20 Most Anticipated Upcoming Horror Movies

There are a lot of ups and downs to being a horror fan. The genre seems to go through peaks and troughs, with periods of immense creativity and vigour often giving way to years in which we seem to get nothing but recycled garbage.

That having been said, we're living in a good time for the genre. It's easy to miss this if we only go by what's in the multiplexes; a great deal of the best horror these days is independently produced, and winds up bypassing cinemas altogether, unless you're able to catch them at festival screenings.

Of course, that's not to suggest the multiplex never has any good horror to offer. It may often seem as if they offer nothing but remakes and sequels, and even when an 'original' property arrives, there's little sense of originality about it. Yet there are exceptions, and it's encouraging to see there are comparatively few sequels, and no remakes of note lined up for theatrical release this year.

Right now, who can say whether 2016 will hold up in history as a great year for horror movies - but you know how horror works. These things have a tendency to leap out at you when you least expect it...

Release date: May 30th (worldwide VOD)

Writer-director Scott Schirmer's bizarre, ultra-low budget movie centres on a group of friends who become spellbound by an otherworldly presence at an idyllic lakeside getaway, which somehow takes control of them by ridding them of their sexual inhibitions.

It's a world away from your average multiplex horror movie - but then, you won't see many cash-strapped indie productions like this one either. Nightmarish yet curiously beautiful, Harvest Lake doesn't allow itself to be restrained by its budgetary limitations, and goes places few horror movies dare to go.

This is the only film on the list that this writer has actually seen at the time of writing, and dependent on where you are in the world it may already be available to you at Vimeo.