23 Horror And Genre Films We Are Excited To Watch At SXSW

Clown In A Cornfield makes its debut at SXSW. Along with co-writer Carter Blanchard, Director and co-writer Eli Craig adapts the first of Adam Cesare's wildly popular Clown novels. The story follows Quinn and her father, who have just moved to the quiet town of Kettle Springs hoping for a fresh start.

Instead, she discovers a fractured community that has fallen on hard times after the treasured Baypen Corn Syrup Factory burned down. As the locals bicker amongst themselves and tensions boil over, a sinister, grinning figure emerges from the cornfields to cleanse the town of its burdens, one bloody victim at a time. Welcome to Kettle Springs. The real fun starts when Frendo the clown comes out to play.

Starring Katie Douglas, Carson MacCormac, Aaron Abrams, Will Sasso, Kevin Durand. Keep an eye out for more Clown In A Cornfield in the upcoming springs issue of FANGORIA.

Stranger Things‘ Sadie Sink stars in Geremy Jasper's post-apocalyptic rock opera. The story follows a farm girl on an epic quest to recover a cherished family heirloom. Her journey leads her to a strange and dangerous city where she meets her one true love – but in order to save his soul, she must put the power of destiny and song to the ultimate test.

Also starring Kelvin Harrison Jr., Murray Bartlett, and Regina Hall.

The first trailer for Flying Lotus' new sci-fi horror feature plays like a waking nightmare for the main protagonist, isolated after a mysterious disaster kills the rest of her crewmates on an unknown mission.

On the mysterious planet of Ash, Riya (Eiza González) awakens to find her crew slaughtered. When a man named Brion (Aaron Paul) arrives to rescue her, an ordeal of psychological and physical terror ensues while Riya and Brion must decide if they can trust one another to survive. 

Ash marks Lotus' first full-length feature since 2017’s Kuso, and first project since his segment in V/H/S/99 in 2022.

Director Jess Varley, who directed two segments in the Radio Silence-produced anthology horror Phobias makes her solo writing and directorial debut with The Astronaut. Starring Kate Mara and Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix franchise), the sci-fi thriller is produced by A Quiet Place and The Purge‘s Brad Fuller. Also producing are Eric B. Fleischman (Sleight) and Cameron Fuller (The Girl in the Woods).

The story follows astronaut Sam Walker (Roberts) who is found miraculously alive in a punctured capsule floating deep off the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. General William Harris (Fishburne) arranges for her to be placed under intense NASA surveillance in a high security house for rehabilitation and medical testing. When disturbing occurrences begin happening around the property, Walker fears something extraterrestrial has followed her back to Earth.

From director Grace Glowicki, Dead Lover centers on a lonely gravedigger “who stinks of corpses.” According to the film's official synopsis, when she finally meets her dream man, their romance is cut short after he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap scientific experiments, resulting in grave consequences and unlikely love.

Produced by David Lawson Jr, Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, and Caleb Ward and written and directed by Peter Ciella, Descendent is a sci-fi horror set in present-day Los Angeles. The story follows Sean Bruner (Ross Marquand), an elementary school security guard grappling with past trauma while preparing for the birth of his first child with his wife, Andrea. Haunted by his mother’s death in childbirth and his father’s suicide, Sean fears he’s destined to fail.

After a beam of light appears in the sky during a late-night shift, Sean wakes in the hospital with an inexplicable talent for vivid, unsettling drawings of extraterrestrials and desert landscapes. As his visions blur the line between dreams and reality, Sean’s grip on sanity unravels. With time running out, he must confront his fears to escape his family’s tragic legacy.

Starring Ross Marquand, Sarah Bolger, Susan Wilder, Charlene Amoia, Dan O'Brien, Brandon Scott, Alexandra Barreto, Alex Ruiz, Clare Cooney, and Emily Pendergast.

