Movies to watch in August, from 'Trap' to 'It Ends With Us'

Josh Hartnett stars in 'Trap,' directed by M. Night Shyamalan (2024)

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'Trap'
'Cuckoo'
'It Ends With Us'
'Close to You'
'The Crow'

published 31 July 2024

August is usually a slow month at the movies. But that does not mean there are no good films hitting theaters. This month's new releases are a contrasting blend of fear and romance: Call it fromance. Pairs well with froyo, perfect for those scorching summer days.

'Trap' (August 2)

Ever wonder what a family outing might be like for a serial killer? M. Night Shyamlan's "Trap" stars Josh Hartnett as Cooper, who takes his daughter to see pop star Lady Raven "only to realize that the concert is an elaborate trap that the authorities have put in place to catch him," said Screen Rant. Here, a signature Shyamalan twist is already evident from the trailers: Cooper is the serial killer, and he must try to evade the police without harming his daughter. The movie marks a "return of sorts for Josh Hartnett, an actor whose stiff onscreen presence is engineered toward sociopathy, whose genial good looks play as a hard mask," IndieWire said.

Keep the fear alive with "Cuckoo," the second film from German director Tilman Singer, which promises to be "incredibly strange and deviously fun," said Mashable. "Euphoria" fan favorite Hunter Schafer stars as the horror flick's Final Girl, part of a family visiting a remote and snowy corner of the German Alps. Singer "jettisons logic to make room for more horror tropes than you can shiv with a butterfly knife in his deliriously entertaining, very bonkers second feature," said Variety.

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A hugely popular romance novel of the same name by Colleen Hoover rose to fame on the sub-community of TikTok known as BookTok. Directed by Justin Baldoni, who also stars opposite Blake Lively, this big-screen adaptation will similarly follow heroine Lily as she meets and falls in love with a handsome neurosurgeon named Ryle. Unfortunately, their dynamic begins to remind Lily of her parents' abusive relationship. Hoover's story was the top-selling print book in 2022 and stayed on the The New York Times Best Seller List for more than 90 weeks, said People — so the film is bound to draw an audience.

This marks the first male film role for actor Elliot Page ("Juno"), who came out as trans in 2020. Page shares a writing credit with director Dominic Savage on "Close to You," and "the actor has evidently brought much of his own identity and experience to this sensitively observed story of a trans man cagily reunited with his family after a five-year period of estrangement," said Variety. Page plays Sam, who pays a visit to his hometown and must reckon with his family's discomfort over his transition despite their purportedly progressive values.

Bill Skarsgard traumatized children everywhere with his portrayal of the creepy clown, Pennywise, in 2017's "It," and he is poised to send shivers down our spines once more as the eponymous Nosferatu in David Eggers' upcoming remake. He also stars in this reimagining of "The Crow," again based on the classic comic book series. The series has already been adapted into four other movies, most notoriously the 1994 film starring Brandon Lee, in which Lee died in an accidental shooting by a prop gun on set. Skarsgard plays the titular Crow this time around, a murdered musician who is resurrected to avenge his own death and that of his fiancée, played by real-life musician FKA Twigs.

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Anya Jaremko-Greenwold has worked as a story editor at The Week since 2024. She previously worked at FLOOD Magazine, Woman's World, First for Women, DGO Magazine and BOMB Magazine. Anya's culture writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Jezebel, Vice and the Los Angeles Review of Books, among others.