April 2019 VOD & Digital Releases Include HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U, ESCAPE ROOM, HAGAZUSSA, GLASS, THE PRODIGY

The weather may be getting better outside, and you may be feeling inclined to spend more time outdoors, but I’m about to give genre fans more than two dozen reasons why you should stay home during the month of April, as we have an incredible amount of horror and sci-fi films and series events headed to various digital and VOD platforms over the next few weeks.

Things kick off with Jordan Peele’s new run of The Twilight Zone exclusively on the CBS All Access service on April 1st, and then Netflix is summoning up a whole new batch of brand new episodes of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on April 5th. That same week, we have a bunch of films hitting various platforms, including Glass, Pet Graveyard, The Banished, and Terror 5. On April 2nd, we also have a brand new installment of the Blumhouse Into the Dark series heading to Hulu called I’m Just F*cking With You (which is one of my favorite episodes to date), with The Haunting of Sharon Tate and Division 19 also making their digital debuts the very same day.

April 9th is yet another busy day, with Escape Room, Karyn Kusama’s Destroyer, Black Site, and Blood Craft all hitting various platforms, and Shout Factory will be taking fans to A Dark Place on the 12th. The Master of Dark Shadows documentary arrives on April 16th (alongside the Keanu Reeves sci-fi thriller Replicas), and on the 23rd, we have a ton of great titles enjoying their digital releases, including The Prodigy, Hagazussa, Arctic, and The Samaritans.

April’s digital releases wind down with both I Trapped the Devil and Body at Brighton Rock on the 26th and then both Cold Pursuit and Happy Death Day 2U on the 30th as well.

Happy streaming, everyone!

The Twilight Zone (CBS All Access) – April 1st

CBS All Access, the CBS Television Network’s digital subscription video on-demand and live streaming service, today announced the latest addition to its original programming slate, THE TWILIGHT ZONE. The new series will be produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions and Simon Kinberg’s Genre Films. Jordan Peele, Simon Kinberg and Marco Ramirez will serve as executive producers for the series and collaborate on the premiere episode. Win Rosenfeld and Audrey Chon will also serve as executive producers.

The Banished (4Digital) – April 2nd

Londoner Jane Darcy travels to Greenvale, New York to claim the remains of her mother who died from a brain aneurism. She encounters Christopher Dodd, a twisted man with a deep connection to her late mother and Sheriff Miranda Lacey, his fierce protector. An evil secret wrought by Jane's grandmother Mary's guilt from an illicit affair with a local priest decades earlier has savage repercussions.

Glass (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) – April 2nd

GLASS is a grounded-in-reality, comic-book thriller where the heroes and villains are people first. The thrilling culmination to the trilogy that started with Unbreakable and Split, stars James McAvoy (Split, Atonement), Samuel L. Jackson (Hitman’s Bodyguard, Avengers Franchise), Bruce Willis (Unbreakable, Die Hard), Sarah Paulson (Ocean’s Eight, “American Horror Story”) and Anya-Taylor Joy (Split, The Witch).

Pet Graveyard (Uncork’d Entertainment) – April 2nd

A struggling student nurse assists her brother and his friends in a graveyard in a dangerous experiment called “brinking" -- a ritual where it is said you can explore a region between life and death, enabling you the chance to speak to those who have passed on. However, when they return to life, a sinister force is after the group, wanting to take them back to the dark side and keep them dead.

Red Island (Unified) – April 2nd

A distressed couple become stranded on an isolated island only to get hunted by an unforeseen force.

Soul to Keep (Shady Tree Films/Cineque Pictures) – April 2nd

In this taut and unsettling horror/thriller, Beelzebub, an ancient demon hell-bent on consuming and possessing souls, preys on Millennials at a rundown country house. With an agenda that spans thousands of years to bring Hell to Earth, this Prince of Darkness has finally arrived.

Terror 5 (Artsploitation Films) – April 2nd

While most of the residents of a small Argentinian town attend a funeral procession following a tragic building collapse, the few who do not will face terrors of their own in this mashup of urban legends from brothers-filmmakers Sebastián and Federico Rotstein. Think bondage, torture, zombies…and governmental corruption. Hernán and Gabriela, are going to a motel without realizing that inside the room, behind the mirror, there is something waiting for them. Lucio and Paulo have a plan to swap girlfriends without realizing what will really happen. A group of friends are watching a snuff movie ignoring that the real terror is sitting next to them. Juan attends a date with Sonia thinking he is going to get laid, when he realizes that she has bigger plans for him. As their primal urges distract them all, local officials are judged innocent of the neglect that caused the building collapse—and then the horror really begins.

The Man with the Magic Box (Artsploitation Films) – April 4th

This Orwellian sci-fi thriller is set in the dystopian future of 2030 Warsaw. A man wakes up without any memory of his previous life. He is assigned an apartment and a job as a janitor in an office building. But when he finds an old radio from the 1950s, it triggers mysterious visions of another past life. As he tries to piece together his past identity with the help of his beautiful but aloft boss, he runs afoul of a totalitarian government willing to do anything to stop him. A beguiling sci-fi love story that is at turns bleak, absurd, unsettling, and oddly affecting.

