Summer 2024: A horror lovers dream

It might be “Christmas in July”, but the real marker we should be celebrating is that we’re Halfway to Halloween, which is objectively the best holiday.

Those who love all things spooky have a lot to look forward to: Hobby Lobby getting all their fall decor out, the comfy fall wax scents sold at Walmart, the Bath & Bodyworks fall collection, Starbucks’ fall menu…the list does go on, forever, including Ponca City getting a Spirit Halloween store, the ultimate mecca of all things fun and spooky.

Horror fans love Halloween, of course. The long-standing traditions of getting to turn on any movie channel or streaming service and seeing all the horror movies from the “slashics” to the modern.

But Halloween season isn’t the only time for horror movies, no, in recent years summer has become a sort of genius release field for horror, as a way of “counter-programing” against the typical summer fare of action movies, super hero adventures, and animated kids flicks.

Summer 2024 is no exception, and this might be the best summer - or season - ever for horror films.

The Summer of Horror kicked off with Paramount’s A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE at the end of June and continues this week with the July 5 release of Ti West’s MAXXXINE, the third entry in the “X” horror series which includes X, PEARL, and now MAXXXINE which follows adult film star Maxine (Mia Goth) caught up in the crosshairs of Richard Ramirez ‘The Night Stalker’ and the seedy 1980s Hollywood of sex, lies, and danger.

The next major horror release comes July 12 with the highly anticipated LONGLEGS, directed by Osgood Perkins, the son of horror icon Anthony Perkins who famously played Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO.

LONGLEGS stars Maika Monroe as an FBI agent assigned to track down a serial killer (Nicolas Cage) known as Longlegs, a satanic slasher. This 1990s -set horror film is being praised as one of the scariest films of the year- or ever- and is drawing comparisons to the classic SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.

In August, horror icon M. Night Shyamalan returns to the big screen with TRAP on August 2.

TRAP follows Josh Hartnett as a serial killer named “The Butcher” who takes his daughter to see a pop-star’s massive sold-out concert event only to discover that the entire concert was a trap by the police and FBI to lure the killer in, sealing off the concert venue completely.

This looks like a wicked fun time, as only Shyamalan can create.

August 9 will see the release of CUCKOO, a gleefully sinister-looking thriller from German director Tilman Singer which sees “Euphoria” and “Hunger Games” star Hunter Schafer as a young American girl who is essentially trapped in a depraved human research horror facility masquerading as a wellness retreat in the Alps, lead by a crazed doctor (Dan Stevens).

The summer of horror reaches it’s climax with my most anticipated film of the year, ALIEN: ROMULUS, the long-awaited next film in the Alien series, now under Disney’s 20th Studios.

ALIEN: ROMULUS is set between ALIEN and ALIENS and follows a group of teen scavengers who happen upon a derelict space station looking for riches, only to meet the most terrifying creature in the galaxy.

What is your most anticipated summer horror film?