It’s that time again. With the calendar about to flip over to a fresh, new year, we have compliled a list of some of the most interesting horror movies that are scheduled to be released over the next twelve months. And here it is, the 2026 Horror Preview:
Psycho Killer is based on a screenplay written by Se7en scribe Andrew Kevin Walker. Gavin Polone, producer of Zombieland and the Walker-scripted 8MM, is at the helm of the film, with Georgina Campbell (Barbarian) and Logan Miller (Escape Room) in lead roles and 6’5″+ former professional wrestler James Preston Rogers in the title role. Campbell is taking on the role of Jane Thorne, a police officer who makes it her mission to take down a serial killer referred to on the news as the ‘Satanic Slasher,’ following the murder of her state trooper husband. We had previously heard that Miller’s character is Marvin, a goth-type nebbish who works for the mysterious Pendleton in his massive mansion. Pendleton is so mysterious, Deadline didn’t even explain who they were referencing when they dropped that description. Months later, in their release date report, they credited Miller with playing the ill-fated state trooper husband… so this movie is so shrouded in mystery, even Deadline is confused.
Director Adam MacDonald (Backcountry, Pyewacket, Out Come the Wolves) teams with Totally Killer and Heart Eyes star Olivia Holt for an apocalyptic horror thriller that’s based on a YA novel by bestselling author Courtney Summers and described as “The Breakfast Club meets 28 Weeks Later.” The film follows Sloane and a small group of her classmates who take cover in their high school to escape their suddenly apocalyptic hometown. As danger relentlessly pounds on the doors, Sloane begins to see the world through the eyes of people who actually want to live and takes matters into her own hands. Holt is joined in the cast by Froy Gutierrez (The Strangers: Chapter 1), Luke MacFarlane (Bros), Corteon Moore (Overcompensating), Chloe Avakian (John Wayne Gacy), and Carson MacCormac (Clown in a Cornfield).
For fifty-nine episodes, Turner played the role of Sansa Stark on the hit series Game of Thrones. For sixty-two episodes, Kit Harington played the role of Jon Snow on that same show. Turner and Harington have now reteamed to star in The Dreadful, which is coming our way from writer/director Natasha Kermani. The story is set against the backdrop of the War of the Roses, which took place from 1455 to 1487 (and has nothing to do with the 1989 dark comedy). It follows Anne (Turner) and her sinister mother-in-law Morwen, who live a solitary, harsh life on the outskirts of society. But when a man (Harington) from their past returns, he sets off a sequence of horrifying events that become a turning point for Anne. Marcia Gay Harden, who won the Best Supporting Actress award for her performance in the 2000 film Pollock, plays Morwen. Laurence O’Fuarain (The Gentlemen) and Jonathan Howard (Godzilla: King of the Monsters) are also in the cast.
After a behind-the-scenes shake-up that saw the exit of Scream (2022) and Scream VI stars Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega from the franchise (along with the director who was originally signed to direct Scream 7, Christopher Landon), this slasher sequel has been reworked to focus on original heroine Sidney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell. Original Scream writer Kevin Williamson directed the film, working from a screenplay by returning writer Guy Busick, who crafted the story with his co-writer on the fifth and sixth films, James Vanderbilt. Campbell is joined in the cast by Isabel May (1883), Mckenna Grace (Ghostbusters: Afterlife), Grace’s Ghostbusters co-star Celeste O’Connor, Asa Germann (Gen V), Sam Rechner (The Fabelmans), Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect), Mark Consuelos (Riverdale), fellow franchise star Courteney Cox, Joel McHale (Community), and Ethan Embray (The Devil’s Candy). Although two of the “core four” characters established in the previous two movies are no longer around, Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown are back… and so are Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley, who played Ghostface killers in the original Scream and Scream 3, respectively, and did not appear to make it out of those movies alive. David Arquette is also back as the dearly departed Dewey, who exited the world of the living in the fifth movie. It hasn’t been revealed how these dead characters are making a comeback.
Writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s The Bride! is a new take on the concept of the 1935 classic The Bride of Frankenstein. Starring Peter Sarsgaard (Garden State), Penelope Cruz (Vanilla Sky), Annette Bening (American Beauty), Julianne Hough (Rock of Ages), John Magaro (September 5), Jeannie Berlin (The Heartbreak Kid), and Gyllenhaal’s brother Jake Gyllenhaal (Donnie Darko), with Jessie Buckley (Men) as The Bride and Christian Bale (The Dark Knight) as Frankenstein’s Monster, The Bride! has the following synopsis: A lonely Frankenstein travels to 1930s Chicago to seek the aide of a Dr. Euphronius in creating a companion for himself. The two reinvigorate a murdered young woman and the Bride is born. She is beyond what either of them intended, igniting a combustible romance, the attention of the police and a wild and radical social movement. Bening plays Dr. Euphronius. Sarsgaard has denied the rumors that the movie is a musical, but also admitted that there are some dance routines.
Written and directed by Addison Heimann, Touch Me is described as being “a wacky, wild, sensual homage to Japanese exploitation films.” Starring Olivia Taylor Dudley (The Magicians), Lou Taylor Pucci (Evil Dead), Jordan Gavaris (Orphan Black), Marlene Forte (A Haunted House), and Paget Brewster (Criminal Minds), it tells the story of two cringe millennials, Joey and Craig, who do everything in their power to do absolutely nothing. Of course they have capital T childhood trauma, but so does everyone, so like, judge them however you like. Seriously, JUDGE THEM. One regular day, Joey’s super hot alien ex, Brian, comes back into town begging for her to forgive him and come back to his desert mansion for the weekend. With nothing better to do (and also a pretty unfortunate sewer explosion in Craig’s house), the two trepidatiously accept. Also the fact that Brian’s slimy sexual tentacle appendage removes anxiety and depression maybe helps solidify their decision. But at the house, under Brian’s veneer of healing is a sinister plot filled with murder, mayhem, and blood. Then again, maybe they can all get along in the most glorious throuple you’ve ever seen. A press release lets us know that this is “a psychosexual horror-comedy with 100% old-school practical effects, about the nature of co-dependent friendships and how far we are willing to go for a slice of happiness.”
Said to be inspired by the likes of Shaun of the Dead and From Dusk Till Dawn, Vampires of the Velvet Lounge follows a glamorous coven of vampires in the deep south who prey on lonely singles found through dating apps, seducing and slaughtering them to preserve their youth. But when they swipe right on the wrong profiles—a cunning undercover vampire hunter and a band of emotionally stunted bros—the hunt spirals into hilariously horrifying chaos. Blood flies, fangs pierce flesh and the bar erupts into a glitter-soaked, green fairy-winged, fang-filled fever dream of grindhouse gore, terrible decisions and fashionably fatal carnage. Adam Sherman directed the film, which stars Mena Suvari (American Beauty), Dichen Lachman (Severance), Stephen Dorff (Blade), Rosa Salazar (Alita: Battle Angel), Lochlyn Munro (Freddy vs. Jason), India Eisley (I Am the Night), Sarah Dumont (Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse), Mark Boone Jr. (Sons of Anarchy), Tom Berenger (Platoon), Timothy V. Murphy (The Fabulous Four), Sherman Augustus (Stranger Things), and Tyrese Gibson of the Fast & Furious franchise.
Six years ago, genre regular Samara Weaving starred in a very cool horror comedy called Ready or Not, which was directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, who went on to make the two most recent Scream sequels and the “Dracula’s daughter” movie Abigail. Now, the team has come back together for Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, where Weaving is joined in the cast by Kathryn Newton (who worked with the directors on Abigail), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings), Shawn Hatosy (The Faculty), Néstor Carbonell (Lost), Kevin Durand (also from Abigail), Kara Wooten (Revival), Juan Pablo Romero (Please, After You), Varun Saranga (Wynonna Earp), Masa Lizdek (Simulant), Nadeem Umar-Khitab (Wedding Season), Daniel Beirne (Ginny & Georgia), Antony Hall (Run the Burbs), Olivia Cheng (Warrior), and legendary filmmaker David Cronenberg. Moments after surviving an all-out attack from the Le Domas family, Grace (Samara Weaving) discovers she’s reached the next level of the nightmarish game — and this time with her estranged sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) at her side. Grace has one chance to survive, keep her sister alive, and claim the High Seat of the Council that controls the world. Four rival families are hunting her for the throne, and whoever wins rules it all.