The Mummy Reborn (High Octane Pictures) – April 4th

Written by Dan Allen and Scott Jeffrey, The Mummy Reborn tells of a group of teens in financial ruin that decide to rob the local antique store of an ancient amulet. But what they don't realize is that this tomb is cursed, and when the amulet is separated from its master he will do anything to get it back. Our burglars must save the day and return the Mummy to its tomb before it is too late to save the world.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Part 2 (Netflix) – April 5th

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina re-imagines the origin and adventures of Sabrina the Teenage Witch as a dark coming-of-age story that traffics in horror, the occult and, of course, witchcraft.

Part 2 finds Sabrina exploring her darker side, curious to learn more about her heritage, while struggling to maintain her friendships in the mortal world. Romantically, Sabrina is caught in an unholy love triangle with between sexy warlock Nicholas Scratch and salt-of-the-Earth mortal Harvey Kinkle. Meanwhile, The Dark Lord, Madame Satan, and Father Blackwood continue to conjure chaos in the Spellman household and the town of Greendale. And they aren’t the only ones trying to raise hell. Everything is in question…relationships, identity, true intentions…when the devil’s work is at hand.

Division 19 (Uncork’d Entertainment) – April 5th

In the future, prisons have been turned into online portals where paying subscribers get to vote on what felons eat, watch, wear and who they fight. Panopticon TV is so successful it is about to be rolled out to a whole new town. When the world’s most downloaded felon escapes, the authorities set a trap to reel him in. The bait is his little brother who has so far managed to avoid detection.

The Haunting of Sharon Tate (Saban Films) – April 5th

Based on one of Hollywood’s most chilling murder cases, this spellbinding thriller follows 26-year-old actress Sharon Tate (Hilary Duff), a rising star about to have her first baby with her husband, director Roman Polanski. Plagued by terrifying premonitions, Sharon sees her worst nightmares come to life with the appearance of Charles Manson and his deadly cult.

I’m Just F*cking With You (Hulu/Blumhouse) – April 5th

Hulu and Blumhouse TV's Seventh installment of the Into the Dark series - I'm Just F*cking With You - is a story about a man and his sister who endure a night of increasingly frightening practical jokes during a one-night stay at a secluded motel. I'm Just F*cking With You stars Kier O'Donnell, Hayes MacArthur and Jessica McNamee, written by Gregg Zehenter and Scott Barkan and is directed by Adam Mason.

Black Site (Epic Pictures) – April 9th

An elite military unit encounters a supernatural entity, known as The Elder Gods, that forces them into battle against an army from another world.

Blood Craft (Gravitas Ventures) – April 9th

Two sisters who suffered abuse as children at the hands of their sadistic father decide, after his death, to use witchcraft to bring his spirit back to get revenge.

Destroyer (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) – April 9th

Academy Award^® Winner Nicole Kidman^* gives a Golden Globe^®-nominated performance in this gritty, suspenseful crime drama. In the years since she engaged in an undercover drug ring assignment that ended tragically, L.A.P.D. detective Erin Bell (Kidman) has stumbled along a path of self-destruction. But now that the ring’s boss has resurfaced, Bell is drawn back into action to try to stop a violent new crime wave. Forced to face the demons of her past, she begins an odyssey that’s as deeply personal as it is dangerous.

Escape Room (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) – April 9th

An intriguing invitation bring six strangers together. Initially, they think they have gathered for a highly immersive escape room, but they soon make the sickening discovery that they are pawns in a sadistic game of life and death. Together, they move from one terrifying scenario to the next as they find clues and solve puzzles. But the players soon learn that exposing their darkest secrets may hold the key to survive.

The Silence (Netflix) – April 10th

When the world is under attack from terrifying creatures who hunt their human prey by sound, 16-year old Ally Andrews (Kiernan Shipka), who lost her hearing at 13, and her family seek refuge in a remote haven. But they discover a sinister cult who are eager to exploit Ally's heightened senses. THE SILENCE is directed by John R. Leonetti (ANNABELLE) and stars Stanley Tucci, Kiernan Shipka, Miranda Otto, John Corbett, Kate Trotter and Kyle Breitkopf.

A Dark Place (Shout Factory) – April 12th

Donald Devlin is a garbage man in the fictional town of Harburgh, Pennsylvania, a former steel town that has seen brighter days. A single father, Donny spends his days collecting the trash of the residents alongside his best friend, Donna Reutzel, and in his off-time, focuses his energies on being the best father he can be to his young daughter, Wendy.

But when young Tyler Zeigler, a neighborhood boy, goes missing, Donny starts to fixate on finding out what has happened to him. With the local sheriff warning him off, and the town reacting to the young boy’s disappearance in a variety of confusing and suspicious ways, Donny determines to learn the truth. But the truth may not want to be revealed.

