NAJOČEKIVANIJI HOROR FILMOVI 2020

  

Kao što sam to radio i svake prethodne godine, i ove sam kopao po opskurnijim, manje žanrom-zatrovanim mestima kako bih našao potencijalno zanimljive horor najave za ovu godinu. Ko prati samo američke horor sajtove, videće pretežno najave američkih mejnstrim horor govana, KONJURINGA, ANABELA, nastavaka i rimejaka. Ko prati malo dalje, dublje i šire od žanra, naći će najave nekih potencijalno zabavnih, uglavnom neameričkih (ili barem USA, ali low-budget), manje izvikanih naslova. Evo čemu se ja najviše nadam ove godine, po redosledu očekivanja, od najnadežnijih („mora biti super!“) na početku pa do malo manje obećavajućih („ko-zna-mož-da-bude-al-ne-mora-da-znači“) niže na listi.

Ako mi je nešto promaklo – a sigurno jeste jer nisam imao vremena da baš pomno pretražujem – kažite u komentarima!

Kandisha

Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury 

French horror duo are set to return with a vengeance in 2020, potentially premiering two features.

In the suburbs one summer, three young women accidentally invoke the spirit of Kandisha, a hateful spirit from Moroccan folklore. As their relatives begin to die, the women must figure out a way to defeat the entity before it’s too late.

Release Date/Prediction: Shot in June/July of 2019, we expect Maury & Bustillo to return to TIFF in 2020, likely in Midnight Madness (which programmed Inside and Livid).

Gretel & Hansel

Oz Perkins

Expected release January 31, 2020

A girl and her younger brother unwittingly stumble upon the house of an evil witch in the dark woods.

*** Sophia Lillis (pirgava curica iz IT) i uvek jeziva Alice Krige!

Deluje kao horor bombonica za oči!

Antlers

Scott Cooper

Expected release April 17, 2020

A mysterious creature escapes from its confines to wreak bloody havoc in a small Oregon town.

Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons star in this Guillermo del Toro- and David Goyer-produced supernatural film about a small-town teacher, her sheriff brother, and a creepy local boy (Jeremy T. Thomas) who has something dangerous locked away in his home.

Directed by Scott Cooper ("Crazy Heart," "Hostiles").

The Deep House

Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury

Hip young couple Tina and Ben travel to France as YouTube photojournalists, who dive into an obscure lake to photograph a submerged house. However, they awaken a nasty spirit residing in the house.

Release Date/Prediction: With footage revealed during 2019 AFM, it would appear The Deep House is completed. As their other feature Kandisha will also be seeking a premiere, Maury and Bustillo will likely have at least one of their new features in TIFF 2020 in Midnight Madness (where both Inside and Livid premiered). However, their relationship with SXSW and Cannes could also see a return to either platform.

Prisoners of the Ghostland

Sion Sono

English language debut, a Japanese/US co-production headlined by Nicolas Cage (which Cage himself has defined as ‘the wildest movie he’s made to date’)

Cage is Hero, a notorious criminal dispatched to save a young woman who has disappeared into a dark, supernatural universe. Together, they must ‘break the curse that binds them’ to escape the insidious ghosts there (with Cage donning what sounds like a military version of Musidora outfit).

Release Date/Prediction: TIFF’s Midnight Madness program, 2020.

Possessor

Brandon Cronenberg

Eight years after his 2012 debut Antiviral, Brandon Cronenberg returns with Possessor, a sci-fi thriller with a stellar cast, featuring Jennifer Jason Leigh (who starred in David Cronenberg’s 1999 film eXistenZ), Andrea Riseborough, Sean Bean, Christopher Abbott and Tuppence Middleton. Lensed by Karim Hussein (Hobo with a Shotgun).

From Cronenberg’s own script, Possessor follows an agent who works for a secret organization using brain-implant tech which allows people to inhabit the body of another and commit assassinations.

