We Value Your Privacy

This site uses cookies to improve user experience. By continuing to browse, you accept the use of cookies and other technologies.

I UNDERSTAND
LEARN MORE

17 Horror Movies We’re Dying to See in 2020

It's going to be a killer year, horror fans.

2020 horror movies

What are the best horror movies coming out in 2020? From thrilling new entries in beloved horror franchises and promising remakes that we’re actually excited about seeing to mysterious new flicks by beloved filmmakers and the unlikely reimaginings of ‘70s TV shows, there’s a lot of exciting nightmares coming our way in the months ahead. So settle in, grab your calendars, and get your tickets. Here are all the 2020 horror movies we’re most excited about seeing this year...

Color Out of Space – January 24 

We’ve been waiting for filmmaker Richard Stanley (Hardware, Dust Devil, the filmmaker featured in Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau) to get back behind the camera—and we'll finally get our chance this January in the form of Color Out of Space. Plus, we’re always up for a new adaptation of one of H.P. Lovecraft’s best stories. Throw in Nicolas Cage and the promise of some very trippy visuals and you’ve got a mind-bending horror movie that has to be seen to be believed!

Related: 52 Best Horror Books from the Past 200 Years 

The Turning – January 24

Based on Henry James's classic ghost story The Turn of the Screw, this upcoming supernatural horror set in a gloomy Maine estate stars Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard, and Brooklynn Prince. Steven Spielberg serves as executive producer of The Turning. The flick has been described as a passion project for Spielberg, who expressed interest in returning to horror. If the trailer is any indication, we're in for some Poltergeist-style chills. 

Related: 16 Haunted House Books That Will Leave You Sleeping with One Eye Open 

Gretel & Hansel – January 31

Oz Perkins—son of Psycho's Norman Bates himself, Anthony Perkins—has made a name as a purveyor of quiet, eerie horror fare with The Blackcoat’s Daughter and I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House. Soon he’ll be tackling the film version of Paul Tremblay’s hit novel A Head Full of Ghosts. In the meantime, however, he has brought his unsettling visual style to this eerie fairy tale retelling that looks witchy in all the best ways.

Related: The Disturbing Origins of 9 Beloved Fairy Tales 

The Lodge – February 7

Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the filmmakers behind 2014's creepy Austrian horror Goodnight Mommy, return with this icy isolation horror flick. Starring Riley Keough, Jaeden Martell, Lia McHugh, Alicia Silverstone, and Richard Armitage, the film follows a young woman and her stepchildren who find themselves shut off from the rest of the world in the family's remote winter cabin. Soon, the ghosts of the past emerge from the claustrophobic gloom of the cabin and begin to haunt them all.

Related: 18 Foreign Horror Movies You Need to See 

Fantasy Island – February 14

It’s this year’s answer to 2019’s The Banana Splits Movie as Blumhouse takes another nostalgic property and transforms it into something horrifying. The premise of Fantasy Island was always a little creepy, right? So, we’re curious to see what Truth or Dare director Jeff Wadlow does to put a cast of familiar faces through the horror ringer in this oddball idea for a flick.

Related: Here Are the 50+ Best Horror Movies on Netflix You Can Stream Tonight 

Brahms: The Boy II – February 21

This sequel to 2016's haunted doll horror The Boy stars Katie Holmes. In it, a young family moves into the cursed Heelshire Mansion, unaware of its dark past. The family's son unearths Brahams, the creepy porcelain doll from the first horror movie, and the two soon become inseparable—always and forever.   

Related: Robert the Doll: Meet the Creepy Cursed Figurine That Haunts a Florida Museum 

The Invisible Man – February 28

Speaking of new takes on familiar material, writer/director Leigh Whannell’s new version of The Invisible Man reimagines H.G. Wells’ classic novel as a parable about abusive relationships. The idea works, at least in the skin-crawling trailer. And besides, the eponymous character in the original Invisible Man was quite a jerk, too, if memory serves.

Related: 13 Terrifying Books About Real-Life Hauntings 

A Quiet Place Part II – March 20

A Quiet Place showed what scares a horror movie could conjure with a simple premise (monsters that hunt by sound) and some economical storytelling. This sequel promises to open up the world and expand the possibilities with a larger cast and bigger set pieces. We’ll see if they can get lightning to strike twice.

Related: Rediscover One of Horror’s Greatest Tales 

Antlers – April 17

Yeah, it’s produced by Guillermo del Toro and adapted from a short story by Channel Zero’s Nick Antosca, but what’s really got us excited for Antlers is just how inescapably grim and terrifying the trailer looks. Pitch-dark, squirmy horror with some extremely creepy-looking monsters glimpsed just at the edge of the screen? We’re there.

