It’s time for the Sundance Film Festival, and once again I’ll be heading to Utah to bring readers of JoBlo loads of reviews of all the latest indie flicks coming soon to a theater (or streaming service) near you. Located in Park City, Utah (for now anyways), Sundance is always one of my favorite events of the year. Being a movie fan, I love nothing more than binging on movies in the same festival that gave birth to the directing careers of legends like Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, Jordan Peele, Damien Chazelle, and so many more.

As has been the case for the last decade or so, the festival is jam-packed with horror flicks, as studios – in particular A24 – have had some major breakouts there, including The Babadook, The Guest, Hereditary, Talk to Me, and last year’s I Saw the TV Glow. So what are we psyched to see? Here are 10 titles that have us hyped!

Opus:

The latest from A24, this horror comedy features The Bear’s breakout star Ayo Edebiri as a young writer summoned to the compound of a reclusive pop star – played by John Malkovich of all people. Cult shenanigans ensue, with Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett, and Tony Hale among the co-stars. The writer/ director, Mark Anthony Green, is a former staff writer at GQ and is getting a big build-up with this one.

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You:

Another A24 flick, this stars Rose Byrne as a woman whose life starts to fall apart as her child develops a mysterious illness. While Byrne has always been an incredibly underrated actress, this movie also features an intriguingly eccentric supporting cast, including rapper A$AP Rocky and Conan O’Brien, of all people, in a rare acting role.

Rabbit Trap:

This one is part of the midnight lineup and stars Dev Patel in his first post-Monkey Man role as part of a pair of avant-garde musicians who travel into the Welsh woods to collect recordings and run afoul of a young rabbit trapper. This comes from Elijah Wood’s SpectreVision company, who have been a major force in indie horror for the last decade or so.

Last Days:

Fast & Furious director Justin Lin returns to his Sundance indie roots with Last Days, a passion project that tells the true story of a doomed Christian missionary trying to convert an uncontacted tribe in the North Sentinel Islands to Christianity. This has become a pretty infamous, stranger-than-fiction story that’s always struck me as begging to be turned into a film, and with a guy like Lin at the helm, expectations are sky-high.

Predators:

No, this isn’t the latest addition to the Predator franchise, but it is a horror story in its own way – albeit the kind that’s too twisted to make up. If you grew up in the ’90s or 2000s, you’ll remember To Catch a Predator, a series where would-be-pedophiles were lured to meetings with potential victims, only to be unmasked on camera. This documentary examines the rise and fall of the series, which many accused of perpetuating vigilante justice, while others praised it for locking up and unmasking predators. 

Together:

Thanks to The Substance, body horror is making a comeback. Sundance’s entry is poised to be one of the bigger sales titles, with it starring real-life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco as a dysfunctional pair whose bodies start to transform following a supernatural encounter. If this is good, it could prove to be one of the pricier sales of the fest.

Train Dreams:

Historical dramas have become a rare breed at Sundance in recent years, but Train Dreams is pretty ambitious fare. In it, Joel Edgerton plays a labourer at the turn of the 20th century in the U.S. who witnesses firsthand the brutal march of history and the death of the American West. Felicity Jones, William H. Macy, and Kerry Condon co-star. 

The Thing With Feathers

This marks Benedict Cumberbatch’s biggest role in a film since The Power of the Dog, with him a father trying to process the death of his wife while being stalked by a maligned presence in the apartment he shares with his sons. While it sounds like a horror film, it’s supposed to be more of a meditation on grief, and no doubt will feature another terrific performance by Cumberbatch.

Pee wee as Himself

The life of Paul Reubens, aka Pee-Wee Herman, gets an epic documentary series, which is being shown in its entirety at Sundance. With music by Jon Brion and Michael Penn and the Safdie Brothers as producers, expectations are high that this will prove to be the definitive portrait of an artist who proved to be surprisingly enigmatic throughout his career.

Kiss of the Spider-Woman

Easily the highest-profile movie playing Sundance this year, Diego Luna and Jennifer Lopez star in Bill Condon’s (Chicago) musical remake of the classic 1985 film starring William Hurt and Raul Julia. Taking a page from the Tony-winning music adaptation, this one is hitting the festival without a distributor and should result in one of the splashier deals we’ll see this year.

What title are you most interested in? Let us know in the comments!

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