With an overarching focus dedicated to pointing out career highlights of the people who bring us things to watch, the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival has a damn good eye for upcoming horror about to be released. Here are 22 new horror movies to talk about.
With the announcements finished concerning what films will be playing in Montreal at this year’s film festival, Mother of Movies already discussed which titles across different genres were on our radar. The Witchboard, Shelby Oaks, Dark Match, and, The Beast Within were all listed among other title highlights we saw information on. (read about that here.)
Now the final wave is unleashed, it’s time to focus on horror movies and dark or creepy-looking films on the agenda.
22 Horror Movies For Your Watchlist
For more information on what’s showing at this year’s Fantasia Film Festival visit the website.
This year’s career achievement award (2024 Cheval Noir career award) is presented to Mike Flanagan. If your heart doesn’t skip a beat at the sound of his name, then you are in the wrong place.
Black Eyed Susan
Disclaimer… I snuck this in. But it sounds like it fits in this list so, here it is anyway.
Black Eyed Susan is an AI movie with a definitive twist. Scooter Mcrae hasn’t made a feature film for more than 20 years but was known for titles like Shatter Dead and Sixteen Tongues.
Black Eyed Susan follows a man who starts working at a tech start-up company to produce a sex doll that likes it rough. Angled into a universe absent of the comedy label that would usually apply here, this is a story where Mcrae takes a trip down memory lane and unleashes his darker side and thoughts about humanity once again.
Cast for Black Eyed Susan includes Damian Maffei (Wrong Turn and Haunt), Scott Fowler (The Murder Tapes), and Marc Romeo (Law and Order.)
In Our Blood
The first title is in the found footage subgenre this horror movie focuses on the story of a missing mother. In Our Blood is directed by a filmmaker known for their documentary-style films to make a POV movie that feels too real not to be scary.
Directed by Pedro Kos (Rebel Hearts) the found footage film stars E.J. Bonilla (The Exorcist: Believer), Alanna Ubach (Ted), and, Brittany O’Grady (Sometimes I Think About Dying – read the review we did for that movie.)
The A-Frame
Horror and science fiction go hand in hand in The A-frame by filmmaker Calvin Lee Reeder. Reeder is known for his segment in the V/H/S franchise episode, The Field Guide to Evil and Harbor Island in 2023. With a penchant for weird and obscure themes and ideas, The A-Frame introduces a quantum physicist who has accidentally discovered the cure for Cancer.
As is evidenced many times advancements in technology affect our moral obligations and in The A-Frame the repercussions are bloody, heart-stopping, and brutal with a dash of humor in unconventional settings. Cast for the A-Frame includes Dana Namerode (What Josiah Saw), Johnny Whitworth, Nik Dodani (Twisters), and Phillip Andre Botello (All Jacked Up and Full of Worms.)
The A-Frame was already released at Tribeca earlier in the year and the title holds an 8.6/10 on IMBD.com with very few critic reviews. Of those reviews, closing comments point to a satisfying experience in the ones I glanced at. I want to make up my mind and generally wait before reading too much online unless I am researching. In any case, it sounds super cool.
Samara Weaving Stars in Azrael
It’s a post-apocalyptic survival and revenge horror and action film. With Samara Weaving. For some, like me, that will be enough information. For everyone else, the story also dishes out a cult of mute religious fanatics who couldn’t speak even if they wanted to. It’s been that long. Not only that but these weird forest people know about some ancient evil that lives in their midst and a sacrifice needs to be made to settle it down.
Azreal (played by Samara) and Kenan (played by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) escape from their prison only to fail and end up right back where they started. Only this time, they plan to kill Azrael to appease their entity.
Having not come across this title before and reading Simon Barett is also involved in Azrael I got literal chills of excitement. Barret wrote for The Guest, Seance, You’re Next, and several V/H/S segments. Azrael will be directed by E.L. Katz and of course, when I saw that, I drooled. Katz directed Cheap Thrills one of the most underrated films ever made. Azrael already played at SXSW but word on the street is that it is awesome.
