Upcoming Horror Sequels You Didn't Know Were In The Works

Movies Horror & Thriller

If a hit horror movie leaves any sort of opening for a sequel, those sequels can keep going for a long time. Every horror fan has experienced seeing studios pump out follow-ups of often inconsistent quality – often leading the franchise to ultimately jump the shark — like there's no tomorrow: 13 "Halloween" films, 11 "Hellraiser" movies, 10 "Saw" installments and counting, the list goes on and on.

Yet even in a genre ready to bleed its success stories to death, there are some horror sequels that you might be surprised to find out are in the works. Maybe there's been such a long break since the previous films that you wouldn't have expected a new one, or perhaps the follow-ups in question are taking an unconventional or shockingly ambitious approach to their mythology. Some might not hit theaters for years, while others are practically finished and could arrive any day now. Will any of these sequels live up to the thrills and chills of the films that inspired them? Here's hoping.

Talk to Me prequel and sequel

Aside from Ti West's "X" trilogy, A24's dominance in the indie horror space has rarely expanded into ongoing franchises, but the Philippou brothers' hit possession movie "Talk to Me" appears prepared to make the leap. A sequel, tentatively titled "Talk 2 Me," was revealed to be in development just a couple of weeks after the first film's theatrical release in summer 2023.

While fans wait for more news on the sequel, a prequel could arrive any day now. Before "Talk to Me" even hit theaters, the Philippous already shot an entire film about Duckett (Sunny Johnson), the victim in the first film's opening scene. However, Danny Philippou seemed uncertain whether this social media-focused prequel would actually see the light of day, telling The Hollywood Reporter, "Maybe down the line we can release that." If they've shot the whole thing already and A24 wants to build "Talk to Me" into a full series, it would be weird to not release this already-filmed movie.

The 28 Years Later trilogy

A lot has changed in the years since "28 Days Later" revitalized the zombie movie in 2002. Its breakout star Cillian Murphy grew in fame thanks to "Peaky Blinders" and his many collaborations with Christopher Nolan, winning an Oscar for the lead role in "Oppenheimer." Director Danny Boyle also picked up a Best Director Oscar for "Slumdog Millionaire," and screenwriter Alex Garland has become a respected auteur in his own right, directing films like "Ex Machina" and "Civil War." Murphy, Boyle, and Garland all sat out the 2007 sequel "28 Weeks Later," but the three are returning for "28 Years Later," the first installment of a trilogy that Sony Pictures will release in theaters on July 20, 2025.

Yes, you read that right: they're so confident in this sequel that they're turning it into a three-parter. Nia DaCosta, director of the 2021 "Candyman" and "The Marvels," will handle "Part II," which copyright filings hint will be subtitled "The Bone Temple." Producing long multi-chapter series all at once doesn't always pay off (see the mediocre responses to "The Strangers: Chapter 1" and "Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 1" for recent examples), but anyone who loved the original "28 Days Later" has to be intrigued by this long-in-the-works continuation.

Constantine 2

A sequel to the 2005 movie "Constantine" doesn't seem like something you'd expect to go into production now. Though the Keanu Reeves-starring adaptation of DC/Vertigo's "Hellblazer" comics has a cult following, it was never a huge hit, while Warner Bros. has gone through five different corporate regimes and a gazillion different plans for its DC movies over the past two decades.

Yet Reeves' and director Francis Lawrence's desire for a sequel, which Lawrence wants to push into scarier "hard-R" directions, may very well pay off. WB officially announced development on "Constantine 2" in September 2022, with Akiva Goldsman working on the script and co-producing with J.J. Abrams and Hannah Minghella. Despite the studio bringing in James Gunn to completely reboot its main DC movie slate just a few months later, Lawrence confirmed that these reboot plans would not affect "Constantine 2," which could be released as an Elseworlds movie outside the standard DC continuity.

Final Destination: Bloodlines

Moviegoers could expect a new "Final Destination" movie in theaters every few years during the 2000s, each with a new crop of high school or college students trying and failing to outrun Death itself before being killed in creatively over-the-top scenarios. Then the series seemingly came to a standstill after "Final Destination 5" in 2011. Actor Tony Todd claimed that the producers planned to shoot the sixth and seventh films back-to-back if "FD5" opened at #1; opening at #3 must have put the kibosh on this, even though it went on to make $157 million worldwide.

A sixth film was confirmed to be in development in 2019, initially announced as a "reboot," before series creator Jeff Reddick backed away from the term. Production on the sixth film, titled "Final Destination: Bloodlines" and directed by Adam Lipovsky and Adam Stein, got delayed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the SAG-AFTRA strike in 2023. It finally completed filming in May 2024. Originally set up as an HBO Max release, "Final Destination: Bloodlines" is now slated for a theatrical and IMAX release sometime in 2025, celebrating the 25th anniversary of the original film.