If you've ever been creeped out by your dog staring off into an empty corner and barking, I'm not sure whether you should definitely see this one or maybe hold off. Good Boy is the story of a dog who sees everything that goes bump in the night. No talking pets, just terrifying scares. A simple yet horrifying concept that may result in more than a few sleepless nights. Starring Indy, Shane Jensen, Larry Fessenden, Arielle Friedman, Stuart Rudin, Anya Krawcheck, Max (World Premiere)

Many years after leaving the small town behind, Joel returns to move his mother Monika, a home for the elderly struggling with dementia. However, Monika’s health takes a turn for the worse soon after her arrival. She experiences terrifying visions of her late husband, Joel’s abusive father, and begins exhibiting violent behavior.

Joel begins to believe that something malevolent and supernatural has taken control of his mother. But with his own history of substance abuse and mental instability, can he trust his own perceptions? As Monika’s memories fade, Joel must confront the demons of his own past, dredged up by his return to the home where he grew up.

A group of recent grads head out on a late night drive for grub, hoping to enjoy one final hangout before their paths diverge. Instead, they accidentally turn onto a never-ending, two-lane hellscape surrounded by untold horrors and cosmic forces beyond their understanding. Cramped together inside a Jeep Cherokee and with the miles stretching infinitely ahead, they face a choice: embrace their new existence or fight to escape it.

Is bringing a mermaid home all it's cracked up to be? Doug is about to find out. Doug is an awkward Florida drug addict. Divorced and alone, he shares custody of his young daughter with his ex. Doug's reeling from losing his job at a local strip club, where he takes care of the fish in the aquarium. Things are beyond bleak – so Doug zips his boat out into the Gulf to end the pain of his reality. But at his lowest point, he discovers an injured Mermaid creature clinging to life.

For Doug, it's a sign from the Universe – so he brings her home, gives her shelter in his tub and begins to nurse her back to health. He even names her Destiny. As their rapport blossoms, word of his secret gets out and he is forced to protect his new friend by any means necessary.

In an attempt to avenge her daughter’s death, Irene Kelly travels through parallel universes, killing her daughter’s murderer over and over again. She grows addicted to the revenge streak, putting her own humanity in jeopardy. Starring Michaela McManus, Stella Marcus, Jeremy Holm, Jim Cummings, Grace Van Dien, Taylor Misiak, and Dendrie Taylor.

When the family patriarch dies, a grieving mother and daughter risk their lives to perform a brutal resurrection ritual that will bring him back from the dead. Starring Colby Minifie, Kate Burton, Neil Sandilands, Vaughn Armstrong, Mia Ellis, Pete Ploszek, Chelsea Alden, Alaina Pollack, Riley Rose Critchlow, and Lola Prince Kelly.

Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) find themselves at a crossroads as they move to the country, abandoning all that is familiar in their lives except each other. With tensions already flaring, a nightmarish encounter with a mysterious, unnatural force threatens to corrupt their lives, their love, and their flesh.

Everybody loves alien sex, right? Touch Me is the sophomore feature from Hypochondriac director Addison Heimann, this time Heimann is balancing tentacles and trauma. Touch Me centers on two codependent best friends become addicted to the heroin-like touch of an alien narcissist who may or may not be trying to take over the world.

Check out our recent interview with Touch Me star Olivia Taylor Dudley.

We Bury The Dead is a survival thriller from 1922 director Zak Hilditch, starring Daisy Ridley. Described as a gripping and emotional thriller set after a military experiment decimates the people of Tasmania. Ridley (Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens) stars as Ava, a desperate woman who joins a “body retrieval unit” in the hopes of finding her husband alive.

Ava’s search takes a chilling turn, however, when the corpses she’s burying start showing signs of life… As she journeys to the south of Tasmania in search of her husband, Ava is forced to confront the undead — and make peace with her own unfinished business.

This Bengali horror series centers on five young students who are paid to defile a temple. It seems like easy money, but the consequences aren't – as they're met with bizarre, violent circumstances. What's even weirder – these seemingly supernatural ‘incidents' are perfectly timed with each Azaan (the Muslim call to prayer). Can they survive the curse? Or is the call to prayer their call to death?

Starring Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd, Death Of A Unicorn follows a man and his teenage daughter who accidentally crash into a unicorn while they are en route to a crisis management summit with his boss Dell Leopold and Leopold's family.

