With February set to kick off tomorrow, we have a brand new batch of horror and sci-fi-related VOD and digital releases coming our way over the next four weeks, and considering most folks are looking for something to keep them busy as they try and avoid the frigid temperatures outside, there are a ton of great titles that should more than do the trick.
The month kicks off with Piercing (which premiered at Sundance 2018) and Velvet Buzzsaw (which just played this year’s Sundance), the latter arriving exclusively on Netflix Instant. Then, we have five different titles arriving on various platforms on February 5th (Overlord, Mermaid: Lake of the Dead, The Golem, Fighting the Sky, and Crossbreed), with another four films arriving on digital just a few days later on the 8th (The Man Who Killed Hitler Then The Bigfoot, St. Agatha, The Amityville Murders, and Darkness Visible).
For those who missed it in theaters last year, Anna and the Apocalypse will dance its way onto digital on February 12th, the same day as both Haunted Hospital: Heilstätten and The Bellwether, and the month wraps up with The Possession of Hannah Grace on the 19th and Lords of Chaos on February 22nd.
Piercing (Universal Pictures Content Group) – February 1st
Reed (Christopher Abbott) is going on a business trip. He kisses his wife and infant son goodbye, but in lieu of a suitcase filled with clothes, he's packed a toothbrush and a murder kit. Everything is meticulously planned: check into a hotel and kill an unsuspecting victim. Only then will he rid himself of his devious impulses and continue to be a good husband and father. But Reed gets more than he bargained for with Jackie (Mia Wasikowska), an alluring call girl who arrives at his room. First, they relax and get in the mood, but when there's an unexpected disruption, the balance of control begins to sway back and forth between the two. Is he seeing things? Who's playing whom? Before the night is over, a feverish nightmare will unfold, and Reed and Jackie will seal their bond in blood.
Velvet Buzzsaw (Netflix) – February 1st **Exclusively on Netflix Instant**
Velvet Buzzsaw is a satirical thriller set in the contemporary art world scene of Los Angeles, where big money artists and mega-collectors pay a high price when art collides with commerce.
Painkillers (Kew Media Group) – February 4th
After a terrible car crash in which his son dies, brilliant surgeon John Clarke, tormented by guilt, becomes prey to an unbearable physical pain. While his marriage starts disintegrating, John soon finds out that the only thing that can ease his pain is the taste of human blood. When he encounters Herb Morris, a man who claims he can help him get his life back, John embarks upon a nightmarish journey through which he will either have to come to terms with his pain... or become a monster.
Crossbreed (Uncork’d Entertainment) – February 5th
In the near future, the President of the United States of America hires a team of military veterans to retrieve an alien bio-weapon from a top-secret research facility orbiting the Earth. These highly trained mercenaries must infiltrate the space station and recover the deadly experimental alien cargo located onboard. All is going according to the plan until the cargo escapes.
Fighting the Sky (High Octane Pictures) – February 5th
Strange other-worldly sounds are echoing around the world. A group of researchers, led by expert ufologist Lorraine Gardner, begin an expedition to track down the point of origin from which the sounds emerge. Yet as their journey deepens, they begin to discover more than they bargained for.
The Golem (Epic Pictures) – February 5th
During an outbreak of a deadly plague, a mystical woman must save her tight-knit Jewish community from foreign invaders, but the entity she summons to protect them is a far greater evil. In this stunningly reimagined period horror version of an old mystical legend, a Jewish community in a shtetl are besieged by deadly intruders. Set in 17th century Lithuania, Hanna (Hani Furstenberg) the wistful, conflicted wife of the local rabbi’s son Benjamin (Ishai Golen), secretly turns to Jewish mysticism and The Kabbalah to conjure up a dangerous entity to protect her community. But the creature she molds out of mud and summons to life echoes her tragic past and becomes so dangerously connected to its creator, that Hanna can’t see what a heartless monster she has fashioned from abject fear and desperate loathing.
Mermaid: Lake of the Undead (Scream Factory) – February 5th
Once a young woman sent to a tragic and watery grave, she has since become something unholy. Cursed to swim the waters in which she met her untimely death, the mermaid has risen once again. This unspeakable wraithlike creature hungers for love — and has set her hook for Marina's fiancé, Roman. The bond between Marian and Roman is steadfast and true. But if you spurn the mermaid, she'll punish you and take from you that which you love most. Now locked in a desperate battle with pure, undying evil, Marina must overcome her fear of the dark water to save all that she holds dear from a terrifying fate.
