‘Final Girl’ summer: Horror movies for the sunshine season
Autumn has haunted houses and winter gets Santa-themed slashers, but what films are out there for scare-seekers when flowers are in bloom and the shadows of an early sunset are nowhere to be seen?
Read on for a horror movie watchlist for the summer season…
I Know What You Did Last Summer
A killer is on the loose… revenge clearly in sight.
Taking place on the Fourth of July weekend, prime summer season, I Know What You Did Last Summer, follows four teenagers who, on a wild night of celebration, are involved in a hit and run. A year later, on the same weekend, their mistakes come to haunt them. It’s a nostalgic slasher based in North Carolina, filled with suspense, dread and anonymity.
Final Destination 1
A terror that will reaffirm your fear of plane crashes.
On a flight to Paris, Alex Browning panics and forces his friends off the airplane moments before it explodes mid-air. But Alex has seen it all before – in a terrifying premonition just before boarding the aircraft. The survivors soon realise they cannot cheat death, an unforgiving force that stalks them relentlessly. One by one, they fall victim to a series of gruesome and gory accidents, each suffering a brutal death.
Midsommar
Nature transforms from a symbol of beauty and peace into something deeply unsettling.
Starring Florence Pugh and Jack Reynor, Midsommar follows couple Dani and Christian as they travel to Sweden to take part in a traditional Midsummer festival. However, they soon realise that this desolate village hosting the celebration is home to a malevolent pagan cult. What begins as a peaceful retreat later transforms into a horrifying nightmare. Yet, as terror ensues, Dani finds an unsettling sense of comfort within this commune… but at what cost?
Truth Or Dare
A game once innocent turns fatal.
Set during spring break, a group of college students on holiday in Mexico take part in a supposedly harmless game of ‘Truth or Dare.’ However, they soon realise the game has taken a blood-curdling turn for the worse.
The game follows them to their hometown in California, where they find themselves trapped between compliance and death. Desperate to survive, the group travel back to Mexico, intent on finding out the truth behind this sick, life-consuming game. They soon realise the only way to break the never-ending loop of suffering is to beat the game itself.
Friday The 13th
You’ll never want to go camping again.
The cult-classic slasher Friday the 13th is based on the legend of Jason Voorhees, a boy who drowned at Camp Crystal Lake due to the neglect of counsellors. A year later, two counsellors were mysteriously murdered, forcing the camp to close.
Years later, a group of teenage camp counsellors try to reopen the abandoned campsite. However, they soon become victims of a masked killer and suffer intensely horrifying deaths.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Loosely inspired by the crimes of Ed Gein.
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre follows five teenagers travelling through Texas in the last August heat, pick up a strange hitchhiker along the way. When their car later breaks down, they stumble upon a family of cannibals, including a chainsaw-singing Leatherface – the icon face of slasher horror.
The group soon find themselves hunted by the masked killer, a terrifying man who wears a mask made of human skin.
Silence Of The Lambs
Swap the beach trip for a psychological nightmare.
The Silence of the Lambs is the kind of summer horror that will stay with you for days after the credits roll. The film follows Clarice Starling, an inexperienced FBI agent who interviews the notorious serial killer Hannibal Lecter. In hope of understanding the mind of a serial killer in order to catch another, she relies on Lecter to lead her to “Buffalo Bill,” a murderer who skins his victims.
However, in return for information, Hannibal Lecter compels Clarice to share her most vulnerable secrets – including the death of her father and memories of her trying to save lambs from slaughter. As Clarice navigates the enigmas hidden within Lecter’s cryptic messages, we are left waiting to see whether she can catch the killer before it’s too late.
The Strangers: Chapter 1
The relaunch of ‘The Strangers’ that no one was ready for.
On a road trip to Oregon, a couple are forced to stay in an isolated cabin after their car breaks down. However, they have no idea who is coming for them. One evening a masked woman knocks on the door and asks: “Is Tamara here?”
This unsettling encounter initiates the classic, terrifying cat-and-mouse game, that leaves the couple deeply unnerved. Later that night, the power suddenly cuts out, and a dead chicken is left on their porch before three masked killers begin hunting them down. But death may not be as near as they think. What begins as an ordinary summer road trip, quickly becomes a terrifying fight for survival.
Us
These memories feel disturbingly real.
In the psychological horror Us, Adelaide Wilson and her family return to her childhood beachfront home on summer vacation. The all-too-familiar surroundings begin to resurface traumatic memories from her past.
One night, the family notice four strangers standing silently outside of their house. But how can they be strangers when they look exactly like them? The doppelgangers – violent and sinister versions of the family – begin terrorising the household, forcing the family to fight for survival.
As the mystery unfolds, questions of identity and humanity arise. One question remains: Which Adelaide is the real one?
Fresh
Ever met someone in a grocery store and gotten their number? Be more careful… you never know who you can trust.
A summer romance turned sinister: starring Sebastian Stan and Daisy Edgar-Jones, Fresh serves as a disturbing commentary on the horrors and anxieties of modern dating. The film explores the dangers of trusting strangers – especially those met somewhere as ordinary as the grocery store.
Noa meets a charming doctor named Steve while shopping, and after what seems like a perfect romance, he invites her to his secluded house in the woods. What could possibly go wrong?
Initially appearing to be a dark comedy movie about the struggles of modern dating, the film takes a horrifying turn into horror and suspense. Noa becomes trapped and subjected to a grotesque operation. Through a disturbing premise, this film explores themes of consumption, exploitation and the objectification of the female body.
Comments