Carnage for Christmas
What would a festival be without a frequent Fantasia Film Fest Favorite, director, and writer Alice Maio Mackay who recently released the LGBTQIA+ horror movie, T Blockers?
This year Carnage for Christmas will be aimed at those cinema fans who spend their Christmas holidays, looking for horror films to watch. This Australian filmmaker turns to goopy alien stuff through a story about a true crime podcaster. There are mysteries to solve and a supernatural entity to kill things. All solid ingredients for a new underground cinema hit. Be prepared for something with drag queens and slayings with Carnage for Christmas.
Betsey Brown (All Jacked Up and Full of Worms), Zelda Adams (Hellbender), Chris Asimos, and Dominique Booth all star.
Beast Within
For many the name Kit Harrington and werewolves is all the information you might need. Beast Within follows a girl growing up in a weird village that does something else after dark.
Director Alexander J. Farrell. Writers Greer Ellison and Alexander J. Farrell. Starring Kit Harington, Ashleigh Cummings, and James Cosmo.
Dark Match – Wrestling And Cults
Cults and wrestling go together like peanut butter and jelly. Weird but we like it. A wrestling team gets paid to go to a remote place and put on a wrestling match only to find a cult and a cult leader is part of the experience. Looks like violence and mayhem will be on the agenda.
Director and writer Lowell Dean with cast Steven Ogg (TWD), Sara Canning, and, Michael Eklund.
The Dead Thing – Horror And Apps
Mother of Movies already cited The Dead Thing as a movie to look out for when the first wave for the Fantasia Film Festival 2024 was released. It’s a dating app horror story infused with some sort of supernatural edge where the guy she falls for doesn’t ghost her in the way dating platforms usually dole out duds. Because Dead Things is a horror movie, this probably means dark and sinister things ensue.
Blu Hunt (The New Mutants), Ben Smith-Petersen (Mad Max: Fury Road), John Karna, and Katherine Hughes star. Elric Kane is the writer and director for The Dead Thing with co-writer Webb Wilcoxen.
Wake Up – The Slasher Movie Your Watchlist Needs
RKSS, Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell, and François Simard) are back with a slasher film. Alberto Marini (Sleep Tight) is the writer behind what promises to be not the soft and fluffy type of slasher film.
Protestors advocating for Amazon rain forests, U.V. paint, and a one-man hunting army means, Wake Up is speculated to be a hit.
Set in a department store as well as being a slasher flick, awards Wake Up additional brownie points.
Directed by Whissell Anouk, Simard Francois, Yoann-Karl Whissell
Cast: Benny O. Arthur, Turlough Convery, Tom Gould, Jacqueline Moré
This Man – Curses and Horror
This Man name-drops titles like Ring, Final Destination, It Follows and The Wailing so Mother of Movies is already on board.
This Man adapts an urban legend spread around Tokyo in the 1990s. Focussed on mental-health disorders as the trigger for a curse.
- Director Tomojiro Amano
- Writer Tomojiro Amano
- Cast Arisa Deguchi, Minehiro Kinomoto
The Soul Eater
Original title. Le Mangeur d’Ames by the horror director duo we love most Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury.
Cast includes Virginie Ledoyen, Paul Hamy, Sandrine Bonnaire. By Francis Renaud Malik Zidi
The Killers | South Korean Horror and Thriller Movie
Directors Kim Jong-kwan, Roh Deaok, Chang Hang-jun, and Lee Myung-Se set their anthology horror inside a bar with four stories about hit men.
Rita
Already snapped by IFC Films and RJLE Films for distribution, Rita is based on real events. Set against a Guatemalan orphanage in 2017 where 41 women were burned to death. Of course, this horror is set in a fantasy world where women who get locked up are looking for someone to lead them.
Director and writer Jayro Bustamante (La Llorona). The title will come to Shudder soon.
Cast includes Isabel Aldana, Sabrina De La Hoz, Giuliana Santa Cruz, Maria Telon and, Alejandra Vasquez.
