14 Horror Movies To Look Forward To In 2016

Horror Fans Have Lots To Look Forward To in 2016

From suicide forests to neon demons and killer clowns, here are the creepiest horror movies to see in 2016.

Get some sleep now—you’ll need it!

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The Forest
Current Release Month: Already Out

You know her from Game of Thrones and the Hunger Games franchise, but The Forest puts British actress Natalie Dormer front and center—well, actually smack-dab in the middle of the infamous Japanese suicide forest, a place where people go in and never come out. She plays twins Sara and Jess, and it’s during Sara’s search for her twin that she gets trapped and tormented by the dead haunting the woods.

Martyrs
Current Release Month: January

Here’s to hoping at least one of this year’s remakes lands on the fresh side of critics’ spewage. Pascal Laugier’s 2008 Martyrs, a horror film about two girls seeking vengeance for abuse they suffered as children, is one of the most punishing yet rewarding films we’ve ever seen. As for the Blumhouse remake starring Pretty Little Liars Troian Bellisario, we won’t have to wait long to see if it too delivers a similarly unforgettable blow.

The Witch
Current Release Month: February

We know. We’ve told you about this one before. But it finally has a release date. Come February, forgo the candlelit dinner and take a date and a lantern to Robert Eggers’ festival award-winning The Witch. Set in the preindustrial 1630s when “entertainment” meant playing with goats and making deals with the devil, The Witch does not disappoint.

Valencia
Current Release Month: March

Newcomer Dan Trachtenberg, who’s an online legend thanks to his special-effects-heavy short film Portal: No Escape, makes his feature film directorial debut with a thriller about a woman who wakes up from a car accident and finds herself stuck in a weirdo’s basement. That plot sounds satisfying, but it’s the fact that the lead is played by indie darling Mary Elizabeth Winstead that has us salivating.

Before I Wake
Current Release Month: April

About a boy whose night terrors manifest physically when he sleeps, this supernatural thriller sounds similar to a ride down Elm Street, only it’s the parents (played by Thomas Jane and Kate Bosworth) who suffer the nightmarish wrath. Should be fun—especially with Oculus helmer Mike Flanagan behind the wheel.

The Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist
Current Release Month: June

It’s a sequel, yes. Which would usually ensure some sort of fizzled-out, diluted humdrummery. However, as any genre fan knows, James Wan doesn’t so much make sequels as he crafts a new story from his original entry. And in the next chapter in the Ed and Lorraine Warren supernatural saga, which has usual suspects Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson on board, we’re thinking Wan will stick to that reputation.

Lights Out
Current Release Month: July

Three years ago, director David Sandberg won the Internet when he released his horrifying gem of a short film about a woman who’s haunted by a creature she can see only when the lights go out. It was so good, he scored a movie deal and Aussie beauty Teresa Palmer as his lead. We’re not sure just how Sandberg’s story will be fleshed out, but with The Thing‘s Eric Heisserer writing and James Wan producing, we’d say its pitch-black future looks bright.

A Man in the Dark
Current Release Month: August

Fede Alvarez arrived onto the horror scene last year with his deeply effective Evil Dead remake, and we’re hoping his sophomore screamer about a pack of teens who mess with the wrong blind man is just as punishing. Stephen Lang, who played that souped-up space marine in Steven Spielberg’s Avatar, is the blind man. So we’ll see how he does one sense down–and without that monstrous robot body suit.

The Girl on the Train
Current Release Month: October

Actor-turned-director Tate Taylor steamrolls into the thriller genre with his latest directorial venture. In The Girl on the Train, Rachel (played by Emily Blunt) becomes obsessed with a “perfect couple” she sees on a train trip to London and finds herself tangled up in not only the pair’s domestic drama but their domestic murder. Paula Hawkins’ same-name book on which the film’s based has been dubbed the best chiller since Gone Girl. Let’s hope they say the same about the film.

31
Current Release Month: Unannounced

Few directors are as divisive as Rob Zombie. Fans either love him or they hate him,, few are in between.  Fans of the shock rock metal man are going to get another disturbing tale guaranteed to give you nightmares.

And this one just might be his most brutal yet.

About a group of kidnapped carnies who are held hostage in something that can only be described as hell, 31 promises all of the same execrable acts of violence and odious men dressed as clowns you’ve come to expect from a man named Zombie.

Nocturnal Animals
Current Release Month: Unannounced

Tom Ford switches genres after A Single Man, though you can count on just as good-looking of a cast sporting the same perfectly pressed button-downs and in-tact cuff links. Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams star in the film, which is based on author Austin Wright’s novel, Tony and Susan, a story within a story about a woman who gets absorbed by a crime thriller written by her ex-husband.

Related:

The Neon Demon
Current Release Month: Unannounced

Love him or hate him—one can’t deny Nicolas Winding Refn’s unmatched ingenuity behind a camera. And in his latest edgy, Day-Glo thriller, he’s taking his crew back to L.A. But rather than star a mute stuntman in a satin scorpion-stamped bomber, this Danish American horror is all about the women, or as Refn puts it, “vicious beauty.”

Expect blood, sex, and, well, little to no dialogue. Obviously.

The Babysitter
Current Release Month: Unannounced

We don’t know much about this one, as its plotline is on lockdown. But there’s a reason it’s on our list. And that’s the director: McG. With a resume that runs the gamut from action (Charlie’s Angels) to franchise blockbusters (Terminator Salvation), it’ll be interesting to see what he does with this bloody genre flick—dubbed a “coming-of-age” horror movie.

The Girl with All the Gifts
Current Release Month: Unannounced

Colm McCarthy veered away from the mean streets of Peaky Blinders for this dystopian horror movie based on Mike Carey’s novel, which grew out of on the author’s Edgar Award-nominated short story “Iphigenia in Aulis.” Carey also penned the screenplay for The Girl with All the Gifts, which stars British actress Gemma Arterton and Glenn Close in a taut undeadly affair. If it’s anything like the book, it should be worth sinking your teeth into.

courtesy The Line-up

What 2016 horror films are you most excited for?