16 New Horror Movies We Can’t Wait To Watch At Fantastic Fest

Halle Berry teams up with director Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, Crawl) to bring us a dark fairytale about a mother of twin sons trying to outrun and outlast the evil lurking around them. Here's more from the synopsis: “Needing to stay connected at all times – even tethering themselves with ropes – they cling to one another, urging each other to never let go. But when one of the boys questions if the evil is real, the ties that bind them together are severed, triggering a terrifying fight for survival.”

We're excited about Berry and Aja coming together as a duo to bring us a new horror movie. More on that in the upcoming Fall issue of FANGORIA, and Never Let Go coverage hitting the website during the fest.

Art the Clown has taken the horror world by storm, take a look around any horror convention and Art may even outnumber the Chucky and Michael Myers costumes on the con floor. Terrifier 3 sees the return of FANGORIA Chainsaw Award-winning final girl Lauren LaVera as Sienna, as well as Elliott Fullam and David Howard Thornton reprising their roles as Jonathan Shaw and Art the Clown.

Samantha Scaffidi also returns as Victoria Heyes, the heroine turned villainess of Terrifier. This time around, Damien Leone and crew are gifting us a holiday slasher, Art the Clown is set to unleash chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve. We'll be bringing you Terrifier 3 world premiere coverage from Leone and crew.

Shaun of the Dead star Nick Frost wrote and stars in this new slasher. That sentence alone is reason enough for us to be chomping at the bit to catch the world premiere at Fantastic Fest.The story centers on a family vacation to a remote getaway which takes an unexpected turn when they discover the island they’re on is inhabited by a serial killer.

The V/H/S franchise is practically a Fantastic Fest tradition. The seventh installment will feature six new bloodcurdling tapes, placing horror at the forefront of a sci-fi-inspired hellscape. The directors for this batch are: Jordan Downey, Christian Long & Justin Long, Justin Martinez, Virat Pal, Kate Siegel, and Jay Cheel.

In Joseph Kahn’s breakneck sci-fi/horror satire, a high school science teacher (Brandon Routh) does battle with a parasitic alien entity, as well as the apathy of the small town it has been gradually absorbing.

Fantastic Fest has this tagged under the following: Creature Feature, Emo Soundtrack, Comedy, Horror, Camp, and Beautiful Men. If even five of those six things sound appealing to you, let's go.

Cher executive produced this new horror film, written and directed by Spider One. One Fox Productions are the folks behind Bury The Bride and Allegoria.  This time, they're bringing us a tale of a mother willing to sacrifice anything to protect her daughter.

Horror fans will notice lots of familiar faces in this one, the indie filmmaking duo have built up something of an acting troupe made up of horror royalty. Krsy Fox (Bury The Bride, Underworld Evolution) stars alongside horror legends Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator, You’re Next), Heather Langenkamp (Nightmare on Elm Street, The Midnight Club), and Bonnie Aarons (The Nun, The Conjuring 2). The film also features Jon Sklaroff, Elizabeth Caro, Chaz Bono, Lyndsi LaRose, Mark Kelly, Christopher Alvarenga, your Fango online creep Angel Melanson, Elle Riot Fox, and James A. Janisse and Chelsea Rebecca of Dead Meat. (Or, as we like to call them, “The Meats”).

The key art for this found footage horror film drew me in, the cast and synopsis cinched the deal. Lisa Wilcox (Nightmare on Elm Street 4 and 5) and Michael Hargrove (Nia DaCosta’s Candyman) star alongside Asya Meadows. Director Danny Villanueva Jr. employs various found footage formats to convey a story centering on generational trauma. Here's the official synopsis:

As Ozzie Gray (Asya Meadows) begins to understand her own struggle with mental health as an adult, she realizes that her grandmother’s violent attack on her when she was a young child has more to reveal about her past and self. After journeying back to a haunted library in her hometown associated with an urban legend, Ozzie confronts the secrets kept from her and a terrifying supernatural threat.

This Indonesian horror film from director Yusron Fuadi plays with familiar genre tropes in way horror aficionados will likely appreciate. The story follows five college students—the jock, the nerd, the pretty one, the rich one, and the popular one — familiar characters set out on a very familiar setup to an isolated cabin. And then Faudi has some fun with (very) well-worn territory.

Does the name Terry Gionoffrio ring any bells? This prequel to Rosemary's Baby follows the young dancer (Julia Garner, OZARK) after suffering a devastating injury. Luckily (?) an older, wealthy couple welcomes her into their home in the luxury apartment building, the Bramford, and a chance for all her dreams to come true. Relic director Natalie Erika James brings audiences back to the Bramford for a peek at what went down before the Woodhouses moved in.

The typically sweet Dianne Wiest stars alongside Kevin McNally as a familiar couple inhabiting the familiar apartment building.

This Spanish-language horror film from Mexico is tagged on Fantastic Fest's site as “Children in Peril.” Director Isaac Ezban's tale follows three brothers in the wake of a global catastrophe as they learn to navigate the rules of the new world. When a stranger comes to visit, family secrets come to light.

Paired with the short film The Flacalta Effect, a new post-Ozempic twist on the zombie genre executive produced by David and Christina Arquette.

The description of this one paired with the above image seems like exactly the sort of thing to haunt my dreams for the next three weeks or so. After a young boy's father passes away, he begins hearing “ominous sounds” and is then visited by a creature who bears a striking resemblance to his dead father.  Benjamin Barfoot's UK nightmare will have its world premiere at Fantastic Fest on Sunday, September 22.

Another entry from the UK, this time serving up what appears to be true folk horror. Set deep in the rural British countryside, centered on a religious community, in the wake of a murder that unleashes a hungry beast into the small community. It sounds like Dean Puckett's debut feature is checking all the folk horror boxes, we can't wait to check it out!

I nearly skipped this one, thinking it was a true crime documentary. Kudos to the marketing team for fooling me. This faux documentary is shot in the style of the ever-popular true crime docs, created by one half of the duo behind Grave Encounters. Stuart Ortiz writes and directs this tale surrounding a brutal (and fictitious) serial killer wreaking havoc across California's Inland Empire.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's psychological thriller promises a heaping helping of existential dread. The premise focuses on Yoshii, a young man who resells goods online, as he finds himself at the center of a series of mysterious events that put his life at risk.

Kurosawa gave us one of the defining films of the J-horror boom with Pulse, containing what Fango contributor Amber T calls perhaps “one of the most skin-crawling ghost scenes in all of horror history.” We can't wait to see what Cloud has in store. US Premiere Thursday, September 19.

This horror comedy musical sounds like an absolutely irreverent and wild ride out of Estonia. A love story cut short by a chainsaw-wielding cannibal on a killing spree. The US premiere is Saturday, September 21.

Erotic thrillers are making a comeback and Bone Lake is part of the movement. A couple in a rut heads to a lakehouse to reconnect. Their intimate weekend plans are derailed when another couple shows up in what appears to be a double booking mixup. Then things spiral into what the film's official festival page describes as “orgiastic violence.”

Directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan, Bone Lake world premiere is Saturday, September 21.

This is by no means a comprehensive list. I'd bet good money that some of the titles we'll all be raving about are the ones we haven't even scribbled down yet. But the above movies are an excellent starting point for anyone heading to Fantastic Fest (or following along to track these movies down as they become available). We'll call it a working primer. More Fantastic Fest 2024 coverage is coming your way, be sure to check out our Fantastic Fest Survival Guide in the meantime.