Evil Dead DATE April 19 DIRECTOR Fede Alvarez CAST Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Jessica Lucas, Lou Taylor Pucci, Elizabeth Blackmore BASED ON The Sam Raimi original film of 1981 (with some nods to its 1987 sequel). This script has been doctored by Diablo Cody. SYNOPSIS Five young friends head for a remote cabin in the woods for a weekend away. Ill-advisedly, they explore the creepy basement, recover the sinister tome stashed there, and read from it in open defiance of clear written warnings. Horrible grisly death follows - but they can't say they weren't warned. WHAT TO EXPECT "The most terrifying film you will ever experience"? The poster's claim remains to be tested, but with Raimi and Bruce Campbell among the producers here we have hopes that they will adhere to the spirit of the original and that we'll soon be giving this the thumbs up - and not just because our hand is possessed by a demonic force. • Watch the trailer on YouTube
Texas Chainsaw 3D DATE January 4 DIRECTOR John Luessenhop CAST Alexandra Daddario, Tania Raymonde, Scott Eastwood, Dan Yeagar, Trey Songz FUN FACT This is a sequel to the original film rather than a sequel to the remakes. Clear? SYNOPSIS It's a classic good news/bad news scenario. On one hand, you've inherited a potentially valuable - albeit remote - property in Texas from the birth parents you don't remember. On the other, it's something of a fixer-upper. Oh, and your huge, terrifying, murderous cousin with a taste for power tools is still lurking around the premises. They didn't cover this on Location, Location, Location. WHAT TO EXPECT Creepy build-up, grievous bodily harm and gruesome death, at a guess. It could be puppies and kittens, but we doubt it. • Watch the trailer on YouTube
American Mary DATE January 11 DIRECTOR Jen Soska, Sylvia Soska CAST Katharine Isabelle Julia Maxwell, Paula Lindberg FUN FACT The film is directed by twin sisters who previously made Dead Hooker In A Trunk. SYNOPSIS Mary (Ginger Snaps' Katherine Isabelle) is a medical student who gets involved in underground body modification in an effort to control her spiralling debt. But after she is attacked at a party, she uses her newfound interests to take revenge. WHAT TO EXPECT While the Soskas don't show quite as much as they imply, this is still going to offer some body-horror scares and is probably dis-recommended for those with a fear of the medical profession. • Watch the trailer below
May I Kill U? DATE January 11 DIRECTOR Stuart Urban CAST Kevin Bishop, Jack Doolan, Frances Barber FUN FACT Helmer Stuart Urban has previous cop form as he's directed some episodes of The Bill in his time. SYNOPSIS A cycle cop, Baz (Bishop), takes the law into his own hands and decides to clean up London with a succession of grizzly murders, becoming an internet sensation in the process. That's probably the explanation for that misspelt title. WHAT TO EXPECT It's billed as a comedy/horror, so we'll be hoping for scares and laughs to match. We haven't seen anything more than the trailer, however, so we're not placing any bets just yet. • Watch the trailer on YouTube
Carrie DATE April 5 DIRECTOR Kimberly Pierce CAST (VOICES) Chloë Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore, Judi Greer, Gabriella Wilde, Portia Doubleday, Ansel Elgort, Alex Russell FUN FACT For the jump-scare ending of the 1976 adaptation, Sissy Spacek insisted that she play Carrie's hand and had to be buried to do it. SYNOPSIS Carrie (Moretz) is an unpopular teen, bullied by her peers and by her hyper-religious mother (Moore). When she's invited to prom, things seem to be on the up - but a prank played that night pushes her over the edge, and her blossoming telekinetic powers burst loose. And when we say "loose", that's in the same way that atoms get loose in a nuclear explosion. WHAT TO EXPECT Usually we're wary of horror remakes, but then again the team here are interesting. Moretz has proved able to handle just about anything at this point; Moore should give good God botherer, and it's good to see Pierce back in the director's chair, four years after Stop-Loss. • Watch the trailer on YouTube
Scary Movie 5 DATE April 12 DIRECTOR Malcolm D. Lee CAST Charlie Sheen, Lindsey Lohan, Ashley Tinsdale, Molly Shannon, Jerry O'Connell, Terry Crews FUN FACT The four Scary Movies to date have collectively grossed over $818m worldwide. SYNOPSIS An endless succession of non-related scenes lifted almost verbatim from better films and played out with bad actors in a horrendous misunderstanding of the terms "parody" and "spoof". WHAT TO EXPECT "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power."
