While the seasons may be changing for the better, there are still plenty of reasons to stay home this April, as there are numerous genre films hitting VOD and digital platforms that are well worth your time. IFC Midnight has a trifecta of cinematic treats planned this month, with Lowlife arriving on April 6th, Wildling coming out on the 13th, and Ghost Stories making its digital debut in the US on April 20th. For those of you looking to check out Deep Blue Sea 2, the wait is finally over on the 17th, and for those looking to experience some movies with more of a dramatic flavor, both Tilt and the controversial Us and Them hit VOD on April 10th.
Other notable digital releases for April 2018 include Dead on Arrival (4/2), Marrowbone (4/13), Corbin Nash (4/20), William Friedkin’s exorcism documentary The Devil and Father Amorth (4/24), and Winchester (4/17) (the lattermost for digital platforms, while those hoping to watch it on VOD must wait a few weeks for its arrival).
Dead on Arrival (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment/Vision Films) – April 2nd
A pharmaceutical sales rep visits a small town in Louisiana on business. He finds himself in a dark world of corruption and murder with only 24 hours to live, running from the police, the mob and a sheriff who wants him dead.
4/20 Massacre (Film Chest) – April 3rd
From writer/director Dylan Reynolds comes the story of five women who go camping in the woods to celebrate a friend’s birthday over the 4/20 weekend. But when they cross the turf of an illegal marijuana growing operation they must struggle to survive the living nightmare.
A Place in Hell (Cinedigm) – April 3rd
Inspired by a real serial killer. A disgraced detective on the trail of a serial killer and a group of student-filmmakers cross paths at a Halloween fright farm in the dead of winter.
Ayla (Freestyle Digital Media) – April 3rd
AYLA tells the story of a man, Elton, left lost and damaged since he was a young boy by the unexplained death of his 4-year-old sister, Ayla. All throughout adulthood, Elton has mourned the life with her that could have been. Elton's days and nights are inhabited by the presence of a mysterious woman, and as his obsession with the woman grows, he becomes convinced she's his sister Ayla, returned now as an adult. Resolving to find her at all costs, Elton plunges further down a rabbit hole forged by his own loneliness and desire, but who or what will emerge?
Killing Joan (Uncork’d Entertainment) – April 3rd
Joan (Jamie Bernadette, All Girl’s Weekend, I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu) is an enforcer known for her ruthless tactics and wild abandon. After she is double crossed by her boss and left for dead, she becomes a vengeful spirit and is doomed to wander the Earth until she is able to take down the men that attacked her.
Lowlife (IFC Midnight) – April 6th
What happens when you throw together a fallen Mexican wrestler with serious rage issues, a just-out-of-prison ex-con with a regrettable face tattoo, and a recovering junkie motel owner in search of a kidney? That’s the premise of the berserk, blood-spattered, and wickedly entertaining feature debut from Ryan Prows. Set amidst the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles, Lowlife zigzags back and forth in time as it charts how fate—and a ruthless crime boss—connects three down-and-out reprobates mixed up in an organ harvesting scheme that goes from bad to worse to off-the-rails insane. Careening from savagely funny to just plain savage to unexpectedly heartfelt, this audacious thriller serves up nonstop adrenaline alongside hard-hitting commentary about the state of contemporary America.
Rave Party Massacre (Breaking Glass Pictures) – April 10th
On the eve of an abandoned hospital's demolition, evil walks its empty corridors to pulsating 150-beats-per-minute echoes. It is 1992, an uncertain time of uprising, of violent revolution against the so-called New World Order. When Rachel, Branson, and others attend an illegal rave party held in the facility, they encounter the malevolent presence lurking within. Inside a hallucinogenic drug nightmare infused with illicit partying and forbidden sex, these young ravers will soon discover the insane world of DeadThirsty in Rave Party Massacre.
Tilt (The Orchard) – April 10th
Something is off about Joe. He's not excited about the baby. He watches Joanne as she sleeps. Late at night, he roams the streets of Los Angeles courting danger. As Joseph struggles to maintain his domestic life, his mask begins to slip.
Us and Them (The Orchard) – April 10th
A darkly comic, raw and controversial thriller that packs a hard punch at the inequalities and divisions that led to Brexit and Trump's victory. Danny (Jack Roth), an ordinary working-class kid, is angry and frustrated at the rough deal he faces. When he confronts Conrad (Tim Bentinck) a member of today's privileged elite, he aims to teach him and his kind a lesson they will never forget.
Holding Conrad and his family hostage in their plush mansion, Danny, and his pals force Conrad into a deadly game of chance. Danny's master plan is to kick-start a revolution by streaming attacks against the super-rich one percent on the web. His ultimate goal? To terrify the elite into bringing about change.
Marrowbone (Magnet Releasing) – April 13th
Four siblings seek refuge in an old home after the death of their mother, only to discover that the house has another, more sinister, inhabitant, in this haunting directorial debut from Sergio G. Sánchez, screenwriter of The Orphanage and The Impossible.
Party Bus to Hell (Mahal Empire) – April 13th
A party bus en route to Burning Man breaks down in the middle of the desert among a satanic cult. A massacre leaves survivors trapped on the bus, fighting for their lives and panicked that someone is not what he seems.
