing, the studio put not one, but two sequels into development. Halloween Kills, set to hit theaters on October 16, 2020, will continue the story of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode, before a third movie, Halloween Ends, concludes the trilogy on October 15, 2021.
Green is back in the director’s chair, while Jamie Lee Curtis and Judy Greer are both signed on to return. In a sense, Halloween Kills will be the Avengers: Infinity War of the rebooted franchise, while Halloween Ends will be the Avengers: Endgame.
A Quiet Place Part II
John Krasinski took the world of horror cinema by storm last year with his impeccably made, almost silent film A Quiet Place. Thanks to a $340 million worldwide box office total, the studio quickly asked Krasinski to get to work on a follow-up. Krasinski has written and will direct the sequel.
He said that it “would not be a [direct] sequel to the first film,” but would rather revolve around a different group of characters surviving the same alien invasion. Emily Blunt, Noah Jupe, and Millicent Simmonds are all confirmed to reprise the roles, while Cillian Murphy is in talks to play a fellow survivor that they come across.
