2017 was a groundbreaking, record-shattering year in horror cinema. Films like IT and Get Out dominated the cultural conversation and killed it at the box office, making last year the highest-grossing year of all time for horror movies to the tune of more than $730 million domestically.
Meanwhile, films like mother! and It Comes at Night crawled under the skin and fostered challenging, sometimes contentious discussions about how we define the genre. Horror has always been an under-sung backbone of the industry, but it’s rarely become such an overtly influential part of the zeitgeist. Which is to say that 2018 sure has a lot to live up to.
Fortunately, this year’s lineup is stacked with all kinds of promising horror releases, From indie auteurs that promise to spark up new debates to studio fare and big-budget crowd-pleasers, the 2018 haul includes strange and intellectual otherworldly explorations like Annihilation and The Endless, the return of iconic horror franchises like Hellraiser and Halloween, a giant shark movie, a serial killer drama from Lars Von Trier (god help us all), a Christmas zombie musical, and a whole lot more.
Get the details on all the most anticipated horror movies of the year in the list below.
SEE ALSO: The 20 top-earning horror movies of all time
"Mom and Dad"
Release Date: January 19th
Director: Brian Taylor
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Selma Blair, Anne Winters, Lance Henriksen
Nicolas Cage gets fully unhinged in this zombie comedy by way of parental angst. Cage stars alongside Selma Blair as a pair of suburban parents doing the daily grind when a mysterious mass hysteria sweeps over the country, causing parents to turn against their own children in a murderous rage. It’s a silly, subversive B-movie splatterfest with plenty of lunatic verve thanks to the script and direction by Crankco-director Brian Taylor, who previously worked with Cage on Ghost Rider: Spirit of the Vengeance. Boasting one of the most in-on-the-joke performances from Cage in recent memory and a fantastic Lance Henrikson cameo, Mom and Dad is trim, full-tilt mania with cheeky undercurrents of super dark humor.
"Winchester"
Release Date: February 2nd
Director: Peter Spierig
Cast: Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke, Angus Sampson, Sarah Snook
Helen Mirren vs. Ghosts? I’ll take a ticket, no questions asked. The film comes from the Spiereg brothers, the directorial duo behind last year’s Jigsaw, and while the Saw reboot may have landed with a thud, the pair’s previous supernatural films, which include Daybreakers and Predestination, have been underrated genre gems. Winchester is also based on the fascinating true story of the Winchester House, located in Northern California, where heiress Sarah Winchester (Mirren) famously constructed a series of endless hallways, stairs, and doors to nowhere in a manic attempt to trap the spirits and ghosts roaming the halls of her home. It’s a gripping true-life tale in its own right, but its also ripe for cinematic adaptation with an added dose of the paranormal and the Spiereg brothers are a visually dynamic pair of filmmakers well-fitted to the home’s labyrinthine halls.
"Hellraiser: Judgement"
Release Date: February 13th
Director: Gary J. Tunnicliffe
Cast: Paul T. Taylor, Damon Carney, Randy Wayne, Alexandra Harris,John Gulager, Mike Jay Regan, Diane Goldner, Heather Langenkamp
Pinhead is back in Hellraiser: Judgement, the latest installment in the long-running horror franchise, which sees horror VFX veteran Gary J.Tunnecliffe at the helm. I’m not very precious about watching actors pass the baton on iconic roles, but the idea of a Hellraiser film without Doug Bradley still rankles a bit after the decades he spent in the character. That said, the makeup on newcomer Paul T. Taylor looks just right and the first trailer teased decent-looking descent into hell, with plenty of well-designed practical ghouls. The bar for a Hellraiser sequel is set pretty low, so if Judgement can deliver on the promises of the trailer without succumbing to the early-aughts, Saw-era aesthetic, Hellraiser die-hards might just have a treat on their hands.See the rest of the story at Business Insider