Mama DATE February 22 DIRECTOR Andres Muschietti CAST Jessica Chastain, Nicolaj Coster-Waldau, Megan Charpentier, Daniel Kash, Isabelle Nélisse BASED ON A short film of the same name from 2008, also by Andres Muschietti. SYNOPSIS Two young girls, Victoria (Charpentier) and Lily (Nélisse), are discovered in a remote cabin in the woods, where they've apparently been living alone for five years since their mother died. They're sent to live with their uncle Lucas (Coster-Waldau) and his girlfriend Annabel (Chastain) - but as the latter spends more time with the pair, she realises that something they call "Mama" and claim has been looking after them may still be around. Cue scares. WHAT TO EXPECT We'd tell you but we're still over here hiding in the corner with a blanket over our head. • Watch the trailer on YouTube
The Bay DATE March 1 DIRECTOR Barry Levinson CAST Kristen Connolly, Anthony Reynolds, Michael Beasley, Kether Donohue, Stephen Kunken FUN FACT The film opened on only 19 screens in the US. SYNOPSIS The small town of Claridge on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland is the scene of a disaster when toxins in the water cause a parasite to mutate and people start dying horribly over the July 4 weekend - which really puts a dampener on everyone else's barbecue plans. WHAT TO EXPECT It's another found footage effort, with the evidence of the affair supposedly confiscated by the government and now leaked to us. It was probably inevitable that a found footage/Outbreak crossover would happen like this. Judging by the US box office, however, this won't trouble us much. • Watch the trailer on YouTube
Stoker DATE March 1 DIRECTOR Park Chan-Wook CAST (VOICES) Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman, Matthew Goode, Jacki Weaver, Lucas Till, Alden Ehrenreich, Dermot Mulroney BASED ON An original script by Prison Break actor Wentworth Miller. And you thought he was just a pretty boy from that Mariah Carey video! For shame. SYNOPSIS India (Wasikowska) is coping with the recent death of her father (Mulroney) and her mother Evie (Kidman) is a mess. The arrival of the mysterious Uncle Charlie (Goode) further unsettles her, and soon life is all creeping spiders, ill-advised eavesdropping, murder, pencil-stabbings and awkward family dinners - and no one wants awkward family dinners. WHAT TO EXPECT Park's first English-language film looks creepy, twisted and fascinating. If it doesn't involve any obvious vengeance, it otherwise looks as though he's brought his talent for disturbing audiences wholesale over to this latest effort. • Watch the trailer below
Byzantium DATE May 3 DIRECTOR Neil Jordan CAST Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton, Johnny Lee Miller, Sam Riley, Caleb Landry-Jones, Tom Hollander, Daniel Mays BASED ON Moira Buffini wrote the screenplay based on her own play. SYNOPSIS Clara (Arterton) and Eleanor (Ronan), a mother and daughter pair of vampires, move into a small town where Clara works as a prostitute to support them and Eleanor befriends fellow teen Frank (Landry-Jones), who's suffering from leukaemia. WHAT TO EXPECT Some mixed reviews came out of Toronto, but everyone agrees that it looks gorgeous and that Ronan is on form. • Watch a clip from the film below
Maniac DATE March 15 DIRECTOR Franck Khalfoun CAST Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder, Jan Broberg BASED ON This is a remake of the 1980 film of the same name. SYNOPSIS Frank (Wood) is a serial killer with a nasty habit of scalping young women. But when he meets Anna (Arnezeder) and can't quite decide whether he wants to have a relationship or her scalp. We've all been there, eh? WHAT TO EXPECT The synopsis makes this sound like the worst rom-com ever, but the film itself is stylish and not at all what you'd expect of a horror remake. • Watch the trailer on YouTube
The Last Exorcism 2: Beginning Of The End DATE March 22 DIRECTOR Ed Gass-Donnelly CAST Ashley Bell, Louis Herthum, Muse Watson, Spencer Treat Clark BASED ON This is a sequel to 2011's found-footage horror The Last Exorcism SYNOPSIS Nell (Bell) survived the events of the previous film and is found wandering in the woods, with little memory of the last few months and her family dead. She is sent to a girls' halfway house in New Orleans - but the demon isn't done with her yet. WHAT TO EXPECT More demonic scares, creepy contortions and violence against people and small animals, we expect.