The Leopolds seize the unicorn, and their scientists discover that its flesh, blood, and, most of all, its horn are endowed with supernaturally curative properties, which the Leopolds seek to exploit. However, as they delve deeper into their research, they discover the deadly consequences of their actions.

Starring alongside Ortega and Rudd are Richard E. Grant, Will Poulter, Téa Leoni, Anthony Carrigan, Sunita Mani, Jessica Hynes and Steve Park.

This fantasy comedy includes curses, sacrificial lambs, and rituals.  Three reasons to include it here.

A lush 16mm fever dream that reimagines The Fool’s Journey of the Tarot through the story of AP- a sanguine young woman seeking salvation from a curse. AP is promised by not one but multiple psychics that -for a cool $1000 and the sacrifice of a baby lamb- it can be lifted.

So, she makes money the only way she knows how, scootering her way deeper into the night, into the uncouth underbelly of Trashtown. Dark, irreverent, and sexy, AP stumbles upon new characters and absurd situations, each more unhinged than the last, as she winds her way towards the inevitable. Fucktoys is a campy romp that explores the intersection of intimacy, exploitation, and class in a pre-millenium alternate universe.

Drop is Christopher Landon’s first directorial effort since last year’s We Have a Ghost.  He's described it as straddling Hitchcock, “but it’s also very much like a ’90s thriller, but it’s using very modern technology.”

Drop takes us along for the first date from hell, the chemistry begins to curdle as Violet begins being irritated and then terrorized by a series of anonymous drops to her phone. She is instructed to tell nobody and follow instructions or the hooded figure she sees on her home security cameras will kill Violet’s young son and babysitting sister. Violet must do exactly as directed or everyone she loves will die. Her unseen tormentor’s final directive? Kill her date.

Fresh director Mimi Cave returns with a new thriller starring Nicole Kidman, Gael García Bernal, Jude Hill and Matthew Macfadyen. Written by Andrew Sodroski, Holland (previously titled Holland, Michigan) follows a woman in a small midwestern town who suspects her husband of living a double life, which sounds bad enough but things may be even worse than she initially imagined.

Also starring Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby, Bodies Bodies Bodies), Lennon Parham (Playing House, Minx), Isaac Krasner (Big Boys) and Jeff Pope (Interview with the Vampire).

This sci-fi feature from Aaron Silverstein follows Vel, who is not from our planet. Vel did something forbidden, something so unspeakable she was exiled from the warm embrace of her people and imprisoned here on Earth. Her only hope of ever getting back home is to accept a seemingly impossible mission: spy on one of her own kind, uncover his research, and report her findings.

As an alien consciousness this is no easy task for Vel. Forced to inhabit a human body (now that is horrific), she is thrown into the sprawl of Los Angeles where she discovers the joys and sorrows of what it means to be human, all while her target weaves his own game of intrigue in the name of a new and very dangerous kind of science.

This sci-fi/fantasy/comedy pilot piqued our interest enough to include it here. I can't say for certain that it lands firmly within horror territory, but it definitely sounds like some pretty great original genre fare.

Between threats of foreclosure, complete incompetence, and angry customers, Wendy and her ragtag staff struggle to keep their beloved Stars Diner afloat. And to make things worse – a geologically improbable volcano threatens to end all life in Fresno, California. Can Wendy find inner strength and use the power of friendship to save the diner from pyroclastic pandemonium and the mediocre forces of regional banking?

Lorcan Finnegan's psychological thriller stars Nicolas Cage as a man who returns to his beachside hometown in Australia, many years since building a life for himself in the U.S. He is humiliated in front of his teenage son by a local gang of surfers who claim strict ownership over the secluded beach of his childhood.

Wounded, The Surfer decides to remain at the beach, declaring war against those in control of the bay. But as the conflict escalates, the stakes spin wildly out of control, taking The Surfer to the edge of his sanity.

Yes! There are few things we love more than Cage unleashed and on the edge of sanity.

And there you have it. Keep an eye out for all the above titles, and as always.. don't sleep on the short film programs! If you're looking for hidden gems and bragging rights when it comes to knowing about a filmmaker before they blow up — the short film showcase make for the happiest of hunting grounds.