Chainsaws Were Singing
An Estonian horror-comedy feature film by director Sander Maran. The byline reads, “Adventures await when new lovers are separated by a chainsaw killer.”
Shelby Oaks
The buzzword title for the Fantasia Film Festival 2024 is Shelby Oaks. Why? Because YouTube star Chris Stuckman raised so much money during his Kickstarter campaign he broke records. The Cast is good, the executive production team has Mike Flanagan and the story sounds fun. A sister looking for her missing sibling with documentary-style cinematography as her story is told.
Director and writer
Cast includes Michael Beach, Keith David, Sarah Durn, Brendan Sexton III, and, Camille Sullivan.
Scared Shitless – Horror Comedy Animation
Director Vivieno Caldinelli and writer Brandon Cohen gathered and great looking cast with Chelsea Clark, Daniel Doheny, Mark McKinney, and, Steven Ogg. When Sonny’s mom dies, his dad, Don tries to figure out a way to stem his new germaphobic behaviour by making him tag along at work. Scared Shitless promises gore and laughs and the poster has a toilet on it, so how bad can it be?
Parvulos – Creepy Mexican Horror
In a dark-fable horror, universes live three brothers with a secret in the basement. Director and writer Isaac Ezban join co-writers Ricardo Aguado-Fentanes and Isaac Ezban were inspired by films like Goodnight Mommy, Lord of the Flies and A Quiet Place so expect the creepiness to be dialed all the way up.
Practical effects and a stunning cast which includes Carla Adell, Leonardo Cervantes, Felix Farid Escalante, Norma Flores, Noe Hernandez, Horacio Lazo, and Mateo Ortega.
Oddity – Under the Radar Horror Movies
Damian McCarthy (Caveat) wants you to be scared while watching his second film Oddity. A tense home-invasion thriller told in an out-of-sequence structure and promising the same disregulating visceral as his previous film. A wooden dummy assists a woman who is blind and knows how to contact the dead. That’s all you need to know.
Director and writer Damian McCarthy brings Carolyn Bracken and Gwilym Lee (You Are Not My Mother) among the cast. There is also a trailer for Oddity, check that out here.
Kryptic Film The Science Fiction and Horror Movie You Need
Krptic already played at SXSW and is supported by XYZ New Visions selection. Following a group of hikers looking for a monster that is violent and rumored to have something to do with a missing woman exactly where they plan to go.
Director Kourtney Roy and writer Paul Bromley.
Kizumonogatari – Koyomi Vamp | Japanese Vampire Horror
Reki doesn’t want to be a vampire anymore so he must seek out the original vampire’s limbs to become a human again. Animation comedy and horror by writer and director Tatsuya Oishi. For more information visit the Kizumonogatari official website.
Witchboard
A remake of the original film promises to twist the vantage point of the original film. Ouija boards used for gain eventually cause havoc in Witchboard. Get ready to learn about the boards’ origin and don’t expect the same old lore either. Director/co-writer Chuck Russell (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3) wants to try and show you something new.
Les Écorchés – Partie 1 (The Flayed)
The French film Les Écorchés – Partie 1 is set to be a trilogy that will star teenagers. Taking inspo from titles like Stand By Me and IT and cornering the urban legend and seance realm combining fantasy and horror. Somewhere between “The Body” and IT. Les Écorchés – Partie 1 sounds like a scary movie to look out for.
Directed and written by Luca Jalbert. Cast includes Mathieu Alain, Olivier Anctil, Vincent Feller, Livia Gilbert, Luca Jalbert and, Elie Salvail.
Hell Hole Has a Parasitic Monster
A movie from the Adams Family has a monster movie coming! John Adams, Toby Poser, and Lulu Adams have written Hell Hole a story about a parasite living inside a frozen soldier. Sounds great to me. John and Toby are directing and it’s sure to be as great as all their other titles. Mother of Movies has seen them all. Read about The Deeper You Dig / Hellbender / Where the Devil Roams.
The Fantasia Film Festival runs from July 18 to August 4.
