7 New International Horror Movies to Chill Your Bones This August

Pro travel tip: If you ever find yourself in a destination horror movie and someone promises to show you the “real” side of a place, stay behind at the resort. Unfortunately, the holidaymakers in director Howard J. Ford’s River of Blood don’t heed that advice, hopping into kayaks and venturing deep into the jungle where they run afoul of a tribe of hungry cannibals. 

The trailer for this one is giving some serious Cannibal Holocaust and Green Inferno vibes, and I’ll let you formulate your own opinions on that. If you want to brave the River of Blood, you can find it by wading into select theaters and digital platforms as of August 1.

Femme-focused body horror just hits differently—doubly so if it’s French. In Animale, the sophomore feature of Emma Benestan, it hits like a charging bull. 

Oulaya Amamra in the film as Nejma, a young cattle rancher living in the Camargue region in the South of France, known for its long-standing tradition of bullfighting. Jegma dreams of winning the annual competition and proving herself an equal in her male-dominated field. But as a loose bull threatens the community and men start turning up dead, Nejma finds herself undergoing a strange transformation. Witness it for yourself when Animale charges onto VOD platforms on August 8.

Shot on location in nasty-looking weather conditions, director Hugo Keijzer’s The Occupant pits one woman (a superb Ella Balinska) against the elements—and a mysterious voice (Rob Delaney) on the radio. 

Balinska plays Abby, a geologist scrounging for uranium on the Georgia-Russian border in the hopes of paying for an experimental cancer treatment for her sister. Abby can’t seem to move on from the denial stage of grief, even after her helicopter goes down and she finds herself stranded in the wilderness. Can she trust the man on the radio? What’s up with the weird rock she found? And is this a simple survival thriller, or are there cosmic-horror forces at play? Discover the answer to these questions and more when The Occupant takes up residence in limited theaters and on VOD platforms on August 8.

A missionary family attempts to convert an Indigenous Ecuadorian community—an idea that can truly only go well in a horror film—in director Antonio Negret’s Shaman, coming to select theaters and digital platforms on August 8. 

Sarah Canning stars as Candice, the missionary matriarch, whose faith is put to the test when her son picks up a demonic souvenir in a forbidden cave. A good old Catholic exorcism should shake that beastie loose, right? Well, not according to the local shamans, who believe this dark force is older than her religion itself. 

I’m ashamed to say I accidentally fell asleep during Custom’s North American premiere at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival last year. (My apologies to director Tiago Teixeira—I’m getting too old for midnight movies.) I’ll be rectifying that mistake pronto when Custom gets a digital and VOD release on August 19. 

The film centers on Harriet (Abigail Hardingham, star of the criminally underrated Nina Forever) and Jasper (Rowan Polonski), a pair of struggling artists who create custom erotic videos to make ends meet. When a mysterious client offers life-changing money for them to perform strange rituals on tape, they agree. Suffice today, this is one porno that likely won’t have a happy ending

Director Luke Sparke’s Primitive War recently made history as the first Australian indie to ever headline a panel at San Diego Comic Con, and with a premise like this, it’s easy to see why! Set in 1968 at the height of the Vietnam war, the film follows a group of soldiers known as the Vulture Squad as they head deep into an isolated jungle valley to discover what happened to a missing Green Beret platoon. Spoilers: it’s dinosaurs. Tell me you’re not already entertained!

Primitive War is based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Ethan Pettus, who co-wrote the script with Sparke. True Blood’s Ryan Kwanten stars in the film alongside Tricia Helfer and Jeremy Piven, and you can catch it in theaters from August 21.

Revenge is best served sweaty in director Noémie Merlant’s The Balconettes, which sees a heatwave taking a bloody turn. 

It’s 46°C in Marseille—that’s about 115°F for you Americans—and three roommates (Merlant, Sanda Codreanu, and Climax’s Souheila Yacoub) are gleefully meddling in the lives of their neighbors from the safety of their balcony. Things go sideways when they accept an invitation from one of those neighbors for a late-night drink. If you live in Los Angeles or New York City, you can catch The Balconettes from August 22 when the film opens at the Nuart Theatre and the IFC Center, respectively. Don’t live on the coasts? A wider release is coming—watch this space! 

Need even more excuses to stay inside and huddle next to the AC? Check out our guide to the best horror movies streaming this August, and be sure to check back in September for the latest shipment of international delights.