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

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 it would look like if a serial killer ran amok at a Taylor Swift show? M. Night Shyamlan’s “Trap” isn’t truly set at a TS show, but it might as well be. The film 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.

‘Cuckoo’ (August 2)

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. 

‘It Ends With Us’ (August 9)

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. 

‘Close to You’ (August 16)

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.

‘The Crow’ (August 23)

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.