Overlord (Paramount Pictures) – February 5th
Nothing can prepare you for the mind-blowing mayhem that is Overlord. Mega producer J.J. Abrams creates an insanely twisted thrill ride about a team of American troops who come face-to-face with Nazi super-soldiers unlike the world has ever seen.
The Amityville Murders (Skyline Entertainment) – February 8th
On the night of November 13, 1974, Ronald DeFeo, Jr. took a high-powered rifle and murdered his entire family as they slept. At his trial, DeFeo claimed that “voices” in the house commanded him to kill. This is their story.
Darkness Visible (Blue Fox Entertainment) – February 8th
London-raised Ronnie embarks on a journey to India after his mother goes missing and mysteriously ends up there in a Kolkata hospital. Before Ronnie can unravel the mystery of what brought his mother back to her homeland, she dies in what appears to be a ritual killing. As he uncovers a series of similar murders from the past, Ronnie's own inner-darkness comes to light as all roads lead to the feared witch of Kolkata’s insane asylum.
The Man Who Killed Hitler And Then The Bigfoot (RLJE Films) – February 8th
THE MAN WHO KILLED HITLER AND THEN THE BIGFOOT follows the epic adventures of an American legend that no one has ever heard of. Since WWII, Calvin Barr (Elliott) has lived with the secret that he was responsible for the assassination of Adolf Hitler. Now, decades later, the US government has called on him again for a new top-secret mission. Bigfoot has been living deep in the Canadian wilderness and is carrying a deadly plague that is now threatening to spread to the general population. Relying on the same skills that he honed during the war, Calvin must set out to save the free world yet again.
St. Agatha (Uncork’d Entertainment) – February 8th
It's the 1950's in small town Georgia, a pregnant con woman on the run seeks refuge in a convent hidden in deafening isolation. What first starts out as the perfect place to have a child turns into a dark layer where silence is forced, ghastly secrets are masked, and every bit of will power Agatha has is tested. She soon learns the sick and twisted truth of the convent and the Odd people that lurk inside its halls. Agatha must now find a way to discover the unyielding strength needed to escape and save her baby before she's caged behind these walls forever.
Anna and the Apocalypse (MGM) – February 12th
In this gleeful mashup, Anna and her friends must fight - and sing - their way through a zombie invasion to reach the supposed safety of their school, not knowing if their parents and friends will still be alive when they get there.
The Bellwether (Giant Pictures) – February 12th
In The Bellwether, to the outside world Joanne is just a bookstore owner, but The Conspiracy knows different. She is dangerous. She is a bellwether: a quiet leader who is well on her way to being her whole self. When they kidnap her to break her, to make her conform, they discover that Joanne is something so much more than even she ever knew. The Conspiracy locks Joanne in a 13th century chapel and she communicates with her 'operator' only through text and images shown a television. In order to break her, they work on her hidden pain, the fact that she had an abortion four years ago. After standing up to the mental torture, the Conspiracy goes even farther; impregnating her and trying to force her to have the baby. At the moment when she is about to give in she will either break, or everything will change, for herself and for the Conspiracy.
Haunted Hospital: Heilstätten (Well Go USA) – February 12th
A group of vloggers illegally access a condemned asylum for a "Will you Survive the Night" viral social media challenge. Equipped with night vision and thermal cameras, the adolescent adrenaline junkies chase the rumors of paranormal activity, not only learning they are not alone...they are not welcome.
Mega Time Squad (Dark Sky Films) – February 15th
A low-level criminal steals an ancient Chinese time-travel device, but he may not survive the demonic consequences of tampering with time. MEGA TIME SQUAD is a wildly entertaining time travel/sci-fi comedy out of New Zealand. A fan favorite on the festival circuit, the film stars Jonny Brugh (What We Do In The Shadows) and was praised by Variety as "fast-paced, determinedly silly, with sharp slangy dialogue, “the film blasted out of the gate at this year's Fantasia and is destined to become a cult favorite.
The Possession of Hannah Grace (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) – February 19th
A shocking exorcism spirals out of control, claiming the life of a young woman. Months later, Megan Reed (Shay Mitchell) is working the graveyard shift in the morgue when she takes delivery of a disfigured cadaver. Locked alone inside the basement corridors, Megan begins to experience horrifying visions and starts to suspect that the body may be possessed by a ruthless demonic force.
Lords of Chaos (Gunpowder & Sky) – February 22nd
A teenager's quest to launch Norwegian Black Metal in Oslo in the 1980s results in a very violent outcome. Lords of Chaos tells the true story of True Norwegian Black Metal and its most notorious practitioners - a group of young men with a flair for publicity, church-burning and murder: MAYHEM.
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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