Director Andy Muschietti and his producer / sister Barbara Muschietti, the filmmaking team behind Mama and the $1 billion grossing adaptations of Stephen King’s It, recently teamed up with Skydance to form a new horror label called Nocturna, and the first project to come out of the Nocturna partnership is the “blood-soaked, high-octane horror-action-comedy” They Will Kill You. Zazie Beetz, whose credits include Joker, Bullet Train, and Deadpool 2, stars as a woman who answers a help wanted ad to be a housekeeper in a mysterious high-rise in New York City, not realizing she is entering a community that has seen a number of disappearances over the years and may be under the grip of a Satanic cult. Beetz is joined in the cast by Patricia Arquette (True Romance), Tom Felton of the Harry Potter franchise, Heather Graham of Boogie Nights and Suitable Flesh, and Myha’la of Industry and Bodies Bodies Bodies. Arquette’s character is one of the leads, the head of the co-op. Felton is a member of the cult. Kirill Sokolov – who is said to be known for his dark sense of humor – directed the film from a screenplay he wrote with Alex Litvak.
Oscar-winning Juno writer Diablo Cody, who has also written the genre films Jennifer’s Body and Lisa Frankenstein, is producing Forbidden Fruits, which marks the feature directorial debut of Meredith Alloway and is an adaptation of the Lily Houghton stage play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin, and Through Her We All Die. Lili Reinhart (Hustlers), Lola Tung (The Summer I Turned Pretty), Victoria Pedretti (You), Alexandra Shipp (Barbie) and newcomer Emma Chamberlain star in the film, which has the following synopsis: Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours – with fellow fruits Cherry and Fig. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges their performative sisterhood, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.
From the writing and directing duo of Gene Gallerano and William Pisciotta comes The Yeti, which tells the following story: Merriell Sunday Sr. and Hollis Bannister vanished in Alaska. Ellie and Merriell Jr. mount a search, but an ancient threat stalks their expedition into the wilderness, hunting them as they seek the truth behind the disappearances. Brittany Allen (Dexter: Original Sin), Eric Nelsen (1883), Jim Cummings (The Last Stop in Yuma County), Christina Bennett Lind (The Lonely Man with the Ghost Machine), and Linc Hand (42) star with William Sadler (Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight) and Corbin Bernsen (Major League).
Legendary Entertainment’s remake of the infamous 1978 box office hit Faces of Death went into production three years, and now it’s finally going to make its way out into the world. This one comes from writer Isa Mazzei and director Daniel Goldhaber, the team that brought us the Netflix release Cam, and it’s said that their story centers on a female moderator of a YouTube-like website whose job is to weed out offensive and violent content and who herself is recovering from a serious trauma, who stumbles across a group that is re-creating the murders from the original film. But in the story primed for the digital age of online misinformation, the question is: Are the murders real or fake? Barbie Ferreira of the HBO series Euphoria, Dacre Montgomery of Netflix’s Stranger Things, Josie Totah of the recent Saved by the Bell revival, Jermaine Fowler of The Blackening, and singer Charli XCX make up the cast.
Don’t let the title fool you: this movie is coming our way from New Line Cinema, so it’s a “new take on the horror trope revolving around the ancient mummified undead” that has nothing to do with the classic Universal horror property. Evil Dead Rise director Lee Cronin teamed with Atomic Monster and Blumhouse Productions for this one, which Cronin said “will be unlike any Mummy movie you ever laid eyeballs on before. I’m digging deep into the earth to raise something very ancient and very frightening.” Jack Reynor (Midsommar), Laia Costa (Victoria), May Calamawy (Moon Knight), Veronica Falcón (Queen of the South), Hayat Kamille (Vikings: Valhalla), and May Elghety (Clash) star. Here’s synopsis: The young daughter of a journalist disappears into the desert without a trace—eight years later, the broken family is shocked when she is returned to them, as what should be a joyful reunion turns into a living nightmare.
