Friday, August 23 – These NINE New Horror Movies Released Today

It feels safe to say that today marks the true beginning of the Halloween season, at least as far as the movie slate is concerned. From now through October 31, the schedule is PACKED with new horror. For starters, NINE new horror movies were released today alone…

Here’s all the new horror that released Friday, August 23, 2024!

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

After passing $100 million at the worldwide box office, director Osgood Perkins’ hit horror movie Longlegs is now available at home for digital purchase ($24.99) and rental ($19.99).

Hailed as the “scariest film of the year,” Longlegs was written and directed by Perkins and stars Maika Monroe, Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, and Nicolas Cage.

[Related] Did You Spot All 15+ Appearances of the Devil in ‘Longlegs’?

In Longlegs, “FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) is a gifted new recruit assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer (Nicolas Cage). As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another family.”

Strong reviews and a whole lot of buzz here in the community are making Strange Darling a must see this weekend, and it’s now playing exclusively in theaters nationwide.

Stephen King calls the film from Magenta Light Studios “a clever masterpiece.”

“We are thrilled to be bringing nationwide theatrical audiences this unique and exceptional film with terrific performances by Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner. This second feature from talented writer-director JT Mollner is destined to become a cult classic that defies conventional storytelling,” Magenta Light’s Bob Yari said in a recent statement.

Strange Darling is currently 96% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with 72 reviews, one of which comes courtesy of Trace Thurman right here on Bloody Disgusting. Trace reviewed the film out of Fantastic Fest, giving the cat-and-mouse thriller a 3.5/5 star rating.

Trace writes, “Writer/director JT Mollner’s Strange Darling [is] a film that dares us to question the roles men and women are expected to play.” He goes on to say that the film ends up being “a smarter-than-you’d-expect entry into the cat and mouse thriller genre.”

Directed by Zoë Kravitz (The Batman), and formerly titled Pussy Island, MGM’s new horror-thriller Blink Twice was also released in theaters nationwide beginning today.

Naomi Ackie stars alongside Channing Tatum in Blink Twice, with the film’s impressive ensemble cast of familiar faces also including Kyle MacLachlan, Adria Arjona, Alia Shawkat, Simon Rex, Haley Joel Osment, Christian Slater, and Geena Davis.

In Blink Twice, “Tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) meets cocktail waitress Frida (Naomi Ackie) at his fundraising gala, and sparks fly. He invites her to join him and his friends on a dream vacation on his private island. It’s paradise. Wild nights blend into sun-soaked days and everyone’s having a great time.

“No one wants this trip to end, but as strange things start to happen, Frida begins to question her reality. There is something wrong with this place. She’ll have to uncover the truth if she wants to make it out of this party alive.” Kravitz wrote the script alongside E.T. Feigenbaum.

Heather Graham unleashes fury in the wild west in the horror-western Place of Bones, which has released in select theaters as well as Digital outlets at home beginning today.

“On a remote ranch, a mother (Graham) and her daughter fight for survival when a wounded outlaw seeking refuge brings a notorious bank robber and his ruthless gang, all desperate to reclaim a stolen fortune, right to their doorstep in this action-packed horror Western.”

Tom Hopper (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City), Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone (The Equalizer 2), and Corin Nemec (The Stand, “Stargate SG-1”) star alongside Graham.

Place of Bones was directed by Audrey Cummings (She Never Died) and written by Richard Taylor. The cinematography is by Andrzej Sekula, whose credits include American Psycho and Pulp Fiction. The film is produced by David Lipper and Robert A. Daly Jr under their Latigo Films banner.

The latest feature from The Adams Family (Hellbender, Where the Devil Roams), the gross-out body horror creature feature Hell Hole debuted exclusively on Shudder today.

In Hell Hole, “an American-led fracking crew working deep in the Serbian wilderness find themselves at odds with government assigned environmental advisors. When they get approval to drill, the workers uncover the unimaginable: a dormant parasitic monster entombed deep in the frozen rock. Awakened, it tears through the mining facility in search of the perfect host.”

John Adams, Toby Poser, and Lulu Adams penned the script. John Adams and Toby Poser direct.

The film stars Toby Poser, John Adams, Max Portham (Where the Devil Roams), Olivera Peruničić (Subspecies V: Blood Rise), Anders Hove (Subspecies I-V, The Boss of it All) Aleksandar Trmčić, Petar Arsić (Subspecies V: Blood Rise), Bruno Veljanovski (Eight Eyes), Marko Vučković (Subspecies V: Blood Rise), Joana Knežević and Ivan Đorđević.

