THE PLAYLIST
The 25 Most Anticipated Horror Films Of 2023
By Lena Wilson | January 12, 2022
2022 was a great year for horror, with savvy niche distributors like IFC Midnight, Shudder, Neon, and A24 putting out some fantastic flicks and big studios going for broke on gonzo titles like “Barbarian,” “Smile,” and Jordan Peele’s “Nope.” 2023 is shaping up to be another excellent year for scare savants — there’s a lot of new original films on the docket, exciting directors to discover, and classic stories to revisit.
Below are details on 25 of the most exciting horror films coming out this year. We’ve included something for everyone, from horror comedies to full-on freakfests, indies to hopeful blockbusters. Enjoy the smorgasbord, and read till the end to see some honorable mentions.
“All Fun and Games”
Netflix darlings Asa Butterfield (“Sex Education”) and Natalia Dyer (“Stranger Things”) are leading “All Fun and Games,” a film about the cruelty inherent in many children’s games. In the film a group of siblings finds themselves caught up in a game with a “demonic twist.” “All Fun and Games” is the directorial debut from collaborators Eren Celeboglu and Ari Costa (associate producer, “Avengers: End Game”), who also co-wrote the film. Costa was an assistant to the Russo Brothers for nearly a decade, and now the Marvel filmmakers are co-executive producers on this hotly anticipated chiller. Additional cast members include Keith David (“The Thing,” “They Live”), Annabeth Gish (“Midnight Mass”), Benjamin Evan Ainsworth (Disney’s “Pinocchio”) and Kolton Stewart (“Locke & Key”).
Release date: TBD.
“Apartment 7A”
Purists might be wary of this upcoming “Rosemary’s Baby” prequel, but it’s got some seriously promising talent behind it. Writer-director Natalie Erika James (hidden gem “Relic”) is at the helm of “Apartment 7A,” which stars Julia Garner, Dianne Wiest, Marli Siu (“Anna and the Apocalypse”) and Jim Sturgess (“21,” “Cloud Atlas”) and is reportedly about a young dancer who rents a room from an elderly couple. Newcomer Amy Leeson will play a young Rosemary Woodhouse in this 1950s-set film. James penned the script with her “Relic” co-writer Christian White, based on an original script by Skylar James, and Michel Bay and John Krasinski are among the producers. Throw in music by Isobel Waller-Bridge (“Emma,” “Fleabag”), production design by Simon Bowles (“The Descent”), and period looks by “The Crown” costumer Michele Clapton, and we’re sold. After all, nobody does creepy quite like Julia Garner.
Release date: TBD via Paramount.
“birth/rebirth”
Writer-director Laura Moss made waves with their festival award-winning short film “Fry Day,” a “coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of Ted Bundy’s execution in 1989.” Now they’ll make their feature debut at Sundance 2023 with the feature “birth/rebirth,” which they co-wrote with their “Fry Day” writing partner Brendan J. O’Brien. The film follows a pathologist who reanimates a maternity nurse’s six-year-old daughter, only for the two to discover that they need to harvest biological materials from pregnant women to keep the little girl alive. Breeda Wool (“UnReal,” “XX”) and Judy Reyes (“Scrubs,” “Smile”) lead the film, along with Marin Ireland (“The Umbrella Academy”). Thank Satan Shudder has already snatched this one up.
Release date: Premieres January at Sundance, then TBD via Shudder.
“The Blackening”
If there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that there need to be more Black horror comedies. (It’s been six whole years since “Get Out”!) Luckily Tim Story (“Barbershop,” “Think Like a Man”) has one coming out this summer courtesy of Lionsgate. The script by Tracy Oliver (“Girls Trip”) and Dewayne Perkins (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”) is your classic cabin-in-the-woods slasher, but this time with a group of Black, horror-savvy friends at the center. Perkins also stars, along with Antoinette Robertson (“Dear White People”) and Sinqua Walls (“Nanny”).
Release date: June 16 via Lionsgate.
“The Boogeyman”
Indie hidden gem “Host” was a masterful pandemic film, so we’re excited to see director Rob Savage take on Stephen King for his next film. “The Boogeyman” adapts King’s 1978 short story of the same name, which follows a morally unsteady father afraid his children are being murdered by The Boogeyman, in a script co-written by Scott Beck (“A Quiet Place”) and Mark Heyman (“Black Swan,” “The Skeleton Twins”). Sophie Thatcher (“Yellow Jackets”), Vivien Lyra Blair (“Bird Box”) and Chris Messina (“She Dies Tomorrow”) are among the cast, and Shawn Levy (“Stranger Things”) is a producer. King adaptations can be particularly polarizing, but this looks promising.
Release date: TBD via Hulu.