Adam Scott (Severance) stars in writer/director Damian McCarthy’s Irish supernatural horror film Hokum, which tells the story of a horror novelist who visits a remote Irish inn to spread his parents’ ashes, unaware the place is rumored to be haunted by a witch. Here’s the synopsis: When reclusive novelist Ohm Bauman (Scott) retreats to a remote Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, the staff’s tales of an ancient witch haunting the honeymoon suite take hold of his mind. Soon, disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance draw him into a nightmarish confrontation with the darkest corners of his past. Scott is joined in the cast by Peter Coonan (Bad Sisters) and David Wilmot (Bodkin).
Gene Simmons of the rock band Kiss has launched a new production company with Gary Hamilton (so the company is appropriately called Simmons/Hamilton Productions), and the first project they gave the greenlight to was a shark thriller called Deep Water – with Deep Blue Sea director Renny Harlin at the helm! Scripted by Pete Bridges and Shayne Armstrong & SP Krause, Deep Water centers on an eclectic group of international passengers whose plane, en route from Los Angeles to Shanghai, is forced to make an emergency landing in shark-infested waters. The terrified group is forced to work together and overcome their differences if they hope to escape their sinking plane and the frenzy of sharks drawn to the wreckage. The film stars Aaron Eckhart of Harlin’s The Bricklayer, Sir Ben Kingsley (Gandhi), Molly Wright (Netflix’s True Spirit), Angus Sampson (Mad Max: Fury Road), Kelly Gale (Plane), singer and actor Li Wenhan, who is a member of the Chinese-Korean K-Pop group UNIQ, and Nashi (Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms).
In 2024, Curry Barker wrote, directed, and starred in the found footage horror movie Milk & Serial, which is said to have had a budget of $800. Baker then released the movie through YouTube, where the free-to-watch video has racked up more than 2 million views. Even though he already sent Milk & Serial out into the world, it’s his new horror movie, Obsession, that’s being billed as his feature directorial debut. Starring Michael Johnston (Teen Wolf) and Inde Navarrette (Superman & Lois), Obsession is a story about a hopeless romantic who makes a wish that his long-time crush falls in love with him. A sinister enchantment ensues. Here’s the official synopsis: After breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price. Cooper Tomlinson (Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (Killer Rental), and Andy Richter (Conan) are also in the cast.
After a thirteen year break, the Scary Movie horror parody franchise is back – and it’s being revived with the help of the people who got it started in the first place: the Wayans Brothers! The Wayans Brothers have written the screenplay with Rick Alvarez, with director Michael Tiddes bringing the wackiness to the screen. Franchise stars Anna Faris and Regina Hall returning after sitting out Scary Movie 5 and are joined in the cast by Damon Wayans Jr. (Let’s Be Cops), Kim Wayans (Dance Flick), Heidi Gardner (Hustle), Cheri Oteri (Liar Liar), Chris Elliott (Cabin Boy), Lochlyn Monroe (Freddy vs. Jason), Dave Sheridan (The Devil’s Rejects), Jon Abrahams (House of Wax), Olivia Rose Keegan (Minx), Savannah Lee Nassif (Dance Rivals), Cameron Scott Roberts (Departing Seniors), Sydney Park (There’s Someone Inside Your House), Gregg Wayans (Fifty Shades of Black), Ruby Snowber (Yellowstone), newcomer Benny Zielke, Shawn Wayans (White Chicks), and Marlon Wayans (Him). It has been hinted that I Know What You Did Last Summer, the Scream franchise, Heretic, Longlegs, Get Out, Nope, and Sinners may be among the movies that get spoofed this time around.
In the build-up to the release of Evil Dead Rise in 2023, Evil Dead franchise rights holders Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert let it be known that they were already looking forward to producing more entries in the series, with Campbell revealing they were hoping to make a new sequel / spin-off every two or three years. They have proved their commitment to this idea by hiring Sébastien Vaniček, who made his feature directorial debut on the French horror film Vermin, a.k.a. Infested, to write and direct a new installment in the franchise. They gave the director complete creative control on the movie, which he says has “a French twist.” Francis Galluppi, who just made his feature directorial debut with the crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County, has already been hired to make the next Evil Dead movie after this one.