Release Date/Prediction: World Dramatic Comp at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

The Lodge

Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz

Release Date: February 7

Snowed in at an isolated cabin with her fiancé's children, Grace (Riley Keough) has to find a way to navigate the tricky new relationships while also facing off with threats from her dark past in "The Lodge."

Directed by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz ("Goodnight Mommy"), the film originally premiered at Sundance.

***Ovo ćemo gledati na FEST-u u Beogradu!

Akelarre

Pablo Agüero 

For his fifth feature, Argentinean director Pablo Agüero recreates a 1609 witchcraft trial for Akelarre, co-written by Katell Guillou (loosely based on Pierre de Lancre’s On the Inconstancy of Witches: Tableau de l’inconstance des mauvais anges et demons).

Basque Country, 1609. When all the men have gone off to sea, Ana is involved with the other village girls in a party in the woods. But they’re apprehended by Judge Rostegli, who has been charged with purifying the area. Extreme measures are taken to secure confessions from the girls about the Akelarre, or Witches’ Sabbath, a ritual wherein the devil mates with his proteges to make them servants.

Release Date/Prediction: Agüero completed principal photography on Akelarre in July of 2019, which makes him a potential contender for Berlin 2020.

Saint Maud

 Rose Glass

A psychological horror about a devout Christian nurse and her cancer-afflicted charge, "Saint Maud" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2019, and made its US debut at Fantastic Fest down in Austin, Texas, a week later.

It is the feature-length film debut for Rose Glass and it stars Morfydd Clark as the titular Maud and Jennifer Ehle as the woman in her care that is in need of "saving."

Reactions from festivalgoers were positive, with several reviewers applauding the "unsettling" possession film for its "creeping dread" and its slow-paced, disturbing tone.

DISAPPEARANCE AT CLIFTON HILL

Albert Shin

 STARRING DAVID CRONENBERG

The legendary David Cronenberg steps out from behind the camera to take a lead role in DISAPPEARANCE AT CLIFTON HILL, a hallucinatory thriller that has now landed a release date.

IFC Midnight has announced that DISAPPEARANCE will appear in theaters and on VOD February 28. Directed by Albert Shin from a script he wrote with James Schultz, the movie also stars Tuppence Middleton, Hannah Gross, Eric Johnson and Marie Josée-Croze.

Following the death of her mother, Abby [Middleton], a troubled young woman with a checkered past, returns to her hometown of Niagara Falls and the dilapidated motel her family used to run. While there, she finds herself drawn once again into a mystery that has haunted her since childhood: what happened to the young boy she saw being violently abducted in the woods 25 years ago? As Abby sets out to find out the truth, she must confront both a shocking, long-buried conspiracy that runs as deep as the falls themselves as well as her own inner demons.

COME TO DADDY

Ant Timpson

Saban Films will release COME TO DADDY, the directorial debut of noted genre producer Timpson, in select theaters and on VOD and digital platforms February 7.

Toby Harvard scripted, and the cast is headed by Elijah Wood, Stephen McHattie, Martin Donovan, Michael Smiley, Madeleine Sami and Simon Chin.

Norval Greenwood [Wood], a privileged man-child, arrives at the beautiful and remote coastal cabin of his estranged father [McHattie]. He quickly discovers that not only is dad a jerk, but he also has a shady past that is rushing to catch up with both of them. Now, hundreds of miles from his cushy comfort zone, Norval must battle with demons, both real and perceived, in order to reconnect with a father he barely knows.

Distancia de rescate

Peru’s Claudia Llosa 

Shot in Chile by Oscar Faura (who has lensed all of J.A. Bayona’s titles to date)

Based on the novel Distancia de Rescate by Samanta Schweblin, a ghost story about a woman named Amanda lies dying in a sleepy Argentinean town she had been vacationing in. A child named David questions her on the events leading up to her sickness.

Release Date/Prediction: Currently in post-production, we expect Llosa to compete for the third time in Berlin.

*** Ovaj roman imamo na srpskom - Spasonosna razdaljina. Još ga ne overih iako mi leži na gomili, ali eto, moraću da to učinim pre filma!

