17 Horror Movies for When 2019 Isn't Scary Enough
Afraid of clowns? This is not the list for you.


The real world is plenty terrifying all on its own. That said, if you're the type who wants to add some fictional scares into the mix, 2019 has you covered. The horror movies coming out in 2019 (opens in new tab) star maniacal clowns, demonic resurrections, and murder (so much murder!). If you're a lover of onscreen guts and gore, here's your guide to the best scary movies coming out this year.
1. 'Escape Room'
What if a trendy group activity got a Saw-esque twist? That would be this movie.
Release date: January 4
Starring: Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, Deborah Ann Woll, Tyler Labine, Jay Ellis, and Nik Dodani
2. 'The Prodigy'
A genius-level young boy starts exhibiting disturbing behavior and it falls on his mother to find out what's possessing him. Get it?
Release date: February 8
Starring: Taylor Schilling, Jackson Robert Scott, and Colm Feore.
3. 'Happy Death Day 2U'
Same girl, new time loop, new murderer.
Release date: February 13
Starrring: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phi Vu, Suraj Sharma, Sarah Yarkin, and Ruby Modine.
4. 'Us'
Jordan Peele's new movie has a new round of socially driven scares to make you think. And you'll have plenty of time to think, because you won't be able to sleep a wink after you watch this movie.
Release date: March 22
Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Evan Alex, Shahadi Wright-Joseph, Tim Heidecker, Yahya Abdul Mateen II, and Anna Diop.
5. 'Pet Sematary'
A man takes the body of his dead son to a haunted pet cemetary, where the boy is resurrected. Nothing good can come of that (except a good scary movie, of course).
Release date: April 5
Starring: Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, and John Lithgow.
6. 'The Curse of La Llorona'
A ghost known as La Llorona wanders the world looking for her lost children and stealing other lost kids along the way. A woman's life gets scary AF when she becomes La Llorona's latest target.
Release date: April 19
Starring: Linda Cardellini, Raymond Cruz, Patricia Velásquez, and Marisol Ramirez.
7. 'Brightburn'
This premise of this horror move is, essentially, "What if Superman used his powers for evil?" The answer: It's not great.
Release date: May 24
Starring: Elizabeth Banks, David Denman, Jackson A. Dunn, Matt Jones, Meredith Hagner, Gregory Alan Williams, Jennifer Holland, Steve Agee, Becky Wahlstrom, and Christian Finlayson.
8. 'Child's Play'
A remake of the 1988 horror classic about Chucky, the scariest doll ever. In this version, Chucky is a high-tech doll who rejects his programming and terrorizes a family.
Release date: June 21
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Gabriel Bateman, Brian Tyree Henry, and Mark Hamill.
9. 'Annabelle Comes Home'
The seventh (yep!) installment in the Conjuring franchise, Annabelle Comes Home follows paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, who lock the possessed doll up in their house to try to stop her from being an evil, terrorizing demon—but the doll awakens their artifact room's evil spirits (hate when that happens) and starts terrorizing their 10-year-old daughter.
Release date: June 26
Starring: Mckenna Grace, Madison Iseman, Katie Sarife, Vera Farmiga, and Patrick Wilson.
10. 'Midsommar'
A young American couple travels to a fabled Swedish midsummer festival in an attempt to save their struggling relationship. Unfortunately, their Instagrammable paradise turns out to be a living nightmare.
Release date: July 3
Starring: Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper, Vilhelm Blomgren, and Will Poulter.
11. 'Crawl'
The movie that answers the question: What if giant, mutant, hungry-for-blood alligators were attacking you during a hurricane?
Release date: July 12
Starring: Kaya Scodelario and Barry Pepper.
12. 'The New Mutants'
The X-Men universe is already scary if you think about it, but The New Mutants leans into the horror, following five young mutants who are trapped in a secret facility and must work together to escape.
Release date: August 2
Starrring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Charlie Heaton, Henry Zaga, Blu Hunt, and Alice Braga.
13. 'Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark'
A group of teens discover a set of scary stories written by a young woman named Sarah Bellows—and the stories take on a life of their own.
Release date: August 9
Starring: Zoe Colletti, Michael Garza, Gabriel Rush, Austin Zajur, Natalie Ganzhorn, Austin Abrams, Dean Norris, Gil Bellows, and Lorraine Toussaint.
14. 'Ready or Not'
A young woman marries the man of her dreams—only to learn that his family's tradition is to literally hunt the new bride on her wedding night.
Release date: August 21
Starring: Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O'Brien, Henry Czerny, and Andie MacDowell.
15. 'It: Chapter 2'
The Losers' Club reunites, 27 years after the events of It, to confront the demon and put an end to its terror once and for all.
Release date: September 6
Starring: James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Jay Ryan, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, James Ransone, Jess Weixler, and Bill Skarsgård.
16. 'Doctor Sleep'
This sequel to Stephen King's classic The Shining follows a now adult (and alcoholic) Dan Torrance, who is still (understandably) traumatized by the events that occurred at the Overlook Hotel when he was a kid. He teams up with a teen named "Abra," who also has the "sine" (you know, the gift that lets Danny see dead people) to battle a cult whose members want to literally feed off the "shine" and become immortal. SPOOKY, SQUARED.
Release date: November 8
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, and Kyliegh Curran.
17. 'Zombieland 2'
Not much is known about the project, but it's a sequel to the hilarious 2009 film, so we're in.
Release date: October 11
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, and Zoey Deutch.
Kayleigh Roberts is the weekend editor at Marie Claire, covering celebrity and entertainment news, from actual royals like Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle to Hollywood royalty, like Katie Holmes and Chrissy Teigen. She’s a Ravenclaw who would do great things in Slytherin. To learn more about her, google “Leslie Knope eating salad GIF.
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