With the festive season creeping nearer like an axe-wielding Santa, Matt Glasby, author of The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film, available here, highlights what to watch – and what to watch out for.
RELEASE DATES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Predator: Badlands
Another round of gruesome sci-fi-action from Prey director Dan Trachtenberg, this teams a young outcast predator (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) with Elle Fanning’s damaged synth on “the most dangerous planet in the universe”. Naysayers may question how much it’s possible to care about a robot and an alien fighting CGI monsters – but this resurgent series keeps surprising us. And is that a power loader glimpsed in the trailer? Intriguing.
Anemone
After eight long years away, presumably spent polishing his Oscars or learning to make shoes, Daniel Day-Lewis returns to the screen for the directorial debut of his son, Ronan. Scripted by both Day-Lewises, and co-starring Sean Bean and Samantha Morton, it’s an arty psychological thriller tackling some big beasts – the Northern Irish Troubles, family trauma and, judging by the trailer, a really large fish. Critics have not been kind, except to Daniel, who’s marvellous, obvs.
Odyssey
Anyone who has ever so much as dipped a toe into the London property market will know it’s a screaming, snake-filled hell-pit. And so it proves in the latest urban freakout from Gerard Johnson (Muscle, Hyena). When she borrows money from the wrong people, Polly Maberly’s horrible, coke-snorting estate agent finds herself trapped in the city’s underbelly, much like the people she rents flats to. Call it a long, dark night of the (arse)hole.
Keeper
Having followed Longlegs – one of the greatest horrors of the 21st century – with clanging Stephen King adaptation The Monkey, who knows what Osgood Perkins is going to do next? Thankfully, it looks like he’s back to his old tricks, creating icy, elevated horror par excellence. What to expect? A couple, Tatiana Maslany (The Monkey) and Rossi Sutherland (Possessor, also Kiefer’s half-brother), a cabin in the woods, plus all kinds of relationship trauma. Think Eternal Sunshine for psychos.
Alpha
First was the fascinating, flesh-ripping Raw, then came the controversial, car-fucking Titane, now French ace Julia Ducournau returns with this surreal disease horror, co-starring Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) and Emma Mackey (Sex Education). When 13-year-old Alpha (Mélissa Boros) comes home with a tattoo, her family worry she might be carrying a new virus that turns people to marble. Critics at the Cannes screening were similarly unmoved.
The Carpenter’s Son
Based on an apocryphal gospel, Lotfy Nathan’s latest imagines the childhood of Jesus (Noah Jupe) through a horror lens, with fuck-it-and-find-out king Nic Cage playing his dad and FKA Twigs as his mum. Cue much controversy, and dreadful audience reviews – the two not necessarily unconnected – plus a plague of bees attacking Cage on set in Megara, Greece. And you know how he feels about bees.
The Creeps
Hoping to revive the 1980s craze for diminutive creatures (Gremlins, Critters, Ghoulies), this Finnish horror-comedy from Marko Mäkilaakso (It Came from the Desert) sounds like hard work. Chris Cavalier and Kheba Touray are horny American teenagers visiting Monsterfest, Finland, only to be attacked by actual (mini) monsters. Cameos from 1980s faves Christopher Lambert, Joe Dante and the Knightrider car add to what Mäkilaakso calls “straight-down-the-pipe fun”.
Silent Night, Deadly Night
This Christmas horror franchise has been quietly bubbling away since it’s not-very-good 1984 debut. Directed by Mike P Nelson (2021’s Wrong Turn), the second remake in 15 years stars Rohan Campbell (The Monkey, Halloween Ends) as Billy Chapman. After witnessing his parents killed by someone dressed as Santa, Billy grows up a few presents short of a full stocking. Early reviews suggest its nicer than it is naughty.
Anaconda
The sixth – sixth – film in the Anaconda series is a meta reboot starring Paul Rudd and Jack Black as friends attempting to remake the 1997 OG. “It’s a lot funnier than the original,” Black told Entertainment Weekly, not entirely convincingly, “but it does have a lot of the original vibes in terms of the scary parts.” If you want to see a snake eating its own tail, look no further.
The Shining
Stephen King’s very favourite adaptation is re-released in time for its 45th birthday. Although it left audiences cold at the time (and has had a similar effect on its author ever since), Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 horror has more than earned its place in the pantheon. Rumours are that this is the longer US cut – minus the stupid yellow ball epilogue – so if you’ve not seen it on the big screen, now’s your chance.
