With the rate at which Netflix is purging and canceling content, it should be near impossible to be excited about its upcoming slate. But the deliciously terrifying upcoming selections for its horror wing alone are enough to make disgruntled subscribers — who like me are busy penning a symphony of acute betrayal — sign a temporary truce.
The streamer is attracting ire from all directions at the moment — and threatening to do things it pretty much does on the regular. But unless you are planning to jump ship anytime soon, it is time to focus on the silver lining on the horizon — the ten uber-scary horror shows and films that are just waiting to give you a lifetime of much-welcome nightmares.
Sweet Home season 2
The last we saw Cha Hyun-Soo (Song Kang) and the surviving residents of Green Home in the aftermath of the ongoing apocalypse (where the infected transformed into monsters, with some having control over their altered form), the former had found himself back in the clutches of the monster as Ui-myeong now wearing the body of the long-dead Sang Kook. At the same time, the survivors are whisked off to a safety camp, not knowing if their savior made it out alive.
The 2nd season of the impatiently-awaited Sweet Home — whose third season has already received the green flag — is set to pick up where the last chapter ended to explore “the various dimensions of human nature and desires” as its returning new cast members “find themselves at a crossroads for survival.” Well, whew! At least Netflix is not dead-set on repeating history with this one.
Release date: Q4 2023, so it can debut as early as October!
Bird Box Barcelona
Spin-off of the 2018 horror thriller, Bird Box — which still leaves me cowering under my sheets in fear — Bird Box Barcelona expands on the mind-numbing terrors of its predecessor where invisible entities prey on the twisted fears of anyone unlucky enough to lay eyes on them and lead them to kill themselves in the most horrible ways.
With the world population severely decimated, the story focuses on Sebastian and his unlikely team-up with a few survivors in Barcelona as the unexplainable forces pushing human beings toward death have evolved with concerning speed, making the already difficult task of surviving them even more impossible.
Will the film see Sandra Bullock’s Malorie — the prime protagonist of the first film — make a comeback? So far, nothing official has been revealed, but if the survivors (at least a few of them) this time do manage to trump death, maybe they will meet up with Malorie and the other survivors who found safety at the end of Bird Box.
Release date: July 14, 2023.
The Fall of the House of Usher
Ah, the last Mike Flanagan creation on Netflix as he shifts his allegiances to Amazon Studios – The Fall of the House of Usher is a limited series based on an extremely scary Edgar Allan Poe short story of the same name. The story focuses on three characters — an unnamed narrator and twins Roderick and Madeline who are the last surviving members of the Usher household. The narrator arrives at their mansion at the request of his childhood friend, Roderick, who is ailed by a mysterious illness, which also plagues the rather unnerving Madeline as well.
The creepy atmosphere only escalates while the story progresses as the narrator gets to witness firsthand how the nonsensical horrors Roderick describes infesting the mansion actually do exist. Someone is horrifyingly buried alive with deadly consequences for everyone involved leaving the narrator fleeing a house actually splitting in half.
How accurately Flanagan plans to depict the story as despite it being centered on just three characters, its adaptation is set to see many actors from the director’s past ventures on Netflix as well as new faces, including Mark Hamill who is set to play “a character surprisingly at home in the shadows.” The one answer we do have — it is going to be one hell of a fright fest.
Release date: Fall of 2023.
Gyeongseong Creature
Touted to be the next stellar Korean horror serving, the series Gyeonnseong Creature is set in 1945 in Gyeongseong (now Seoul), South Korea, where people are mysteriously going missing. The increasingly concerning events bring together Jang Tae-Sang (Park Seo-Joon) – an informant with money on his side, and Yoon Chae-Ok (Han So-hee) who is a skilled fighter and an expert in finding missing people.
But the mystery soon becomes a terrible reality as the duo finds themselves fighting for survival against supernatural creatures whose existence is dependent on human greed.
Release date: Q4 2023.
