Hollywood generally considers the spring movie season to be awards season. It’s when studios start rolling out their best films as the end of the year approaches. For genre fans, though, we get that and so much more. There are also horror movies for Halloween, big exciting blockbusters, as well as wondrous fantasy for us to enjoy. Here are all the fantastic films opening this spring you should know.
September
Yoga Hosers
Release date: September 15
Kevin Smith’s True North Trilogy continues with this genre-blending teen comedy. In it, Smith’s daughter Harley Quinn (for real) and Johnny Depp’s daughter, Lily-Rose, are teen clerks forced to battle killer bratwurst (for real) to get to a party. The movie looks insane, though critics who’ve seen it have not been kind.
Blair Witch
Release date: September 15
One month ago, we had no idea a sequel to one of the most successful horror movies of all time was coming. Now, it will be here a month. From the team behind You’re Next and The Guest, Blair Witch picks up 20 years after the original film as Heather’s brother goes back into the woods when he sees a YouTube video that suggests she may still be alive. We’ve seen it, and it’s scary as hell.
Snowden
Release date: September 22
Nothing in Snowden is science-fiction, and that’s exactly what makes Oliver Stone’s retelling of Edward Snowden’s story so scary. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the NSA employee who blew the whistle on the terrifying surveillance being done by the US government.
Storks
Release date: September 22
An all-star voice cast including Andy Samberg, Jennifer Aniston, Kelsey Grammar, Ty Burrell, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele lend their talents to this animated film set in the world of delivery. After centuries of delivering babies, storks now deliver packages for a sort-of Amazon-inspired company. That is, until, one more baby needs delivering.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children
Release date: September 29
If Tim Burton made a kind of Harry Potter, X-Men mash-up, it would look something like Miss Peregrine, which is based on the popular books by Ransom Riggs. Asa Butterfield stars as a young boy who finds out that his past is intertwined with a time-bending group of “peculiar children” who live together in an alternate dimension and have special powers. Together, they will battle to save a slice of the world most people will never see.
October
Inferno
Release date: October 13
Ron Howard’s third trip into Dan Brown-world with Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon wouldn’t seem too genre on the surface. But, if you’ve read Inferno, it gets way more into science and violence than The Da Vinci Code or Angels & Demons do. In fact, things get downright disturbing as Langdon tries to save the world from a madman with a terrifying, real world agenda.
Ouija: Origin of Evil
Release date: October 20
If Ouija: Origin of Evil, the prequel to the surprise 2014 hit Oujia, is even half as good as its trailer, we’re in for something super solid. Set in the 1960s, Origin of Evil tells the story of a family who uses the paranormal to scam people, then finds the tables turned when their daughter gets possessed.
The Wild Life
Release date: October 27
The spring movie season has a few under-the-radar animated features coming out, and the first one is this talking-animal, kids version of the Robinson Crusoe story. As you’d expect, the trailer does not inspire much confidence.
Doctor Strange
Release date: October 27
Benedict Cumberbatch plays Stephen Strange, the latest hero to join Marvel Cinematic Universe. Strange is a brilliant surgeon who can’t continue after a bad accident. Looking for a cure, he travels the world looking and discovers a mystical world where he’ll learn to control time and space. It’s Marvel’s biggest question mark in a while, but they have yet to steer us wrong.
November
Arrival
Release date: November 10
From the director of Sicario and the upcoming Blade Runner sequel, comes the highly anticipated adaptation of Ted Chiang’s Story of your Life. Amy Adams is a linguist brought in to help communicate with aliens when dozens of ships arrive on Earth. Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker co-star and it looks spectacular.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Release date: November 17
One of, if not the, most anticipated films of the spring is writer J.K. Rowling and director David Yates’ return to the wizarding world of Harry Potter. Fantastic Beasts takes places decades before Harry, though, and is about Magizoologist named Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) whose collection of magical creatures escapes on an unsuspecting New York City. The first of a planned trilogy.
Morgan
Release date: November 17
Jake Scott, son of Ridley Scott, brings us the story of a corporate fixer, played by Kate Mara, who gets in over her head when she’s asked to rectify a situation where a highly intelligent, quickly evolving, artificially enhanced being (The Witch‘s Anya Taylor-Joy) is potentially killing people. This original story looks to blend sci-fi, horror and thrills.
Rings
Release date: November 24
The first Ring movie since the 2005 sequel, Rings picks up the awesome story of a videotape that kills you seven days after you watch it. This time, however, that tape is digital, so it means the spider-like demon child Samara is going to have to come up with new ways to kill everyone.
And then it’s onto the holiday season, where we’ll get Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Assassin’s Creed, Passengers, Sing, Trolls, The Disappointments Room, Moana, A Monster Calls and The Space Between Us.