Happy almost December, everyone! Now that the final month of 2018 is nearly upon us, we have one last batch of Digital and VOD releases for the year to look forward to, and there are a ton of great titles coming in the next few weeks that should keep horror fans more than entertained as the days continue to get shorter and the temperatures keep dipping lower and lower.
December’s digital releases kick off in a big way on December 4th, with eight different titles arriving on various platforms. A trio of holiday horrors debut that day—All the Creatures Were Stirring, Slay Belles, and Elves—as well as a pair of indie films from Artsploitation Films (Luciferina and Snowflake) and the sequel The House That Never Dies: Reawakening. December 7th is another busy day, as we have four more movies making their digital debuts, including Clara’s Ghost, Back Roads, Hospitality, and The Rainbow Experiment.
December 11th is sure to keep fans busy as well, with Venom, A Simple Favor, and Leprechauns hitting a variety of platforms, and then Bad Times at the El Royale arrives a week later on the 18th, followed by Hell Fest on the 21st. We get a bit of a Christmas break with releases until the 28th, which is when Halloween (2018) comes home.
Read on to get a complete rundown of everything genre-related hitting VOD and digital throughout the month of December, and Happy Holidays!
All the Creatures Were Stirring (RLJE Films) – December 4th
Ho, ho, no! The joyful spirit of the holidays is about to take one dark turn after another. From sadistic office parties and last-minute shopping nightmares, to vengeful stalkers and immortal demons, there’s plenty out there to keep you from getting out of bed to see what’s under the tree this holiday season. Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians) and Jonathan Kite (“2 Broke Girls”) headline a sensational ensemble cast in this devilish stocking stuffer of a movie.
The Cabin (High Octane Pictures) – December 4th
Young American couple, Rose (Caitlin Crommett) and Harry (Christopher Lee Page) are on their way to visit Harrys family cabin. Both as a nostalgic vacation and as a way to rekindle their relationship. But they’re not the only one that decided to visit the cabin this weekend... The vacation is quickly turned into a living nightmare for Rose and Harry as they meet a vicious sociopath, who invites them into an involuntary cat and mouse game.
Elves (Uncork’d Entertainment) – December 4th
The Holiday Reaper, a ruthless killer that terrorized a small Texas town, has been caught. While celebrating, a group of friends find an elf inside a magical toy box. When a freak accident kills one of them, they discover a group of elves have been scattered throughout town, each representing one of the seven deadly sins. It's a race against time to survive the elves’ wrath before Christmas ends.
The House That Never Dies: Reawakening (Well Go USA) – December 4th
A hundred years after the mysterious murders of the entire Zhisheng household, a cultural relic restorer Song Teng experiences strange events at the ancient mansion. After discovering baby skeletons and weird spells, the intricate weaving of the past and present begin to emerge and reveals a haunting tale of the wrongly deceased still seeking justice from the living world.
Luciferina (Artsploitation Films) – December 4th
Natalia is a 19-year-old novice who reluctantly returns home to say goodbye to her dying father. But when she meets up with her sister and her friends, she decides instead to travel the jungle in search of a mystical plant. Instead of pleasure, they find a world of Black Masses, strange pregnancies, bloody deaths and perhaps, a sexually violent clash with the Devil himself.
Prodigy (Uncork’d Entertainment) – December 4th
Erik Black is a broken soul due to the loss of his wife. He spends his days alone and self-medicating. All of that changes when his estranged son asks him to help him reach an undisclosed destination. There, he says, he will receive a divine message he believes will change the course of humanity. To survive they must stick together while fostering a belief in something greater than themselves.
Slay Belles (Epic Pictures) – December 4th
It's Christmas Eve and three cosplaying women break into Santa Land for some exploring and fun. What they don't expect to come across is the malevolent Christmas demon Krampus. The girls must team up with Santa Claus himself (played by The Rocky Horror Picture Show's Barry Bostwick) to battle the creature and save the world!
Snowflake (Artsploitation Films) – December 4th
Hunting down the murderer of their families in an anarchic near-future Berlin, two outlaws find themselves trapped in the wicked fairy tale of a mysterious screenplay that entangles them in a vicious circle of revenge - apparently all written by a clueless dentist. In their quest for vengeance, they must contend with a myriad of wicked fairy tale assassins, madmen, a blood-covered angel, and an electric-powered superhero.
Back Roads (Samuel Goldwyn Films) – December 7th
After his mother, (a gritty Juliette Lewis), is imprisoned for killing his abusive father, Harley Altmyer (Alex Pettyfer) is left to care for his three younger sisters in rural Pennsylvania. Harley forgoes his college education, working dead-end jobs to pay the bills and raise his siblings, including his rebellious and promiscuous 16-year-old sister, Amber (Nicola Peltz). Scarred by his past, Harley becomes infatuated with Callie Mercer (Jennifer Morrison) the older married woman who lives nearby. Things take a dangerous turn when they embark on an affair and shocking family secrets soon begin to emerge. As Harley’s life spirals out of control, unspoken truths leading to a devastating conclusion come to the surface and threaten to consume him.
Clara’s Ghost (Orion Classics) – December 7th
Set over the course of a single evening in the Reynolds family home in suburban Connecticut, Clara's Ghost tells the story of Clara Reynolds who, fed up with constant ribbing from her self-absorbed showbiz family, finds solace in and guidance from the supernatural force she believes is haunting her.
