NYCC 2024's Blumfest Panel Teased Chilling Sneak Peaks of 2025 Horror Media

Jason Blum brought director Leigh Whannell out on stage to talk about the first film of the evening, Wolf Man. Set for a January 17th, 2025 release, this portion of the panel was an absolute highlight for me.

First and foremost, I absolutely adore werewolf media, so I was excited from the get-go. But I'm a huge fan of Whannell's work, particularly on The Invisible Man.

It looks like his brilliance has paid off once again. Giving those in attendance a first look at the trailer (now available above), Whannell and Blum delivered a taste of a tense, emotional, and complex horror masterpiece.

The story of the film follows a family who were terrorized and attacked by a vicious creature during the full moon. But before long, the father of the family (Christopher Abbott) must hang up his role as protector, as he's begun to behave strangely…

Starring the phenomenal Julia Garner as the wife and mother in the film, just from the trailer it's clear that the performances are out of this world.

I was brought to tears by what little I saw—either from the remarkable acting, editing, and directing or from my sheer excitement for something I've waited so long for, I don't know.

Whannell spoke about how the film leans into the idea of an incurable debilitating disease as an inspiration for the infection, and he stressed how important practical effects were in the making of this movie.

Blum and Whannell seem to be excited about how dark this film gets, promising a heart-pounding watch when it finally hits theaters.

The next film Blum spoke about was The Woman in the Yard, which is set to premiere on March 28th, 2025. This is a project I knew nothing about, but from what I saw, I am hooked.

Described in passing as a sort of twisted fairy tale too unusual to believe, few details were given beyond what the title promises. One day a woman dressed in black appears in a family's yard—but why has she come?

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by Sam Stefanak, the film stars Danielle Deadwyler, Okwui Okpokwasili, Russell Hornsby, Peyton Jackson, and Estella Kahiha.

The teaser trailer that was screened at the panel was absolutely terrifying, and I get the feeling this film will crawl under my skin and give me nightmares.

This is on my must-see list for 2025, and judging by the tease Blum gave that he's working on a black veil for his Halloween costume, he seems to be pretty excited about it, too.

Fear the Spotlight is Blumhouse's very first video game, and I must say I'm intrigued. As a big fan of Supermassive Games's horror offerings, I'm very into character-driven horror games.

The trailer they showed us promises a chilling mystery and protagonists I already want to know more about. With old-fashioned graphics, this game pays a big nod to the games of the 90s.

Two teenage girls, Vivian and Amy, sneak into Sunnyside High School after hours. But after a séance goes horribly wrong, Vivian must get to the bottom of the school's dark history, defeat the monster wandering the halls, and save her friend—all while staying out of the spotlight.

Amidst a suffocatingly tense atmosphere, players must solve puzzles to navigate the intricate story unfolding around them.

The game is out now for Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and Steam—a perfect seasonal treat.

For The Drop, Blum brought out director Christopher Landon and leading woman Meghann Fahy. Coming out April 11th, 2025, this film is a thrilling cautionary tale about the dangers that come with modern technology.

The trailer we got a sneak peek of begins with the sounds of Sabrina Carpenter's pop masterpiece “Nonsense,” which promises a tongue-in-cheek ride. A single mother of two, Violet nervously sets on on her first date in a very long time, but it doesn't quite go according to plan.

As she's getting to know the man across from her at dinner, she receives an AirDrop from a stranger. The meme on her phone promises to deliver her worst night ever.

With more threatening messages coming in, Violet has been dragged into an impossible situation. Either she kills her date at the prompting of the AirDropping stranger, or the stranger will hurt her children.

I'll admit that the premise sounds a bit silly, but I think there's a lot of intentional playfulness waiting in the film. The trailer won me over, and it's a horror thriller I'm anticipating.

Continually rising horror icon Mike Flanagan dropped by to talk with Blum about a few more movies coming later down the line. He briefly mentioned his excitement for his upcoming, as yet untiled Exorcist film, though it's so early in the process it would be hard to say much, even if he was allowed.

Flanagan expressed that he was drawn to this film because he "saw an opportunity to make the scariest movie [he's] ever made, and [he] just couldn’t resist it.”

Though that was the extent of the Exorcist conversation at Blumfest, Flanagan also made an appearance the following day at a live podcast episode of Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused. Here he discussed how formative the Exorcist films were for him, and gave some insight into his approach.

Flanagan assured audience members that his Exorcist was going to be “a completely new thing.” He went on to clarify, "It’s not a retread. It’s not a remake. It’s not an update.”

The deadline for the script for this film is November 1st. At this time, the film is set to premiere on March 13th, 2026.

Blum also mentioned that a sequel to the hit horror movie The Black Phone is on the way. It's predicted to have an October 17th, 2025 release, but as it's in pre-production, that could always change.

As it's so early in the process, there wasn't much to say. However, Blum did confirm that everyone from the last movie would be making a return in the sequel.

He described the first movie as a middle school coming-of-age film, and said that the follow-up would be a high school coming of age story.

Trust me when I say that Blum was even more tight-lipped about the Five Nights at Freddy's sequel than he was about anything else. This film is set to premiere on December 5th, 2025, and it is very highly anticipated.

Attendees of the panel got the very first look at the poster, which is available now below.

Last but not least, Blum brought out actress Allison Williams to talk about M3GAN 2.0. This highly anticipated follow-up to our favorite campy horror film is set to premiere June 27th, 2025.

Williams expressed her joy that the film found it's audience and that people truly got the tone they were trying to achieve in the first film. She also said that she was terrified of horror films, but that she's discovered a deep love in acting in them, as the horror audience is unlike anything else.

She talked briefly about her start in horror with Get Out, and how Jordan Peele cast her because she had a necessary innocence to her look, and was “the whitest girl the world has ever made.”

One thing I didn't know until Williams spoke on it was that M3GAN and its sequel employ practical effects. The M3GAN doll is a functioning robot—one whose eyeballs they have to lube up for her to be able to blink.

Williams mentioned how the most terrifying part of filming the movies was any time she had to walk past “M3GAN in repose.”

Since M3GAN couldn't be at the panel herself, a clip of her was shown on the screen. She said she was “slaying on set,” and her presence served to remind us that it's not so easy to escape from a doll who is constantly outgrowing her programming…