previews... 2022's Best Movies - Horror

Over the next two weeks, we're going to be previewing 100 of 2022's best movies. We continue today and it's about to get horror-ific...

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis

Director: David Gordon Green

Release date: October 14th

The final instalment in David Gordon Green’s rebooted Halloween trilogy that kicked off in 2018 with Halloween – framed as a direct sequel to John Carpenter’s 1978 original - Halloween Ends is set to arrive in October, with Jamie Lee Curtis set to return once again for what is likely be the final reprisal of her role as Michael Myers’ long-suffering sister, Laurie Strode.

Green has signalled that the final instalment will be a more intimate film that aims to honour Carpenter’s body of work, but if the set-up created by this year’s sequel Halloween Kills is anything to go by, there’s bound to be a big old showdown too. However Green closes the trilogy out, we’ll get to see for ourselves when the Halloween Ends debuts in cinemas on October 14.

Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox

Director: Tyler Gillett, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin

Release date: January 14th

Wes Craven’s classic 1996 slasher had already spawned three sequels in what became one of the era’s most popular horror franchises, but although the director stated in 2011 that he had signed up for a fifth and sixth film in the series, sadly any hopes of Craven’s continued involvement ended with his death in 2015. However, his legacy lives on and the Scream story is set to deliver another chapter this year with, with a new film directed by Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin set to arrive in January.

Titled simply Scream (although in terms of story continuity you could think of it as Scream 5), the newest instalment sees the return of some key cast members including Neve Campbell, David Arquette and Courteney Cox , who face the prospect of a new killer donning the Ghostface mask to terrorise the population of Woodsboro. Following a script penned by Zodiac screenwriter James Vanderbilt, the fifth instalment in the Scream saga set to arrive in cinemas on January 14.

Starring: Ethan Hawke

Director: Scott Derrickson

Release date: February 4th

Blumhouse Productions have built a horror movie powerhouse over the last decade with the simple philosophy of keeping production budgets low and giving directors creative freedom – an approach which has seen the studio help create hit franchises like Paranormal Activity and The Purge, as well as Oscar winners such as Jordan Peele’s outstanding 2017 horror Get Out.

The latest offering from the Blumhouse stable is set to arrive in February from Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson, who has previous form in the genre having made his directorial debut in 2005 with supernatural horror The Exorcism of Emily Rose. His new film The Black Phone stars Ethan Hawke in a tale of kidnapped 13-year old who begins receiving strange calls from his kidnapper’s former victims – on a disconnected old telephone. One to mark in your diary for February 4.

Starring: Carla Juri, Imelda Staunton

Director: Romola Garai

Release date: January 28th

British actress Romola Garai is perhaps best known to most for her starring roles in BBC series Emma and The Hour, as well as her appearances in films such as Atonement, but Garai makes her directorial debut in 2022 with a new horror film starring Carla Juri, Imelda Staunton and Romanian stage actor Alec Secăreanu.

The story revolves around an ex-soldier offered a place to stay for free in a run-down house with a young woman and her dying mother, in exchange for repairing the house’s myriad problems, but it quickly becomes apparent that they are not the only inhabitants of this creepy old dwelling.

Making its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020, the film’s UK release has been delayed somewhat by the pandemic, but Amulet finally makes its first appearance in UK cinemas on January 28 and looks to be worth the wait.

Starring: Lewis Pullman

Director: Gary Dauberman

Release date: September 9th

Having worked as a screenwriter penning scripts for films such as The Conjuring spin-off Annabelle and Andy Muschietti’s 2017 take on Stephen King’s It, Gary Dauberman made his directorial debut in 2019 with Annabelle Comes Home and is set to make his second outing as a director this year with another Stephen King adaptation – namely his 1975 novel Salem’s Lot.

Lewis Pullman stars as the film’s protagonist Ben Mears, a writer who returns to his sleepy hometown of Jerusalem’s Lot in order to work on his next book, only to find that the town is being terrorised by a vampire. Featuring a cast that includes Unbreakable star Spencer Treat Clark and Game of Thrones actor Pilou Asbæk, Dauberman’s adaptation of this gripping tale comes to cinemas in the UK on September 9.

Starring: Hannah John-Kamen, Douglas Booth

Director: Jon Wright

Release date: March 18th

Set to make its arrival in March, this new horror from director Jon Wright (Grabbers, Robot Overlords) draws on Scots and Irish folklore in a tale of two Londoners who escape the city to begin what they imagine to be a tranquil new life in the Irish countryside, only to discover that murderous goblins inhabit the spooky, ancient woods that begin at the foot of their new garden.

Hannah John-Kamen and Douglas Booth lead a cast that also includes Derry Girls star Jamie Lee O’Donnell, Niamh Cusack and veteran Irish actor Colm Meaney. Due to debut in UK cinemas on March 18, Unwelcome promises to be one of the year’s most unique horrors.

Starring: Jacqueline Byers

Director: Daniel Stamm

Release date: February 25th

German director Daniel Stamm (13 Sins, The Last Exorcism) helms this upcoming horror starring Salvation’s Jacqueline Byers as a 25-year old nun who is bored of her life working in a Catholic school, with a passionate belief that performing exorcisms is her life’s true calling. Her ambitions are being thwarted, however, by a priesthood that does not allow sisters to do so, but when she takes on a demonic entity haunting the school in a bid to prove herself, she uncovers mysterious ties between the spectre and her own past.

Based on a screenplay by Robert Zappia, whose previous work in the horror genre includes 1998 Michael Myers reboot Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, The Devil’s Light also stars Virginia Madsen, Ben Cross and Colin Salmon, with its maiden appearance in UK cinemas set to take place on February 25.

Starring: Daniel Kaluuya

Director: Jordan Peele

Release date: TBC (probably July)

Possibly one of the most exciting prospects for the horror genre in 2022, especially for fans of Jordan Peele’s recent work, Nope sees the director reunite with Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya, who stars in Peele’s upcoming film alongside a cast that also features Steven Yeun, Keke Palmer and Barbie Ferreira.

Beyond that, there’s little else in the way of information about Peele’s latest offering, with a trailer yet to arrive and details on the plot being kept firmly under wraps so far. There has been speculation that Kaluuya’s involvement could mean a story related to Get Out, but all we can say for sure at the moment is that Nope is due to arrive sometime in 2022, with a US release date set for July 22.

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Release date: January 21st

Although Nightmare Alley opened in American cinemas at the beginning of December, film fans in the UK will have to wait a little longer for the latest film from Guillermo del Toro, which makes its grand entrance into cinemas on these shores in January. Adapted from the 1946 novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham (which also formed the basis for a 1947 film by Edmund Goulding), del Toro’s version stars Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett alongside a cast that also includes Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Ron Perlman and Rooney Mara.

Following the story of an ambitious carnival performer and trickster as he becomes involved with an icy female psychiatrist who has the potential to be even more dangerous than he is, Nightmare Alley promises to be a thrilling ride when it hits cinema screens on January 21 – and will probably be one to watch throughout awards season early next year too.

Starring: Tilda Swinton

Director: Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Release date: December 26th 2021

Set to arrive on Boxing Day for a limited run in cinemas heading into the new year, this intriguing horror from Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul stars Tilda Swinton, a Scottish woman living in the Colombian city of Medellin who travels to Bogota to visit her sister, who is in hospital with a mysterious illness. Things only get stranger when finds herself awoken by loud disturbances in the night.

Also starring Jeanne Balibar, Juan Pablo Urrego and Daniel Giménez Cacho, the film premiered at Cannes in 2021 and will appear in UK cinemas for the first time on December 26.