So far 2018 isn't showing many signs of being much better than 2017, but the good news is you'll have plenty of opportunities this year to escape the horrors of the real world with the horrors of cinema. Read on a for a list of some of the scariest movies hitting cinemas in the coming months.
1. Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built (2 Feb)
If you're the sort of person who thinks Crimson Peak is an appropriate theme for a wedding (it is), then Winchester is probably the movie for you. Based on the true story of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, the movie follows Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren), heir to the Winchester rifle fortune, as she sets out to build a massive, never-ending mansion that just so happens to be haunted by the ghosts of people killed by Winchester rifles.
2. Annihilation (March, Netflix)
Based on the first book in Jeff VanderMeer's outstanding Southern Reach Trilogy, Annihilation follows a group of scientists — Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Gina Rodriguez, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tuva Novotny — as they explore a mysterious disaster zone where other scientists have disappeared. Judging by director Alex Garland's last movie Ex Machina, this will be less of a jump-scare fest than it will be a slow-burning nightmare that keeps you awake for days after you see it.
3. The Lodgers (23 Feb)
February is all about gothic horror. Who needs Valentines Day when you can have haunted mansions full of ghosts seeking vengeance for...incest? OK, I might be wrong about the incest, but you can't deny there's something very Lannister about those twins in the trailer. Legitimate Game of Thrones connection: David Bradley aka Walder Frey will appear as a character named Bermingham.
4. The Strangers: Prey at Night (9 March)
The sequel to 2008's very scary The Strangers, The Strangers: Prey at Night features a new family being terrorised by the same mask-wearing strangers from the first movie. The moral of the story is never leave your house but if you really must then don't talk to anyone ever.
5. Unsane (23 March)
Steven Soderbergh is still not retired, and for his next trick, he shot a movie entirely on his iPhone. It's about a woman (Claire Foy from The Crown) who gets committed to a mental institution against her will and must confront "her greatest fear."
6. A Quiet Place (6 April)
The premise of A Quiet Place is that the supernatural entity can't hunt you unless it can hear you, so naturally, the family in the movie has learned to be fully silent in order to hide from it — they communicate via sign language, they mark the non-creaky floorboards with paint, and they play Monopoly with tokens made out of felt. This is definitely not going to end well!
7. Truth or Dare (13 April)
Starring Lucy Hale of the late Pretty Little Liars, Truth or Dare imagines what happens when the punishment for failing to follow through on your given truth or dare results in death. Horror movies: Always here to remind you that slumber party games will kill you 100 percent of the time.
8. Slender Man (18 May)
Slender Man is based on the true story of two 12-year-old girls who stabbed their friend to death after reading about the Slender Man on the internet, and while it looks to be very loosely based on that case, the father of one of the attackers has already spoken out against it. "It's absurd they want to make a movie like this," Bill Weier told the Associated Press. "In my opinion it's extremely distasteful."
9. The Purge: The Island (4 July)
Though it's the fourth movie in the Purge franchise, The Purge: The Island is actually a prequel to the first movie and will tell the story of the first ever Purge Night. "I was wondering how you get people to stay for the first Purge, and what they do is they start monetising it," Purge creator James DeMonaco told Vulture. "It becomes a monetisation of murder and violence, incentivising killing and keeping people around for them to be victims."
10. The Nun (13 July)
If you came away from The Conjuring 2 thinking, "Hey, I'd really like to see more of that terrifying nun," then I have some great news for you: She's getting her own movie! Details are still scarce, but it'll be a prequel to both Conjuring movies and will tell the story of Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga, real-life sister of Vera Farmiga), the woman unfortunate enough to share her nun's habit with a demon.
11. The Predator (3 Aug)
Yes, that Predator, though don't think too hard about how it fits in to the rest of the franchise. It's a sequel, not a reboot, but it's a prequel to the 2010 movie Predators. In any case, the cast is stacked: Sterling K. Brown, Olivia Munn, Jacob Tremblay, Yvonne Strahovski, Keegan-Michael Key, and Alfie Allen all star.
12. The Meg (10 Aug)
This is a movie about Jason Statham fighting a megalodon. If you require additional plot details to pique your interest, then you are probably not part of this film's target audience. (While you wait: Read Meg, the Steve Alten novel on which the movie is based.)
13. The Little Stranger (31 Aug)
Starring the Domhnall Gleeson, The Little Stranger is about a doctor named Faraday who travels to a house called Hundreds Hall to treat a patient in the Ayres family. He'll quickly find out that the Ayres crew aren't just dealing with physical ailments, though. (It's based on the Sarah Waters novel of the same name.)
14. Halloween (19 Oct)
The original scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis returns to the Halloween franchise for one last battle with Michael Myers. Directed by David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express), the movie has a stamp of approval from John Carpenter, the director of the 1978 original, so there's a high possibility that it's going to be great.
15. The House That Jack Built
Directed by Lars Von Trier, The House That Jack Built follows a serial killer named Jack (Matt Dillon) over 12 years. In an interview with The Guardian, Von Trier said the movie "celebrates the idea that life is evil and soulless." Sounds like a party.
I’m the senior entertainment editor at Cosmopolitan.com, which means my DVR is always 98 percent full. I love romance novels, bourbon, and canceling plans so I can watch Lost for the 50th time.