Wildling (IFC Midnight) – April 13th
WILDLING is a unique dark fantasy tale centered on young Anna (Powley) who has been raised in isolation by a man she knows only as Daddy (Dourif) who has done everything possible to conceal the truth about the girl’s origins from her. But when the teenage Anna is suddenly thrust into the real world under the protection of no-nonsense police officer Ellen Cooper (Tyler), it soon becomes clear that the young woman is far from ordinary. Unable to adjust to a normal life, Anna finds herself drawn instead to the wild freedom of the forest while struggling to resist the growing bloodlust that has awakened inside her. This moodily atmospheric thriller combines supernatural scares with a myth-like tale of self-discovery.
Deep Blue Sea 2 (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) – April 17th
In Deep Blue Sea 2, shark conservationist Dr. Misty Calhoun (Danielle Savre) is invited to consult on a new, top secret project run by pharmaceutical billionaire Carl Durant (Michael Beach). She believes the project, performed at a remote, sea-based facility, focuses on extracting shark antibodies to help work toward cures for human diseases. However, Dr. Calhoun is shocked to learn that the company is using unpredictable bull sharks as its test subjects, and Durant has bio-engineered a shiver of highly intelligent, super-aggressive bull sharks. When science meddles with the time-tested process of nature and nurture, the outcome can be deadly.
Russian Doll (Wolfe) – April 17th
Veteran lesbian police detective Viola Ames (Melanie Brockmann Gaffney) is assigned to investigate the case of a missing woman who uncovered a murder plot set in the theatre world, behind the scenes of a play called The Russian Doll. As the play moves towards opening night, Viola and her police partner uncover a complicated and enigmatic series of twists and turns to uncover the identity of the kidnapper as well as a surprising murder suspect. At the same time that Viola deciphers clues to solve the case, Viola's tough and emotionally closed world begins to change as she falls for a new woman in her life, Faith.
Writers Retreat (Cinedigm) – April 17th
At a writers' retreat on an isolated island, novelist Zandra joins a group of strangers confronting their darkest secrets. But when a member of the party mysteriously disappears, they realize there's something else on the island.
Winchester (Lionsgate) – April 17th/Digital & May 1st/VOD
Inspired by true events, Winchester is set on an isolated stretch of land outside of San Francisco where there sits the world’s most haunted house. Seven stories tall with hundreds of rooms, the house has been under construction for decades. But heiress Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren) is not building for herself, for her niece (Sarah Snook), or for the troubled doctor (Jason Clarke) she has summoned. She is building it as an asylum for hundreds of vengeful ghosts.
Corbin Nash (Gravitas Ventures) – April 20th
Searching a world of darkness for a truth he was never ready for, a rogue detective (Dean S. Jagger, Game of Thrones) is murdered only to be reborn the ultimate killer. Embracing his destiny, vowing vengeance on all that destroyed his family; he is Corbin Nash, Demon Hunter.
Ghost Stories (IFC Midnight) – April 20th
Experience three spine-tingling tales of terror to haunt your dreams. A debunker of all things paranormal, Professor Phillip Goodman (Andy Nyman) has devoted his life to exposing phony psychics and fraudulent supernatural shenanigans on his own television show. His skepticism is put to the test, however, when he receives a file of three chilling, inexplicable cases: a night watchman (Paul Whitehouse) haunted by disturbing visions as he patrols an abandoned asylum; an edgy young man (Black Mirror’s Alex Lawther) involved in a hellish car accident deep in the woods; and a wealthy former banker (Black Panther’s Martin Freeman) visited by the poltergeist spirit of his unborn child. Even scarier: each of these macabre stories seems to have a sinister connection to Professor Goodman’s own life. Will they make a believer of him yet?
Vampire Clay (Monument Releasing) – April 20th
Absurdity and gore ensue as a possessed pile of clay begins terrorizing students at an art school.
The Devil and Father Amorth (The Orchard) – April 24th
Years after he changed the landscape of American filmmaking with 1973’s THE EXORCIST, director, co-writer and legendary storyteller William Friedkin moves from fiction to fact with his new documentary, THE DEVIL AND FATHER AMORTH. What began as a brief conversation between Friedkin and Father Gabrielle Amorth – the head Exorcist for the Diocese of Rome for over 30 years – as two professionals who knew of each other’s work soon transformed into an once-in-a- lifetime opportunity, as Amorth agreed Friedkin could film an exorcism ceremony. It would be the ninth exorcism for a painfully afflicted woman, Cristina (a pseudonym), who had already been under Father Amorth’s care – and it would be filmed by Friedkin alone, with no other crew allowed, no light other than the natural light in the room and a small digital camera-and-mic unit that could capture the ritual and its revelations.
Combining the startling and singular footage from Cristina’s exorcism with interviews from priests and psychologists, neurosurgeons and non-believers, Friedkin guides us on a journey into the twilight world between the boundaries of what we know and what we don’t with a singular and startling guide in the form of the urbane, charming and self-deprecatingly funny Father Amorth, a man who laughs in the face of the Devil both figuratively and literally. Combining Friedkin’s past memories and present observations with archival footage and new interviews – as well as also presenting what may be the only real exorcism ceremony captured on film – THE DEVIL AND FATHER AMORTH is a startling and surprising story of the religion, the ritual and the real-world victims involved in possession and exorcism.
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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