What’s a creature feature without creature effects? Hell Hole boasts even more impressive talent on that front. The film’s creature effects were created by a 35-year veteran of monster and prosthetic make-up effects, Todd Masters (“From,” Child’s Play), and his studio MASTERSFX, with Trey Lindsay of Moondog Pictures (Hellbender, Where the Devil Roams) overseeing visual effects and the Serbian-based studio Cinergy FX (Hellraiser) contributing additional gore and make-up effects.

While Disney’s Alien: Romulus plays up on the big screen, you knew it was only a matter of time before The Asylum unleashed their own knockoff movie. Alien: Rubicon is out now.

You’ll find the “mockbuster” movie on VOD outlets now.

In The Asylum’s latest, “An alien spacecraft lands in the ocean just off the coast of New York and effortlessly destroys everything in the area without moving. The military investigates as the spacecraft heads inland, destroying everything around it with ease. We figure out that it’s a probe, sent EXPRESSLY to let us throw everything we’ve got at it while it heads directly for Washington D.C. If it reaches our Capital, it’ll destroy it and send a signal to the rest of their species to come down and destroy the rest of the planet.

“Everything we throw at the ship fails, and it’s up to our scientists and military to figure out how to stop the unstoppable before it’s too late.”

Michael Paré stars alongside Preston Geer, Paul Logan, Neeley Dayan, Vinney Pugliese, and Tammy Klein. Adrian Avila directed Alien: Rubicon, written by Glenn Campbell.

A fresh new take on the iconic comic book tale with Bill Skarsgård (IT) taking over the titular role, The Crow is now playing in theaters nationwide courtesy of Lionsgate.

From director Rupert Sanders, Skarsgård leads the cast of The Crow, with FKA Twigs co-starring in the reboot. Danny Huston (30 Days of Night) also stars, alongside Laura Birn (Foundation), Sami Bouajila (A Son), and Jordan Bolger (The Woman King).

In the new movie, “Soulmates Eric (Skarsgård) and Shelly (FKA Twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Eric sets out to seek merciless revenge on their killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.”

Zach Baylin (King Richard) and Will Schneider wrote the script, with the new movie of course based on James O’Barr’s original graphic novel that spawned a previous film franchise.

After a successful run on the festival circuit, found footage sci-fi horror film Hostile Dimensions unleashes multiverse madness on VOD outlets at home from Dark Sky Films.

Hostile Dimensions is a twist-filled film from writer/director Graham Hughes, whose previous film Death of a Vlogger was a FrightFest hit in 2019 and garnered critical acclaim.

Hughes also stars in the film, alongside Annabel Logan.

Hostile Dimensions tells of “two documentary filmmakers who decide to investigate the disappearance of a graffiti artist who seemingly ‘vanished’. As they delve deeper into their research, they encounter an ominous freestanding door which leads them on a dark journey through the dimensions behind it. Determined to uncover the truth the pair soon realise they have stumbled across something far more terrifying than they could have ever imagined.”

Body-snatching aliens attempt to navigate love in the modern world in genre-bending comedy The Becomers, which begins its extremely limited theatrical run this weekend.

The film will open in New York on August 23 at Cinema Village, in Los Angeles on August 30 at Lumiere Music Hall, and in Chicago on September 13 at Music Box Theatre, with filmmaker Q&As and further cities and dates to be announced. It hits VOD at home on September 24.

In The Becomers: “Dropped to Earth and escaping their dying planet, the two extraterrestrials (played by a sequence of actors) seek each other out —jumping from body to body— on our planet while becoming increasingly drawn into the madness of modern-day America.”

Written, directed, and edited by Zach Clark (Little Sister), the film was shot in Chicago and stars Molly Plunk (Little Sister, Profane), Mike Lopez (All Jacked Up and Full of Worms, Crimes Against Humanity), Frank V. Ross (Drinking Buddies), Isabel Alamin, and Keith Kelly, and features the voice Russell Mael, lead singer of the explosive pop-rock band Sparks.

The Becomers is produced by Joe Swanberg (Depraved, The Rental), and Edwin Linker (Saint Frances, Queen of Earth) of Slasher Films.