Master of Dark Shadows (MPI Media Group) – April 16th

Narrated by Ian McShane (Deadwood), MASTER OF DARK SHADOWS offers insights from Curtis himself in addition to Oscar-winning writer-producer Alan Ball (True Blood), screenwriter William F. Nolan (Trilogy of Terror), author Herman Wouk (The Winds Of War), veteran actors Whoopi Goldberg (Ghost), Barbara Steele (Black Sunday) and Ben Cross (Chariots of Fire), Dark Shadows stars Jonathan Frid, David Selby, Kathryn Leigh Scott, Lara Parker, John Karlen, Nancy Barrett, Jerry Lacy, Roger Davis, Marie Wallace, Chris Pennock and James Storm, plus other colleagues and family members.

In 1966, a phenomenon was launched when Dark Shadows debuted on ABC-TV as a daily Gothic suspense series. Airing in the late afternoon, the show attracted a massive youth audience as it shifted to the supernatural with the introduction of vulnerable vampire Barnabas Collins. Witches, ghosts and scary story lines turned Dark Shadows into a TV classic that led to motion pictures, remakes, reunions and legions of devoted fans who have kept the legend alive for five decades. 

Replicas (Lionsgate) – April 16th

In this suspenseful sci-fi thriller, Keanu Reeves stars as William Foster, a neuroscientist on the verge of transferring human consciousness into a computer when his beloved wife (Alice Eve) and children are tragically killed in a car crash. Desperate to resurrect his family, William recruits a fellow scientist (Thomas Middleditch) to help secretly clone their bodies and create replicas. When William learns that he can only replicate three of the four family members, he makes a decision with fateful consequences.

The Samaritans (Cinedigm) – April 23rd

When a group of four co-workers meet face to face for the first time to work on a new app, a mysterious entity pits them against each other in a game of truth or dare forcing them to reveal their darkest secrets about each other.

Artic (Bleecker Street) – April 23rd

A man stranded in the Arctic after an airplane crash must decide whether to remain in the safety of his makeshift camp or to embark on a deadly trek through the unknown.

Hagazussa (Doppelgänger Releasing/Bloody Disgusting) – April 23rd

In the 15th Century in the remote Austrian Alps, the orphan Albrun (Celina Peter) grows up to be a simple goatherd living in solitude...and a marked woman. As a scapegoat of ancient myths and monstrous misogyny, Albrun (portrayed by Aleksandra Cwen as an adult) finds herself tormented by the local townsfolk, driving her to unleash the inner darkness that swells within her. A self-styled witch, Albrun soon exercises her other-worldly birthright and conjures a plague that makes the surrounding human cruelty look pathetic and small by comparison.   

The Prodigy (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) – April 23rd

In her much-anticipated foray into the horror-thriller genre, Golden Globe and Emmy nominee Taylor Schilling stars in THE PRODIGY as Sarah, a mother whose young son Miles' disturbing behavior signals that an evil, possibly supernatural force has overtaken him. Fearing for her family's safety, Sarah must choose between her maternal instinct to love and protect Miles and a desperate need to investigate what -- or who -- is causing his dark turn. She is forced to look for answers in the past, taking the audience on a wild ride; one where the line between perception and reality becomes frighteningly blurry.

Body at Brighton Rock (Magnolia Pictures) – April 26th

Wendy, a part-time summer employee at a mountainous state park, takes on a rough trail assignment at the end of the season, trying to prove to her friends that she’s capable enough to do the job. When she takes a wrong turn and ends up deep in the backcountry, she stumbles upon what might be a potential crime scene. Stuck with no communication after losing her radio and with orders to guard the site, Wendy must fight the urge to run and do the harder job of staying put — spending the night deep in the wilderness, facing down her worst fears and proving to everyone - including herself - that she’s made of stronger stuff than they think she is.

Chambers (Netflix) – April 26th

A young heart attack survivor becomes consumed by the mystery surrounding the heart that saved her life. However, the closer she gets to uncovering the truth about her donor's sudden death, the more she starts taking on the characteristics of the deceased -- some of which are troublingly sinister.

I Trapped the Devil (IFC Midnight) – April 26th

Christmas is supposed to be a time for peace and joyful family reunions. But when Matt (AJ Bowen) and his wife Karen (Susan Burke) show up unannounced at the home of his estranged brother Steve (Scott Poythress) to celebrate the holidays, they are instead greeted with a horrifying surprise: trapped in the basement is a man. But not just any man. Steve believes that his hostage is none other than the devil himself. As shock and skepticism turn to fear and paranoia, Matt and Karen find themselves facing a terrifying quandary: is Steve dangerously unhinged? Or could the mysterious stranger really be evil incarnate? Either way, the stage is set for a true Christmas from hell.

Cold Pursuit (Lionsgate) – April 30th

A snowplow driver seeks revenge against the drug dealers he thinks killed his son.

Happy Death Day 2 U (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment) – April 30th

It's déjà vu all over again for Tree Gelbman, the snarky sorority sister who solved her own murder by repeatedly reliving her death. When the masked campus killer mysteriously returns to terrorize new targets, Tree cycles through another time loop of clever chills and suspense in Happy Death Day 2U, the inventive follow-up to Blumhouse's hit thriller Happy Death Day.