Horror haunts the summer in OKC theaters through July

OKLAHOMA CITY — There’s plenty to be scared about this month, and it’s not just the terrifying politics or the horrible heat.

2024 is seeing a remarkably light serving of traditional summer film fare, with the usual ceaseless slate of massive-budget actioners and all-star comedies replaced largely by genre-bending, boundary-pushing horror flicks instead. 

It’s an admittedly strange and unexpected move for the summer movie season, no doubt the result of last year’s protracted writers’ strike that left productions stalled for months throughout the industry and pushed planned projects into lengthy delays and continuously rescheduled release dates.

But while that spells bad news for anyone breathlessly awaiting the next Marvel offering or big Hollywood epic, it’s wonderful news for all the horror fanatics who are normally forced to wait until October for their fix.

All through July, OKC horror hounds can find demonic dispositions, fame-worshiping fiends, monstrous takeovers, and destructive disregard for the earth itself.

And I’m not talking about the presidential campaigns.

‘Longlegs’ – Opens Everywhere July 12th 

Perhaps the most anticipated horror drop of the year among the deepest genre fans, “Longlegs” has been building excitement through some wonderfully vague, atmosphere-heavy marketing focused on the film’s unsettlingly detached and voyeuristic cinematography.

Ostensibly a serial killer yarn in the vein of classics like “Silence of the Lambs” and “Se7en,” the hunt for a murderer sends “Longlegs” into satanic occult territory, as a young FBI investigator slowly descends into a deeply psychological game of demonic imagery and religious fanatic terror.

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“Longlegs”

One of the most intriguing elements at play in the lead-up to the movie’s release is the fact that multigenerational manic megastar Nicolas Cage’s name appears on every poster and in every trailer. Still, his unmistakable face and figure have been left out almost completely.

Of course, that touch only ratchets up the mystery and anticipation.

Is he actually a demon? Is he disfigured or wildly made-up? Will he be shown clearly on screen at all, or does his character live only through his voice and aura?

We won’t know until July 12th.

‘Evil Does Not Exist’ – Oklahoma City Museum of Art – July 5th through July 7th 

For sure the least traditional and most compellingly different of the films here, there’s been plenty of debate over whether Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist” should even be rightfully considered a horror film at all.

A father and his daughter live in an impossibly gorgeous, remote area of Japanese forest, living in quietly fulfilling serenity until a major corporate development begins moving it to threaten not only their way of life but the health and longevity of nature itself.

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“Evil Does Not Exist”

As the development ramps up and the desperation sets in for the forest’s formerly peaceful residents, the tensions boil over inarguably into thriller territory like something of a Japanese environmentalist “Straw Dogs.”

But is it horror?

Well, if the desecration of the natural world and the disregard for peace in the lives of peaceful people is something that you find fundamentally monstrous or horrifying, then yes. In that case, it’s almost a slasher film, but with the carnage and gore visited upon the earth rather than on human bodies.

In fact, whether or not you consider it horror is likely up to whether or not you believe that evil exists.

‘MaXXXine’ – Opens Everywhere July 5th 

The long-awaited final part of writer/director Ti West’s “X” trilogy that opened with “X” and sequel “Pearl,” both in 2022 and both starring Mia Goth.

This time, Goth reprises her “X” role of adult film starlet Maxine Minx as she attempts to break into mainstream stardom in the 1980s, all while outrunning her own bloody past and the encroaching interests of infamous serial killer the Night Stalker.

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“MaXXXine”

The entire series has held a stark, bloody mirror up to America’s undying obsession with celebrity and the horrific lengths to which so many are willing to go to achieve the fame and notoriety they crave.

“MaXXXine” is set to bring all of that full circle as the murderous legacy of Goth’s “Pearl” character that began all the way back during World War I finally comes to fruition in the most overwrought and suffocatingly glitzy world of 80s Hollywood.

‘A Quiet Place: Day One’ – Now Playing

One of the summer’s few big, bombastic Hollywood offerings, this third entry in the “A Quiet Place” series goes back years in the timeline to explore the origins of the alien invasion that will eventually decimate the population and destroy human society.

With the earth ravaged by hyper-hearing aliens that can find and kill humans at the slightest sound, the series is clearly meant as something of an allegory for the dangers of speaking up against a threat, and the necessity of raising your voice to draw out and combat evil.

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“A Quiet Place – Day One”

But while the first two films from writer/director/actor John Krasinski focused on the overgrown, post-apocalyptic world left after the invasion, “Day One” drops us into the bustling, cacophonous modern New York City to see how quickly Americans can learn to quiet themselves when the monsters descend.

With writer/director Michael Sarnoski taking the reins this time – following his major mood-horror acclaim with 2021’s “Pig” – the atmosphere is set to feel radically different, with some heightened, highly-populated stakes that the first two entries never saw.


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Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.