Pretty much everything about Flowervale Street is being kept under wraps. Last year, film journalist Jeff Sneider reported the rumor that Flowervale Street happens to be “a dinosaur movie set in the ’80s,” and The Hollywood Reporter’s sources have said it’s “a family adventure set in the 1980s that involves dinosaurs.” We know for sure that it has been directed by It Follows‘ David Robert Mitchell for Warner Bros. Pictures, Jackson Pictures, and J.J. Abrams’ company Bad Robot. The cast includes Anne Hathaway (The Devil Wears Prada), Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Maisy Stella (Nashville), and Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth). The movie was previously scheduled to reach theatres on May 16, 2025, then March 13, 2026. We’ll see if it sticks with August 14.
Back in 2021, filmmaker Mike Flanagan let it be known on social media that he was interested in making a “standalone horror/thriller/tragedy” movie that would center on the DC Comics Clayface character. When James Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC Studios and launched the DC Universe, he got his chance. Flanagan wrote the screenplay for Clayface, which has been brought to the screen by Speak No Evil director James Watkins. Deadline reminds us, “Clayface is shape-shifting villain in the Batman comics and got his introduction as part of Detective Comics #40. The original Clayface was a moderately successful actor who adopted the identity of a character he’d portrayed in a horror pic after turning to crime. Clayface has a body seemingly made out of clay and has appeared over the years in various films, series, animated works, video games and other forms of media.”Tom Rhys Harries (Kandahar) plays the title character and is joined in the cast by Naomi Ackie (I Want to Dance With Somebody) and Max Minghella (Spiral: From the Book of Saw).
Zach Cregger, writer/director of Barbarian and the recently released film Weapons, is directing the new Resident Evil movie for Sony and also wrote the screenplay with Shay Hatten (Army of the Dead) and the story apparently harkens back to the original Capcom game’s horror roots. Here’s the supposed logline: Bryan, a laid-back organ courier, is sent on a late-night delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital. En route through a snowy mountain road, he accidentally hits a strange woman with his car. She survives—but something is very wrong. As he tries to help, Bryan stumbles into a full-blown outbreak involving horrifying tentacle-based mutations and bio-engineered monstrosities. Weapons cast member Austin Abrams has the lead role and is joined in the cast by Paul Walter Hauser (Cobra Kai), Zach Cherry (Severance), Kali Reis (True Detective: Night Country), and Johnno Wilson (I Love That for You). Cherry is said to be playing a scientist at a hospital and Reis plays an ex-military character that was initially written for a male actor. Cregger took the approach of telling an original story with original characters that’s set within the world of the Resident Evil video game franchise because he feels that the stories of the video game characters are already being perfectly told in the games.
Rob Savage moves on from a Stephen King adaptation to a Josh Malerman adaptation, as The Boogeyman director is at the helm of this film adaptation of Bird Box author Malerman’s novel Incidents Around the House, which is coming our way from Blumhouse and Atomic Monster. Jessica Chastain (It Chapter Two), Jay Duplass (Transparent), Dichen Lachman (Severance), Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark), and Arabella Olivia Clark (Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere) star in Other Mommy, which centers on 8-year-old Bela (Clark), who lives in a home strained by her parents’ troubled marriage, only to see her life further upended by a sinister entity she calls “Other Mommy.” When this malevolent presence emerges from her closet, persistently asking “Can I go inside your heart?”, Bela refuses. But soon, Other Mommy’s manifestations become increasingly aggressive, threatening the safety of Bela’s family.
