Are you looking to be scared out of your wits in 2022? Here's our round-up of the year's must-see horror movies that are bound to induce frights.
1. Scream
Release date 14th January 2022
The movie The dreaded Ghostface killer is back in this continuation of the classic Scream franchise. With the passing of series originator Wes Craven in 2015, it falls to Ready or Not filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett to resurrect that signature blend of razor-sharp irony and bloodsoaked terror. They've collaborated with the original Scream writer, Kevin Williamson, to bring us a new generation of imperilled Woodsboro youngsters who must expose the maniac behind the mask before it's too late. Fortunately, they've got assistance from series veterans Sidney (Neve Campbell), Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Dewey (David Arquette).
2. Nightmare Alley
Release date 21st January 2022
The movie Guillermo del Toro is a filmmaker with a penchant for the twisted and the arrestingly grotesque, as the likes of Pan's Labyrinth attest. Several years after claiming the Oscar for The Shape of Water, he returns for another slice of perverse and alluring Gothic mayhem, and he's working once again with an all-star cast. Nightmare Alley is a remake of a 1940 Tyrone Power vehicle, exploring how a carnival con artist falls for two very different women. A Star Is Born's Bradley Cooper takes the lead, and he's joined by Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett, the latter of whom vamps it up as a devious psychiatrist. Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Ron Perlman and Toni Collette round out the superb ensemble.
3. X
Release date 18th March
Cult horror director Ti West returns with this gleeful throwback to the heyday of splattery, squidgy seventies horror. Laced with black humour and surprising levels of insight, it tells the story of an adult film crew who fall foul of their elderly hosts. With its hip young cast, including Brittany Snow and Kid Cudi, plus pithy observations about the nature of ageing and abstinence, it's a horror movie with bark and bite.
4. The Northman
Release date 8th April 2022
The movie Director Robert Eggers is one of the most exciting voices in contemporary horror cinema. His previous movies The Witch and The Lighthouse assimilated elements of classic genre movies such as The Shining, lacing nostalgic familiarity with fabulous attention to detail in atmosphere, characterisation and dialogue. (Nope, we still can't unsee Robert Pattinson and the mermaid in The Lighthouse.) His latest offering, The Northman, is perhaps less a horror and more a Norse Viking adventure, but if the director's previous work is anything to go by, we can expect creeping chills and shocks in equal measure. Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Anya-Taylor Joy and Bjork star.
5. Men
Release date 20th May
Ex Machina and Annihilation director Alex Garland goes for the jugular in this unsettling psychological chiller. Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley plays a bereaved young woman beset by a host of men sharing the same face (all played by the versatile Rory Kinnear).
6. The Black Phone
Release date 24th June 2022
The movie Better known for his compassionate portrayals in the likes of Dead Poets Society and Boyhood, actor Ethan Hawke swerves into villainy in the chilling new movie from Sinister and Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson. Hawke, who starred in the aforementioned Sinister, plays a psychopath named The Grabber, a masked maniac with a predilection for abducting young children. However, he comes unstuck when he kidnaps the tenacious Finney Shaw (screen newcomer Mason Thames), who discovers that she can psychically communicate with The Grabber's previous victims via a black telephone in his basement.
7. Nope
Release date 22nd July 2022
The movie Along with the aforementioned Robert Eggers, writer-director Jordan Peele has done a lot to inject contemporary horror cinema with biting relevance and skin-crawling atmosphere. His 2017 movie Get Out fused The Stepford Wives with Invasion of the Body Snatchers, emerging as a crafty and scary satire on liberal racism. In claiming the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, Peele became the first African-American filmmaker to bag the trophy. In 2019, Peele's follow-up movie Us showcased a blazing dual performance from Lupita Nyong'o as a distressed mother and her evil doppelganger. We've no idea what Peele's new movie Nope is about, but based on his past record, we're very excited indeed.
8. Don’t Worry Darling
Release date 23rd September 2022
The movie In 2019, Olivia Wilde stepped behind the camera for the first time. The end result was coming-of-age comedy Booksmart, a sharply observed and very funny account of two bookish students going hog wild on the last day of the school year. Wilde is now shifting gears for her sophomore movie, Don't Worry Darling, which ditches the laughs for psychological thrills. Booksmart screenwriter Katie Silberman spins a dark yarn in which a 1950s housewife (Black Widow's Florence Pugh) comes to suspect that her husband is hiding something. The more-than-capable supporting cast includes the MCU's latest recruit Harry Styles, plus Chris Pine, Gemma Chan and Wilde herself.
9. Halloween Ends
Release date 14th October 2022
The movie All good things must come to an end. But if the prior Halloween movies have taught us anything, it's that you can't kill the unstoppable Michael Myers. Director David Gordon Green and screenwriter Danny McBride spun critical acclaim and box office gold from their 2018 Halloween reboot, wiping the slate clean and directly continuing the legacy of John Carpenter's 1978 masterpiece. In 2021, Halloween Kills upped the ante and the carnage as Michael found himself pitted against the residents of Haddonfield, Illinois. Now, the saga of Michael and his original victim Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is set to come to its terrifying conclusion.
Which of these movies is top of your must-see list? Let us know @Cineworld.
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