champagne and slugs
2024's horror offerings and coining the word "blooby"
happy 2024!
today we’re talking the 2024 horror offerings that i’m most excited about, and next week we’re covering seventies giallo horror. i watched my first giallo this week, and it was a very bloody time with a lot of extraneous boobs. (i initially wrote “blooby” time because i was thinking “blood” and “boobs,” and the word “blooby” is now a word i will use.) please send recommendations for all the blooby giallos you know and love and i’ll try to talk about them next week.
before we dive into 2024 horror, you should definitely sign up for my substack if you haven’t already, because i’ve got some new perks and newsletter additions rolling out this year :)
I’m going to loot my Letterboxd to share the horror I’m (currently) most excited for this year.
MaXXXine: The holy grail of 2024 horror, in my opinion, is Ti West and Mia Goth’s MaXXXine. By all accounts, it’s going to be a wild and gory ride. I imagine the aesthetics will be immaculate.
Longlegs: This weekend, horror accounts on Instagram were absolutely eating up the analogue-style trailer for the new horror from Neon, Longlegs. Longlegs also has a longer theatrical trailer that my friend and I saw in the theater when we went to Night Swim. It seems that the film will feature a serial killer and a lot of occult symbolism and themes, which I think always make for a very disconcerting time.
Love Lies Bleeding: I’m not totally sure I can classify this one as a horror movie, but it’s by the director of Saint Maud, Rose Glass, and it’s A24 and Kristen Stewart, so there’s nothing not to love about it (and, as long-time readers will know, I’m very skeptical of the term “thriller”). The movie premieres at Sundance this month, and has a wider release March 8th.
Baghead: This one looks like it could go either way, but I’m cautiously optimistic that it’ll be fun. Baghead is about a grieving man who’s attempting to commune with the dead, through a malevolent witchy entity called Baghead. The movie has no relation to the 2008 horror comedy Baghead, but is based on a horror short by the same director who’s making the 2024 feature film.
Imaginary: I love horror movies and I love stuffed animals, so a truly dreadful looking horror movie about a killer teddy bear and malicious imaginary friends is kind of perfect for me. I think it’ll be horrid, and I think I’ll absolutely go see it. Imaginary comes out March 8th, 2024.
Presence: Premiering at Sundance this January, Presence follows a family who moves into an ominous house. It’s a well-worn concept, but I think it looks quite promising.
Handling the Undead: Another Sundance premiere, Handling the Undead is based on a 2005 Swedish novel by author who wrote Let the Right One In. The movie is set in Oslo, and follows several families whose dead loved ones return to them. I don’t like zombies, but this sounds eerie and poigant. According to IMDB, the film will be available in early February.
President’s Day: Gotta love a very campy-sounding slasher based on presidential figures. I’m hoping there’s some nice political satire here, but I don’t have high hopes for the movie in general. But it’ll be fun, hopefully.
It’s What’s Inside: A wedding party and a mysterious suitcase and probably lots of death and blood. I think it has the potential to devolve magically and in a concerning fashion. It’ll get a Sundance release this month.
Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2: I still need to see Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, particularly after my boyfriend got me the record store day limited soundtrack vinyl for Christmas. I imagine this one will be just as terrible as the first, but with the addition of Tigger, who’s now joined Pooh and Piglet in the public domain.
Terrifier 3: Terrifier 3 is going to be dreadful and gory and controversial, and I’m so excited. We’ll see if I’ll be able to stomach it. The ultimate Christmas gore and camp movie—I think it’ll become a classic.
Smile 2: I finally saw Smile in December, and it was a fun time. It was quite scary, honestly, and I’m tentatively excited for the sequel. It doesn’t have a release date currently, but it could be a fun time, we’ll see.
Nosferatu: Nosferatu is considered both a vampire precursor and one of the most iconic horror movies of all time. A hundred and two years later, the Nosfateru remake is arriving on Christmas.
I Saw the TV Glow: A24 horror is my favorite kind of horror, and this one looks wild. It follows two young adults who start watching a TV show with intriguing supernatural undertones. It’s been reported that Phoebe Bridgers might star in it, which would obviously be the crossover of my dreams (A24 horror + Phoebe), but I couldn’t figure out if that’s still true. Either way, though, Brigette Lundy-Paine is in it, and they’re great.
Cuckoo: It doesn’t have a release date yet, but I’m very excited about this one. Hunter Schaefer is a phenomenal actress.
There are so many more, but that’s a few I’m looking forward to.
My first horror movie in theaters this year was Night Swim.
I went to see it with one of my friends, who also loves horror, and we agreed that it was very fun and tense, even though it wasn’t scary at all.
There were a couple creepy moments for sure, but my friend noted that the majority of the tension in the movie came from the way that it played on common fears—dark water, drowning, shadowy shapes in the pool.
It was solidly fun, even though it wasn’t scary. I saw someone online saying that the movie felt more like “a drama with some horror” than an actual horror, which rang true. It was undeniably tense, and pretty feel-good, with likable characters.
Do let me know what you’re excited to see this year! I can’t wait for the reviews to start coming out of Sundance. As always, feel free to reach out to horrorwithhenri@gmail.com or on Instagram @horrorwithhenri
Thank you so much for following along, and happy 2024 :)