The Turning

Release January 24, 2020

U srpskim bioskopima od 30.01.

A young governess is hired by a man who has become responsible for his young nephew and niece after the deaths of their parents. A modern take on Henry James’ novella “The Turn of the Screw”.

Henry James’ classic horror story The Turn of the Screw gets re-imagined as a 1990s period piece!

This spooky-house movie stars Mackenzie Davis, Brooklynn Prince and Finn Wolfhard

***Ovu novelu i još neke Džejmsove priče objavljuje Orfelin za oko mesec dana: overite film u bioskopu sada, a knjigu čitajte posle, natenane. Najava knjige i pretplate – za koji dan... Bilo bi mi ovo još više pri vrhu delu liste, ali prvi rivjui nisu baš obećavajući. Ipak, overiću ga možda već 30-og!

Antebellum

Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz

Expected release April 24, 2020

A successful author finds herself in a horrifying reality and must figure out the mystery behind it before it is too late.

Janelle Monáe will star in a horror film that reaches back to the Civil War era. It looks hauntingly beautiful!

From the producers of hit films "Us" and "Get Out".

Last Night in Soho

Edgar Wright

Expected release September 25, 2020

A young girl, passionate in fashion design, is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s where she encounters her idol, a dazzling wannabe singer. But 1960s London is not what it seems, and time seems to fall apart with shady consequences.

Chung Chung-hoon, best known for his collaborations with Park Chan-wook (Oldboy and Lady Vengeance) is the cinematographer. This film stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie.

In an interview with Empire magazine, "Shaun of the Dead" director Edgar Wright said his upcoming psychological horror film "Last Night in Soho" will have some elements of time travel.

The characters share a mysterious link inspired by Wright's obsession with the decade. "Imagine if you knew everything you know now, and went back," Wright said. "I'm taking a premise whereby you have a character who, in a sort of abstract way, gets to travel in time. And the reality of the decade is maybe not what she imagines."

Morbius

Daniel Espinosa

Building on their cinematic universe of Spider-Man characters that began last year with the Tom Hardy-starring Venom, Sony is making a movie about Morbius the Living Vampire. Jared Leto has been cast to play the title role, with the actor promising to bring the same “intensity” to Morbius that he brought to the Joker.

Daniel Espinosa, the director of Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal’s 2017 alien attack movie Life, is behind the cameras on this one, with shooting taking place in Manchester, England, disguised as New York via movie magic. This will be more of a comic book movie than a horror movie, but come on, it’s about a vampire.

The Banishing

Christopher Smith

Christopher Smith is one of the most consistent and underappreciated directors working in the genre, so any movie that he oversees deserves a spot on every horror fan’s radar. The Banishing tells the 1930’s-set story of the most haunted house in England and the reverend and his family forced to contend with its horrifying secrets. On paper, this sounds like another generic supernatural spookfest, but Smith’s a filmmaker who is more than capable of turning familiar concepts into movies that stand out from the pack.

Terrifier 2

Damien Leone

After being resurrected by a sinister entity, Art the Clown returns to Miles County where he must hunt down and destroy a teenage girl and her younger brother on Halloween night.

Cosmogonie

Vincent Paronnaud

French director Vincent Paronnaud is best known as an animator, having co-directed two films with Marjane Satrapi. The two parted ways following 2011’s Chicken with Plums and Paronnaud returns with his solo, live-action effort, Cosmogony.

Paronnaud’s latest, co-written by Léa Pernollet, is a thriller wherein a woman flees two serial killers in a forest who are hot on her heels.

Release Date/Prediction: Currently in post-production, we expect Cosmogony to land at Cannes, potentially in Un Certain Regard or Directors’ Fortnight.

The Reckoning

Neil Marshall

Co-written by lead Charlotte Kirk and Edward Evers-Swindell, the 1665 New England set horror film stars Kirk as Evelyn Haverstock, whose husband (Anderson) commits suicide, finding herself falsely accused of witchcraft after rejecting the advances of her landlord.