Twilight of the Dead

A new film from legendary director George A. Romero might be the last thing anyone would expect to hit theaters in the near future, given that the influential zombie movie auteur died in 2017... but it makes too much sense for an unfinished screenplay from the creator of "Night of the Living Dead" to rise from the grave.

Romero was working on the script for "Twilight of the Dead," the seventh film in his "Living Dead" series and meant as his final statement on the genre he popularized, when he passed away. In 2021, his widow Suzanne announced plans to finish the script in collaboration with Joe Knetter, Robert L. Lucas, and original co-writer Paolo Zelati. She told The Hollywood Reporter, "This is the film he wanted to make. And while someone else will carry the torch as the director, it is very much a George A. Romero film."

Two years later, in 2023, Brad Anderson signed on as the new director. He planned to shoot the film as soon as the SAG-AFTRA strike ended, though no news on the production has been announced since then.

Thread: An Insidious Tale

The "Insidious" franchise has pumped out sequels on a regular enough basis that news of the sixth film, currently scheduled for release on August 29, 2025, shouldn't come as a surprise. But even if you've already marked your calendar for the next chapter in this saga of paranormal investigators vs. vengeful demons, you might not have heard that a spinoff movie is also in the works.

"Thread: An Insidious Tale" will star Mandy Moore and Kumail Nanjiani as a couple using time travel spells to undo their daughter's death. Jeremy Slater, the screenwriter who developed "The Umbrella Academy" and "Moon Knight" for streaming, plans to make his directorial debut here. The project was first announced in May 2023, with no news yet about a release date.

If this spinoff does well, might the "Insidious" franchise — which has already changed horror movies in subtle ways — follow in the footsteps of fellow James Wan-launched possession series "The Conjuring" and expand out into a full-blown cinematic universe?

They Follow

Premiering at Cannes in 2014 and released in America in 2015, the sexually-transmitted monster movie "It Follows" ranks among the most acclaimed films of the 2010s indie horror wave. Tom Quinn, co-president of distribution company RADiUS-TWC, expressed interested in a sequel shortly after its release. But if you want to know why RADiUS-TWC never produced said sequel, the "TWC" in its name stood for "The Weinstein Company." Filmmaker David Robert Mitchell also appeared to be stuck in "director's jail" for a few years after the failure of his next film, the 2018 neo-noir "Under the Silver Lake."

Quinn, however, remained interested in pursuing the sequel at his new company Neon, so in October 2023, Neon officially announced the decade-later sequel "They Follow," with Mitchell coming back to write and direct and Maika Monroe returning as lead character Jay Height. Production is expected to begin sometime in 2024, making it a very busy year for Mitchell — he just completed filming his comeback project (and possible stealth "Cloverfield" sequel?) "Flowervale Street" for Warner Bros.

The Blackening 2

Lionsgate spent nearly $20 million for the rights to the satirical horror-comedy "The Blackening" at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival. While the film didn't quite make all that money back in theaters in Summer 2023, it still more than tripled its tiny budget and earned positive reviews. As such, the studio is interested in developing a sequel with original screenwriters Tracy Oliver and Dewayne Perkins (who also played the character sharing his first name).

Because it's still so early in development, almost no details are known about what this second "Blackening" would entail or when we might get to see it. However, Perkins told Variety that he'd want to bring back the cast of the first film while throwing them into a new scenario, comparing it to the "Scary Movie" franchise. "Same group, sprinkle in some new people," he said. "I feel like we've got something good, and I love the dynamic, but fresh blood always turns things up a little bit."

The Mummy prequel (rumored)

Universal has yet to officially announce a new Mummy movie, but entertainment news outlets have lended credence to a scoop from Daniel Richtman, who regularly gives leaks on industry news, claiming that Wes Tooke is currently writing a prequel film based on the classic Universal monster. Given Universal's continued emphasis on finding new takes on its classic monsters — with four different Dracula-related movies in 2023 and 2024 alone — this scoop sounds believable.

Of course, the report of this Mummy movie being a prequel raises the question of which movie it's meant as a prequel to. 2017's "The Mummy" seems extremely unlikely, given that it was a spectacular box office flop and failed to launch a cinematic universe. The 1999 "The Mummy" is more fondly remembered, though it's worth noting that more adventure-focused series already had its own prequels in the form of multiple "The Scorpion King" movies. Might Universal being going old school and spookier with a prequel to 1932's original "The Mummy"?

