There’s nothing quite like watching a horror movie in theaters. Even if it’s the tenth entry in a worn-out franchise or a film filled with lazy jumpscares, there’s a special communal feeling associated with sitting in a dark room alongside a bunch of strangers, united by the goal of getting scared. Fortunately, this summer saw a number of big horror releases, from Nicolas Cage’s serial killer movie Longlegs to M. Night Shyamalan’s latest, Trap. Here are some of the best and worst horror and thriller flicks from the last few months, a perfect time to watch before Halloween if you missed them.
In May, the buzzy Sundance Film Festival horror drama I Saw the TV Glow was released in theaters by A24. It follows a late-night TV show that begins to distort reality. While many loved the disorienting slow burn, I found it to be exceedingly tedious. The film is visually inventive with hardly a dull shot to be found, but outside of a few standout sequences, the rest of it fell flat. It effectively builds an atmosphere of uncomfortable, surreal dread, but the ultimate payoff to the snail’s pace at which it chugs along feels underwhelming. Even though I found it to be too slow, I Saw the TV Glow is still worth a watch—it’s one of the more visually and thematically provocative movies I’ve seen this year.
July saw two major horror releases with MaXXXine and Longlegs. MaXXXine is the third entry in Ti West’s X trilogy, which includes 2022’s double release of X and its prequel Pearl. Each film in the trilogy is in the style of a different subgenre of horror: X was a pulpy homage to grindhouse slashers like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Pearl offered a twisted take on Old Hollywood Technicolor films and melodramas, and MaXXXine is a pastiche of Los Angeles-set noir thrillers from the 80s. Unfortunately, unlike its predecessors, MaXXXine’s stylized exterior is fairly shallow, with a borderline nonsensical plot and bizarre character choices. As fun as some of the table dressing is, there isn’t much substance to the film, creating ultimately a letdown of a thriller.
Longlegs, on the other hand, certainly delivered on some of the promises of its viral marketing campaign. Neon, its distributor, was clever in how they built the mystery and hype around the film and Nicolas Cage’s performance as the titular serial killer—none of the promotional materials for the film showed his face prior to its release, teasing what was supposedly one of the scariest movies to come out in years. Ultimately, Longlegs fell slightly short of these colossal expectations but nevertheless was a disturbing and atmospheric watch. Nicolas Cage delivers a truly unhinged performance, with the makeup and costuming making him appear almost unrecognizable. The film’s visual language always guides you to search the frame for something lurking around and complements the occult elements of the narrative perfectly. I’m mixed on how some of the film’s twists are telegraphed, but Longlegs is definitely worth checking out.
Early August featured two more thrillers that I was less fond of, M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, which stars Josh Hartnett, and Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo, which stars Hunter Schafer. Trap is the newest from divisive writer and director Shyamalan, usually known for his trademark hit-or-miss plot twists. It takes on a more outright comedic tone than his earlier films, leaning into the campy uncanniness of Hartnett’s performance as a notorious serial killer attending a concert with his daughter. Shyamalan’s daughter and R&B singer Saleka plays the pop star whose concert is being attended by Hartnett’s character. While her singing is perfectly competent, the same does not fare for her acting, which takes on a larger role as the film goes on. It invites you to laugh both at it and with it, but it really pushes the bounds of how ridiculous it can get in the second half. Mileage will vary, but I found Trap to be far too silly to take seriously as a thriller, and sometimes too self-serious to buy into as a comedy. Cuckoo, on the other hand, felt like a mishmash of various horror tropes, and aside from a frightening villain, lacks any likable characters or a compelling mystery at its core. Schafer, known for her role as Jules on Euphoria, proves more than capable of leading a horror movie and is one of the highlights of the film, along with Dan Stevens doing a fantastically hammy German accent. But outside of their performances, the film doesn’t have much new to offer that you can’t find elsewhere in the horror genre.
The summer closed out with two new thrillers—Blink Twice, Zoë Kravitz’s directorial debut starring her fiancé Channing Tatum, and Strange Darling, directed by JT Mollner and starring Willa Fitzgerald in a unique twist on the final girl trope. Blink Twice was a fairly buzzy release, with a topical premise where a “canceled” tech CEO invites a group of guests to his private island. The film is well-directed, especially considering it marks Kravitz’s first foray behind the camera. She has a lot of fun exploring the film’s lush setting which gradually becomes more disorienting and sinister. However, the film is lacking in its provocative and messy screenplay that goes more or less where you think it will. The first half spends too much time reveling in the setting and spinning the wheels of the plot, but it finds its footing in the second half, where it turns into a more straightforward thriller. By the end of the film, I couldn’t help but feel like it somewhat squandered what was otherwise a very solid premise—especially with its outlandish final twist that left a bad taste in my mouth.
Strange Darling might be my most enthusiastic recommendation of all of the films mentioned; go in knowing as little as possible about this twisty, gorgeously shot thriller. The set pieces are unflinching, gruesome, and well-directed, constantly keeping you on the edge of your seat. It relishes in the beautiful 35mm images on screen, making it some of the best cinematography I’ve seen all year. In the best possible way, I truly had no idea where the plot was going throughout the film.
There were a few other notable horror flicks I didn’t get a chance to see, including the prequel A Quiet Place: Day One, Alien: Romulus, and The Watchers (the directorial debut of Shyamalan’s other daughter, Ishana) yet this should not discourage you from checking these films out, too. So as the leaves start to fall and Halloween season begins, if you’re looking for a horror movie to throw on, there is no shortage of options from this summer, even if they’re not all created equal.
Ari Desai ’27 (adesai@college.harvard.edu) made the most of his AMC A-List subscription this summer.