Hospitality (Kandoo Releasing) – December 7th
Former prostitute Donna (Emmanuelle Chriqui, Entourage) turned her brothel into a legitimate bed and breakfast, following the birth of her cognitively deficit son Jimmy (Conner McVicker, Vice Principals). Trouble comes knocking when ex-con Cam (Sam Trammell, True Blood) arrives to collect what he’s been hiding there for the past two decades. As it turns out, he’s not the only one looking for it. In a brutal fight for survival, Donna must protect Jimmy and her home from a crooked cop (JR Bourne, Teen Wolf) and a thug (Jim Beaver, Supernatural).
The Rainbow Experiment (Gravitas Ventures) – December 7th
The Rainbow Experiment is a post-modern whodunnit set in a NYC high school when a student is permanently injured during a science experiment on school grounds, leading to personal reckoning among faculty, students and parents, with an impressive cast of 36 principal characters. Kallas’ explosive film plays with time, perception and notion of a collective protagonist, creating a multi-layered viewing experience unlike any other.
Cannibals and Carpet Fitters (Red Hound Films) – December 11th
In Cannibals and Carpet Fitters, a group of carpet fitters are sent on a job to an old country house in the middle of nowhere. They soon discover it is a trap set up by a savage, cannibalistic family. The carpet fitters are forced to fight for their lives or risk ending up being the evenings’ dinner. Cannibals and Carpet Fitters is a gruesomely fun thrill ride that will keep you in your seat until the very last minute.
Christmas Blood (Artsploitation Films) – December 11th
Christmas is a time of peace, love and family. But not for one Norwegian town as a psychopath dressed in a Santa Claus suit has been terrorizing them for the past 13 years. For as soon as the caroling starts, this demented Kris Kringle dispenses bloody ax blows regardless of whether you’ve been bad or good. As the holiday approaches on one snow-covered town filled with revelers, a pair of detectives work against time to find and arrest this bearded serial killer. Will they manage to stop this demented St. Nick before he kills again?
Leprechaun Returns (Lionsgate) – December 11th
The deadly, wisecracking Leprechaun is back in all his gory glory. When the sorority sisters of the Alpha Upsilon house decide to go green and use an old well as their water source, they unwittingly awaken a pint-sized, green-clad monster. The Leprechaun wants a pot of gold buried near the sorority house, but first he must recover his powers with a killing spree—and only the girls of AU can stop him.
Scarecrows (Uncork’d Entertainment) – December 11th
While on a hike to find a secret lagoon, a group of friends have no choice but to pass through an ominous cornfield. Unbeknownst to them, the farm owner despises trespassers and has vowed to kill anyone who crosses his land by turning them into living scarecrows, leaving them to rot in his fields. Once one goes up... it never comes down.
A Simple Favor (Lionsgate) – December 11th
A Simple Favor, directed by Paul Feig, centers around Stephanie (Anna Kendrick), a mommy vlogger who seeks to uncover the truth behind her best friend Emily's (Blake Lively) disappearance.
Venom (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) – December 11th
VENOM tells the evolution story of Marvel’s most enigmatic, complex and badass character Venom! Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is a broken man after he loses everything including his job and fiancée. Just when his life is at its lowest, he becomes host to an alien symbiote which results in extraordinary superpowers - transforming him into Venom. Will these powers be enough for this new lethal protector to defeat great evil forces, especially against the far stronger and more weaponized symbiote rival, Riot?
The Quake (Magnet Releasing) – December 14th
In 1904, an earthquake with a 5.4 magnitude on the Richter scale shook Oslo. Its epicenter was in the Oslo Rift which runs directly through the Norwegian capital. There are recorded quakes from the rift on a daily basis and geologists cannot be sure, but arguments indicate that we can expect major future earthquakes in this area. When - nobody can say for certain – but we know that the density of people and infrastructure in Oslo is significantly more vulnerable today than in 1904. What if a massive earthquake is looming?
Bad Times at the El Royale (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) – December 18th
Jeff Bridges, Cynthia Erivo, Dakota Johnson, Jon Hamm and Chris Hemsworth lead an all-star cast in this powerful thriller filled with gripping suspense and startling revelations. Seven strangers, each with a secret to bury, meet at Lake Tahoe’s El Royale, a rundown hotel with a dark past. Over the course of one fateful night, everyone will have a last shot at redemption…before everything goes to hell.
Hell Fest (Lionsgate) – December 21st
A group of friends are bound for a horror-themed Halloween event at a local amusement park — a sprawling labyrinth of rides, games, and mazes that travels the country and happens to be in town. But for one visitor, the ghoulish carnival of nightmares is not the attraction — it is a hunting ground. On the night the friends attend, a masked serial killer turns the amusement park into his own playground, terrorizing attendees while the rest of the patrons believe that it is all part of the show. As the body count and frenzied excitement of the crowd continues to rise, who will fight to survive the night?
Halloween (2018) (Universal Studios Home Entertainment) – December 28th
Forty years after the events of 1978’s Halloween, Laurie Strode now lives in a heavily guarded home on the edge of Haddonfield, where she’s spent decades preparing for Michael’s potential return. After being locked up in an institution, Myers manages to escape when a bus transfer goes terribly wrong, leading to chaos in the same town he preyed on decades earlier. Laurie now faces a terrifying showdown when the deranged killer returns for her and her family – but this time, she’s ready for him.
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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