V/H/S DATE January 18 DIRECTOR David Bruckner, Ti West, Radio Silence, Glenn McQuaid, Joe Swanberg, Adam Wingard CAST Calvin Reeder, Mike Donlan, Sophia Takal, Norma C. Quinones FUN FACT "Radio Silence" is a directing group made up of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, Justin Martinez and Chad Villella. SYNOPSIS A group of criminals sent into an old house to bring out a particular video tape inside. There, they find quite a few tapes and watch them to try to figure out which they're meant to retrieve. The tapes' contents are uniformly weird and horrific - as are events in the house itself. WHAT TO EXPECT If gore and scares are your sick, twisted bag, write V/H/S down in your copybooks now. Think about it: this could be the next smash-hit low-budget horror franchise - there may be life in the old VHS format yet... • Watch the trailer on YouTube
The Conjuring DATE July 19 DIRECTOR James Wan CAST Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mackenzie Foy, Ron Livingston, Joey King, Lili Taylor, Sterling Jerins BASED ON A true story, or at the very least a "true" story. SYNOPSIS Ed (Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (Farmiga) are a couple of ghost-hunting supernatural investigators. They are called in by the Perron family, who seem to be having an issue with the ghost of a witch that's sticking around their old home. Cue scares. Where are the Winchester brothers when you need them, eh? WHAT TO EXPECT We're promised an old-school, CG-light horror that is, according to viewers of the footage Wann brought to New York Comic-Con "freakin' scary". Apparently the test screening scores have been pretty bitchin' too, so this could be a horror that delivers.
Midnight Son DATE January 11 DIRECTOR Scott Leberecht CAST Zak Kilberg, Maya Parish, Juanita Jennings, Jo D. Jonz SEE ALSO Twilight, for another twist on vampirism - JUST KIDDING. SYNOPSIS Jacob (Kilberg) suffers from a rare disease that makes him allergic to sunlight. His condition worsens, and he finds he can only take nutrients from human blood. Even as he falls in love with Mary (Parish), he becomes a suspect in a series of murders. WHAT TO EXPECT The trailer's lo-fi and creepy, and while the unpolished edge might take some getting used to, this could offer a fresh take on the undead. • Watch the trailer on YouTube
You're Next DATE August 23 DIRECTOR Adam Wingard CAST Sharni Vinson, AJ Bowen, Amy Seimetz, Barbara Crampton, Ti West, Nicholas Tucci FUN FACT This was first screened way back in 2011, but is only now reaching us. SYNOPSIS Crispian Davidson (Bowen) brings his new girlfriend (Vinson) to his parents' anniversary celebrations to meet the family. Wouldn't you know it, that's the night killers strikes and start to pick off family members one by one. WHAT TO EXPECT It's had mainly positive reviews from its screening at the Toronto Film Festival a couple of years back, so let's hope this is a home invasion thriller that doesn't just play out the same old clichés.
Paranormal Activity 5 DATE October 25 DIRECTOR TBC CAST TBC FUN FACT This film has literally nothing set at the time of writing except a release date. SYNOPSIS There will be scary goings on that somehow related to a previous instalment in the franchise. It will mostly likely have a found footage feel. WHAT TO EXPECT There's a release date but no director attached, which doesn't hugely inspire confidence. Still, it is the very definition of early days and the franchise has surprised us with quality sequels before.
Last Days On Mars DATE 2013 TBC DIRECTOR Ruairi Robinson CAST Liev Schreiber, Romola Garai, Elias Koteas, Olivia Williams, Johnny Harris, Goran Kostic, Tom Cullen FUN FACT Not to be confused with Ghosts Of Mars, Red Planet or Last Days Of Disco. SYNOPSIS A group of astronauts (Martonauts?) visiting the red planet (Schreiber, Garai, Koteas, Williams) find themselves succumbing to something horrible and very scary. WHAT TO EXPECT There's nothing officially out there for this one yet, but the tiny snippets our sources have seen suggest that this is going to be seriously scary space stuff.
Dark Skies DATE February 22 (US) DIRECTOR Scott Stewart CAST Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton, Dakota Goyo, Annie Thurman, JK Simmons FUN FACT 37% of Americans contacted for a CNN poll believed in alien abductions. SYNOPSIS A series of weird events affecting Lacy Barrett (Russell) and her family (Hamilton, Goyo, Thurman) slowly convince her that something is out to get them. Something along the lines of ALIENS! WHAT TO EXPECT The trailer's pretty unsettling, but then the trailers for both Legion and Priest from the same director looks promising too, so we're holding judgment on this for now. • Watch the trailer on YouTube • Watch the trailer below
A Field In England DATE 2013 TBC DIRECTOR Ben Wheatley CAST Michael Smiley, Julian Barratt, Reece Shearsmith, Peter Ferdinando, Richard Glover, Ryan Pope FUN FACT This was shot in two weeks before Wheatley's last film, Sightseers, had even come out. SYNOPSIS During the English Civil War, a small group of deserters are captured by an alchemist (Smiley) and ordered to search a field for hidden treasure - but first they find a vast mushroom circle and make a meal of it. Maybe not such a great idea, as the search soon degenerates into chaos. WHAT TO EXPECT Wheatley hasn't put a foot wrong so far, with Kill List and Sightseers slowly winning him a devoted fanbase. This black-and-white period drama should offer the same twisted view of the world, and promises to be just as shocking and violent as those were.
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