11 Horror Films We Can’t Wait To See In 2017

Split

A big horror movie is going to be hitting the big screen nearly every single week of January, the month kicking off with Underworld: Blood Wars and ending with Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. Nestled in-between those two franchise films is M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller Split, which stars James McAvoy as a man with 24 different personalities inside of him.

Shyamalan proved with The Visit that he can still craft a compelling horror story, so we’re excited about this one. It feels safe to expect a great performance from McAvoy and of course, some kind of twist.

Get Out

Comedian Jordan Peele heads into the horror genre with directorial debut Get Out, and if the trailer is any indication, it’s set to be the most timely horror movie released in 2017.

The film, which looks to be laced with social commentary, stars Daniel Kaluuya as a black man who visits his white girlfriend’s family estate and discovers a sinister reason behind the invitation. Horror movies have never shied away from tackling cultural issues and making topical statements about the real world, and we’re happy to see Peele bringing that to the genre next year.

The Belko Experiment

A trailer or plot wasn’t even required to get me excited about The Belko Experiment, and that’s because of the two creative forces behind the “Office Space meets Battle Royale” horror flick.

Written by James Gunn (Dawn of the Dead, Guardians of the Galaxy) and directed by Greg McLean (Wolf Creek), Belko is set in a high-rise corporate office and centers on a group of employees who have been tasked with killing their co-workers or, well, being killed themselves. Joe Lipsett already reviewed the film for BD, calling it a “cocktail of murder and laughs.” Yes please.

Alien: Covenant

Personally speaking, there’s no movie I’m more excited about in 2017 than Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant, which looks to be way more of a direct Alien prequel than the Prometheus sequel it was originally billed as.

Michael Fassbender reprises the role of android David in the new franchise installment, set on an uncharted planet that’s infested with familiar-looking monsters. Early footage was recently shown off to the press and the reactions have indicated that Covenant will be dark, terrifying, and incredibly violent. Say no more. My ticket is already bought.

The Mummy

Universal’s rebooted monsters universe kicks off this coming summer with the Tom Cruise-starring The Mummy, and at this moment in time, we have our doubts about how much of a horror movie it will be. Judging by the trailer, it looks like Universal is rebooting their iconic monster movies as blockbuster action flicks, but we’re willing to give this one a chance before rushing to judgement.

If nothing more, Sofia Boutella looks totally badass as the film’s female mummy, and I suppose it’s nice to see so much money and star-power being pumped into monster movies.

The Dark Tower

One of the cool things about 2017 is that the work of Stephen King is going to have a large presence at the box office, which is nice to see given how many of his novels have been turned into straight-to-video crap over the years. Long-gestating feature film The Dark Tower finally makes the leap to the big screen next year after years of false starts, and with Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey in the lead roles, we’ve got nothing but good feelings about this one.

The Nikolaj Arcel-directed film is expected to be the first in an epic small and big screen franchise.

Stephen King's IT

Jonathan Barkan recently wrote a piece here on BD where he expressed the opinion that the 1990 adaptation of IT just isn’t very good, and everything he wrote echoed my own feelings when I re-watched the miniseries earlier this year. It’s a great story told pretty damn poorly by that adaptation, and as good as Tim Curry was as Pennywise, even he couldn’t save it.

And that’s the main reason why I’m so excited to see Mama director Andy Muschietti’s feature adaptation, which will be split into two parts. Can he do the story the proper justice it deserves? I’ve got faith.

Insidious-Chapter 4

How cool is it that Lin Shaye is the star of her own horror franchise?! Shaye reprises the role of parapsychologist Elise Rainier for Insidious: Chapter 4, which will again be a prequel to the first two films. As Shaye recently revealed, the fourth installment will dig deeper into Elise’s backstory and family life, and it’s set directly after the events of the third film.

Leigh Whannell returned to write the script and will also play Specs once more, and the real exciting thing about this one is that it was directed by The Taking of Deborah Logan‘s Adam Robitel. Yup. Sold.

Untitled Cloverfield movie

Originally slated for release in February, the J.J. Abrams-produced God Particle was just bumped back to October and will apparently undergo a title change that will make it part of the Cloverfield Universe that began with the 2008 found footage movie and continued with 10 Cloverfield Lane.

The film, directed by Julius Onah, tells the story of a team of astronauts who make a shocking discovery and end up fighting for survival in what is described as an altered reality. How strongly will it connect to the franchise? Will sure be interesting to find out.

Friday the 13th

A brand new reboot of the Friday the 13th franchise has been on again, off again so many times that we sincerely have our doubts about it being released next year, but last we heard production was set to begin this coming Spring, so maybe Paramount and Platinum Dunes are finally ready to roll.

Aaron Guzikowski (Prisoners) wrote the script and Breck Eisner (The Crazies) is set to direct Jason’s big return, which may or may not be set in the ’80s and may or may not explore the Voorhees family. All we know for sure is that it’s DEFINITELY not going to be found footage!

Saw- Legacy

If it’s Halloween… it must be Saw. The Saw franchise was a Halloween staple at the box office between the years of 2004 and 2010, and after a seven year absence, the franchise returns to the big screen this coming October.

We don’t yet know much of anything about Saw: Legacy – will it be a sequel, a reboot, or a standalone film? – but it seems that filming has already wrapped with brothers Peter and Michael Spierig (Daybreakers) in the director’s chairs. Josh Stolberg and Pete Goldfinger (Piranha 3D, Sorority Row) wrote the script. Will be nice to have you back, Billy!

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