Related: Binge-worthy: Channel Zero is Black Mirror Meets Creepypasta 

Antebellum – April 24

Speaking of striking trailers, they don’t come much more intriguing than the uncertainty-filled teaser for Antebellum, which juxtaposes images from the modern-day and the Civil War South with a voiceover of a 911 operator asking “What is your emergency?” We’re not sure what the emergency is, but with singer Janelle Monáe in the lead and a roster of producers that includes the minds behind Get Out, Us, and BlacKkKlansman, it’s a mystery that we’re eager to solve!

Related: 19 Underrated Horror Movies That You Need to See, According to Reddit 

Insidious: The Dark Realm – May 5

Director James Wan may be taking a break from his mega-popular Conjuring franchise this year, but he’s certainly not sitting on his hands. He’s actually got two new horror movies coming out in 2020. The first one is a return to his other popular ghostly franchise, Insidious, which Wan hasn’t directed an installment of since 2013’s Insidious: Chapter 2. While the details of this new flick are being kept close to the vest, we know that it’s bringing back Joseph Bishara as the “lipstick demon” from the first movie.

Related: 9 Haunting Cases from Unsolved Mysteries That Have Since Been Solved 

The Organ Donor / Saw 2020 – May 15

horror movies 2020 saw organ donor
  • camera-icon
  • Photo Credit: Lionsgate

Not much is known about The Organ Donor, the upcoming ninth installment of the Saw horror franchise. Here's what we do know: It's helmed by Saw II, Saw III, and Saw IV director Darren Lynn Bousman, it stars Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Rock, and it's based on a story by Rock. Keep your eyes peeled for this one. 

Related: Los Feliz Murder House: The L.A. Dream Home That Turned into a Nightmare 

Candyman – June 12

horror movies 2020 candyman
  • camera-icon
  • Photo Credit: MGM

Yeah, we’re as tired of remakes as the next person, but this one promises to be something special. Jordan Peele is writing what is being called a “spiritual sequel” to the original horror movie Candyman, which returns the action to the now-gentrified real-life Chicago neighborhood of Cabrini-Green. The 1992 classic took Clive Barker’s story and improved upon it by transferring the action from London to Chicago and adding a racial element that deepened the story’s themes. If anyone can handle an update of that with wit and aplomb, it should be Jordan Peele. Plus, Tony Todd is back!

Related: Totally Terrifying: The Best 90s Horror Movies 

Malignant – August 14

horror movies 2020 malignant
  • camera-icon
  • Photo Credit: Atomic Monster

Besides helming a new Insidious flick, James Wan has been busy with a mysterious film called Malignant. We may not know much about it besides its title, but we’ve heard enough buzz to be excited. This year marks James Wan’s thrilling return to horror since 2016’s The Conjuring 2. What’s more, Malignant is supposed to be a hard-R Giallo. What more could we ask for?

Related: 10 Real-Life Horror Movie Locations You Can Actually Visit 

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It – September 11

horror movies 2020 the conjuring 3 the devil made me do it
  • camera-icon
  • Photo Credit: New Line Cinema

For the third official installment in the Conjuring franchise, and the seventh in the film’s extended universe, The Curse of la Llorona’s Michael Chaves is taking the reins from James Wan—who must have been busy tackling the other two projects he has coming out this year. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren in a story centered on a murder suspect who claims demonic possession compelled him to kill. Could this be The Conjuring: Courtroom Drama edition? If so, we’re here for it.

Related: 13 Terrifying Books for Fans of The Conjuring 

Last Night in Soho – September 25

horror movies 2020 last night in soho
  • camera-icon
  • Photo Credit: Big Talk Productions

Edgar Wright is already beloved in horror circles for Shaun of the Dead, but now he's making what's being billed as an out-and-out psychological horror film inspired by the likes of Don’t Look Now and Repulsion. While we may not know much about Last Night in Soho beyond its time-bending logline of a young fashion designer who finds a way to seemingly travel back to the swinging 1960s London, if Wright brings the same visual inventiveness that he’s brought to his other films, we can’t wait to see what he has up his sleeve!

Related: 13 Terrifying 70s Horror Movies That Will Bug You Out 

Halloween Kills – October 16

horror movies 2020 halloween kills
  • camera-icon
  • Photo Credit: Blumhouse Productions

In 2018, David Gordon Green’s Halloween took a new swing at the classic characters, ignoring unpopular sequels and making a film that was a direct follow-up to Carpenter’s original—just set 40 years later. While it seemed like the final chapter in the ongoing confrontation between Michael Myers and Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode, it made too much money for that. Not a bad problem to have! Now they’re back, along with David Gordon Green once more in the director’s seat and some other characters from the original film to continue the story for a new generation! Halloween Ends, billed as the conclusion of the horror series, is set for release in 2021. 

Related: Master of Horror: 10 Most Terrifying John Carpenter Movies