The most anticipated movies of summer 2024

polygon.com:

They say it’s a strange summer for movies. Studios are putting all their chips on 2025 being the year that movie theaters come back, and are stacking the calendar accordingly. The big superhero movie houses are almost all on pause. Massive franchises are staying out of the summer window, with Dune: Part Two a spring fling and Joker: Folie à Deux biding its time until fall.

But that just means there’s actually room for the little guys to breathe. There are inventive geri-action comedies, summer horror flicks, literary romance adaptations, and even an Oscar-nominated animated feature finally getting wide release. Some of your favorite franchises are back with new installments, like Inside Out, Alien, Bad Boys, and The Crow. And, of course, there’s still one remaining big-budget superhero crossover blowout. Here’s what Polygon is looking forward to most.

Release date: May 31

If you have found yourself looking at the last few years in horror movies and thinking that the monsters are getting a raw deal lately, then In a Violent Nature is for you. Billed as a slasher movie from the killer’s point of view, it follows a vengeful spirit that returns from the dead to take vengeance on some unsuspecting hikers. The movie is a clever mix of beautiful pastoral images, as we watch the killer wander through fields and forests in search of his victims, and some of the most brutal kills you’ll find in any horror movie this year. —Austen Goslin

Release date: May 31

The mysterious fifth entry in the 2024 Oscars’ Best Animated Feature category finally gets a wide release this summer. Robot Dreams follows a lonely dog in a world of anthropomorphic animals who decides to buy a robot to be his best friend. It’s a touching and poignant tale of friendship, told entirely without dialogue. You’ll never listen to “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire the same way again. —Petrana Radulovic

Release date: June 4 (digital)

This blockbuster horror movie is the highest-grossing film in Korea this