Forty years ago, writer/director Dan O’Bannon delivered one of the most highly entertaining zombie movies of all time with The Return of the Living Dead – and now, we’re getting a reboot from Muck and Kill Her Goats director Steve Wolsh. Information found on the Living Dead Media website reveals: Our reboot of Return of the Living Dead will expand the existing world created by the original 5 films, while staying true to the R-rated, sci-fi, horror, dark comedy roots adored by fans of the cult classic around the world for the last 35 years. We are excited to resurrect this storied franchise for current fans and new generations of zombie fans. Here’s the set up: Taking place 18 months after the events at the UNEEDA Warehouse in Louisville, KY, a new Trioxin 2-4-5 leak puts a small Pennsylvania town on the brink of a zombie outbreak during Christmas, 1985. If surviving a zombie outbreak isn’t hard enough, the characters and the Army will have to also contend with blizzard conditions. This Christmas, it’s Tarman who will be coming to town. Devon Sawa (Final Destination) plays a character named Isaac Horton in the film, with Casimere “Cash” Jollette (Tiny Pretty Things) as Delilah Horton and Kynlee Heiman (The Best Christmas Pageant Ever) as Sophia Horton. Alexander Ward, who has played “demons, monsters and villains” in the likes of Teen Wolf, Ghosted, Annabelle Comes Home, Westworld and American Horror Story, is this project’s version of Tarman.
Sure, this movie is likely to be a heartwarming viewing experience fit for the whole family, but the Charles Dickens source material will also give director Ti West, whose filmography has primarily consisted of horror movies up to this point, the opportunity to tell “a thrilling ghost story.” Deadline reminds us, the classic Charles Dickens story has seen its fair share of retellings over the years with its tale of an elderly miser visited by the ghost of his former business partner and the spirits of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come. For his first major studio movie, West will be telling a thrilling ghost story set in Dickens’ London, following one man’s supernatural journey to face his past, present and future and fight for a second chance. Johnny Depp (Edward Scissorhands) plays Ebenezer Scrooge and is joined in the cast by Andrea Riseborough (Mandy), Ian McKellen of the X-Men and Lord of the Rings franchises, Tramell Tillman (Severance), Daisy Ridley (the Star Wars franchise), Rupert Grint (the Harry Potter franchise), Sam Claflin (Daisy Jones & The Six), Charlie Murphy (Halo), Arthur Conti (Beetlejuice Beetlejuice), and Ellie Bamber (Willow).
The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman, and Nosferatu writer/director Robert Eggers has dealt with some dark subject matter over the course of his career – but the darkest story is yet to come. Eggers has written the screenplay for Werwulf with Sjón, his co-writer on the Viking saga The Northman. Details are being kept under wraps, but The Hollywood Reporter’s sources told them “the story is set in 13th century England. The script also features dialogue that was true to the time period and has translations and annotations for those uninitiated to Old English. Initially, Eggers was planning on shooting the feature in black and white, but that is no longer the case. Suffice to say that considering the setting and the dialect, Eggers is promising another deep dive into a muddy, costumed, and violent time period consistent with his oeuvre which has earned him a loyal film following.“ Screen Daily adds that the story centers on a mysterious creature who stalks a foggy countryside as local folklore becomes a terrifying reality for the villagers. During a recent Q&A event, Eggers told the audience that his “medieval werewolf movie” is, “the darkest thing I’ve ever written, by far.” The film is also a Nosferatu reunion for Eggers and stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, and Willem Dafoe.
Some of today’s biggest genre companies – A24, James Wan‘s Atomic Monster, the Stranger Things makers at 21 Laps, and Planet of the Apes producers Chernin Entertainment – are joining forces for The Backrooms, which marks the feature directorial debut of teenage director and VFX artist Kane Parsons. The film is based on a series of viral videos Parsons released through his YouTube channel Kane Pixels. If you were to splice those videos together they would reach feature length, but the feature version of The Backrooms is going to be something entirely new. The screenplay for the feature has been written by Roberto Patino (DMZ). Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) and Renate Reinsve (The Worst Person in the World) star alongside Mark Duplass (Creep), Finn Bennett (True Detective), Lukita Maxwell (Shrinking), and Avan Jogia (Zombieland: Double Tap)
Director Eli Roth had been planning to make a sequel to his slasher movie Thanksgiving in 2025, but when he wasn’t able to get that one into production, he just pivoted over to another horror movie,Ice Cream Man. The film follows an idyllic summer town descending into madness when an ice cream man serves kids sweet delights with horrifying results. Plot details are being kept under wraps. Roth directed the film from a screenplay he wrote with Noah Belson, based on “an original idea he has had for over twenty years, but studios were too nervous to finance.” Roth’s company The Horror Section fully financed the film with Media Capital Technologies.