Release Date/Prediction: With production taking place in Hungary back in August, the first photos from the completed project were released in September, 2019. The Reckoning seems a likely candidate for Midnight Madness at TIFF 2020.

 AFTER MIDNIGHT

Jeremy Gardner and Christian Stella

AFTER MIDNIGHT, which Gardner also wrote, is coming to theaters and VOD February 14 from Cranked Up Films.

Gardner stars alongside Brea Grant, Henry Zabrowski and Justin Benson, the latter of whom produced with his SPRING/THE ENDLESS partner Aaron Moorhead and David Lawson.

Dealing with a girlfriend suddenly leaving is tough enough. But for Hank [Gardner], heartbreak couldn’t have come at a worse time. There’s also a monster trying to break through his front door every night.

The Night House

David Bruckner 

David Bruckner has been a presence in the horror genre for years, and his short-form work in films like V/H/S (2012) and Southbound (2015) marked him as a director to watch. His debut feature, The Ritual (2017), saw that early promise pay off with a solidly creepy tale of cults, creatures, and paranoia, and now he’s back with a sophomore effort that looks every bit as good. The great Rebecca Hall plays a widow who discovers dark truths about her dead husband.

Candyman

Nia DaCosta

Expected release June 12, 2020

A “spiritual sequel” to the 1992 horror film ‘Candyman’ that returns to the now-gentrified Chicago neighborhood where the legend began.

As you may already know, the original film from 1992 is based on Clive Barker’s story The Forbidden, where Tony Todd starred as Candyman, a former slave who was brutally murdered for his relations with a white woman.

Director Nia DaCosta blessed us with the drama thriller Little Woods. According to this filmmaker on the rise, she wants to capture the American life we rarely see on screen.

A Quiet Place 2

John Krasinski

Release Date: March 20

After the first film exceeded expectations at the box office, "A Quiet Place" screenwriters and director John Krasinski decided to return to the silent but deadly world.

Krasinski is back to direct and Emily Blunt is also returning to reprise her role as Evelyn Abbott, a mother trying to protect her family in a world overrun by large creatures with hypersensitive hearing.

Others reportedly joining the cast include Cillian Murphy and Djimon Hounsou. Krasinski has teased that the threat in "A Quiet Place" probably extended well beyond the borders of the Abbott family's property, but we'll have to wait and see just how widespread the chaos is.

The Vast of Night 

March 13

The Vast of Night feels like a quaint old Twilight Zone episode about an alien presence in small-town America, but the gorgeous cinematography and art direction place it among the most stunning of prestige horror films. A teenage phone operator and a local radio DJ in 1950s New Mexico set out to solve the mystery of a strange frequency that’s invading the airwaves in their town. After playing festivals through the end of last year, Amazon will release Vast of Night .

THE DEEPER YOU DIG

Toby Poster & John Adams

Fourteen-year-old Echo and her mother Ivy, a tarot card reader, live a quiet life in a rural area. When reclusive Kurt moves down the road to restore an abandoned farmhouse, an accident leads to Echo’s murder, and suddenly three lives collide in wicked ways. Kurt assumes he can hide his secret under the ground, but Echo burrows into his head until he can feel her in his bones. As she haunts his every move, trying to reach her mother from beyond, Ivy must dig deep to see the signs and prove that love won’t stay buried.

ROCK PAPER SCISSORS

Macarena García Lenzi & Martín Blousson

Argentina, 2019

The routine of eccentric, maladjusted siblings is disrupted when their half-sister arrives looking for her share of the inheritance, resulting in a series of sick games to see who is the rock, who is the paper, and who is the scissor. 