Sister Death
Announced earlier this year, Sister Death (aka Hermana Muerte) sets its protagonist, —a novice nun Narcisa blessed with supernatural powers — in post-war Spain, where she joins a former convent-turned-school as a teacher but soon comes face-to-face with the secrets kept on the grounds of the abbey and overshadowing the life of everyone who lives there.
What makes the series a must-watch is the fact that as a prequel to 2017’s chilling Spanish film, Veronica, which was loosely based on true events and saw its titular character unsuccessfully trying to bid farewell to the demonic entities she unleashed upon her siblings during an unsuccessful seance. During her various attempts, Veronica is helped by her school’s blind nun, known as “Sister Death,” who revealed that she could see dark spirits, and one day deliberately blinded herself to stop it.
So, what could have happened to Narcisa to drive her to blind herself voluntarily? Well, the answer is not far away.
Release date: Oct. 7, 2023.
Delete
A Thai horror series, Delete brings to life the most basic human emotion — the impulsive desire to erase the existence of a person who hurts us or inconveniences us in some way. In the world of Delete, this secretly coveted power becomes a reality via a mysterious mobile phone that harbors the ability to make people disappear. Already a dangerous object, its worst consequence comes to the forefront when it is put to use by those stuck in complicated relationships and wishing to hide their secrets.
Release date: June 28, 2023.
Skull Island
A continuation of Legendary and Warner Bros.’ Monsterverse, Skull Island will follow a group of explorers striving to rescue a woman named Annie, only to find themselves stranded on the infamous island that is home to terrifying giant-sized creatures and ruled by the indomitable King Kong. Is survival in the cards or will leaving the island alive be an option? Only the series’ debut on Netflix will tell.
Release date: June 22, 2023.
The Deliverance
If you are seriously missing stories of old haunted houses and unsuspecting victims getting possessed by evil demonic entities, The Deliverance is what you need to catch next.
Based on the real-life story known as the Ammons Haunting case that took place in Indiana, U.S., the Lee Daniels film is set to depict the horrors unleashed on a single mother, Ebony, when her three children are possessed by demons when they move into a new home. With the skeptics questioning the authenticity of her pleas for help, Ebony finds herself in a “spiritual battle between her faith, her life, and the souls of her children — a battle that could have deadly consequences for all of them.”
Release date: There is no official release date, but it is expected to debut sometime in 2023.
The Witcher season 3
This is going to be more of a heart-wrenching experience, what with Henry Cavill bidding farewell to Geralt of Rivia, but it is hard to imagine The Witcher failing to weave its usual buffet of frightening creatures into the fantasy adventure as it gears up to make the much-dreaded switch to Liam Hemsworth as the new monster hunter. If the official synopsis is any hint, Geralt will be up against “monarchs, mages, and beasts of the Continent” as he strives to save Ciri from their greedy and deadly claws in season 3.
Will he succeed but lose his life in the process? Or is Netflix simply switching the actors, hoping that Hemsworth will replace Cavill in our minds (*cough* and fantasies)? Well, whether it is the real-world consequences or the tornado brewing in the world of The Witcher, one thing is for certain — chaos is coming.
Release date: Volume One: June 29, 2023, and Volume Two: July 27, 2023.
Run Rabbit Run
The world is divided between those choosing to be practical and believing what can be explained with facts and those who embrace the mysteries of life with definitions that are not defined by logic. Sarah (Sarah Snook) — a fertility doctor — firmly finds herself in the first category until her seven-year-old daughter Mia starts exhibiting increasingly strange behavior and starts claiming that she is her mother’s sister, Alice, who — wait for it — went missing years ago at the age of seven.
Is Mia telling the truth? Based on the looks of the official trailer, it is obvious that Run Rabbit Run isn’t going to be a simple tale of reunion or a child projecting the problems plaguing her by pretending to be her mother’s sister reborn. Something dangerous is afoot that is threatening to unearth the secrets of the past and unravel the present.
Release date: June 28, 2023.