Universal had been given this film, a Blumhouse/Atomic Monster production that’s set in the universe of the M3GAN films, a theatrical release on January 2 – but a month before that date, they dropped it from their release schedule and the producers started shopping it around to other distributors. It’s not clear why Universal lost faith in SOULM8TE, although the box office disappointment of M3GAN 2.0 might be to blame. Described as “Fatal Attraction with robots,” the movie will show us what happens when a man acquires an Artificially Intelligent android to cope with the loss of his recently deceased wife. In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, he inadvertently turns a harmless lovebot into a deadly soulmate. This “1990s erotic thriller with a new technological twist” stars Evil Dead Rise actress Lily Sullivan, Claudia Doumit (The Boys), and David Rysdahl (Booger.) Rysdahl is playing the man, while Sullivan plays the android. Details on the role Doumit will be playing have not been revealed. JoBlo’s own Chris Bumbray saw an early preview of the film at CinemaCon last April and reported, “Seems similar to Companion. Centers on a sexbot that becomes so obsessed with her “owner” that she kills anyone close to him and goes on a murder spree. Looks more violent (and kinkier) than M3GAN but has the same humor. When a woman she’s about to kill says ‘Women aren’t supposed to be pitted against each other,’ she answers, ‘Don’t start that girl power shit with me.’“
Trash was the character played by scream queen Linnea Quigley in The Return of the Living Dead – and yes, Quigley is also back for Trash’s Revenge. Her Return co-stars Beverly Randolph, Thom Mathews, Miguel A. Núñez Jr., John Philbin, and Drew Deighan are also in the cast. Plus, the late James Karen and Don Calfa are going to be resurrected through the use of CGI! Eric Roberts and Michelle Bauer are in the cast as well, along with Andrew Pierson, playing a Elon Musk type character named Nathan Virel; news anchorman Danny Langston; and zombies Kevin Plantz, Dave Knee, and Sean Wolfe. Quigley is producing Trash’s Revenge, with Randolph serving as an associate producer and Night of the Living Dead co-creator John A. Russo co-producing. Richard Driscoll is the writer/director. Here’s what it’s all about: As the saga continues decades after the horrific events of the 1985 cult classic, Trash the notorious punk rocker, played by Linnea Quigley, finds herself trapped in a past where fame has faded. Once a rebellious icon, Trash now embraces the persona of a grotesque Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard, attending conventions to sign autographs while her co-stars rise to greater heights. For Linnea, her legacy as a star of Return of the Living Dead becomes both a curse and a twisted ticket to notoriety in an industry obsessed with horror and scandal. But when a young filmmaker approaches her to make a documentary with staged re-enactments from the original film to celebrate the film’s 40th Anniversary, Linnea sees an opportunity to reclaim her place in the spotlight no matter the cost. As the documentary delves into her past, a shocking truth emerges: Return of the Living Dead wasn’t just fiction, part of it was real. Linnea confesses that she still possesses three original cannisters from the film, hidden away in her basement. Cannisters that were never revealed to the public… until now. Here’s a shorter description: A punk rocker rises from the dead, hungry for fame and flesh. She heads to Hollywood, manipulating a filmmaker to document her gruesome “comeback.” Her notoriety and body count grows, leading to a bloody showdown that will decide her fate.
Lola Tung (The Summer I Turned Pretty) and Nico Parker (How to Train Your Dragon) star in The Young People, the latest horror film from Longlegs and Keeper director Osgood Perkins. Also in the cast are Tatiana Maslany (The Monkey), Heather Graham (Suitable Flesh), Johnny Knoxville (Jackass), Lexi Minetree (The Paramedic Who Stalked Me), Lily Collias (Good One), Brendan Hines (Lie to Me), Cush Jumbo (The Good Wife), and Best Actress Oscar winner (for The Hours) Nicole Kidman. Details on the role Kidman will be playing have not been revealed. In fact, we don’t know who anyone’s playing. This project is being kept tightly under wraps. Perkins is directing The Young People from his own script. When filming began, an image of the script was shared online, and a glimpse of the top line of page 76 indicates that Perkins is entering Lovecraftian territory with this film, because there’s a reference to “The Old Ones.”