The Empty Man

Writer Cullen Bunn is one of the most exciting comics creators working right now, particularly in the realm of horror comics thanks to acclaimed series like Harrow County. This year, one of his comics will make the leap to the screen, with hopefully terrifying results. The Empty Man, written by Bunn with art by Vanesa R. Del Rey, follows an ex-cop with a tragic past who's on the hunt for a missing girl. As his search deepens, he realizes something far worse than a missing persons case is afoot, and discovers a terrifying group of people who are trying to raise a monster. The film adaptation is set to star James Badge Dale, Samantha Logan, Stephen Root, Joel Courtney, and more. Sadly, we haven't yet seen any trailers for the film, but if it can capture the creepy spirit put forth by Bunn and Del Rey's comic (which got a sequel in 2018), it's bound to be a horror film worth checking out. 

The Empty Man is slated to hit theaters August 7, 2020.

False Positive

John Lee

Jordan Peele made it fashionable for comedians – sketch, improv, stand-up, what have you – to turn to horror when they make that major step from television to film. Ilana Glazer gave us five seasons of doped up mad cap antics on Broad City and seeing her… peel off into the horror realm feels so logical I can’t believe I never saw it before. False Positive, about a couple (Glazer, Justin Theroux) who visit a fertility clinic run by the presumably evil Pierce Brosnan, looks to potentially be a Rosemary’s Baby riff with a touch of “ripped from the headlines” melodrama. This movie is going to be weird, creepy, and if it’s anything like Glazer or Lee’s other work, super duper divisive.

Dead & Beautiful

David Verbeek

For his seventh narrative feature, Dutch director David Verbeek continues to pursue his unique cultural and co-production infusions with Dead & Beautiful, a Taiwan set vampire tale.

A group of decadent and spoiled teenagers in Taiwan awaken to find they’ve turned into vampires after a night of revelry. Eventually, despite their embrace of their immortal new trappings, friendships become tested.

Release Date/Prediction: Promos for the title were unveiled at AFM in 2019, and we’re thinking Verbeek has the potential to return to Cannes, likely in Director’s Fortnight or Un Certain Regard, in 2020.

Swallow 

March 6

Swallow is one of the calmest body-horror movies you’ll ever see, but that doesn’t stop it from twisting every nerve. Haley Bennett stars as Hunter, a prim newlywed whose domestic malaise leads her to start … eating things … to break up her dull routine and preplanned life. And we don’t mean just soft things. We mean batteries. Marbles. Thumbtacks. And more. But trying to digest sharp objects is a bad idea, and when Hunter’s secret addiction is discovered, she has to either confront the roots of her compulsion or bury herself behind the guise of a pretty housewife.

Underwater 

Underwater isolation. A sea monster. Claustrophobic peril. Kristen Stewart with gay hair.

***Ovo je već nezapaženo prošlo kroz USA bioskope, ali tek treba da dođe do naših malih ekrana i monitora. Javlja mi se da je bolji nego što mu box office govori – možda čak bude ovogodišnji LIFE!

The Other Lamb

Małgorzata Szumowska

Attack of the Australians! The Other Lamb is from screenwriter Catherine S. McMullen, and it appeared on the Black List and the BloodList (basically the Black List for horror scripts) back in 2017. It centers on an isolated religious community called the Flock that is made up of all-female subordinates with one male leader (yikes!). When a member named Selah participates in the “sacred ritual of the birthing of the lambs,” it leads to a “transformative experience” that will probably be frightening! IFC will release The Other Lamb in 2020.

Sea Fever

Neasa Hardiman

Irish filmmakers really know their way around moody suspense, and this movie stars Hermione Corfield (Rust Creek) as a marine-biology student who gets stranded at sea with a crew people on the boat she’s hitched a ride on. That’s already bad enough, but then there’s a “bioluminescent force” that starts overtaking the vessel. Sea Fever is expected to drop sometime this spring.

The Platform

This one looks disturbing. This Spanish film is set in a vertical prison where inmates live two to a cell and they only get to eat when a platform passes through their level and pauses for two minutes while they feast. 

The horror of it all is that the table starts full at the top, and those near the bottom only get to eat what is left by the end — and hunger makes monsters of us all. The Platform will debut on Netflix.

