This summer will be a scary one for horror-movie fans, with nine horror movies headed for theatrical release from May through August. Get ready to see a movie or three -- here's your horror-movie planning schedule for the months ahead.
Release date: May 6
Cast: Elma Begovic, Annette Wozniak, Denise Yuen, Jordan Gray.
Tell me more: Three women travel to Costa Rica to celebrate an impending marriage. Unfortunately, the bride-to-be suffers a mysterious bite from an unknown creature, which causes her to begin acting strangely after she returns home. Soon her behavior turns deadly. Produced in Canada, the film has received glowing reviews on the festival circuit and promises explicitly violent thrills for those who prefer the harshest edges of horror cinema.
Release date: May 13
Cast: Kevin Bacon, Radha Mitchell, Matt Walsh, Jennifer Morrison
Tell me more: A family returns from vacation, not realizing until it's too late that they've brought home a supernatural force. Australian filmmaker Greg McLean directed; his credits include the brutal Wolf Creek, giant crocodile flick Rogue (which also featured Mitchell) and savage sequel Wolf Creek 2. Bacon made an early appearance in Friday the 13th and has since returned to horror-thriller territory with Tremors, Flatliners, Stir of Echoes and Hollow Man.
Release date: June 10
Cast: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Frances O'Connor, Simon McBurney
Tell me more: James Wan returns to direct this sequel, in which paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren once again seek to help a family plagued by evil spirits. This time, the scares originate in Enfield, England, where a single mother and two of her children claim strange events are happening in their home. The real-life case drew huge attention from the news media and soon the Warrens were on their way.
Release date: June 17
Cast: Andy Powers, Laura Allen, Peter Stormare
Tell me more: Years before he made the acclaimed indie drama Cop Car and subsequently landed the job of directing the upcoming Spider-Man reboot, Jon Watts made Clown, a faux trailer for a horror movie. The idea was horrific: a father puts on a clown suit for his son's birthday party, then discovers he can't take it off. Four years later, Watts made a feature version, produced by Eli Roth, and now we finally get to see the result. The unsettling premise remains the same, with the addition of Peter Stormare as a mysterious figure who fills in the history of the clown costume, which is far more than a costume.
Release date: June 24
Cast: Blake Lively
Tell me more: Stranded on an outcropping of rocks, an injured surfer cries out for help. She is only 200 yards from the beach, but the problem is that no one else is around. She chose the beach for its privacy and isolation. Now she is being stalked by the great white shark that attacked her. How will she survive? Director Jaume Collet-Serra specializes in white-knuckle thrillers such as Non-Stop, set largely on a transatlantic flight, so we can't wait to see how he handles a great premise, pitting a woman against a dangerous monster.
Release date: July 1
Cast: Frank Grillo, Elizabeth Mitchell, Edwin Hodge
Tell me more: Having resisted the urge to purge, Sergeant (Grillo) has survived to become the head of security for U.S. Senator Charlene Roan (Mitchell). Senator Roan has become the front-runner in the latest presidential campaign, in large part by promising to eliminate the titular Purge. Naturally, that makes her a big target during the annual ritual of murder and mayhem. James DeMonaco returns for the third time as writer and director.
Release date: July 15
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth
Tell me more: Director Paul Feig has already proven he can expertly steer action-comedies to great success -- see The Heat and/or Spy -- and the combination of established stars McCarthy and Wiig with rising stars McKinnon and Jones fairly well guarantees that these paranormal investigators will deliver great fun as they fight mischievous ghouls in New York. Will we see the giant marshmallow return? If not, what large supernatural creature can we expect to see stalking the streets of Manhattan?
Release date: July 22
Cast: Teresa Palmer, Emily Alyn Lind, Alicia Vela-Bailey
Tell me more: Writer-director David F. Sandberg made a very short film with a very clever premise: when a woman turn out the lights in her home, a mysterious figure appears. When she turns the lights on, the figure disappears. The video went viral and caught the attention of producer James Wan (The Conjuring). Three years later, we have the feature-film version, directed by Sandberg and starring Teresa Palmer as the hapless woman at the center of a terrifying scenario. It promises to expand beyond the thrills that were only hinted at in the short film.
Release date: August 26
Cast: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovato, Stephen Lang
Tell me more: Reteaming with his Evil Dead star Jane Levy, director Fede Alvarez sets his lean thriller in Detroit. Levy and two friends have perfected the art of breaking into homes while their occupants are away. Driven by desperate desire and tempted by the prospect of an apparent easy mark, they target the home of a blind man (Avatar's Stephen Lang) in an abandoned neighborhood. Little do they know that they have severely underestimated the blind man, who does not take kindly to strangers attempting to steal his hidden fortune.