I Am Legend 2

How many sequels are there that just flat-out ignore the theatrical cut of the previous film and instead build upon aan alternate ending only available on home video? Even "Blade Runner 2049" kept its references to the previous film just vague enough that any of its various alternate versions could be "canon." That would not be the case with "I Am Legend 2," currently being developed by screenwriter Akiva Goldsman.

Goldsman revealed to Deadline that the sequel will "trace back to the original [Richard] Matheson book, and the alternate ending as opposed to the released ending in the original film. What Matheson was talking about was that man's time on the planet as the dominant species had come to an end. That's a really interesting thing we're going to get to explore. There will be a little more fidelity to the original text."

Will Smith was announced to be reprising his role as Robert Neville, who perished in the theatrical version of the film but survived in the alternate ending included with the home video release. His casting was announced just weeks before the infamous slap at the 2022 Academy Awards, though the box office success of "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" seems to show that Smith can still sell blockbusters. Michael B. Jordan will co-star in the new "I Am Legend" film.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2

There have been many Guillermo del Toro movies that we'll never get to see, so we understand any skepticism about whether we'll actually get a sequel to the del Toro-produced, André Øvredal-directed movie based on "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark." But given the first film's cliffhanger ending and the wealth of stories to adapt from Alvin Schwartz's book series, fans still hope to see this sequel made at some point.

"Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark 2" was first announced all the way back in 2020. While doing press for his 2023 Dracula movie "The Last Voyage of the Demeter," Øvredal confirmed to IGN that, despite delays from COVID, plus the WGA and SAG strikes, the sequel was still in the works, saying, "We have a story. We have a script." Following the conclusion of the strikes, star Zoe Colletti told The Direct that she "will be so thrilled and excited [for] when I get to finally read a script and see what's been going on."

Fear Street: Prom Queen

In July 2021, Netflix released a full trilogy of movies inspired by R.L. Stine's "Fear Street" books, originally intended for theatrical release before the Disney-Fox merger. There was immediate interest in making more, but it took a while to figure out what form the franchise's future would take. Leigh Janiak, director of the first three films, expressed interest in making a 1950s-set slasher follow-up. Meanwhile, "Watcher" director Chloe Okuno was attached to make a "Fear Street" movie in late 2022.

The new stand-alone "Fear Street" movie, officially titled "Fear Street: Prom Queen," began production in March 2024, with Matt Palmer directing from a script he co-wrote with Donald McLeary. Based on Stine's 1992 novel, it follows mysterious disappearances among Shadyside High's class of '88. The ensemble for this prom-gone-wrong teen horror flick includes India Fowler, Suzanna Son, Fina Strazza, David Iacono, Ella Rubin, Ariana Greenblatt, Lili Taylor, and Katherine Waterston.

Troll 2

No, they're not doing a remake of Claudio Fragasso's 1989 disasterpiece "Troll 2," widely considered one of the worst horror movies ever made. This "Troll 2" is instead a sequel to the solidly-reviewed 2022 Norwegian monster movie "Troll," directed by Roar Uthaug and released by Netflix.

After breaking viewership records for non-English films on the streaming platform, Netflix requested the first film's crew return for a sequel, scheduled to shoot sometime in 2024. Producers Espen Horn and Kristian Strand Sinkerud told Variety that this sequel will be "again spinning on a Norwegian fairy tale figure, played, directed and produced by Norwegians."

Presumably this particular "Troll 2" won't involve vegetarian goblins turning people into plants by feeding them green goop and getting defeated by a double-decker baloney sandwich. It's hard not to write this entry without just recounting every ridiculous part of the other "Troll 2," but we're confident that the new one won't require the same task.

Soulm8te

Even if you didn't read the announcement of "M3GAN 2.0," currently scheduled for release on June 27, 2025, you could probably guess the sequel was happening. Big box office + surprising critical acclaim + viral memes + an instantly iconic antagonist (clearly telegraphed as "not actually dead" in the first movie's cliffhanger ending) = a pretty reasonable expectation Blumhouse would capitalize on this success with a sequel as soon as possible.

But would anyone expect them to capitalize on a young-skewing PG-13 horror film with an "erotic thriller" spin-off? That's what makes the announcement of "Soulm8te" so shocking. The plot of this spin-off involves a man trying to replace his dead wife with an android who accidentally turns deadly. Seems like this is aiming for a different audience than the mainline "M3GAN" franchise, but if R-rated "Deadpool" movies can exist within the otherwise family-friendly Marvel Cinematic Universe, why not?

Kate Dolan, the director of the Irish horror film "You Are Not My Mother," is directing and rewriting a script first drafted by Rafael Jordan. "Soulm8te" will arrive in theaters on January 2, 2026.