Atarrabi & Mikelats

Eugène Green

US born French filmmaker Eugène Green’s eighth feature will be Atarrabi & Mikelats, produced by Julien Naveau (Evolution, 2015)

Green’s latest is a fable about the Goddess Mari and her two sons, born of a mortal father, whom she entrusts to the devil for their education. Mikelats decides to stay with his master but Atarrabi flees—but the devil manages to hold onto his shadow.

Release Date/Prediction: Green is in post-production, completed in September. We expect him to compete for a fourth time in Locarno.

I’m Thinking of Ending Things

Charlie Kaufman

This road-trip movie is advertising “palpable tension, psychological frailty, and sheer terror” from writer and director. Stars on board include Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette, and David Thewlis, and the story centers on a woman who starts to reexamine her whole life as she tries to break up with her boyfriend. Ending Things will debut on Netflix later this year.

Shut In

Jason Bateman

Tight, self-contained horror/thriller that sees people pushed to the limits to survive. This one focuses on a woman and her two children held captive by a deranged ex, and it’s directed by Jason Bateman. He’s not exactly the first name you think of for the genre, but his comedy has always held a mean streak and he’s shown himself to be a solid filmmaker (Bad Words, 2013; The Family Fang, 2015) as well. He’s also starring in HBO’s new Stephen King adaptation of The Outsider.

Vivarium 

March 27

What if you got stuck in a distressingly uniform suburban housing development called Yonder? That’s the broad premise of Vivarium, in which Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg co-star as a couple searching for just the right starter home. (A vivarium, it’s worth noting, is a typically enclosed area used for raising and observing plants or animals.)

Army of the Dead

 Zack and Deborah Snyder

The film is set to debut on Netflix. 

Release Date: Winter 2020

Zack Snyder ("Justice League") is back in the director's chair after taking a short break from Hollywood in 2017.

A Las Vegas-based zombie-apocalypse film for Netflix called "Army of the Dead." The film stars Dave Bautista, Ana de la Reguera, and Ella Purnell.

Rebecca

Ben Wheatley

Ben Wheatley directs this adaptation of the gothic horror classic based on Daphne du Maurier’s novel. Armie Hammer stars as Maxim de Winter, with Lily James as his new bride, the one who moves into his grand home, Manderley, and is haunted by the looming presence of his beautiful deceased wife, Rebecca. Rebecca will debut on Netflix.

Halloween Kills

David Gordon Green

Expected release October 16, 2020

The saga of Michael Myers and Laurie Strode continues in the next thrilling chapter of the Halloween series.

Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, and others are reprising their roles from the 2018 film.

It has also been announced that Anthony Michael Hall is joining the cast as Tommy Doyle.

Blood Quantum

Jeff Barnaby

Mi’gmaq filmmaker Jeff Barnaby wrote and directed this movie about a First Nations tribe (his own, in fact) dealing with a siege by the undead on their Red Crow reserve. The Mi’gmaq, however, are immune to whatever is causing this zombie contagion, which means they have to fend off a bunch of white walking dead. Quantum will arrive on Shudder later this year.

*** 

The Haunting of Bly MANOR

The Haunting of Hill House set social media on fire when it was released in October 2018. Its sequel, The Haunting of Bly Manor, will follow an entirely new storyline with new characters, and it'll be based on The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.

The horror novella tells the story of a governess hired to look after a pair of siblings. However, several ghosts around their manor house exhibit a supernatural hold over the children. A release date for Bly Manor hasn't been announced yet, but fans are expecting an October drop.

Dobro, ovo nije film nego serija, ali neka je ovde: biće vam ovo dodatni razlog da sebi nabavite ultimativno izdanje Džejmsove novele koje uskoro izdaje Orfelin!

PS: Na listi mi nije IL SIGNOR DIAVOLO, novi Avatijev horor, jer sam ga „preko veze“ već pogledao. Odlična, potencijalno jaka priča slikana je, režirana i glumljena nepojmljivo amaterski: 2+ u najboljem, mega-dobronamernom slučaju.