Happy July, everyone! If you’re looking for ways to beat the summer heat, here’s a look at all the digital debuts and titles headed to VOD over the next few weeks that should keep you busy from the comfort of your own home. Everything kicks off in a big way over the next several days, as we have multiple titles being released tomorrow, and then we have not only the third season of Stranger Things to look forward to on July 4th, but also the next installment of Blumhouse’s Into the Dark series, Culture Shock, which was directed by Gigi Saul Guerrero (this writer can affirm it is very much worth your time, too).
July 9th is another big day, as both Hellboy (2019) and Alita: Battle Angel hit multiple digital platforms and Pet Sematary (2019) finally arrives on Video on Demand. Just a few days later, we have a bonanza of badassery coming our way, as not only do we have a new Joe Lynch joint to enjoy—Point Blank (2019), featuring Anthony Mackie and Frank Grillo—but there’s also Trespassers, Desolate, and Pollyanna McIntosh’s Darlin’ to look forward to as well.
Dennis Quaid and The Intruder are ready to make themselves at home on July 16th, along with The Curse of La Llorona, and just a week later, Dee Wallace returns to the world of the Crites for Critters Attack! July’s digital and VOD releases wrap up on the 30th with Avengers: Endgame and Assassinaut.
Deadsight (RLJE Films) – July 2nd
When the world is suddenly ravaged by a nightmarish and bloody plague of the living dead, a pregnant police officer (Collins) and a virtually blind man (Seybold) must rely on each other for their only chance for survival.
Dolls (Uncork’d Entertainment) – July 2nd
DOLLS concerns a struggling children's book author and his rebellious teenage daughter who move into a house they've inherited and find mysterious dolls in the attic. They soon learn that the dolls have a sinister -- and deadly -- past.
Escape Plan: The Extractors (Lionsgate) – July 2nd
In this explosive action saga, Sylvester Stallone, Curtis Jackson, and Dave Bautista play security experts who fight to rescue Breslin's girlfriend and a tech mogul's daughter from a formidable prison known as Devil's Station.
Robert Reborn (4Digital) – July 2nd
In 1951 USSR, infamous killer doll Robert battles Stalin's henchmen on board a plane.
Shazam! (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) – July 2nd
Billy Batson is a streetwise 14-year-old who can magically transform into the adult superhero Shazam. His powers soon get put to the test against the evil Dr. Thaddeus Sivana.
Into the Dark: Culture Shock (Blumhouse TV/Hulu) – Exclusively on Hulu July 4th
This thriller follows a young Mexican woman in pursuit of the American Dream, who crosses illegally into the United States, only to find herself in an American nightmare.
Stranger Things: Season 3 (Netflix) – Exclusively on Netflix July 4th
It’s 1985 in Hawkins, Indiana, and summer's heating up. School’s out, there’s a brand new mall in town, and the Hawkins crew are on the cusp of adulthood. Romance blossoms and complicates the group’s dynamic, and they’ll have to figure out how to grow up without growing apart. Meanwhile, danger looms. When the town’s threatened by enemies old and new, Eleven and her friends are reminded that evil never ends; it evolves. Now they’ll have to band together to survive, and remember that friendship is always stronger than fear.
Ashes (1091 Media) – July 9th
After a family’s estranged aunt passes away, they’re reluctant and creeped out to receive her cremated ashes. But when a series of supernatural misfortunes beset them, they’ll have to go through Hell to be rid of her angry spirit.
Alita: Battle Angel (20th Century Fox) – July 9th
From visionary filmmakers James Cameron (AVATAR) and Robert Rodriguez (SIN CITY), comes ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL, an epic adventure of hope and empowerment.
The Dark Within (Uncork’d Entertainment) – July 9th
THE DARK WITHIN concerns a disturbed man with unknown psychic abilities who tries to unravel the mystery of his parent's disappearance while battling his own demons.
Hellboy (2019) (Lionsgate) – Digital July 9th/Video On Demand July 23rd
Hellboy is back, and he’s on fire. From the pages of Mike Mignola’s seminal work, this action-packed story sees the legendary half-demon superhero (David Harbour) called to the English countryside to battle a trio of rampaging giants. There he discovers The Blood Queen, Nimue (Milla Jovovich), a resurrected ancient sorceress thirsting to avenge a past betrayal. Suddenly caught in a clash between the supernatural and the human, Hellboy is now hell-bent on stopping Nimue without triggering the end of the world.
Pet Sematary (2019) (Paramount Home Entertainment) – Video On Demand July 9th
After the Creed family relocates from Boston to rural Maine, they soon discover an ancient burial ground hidden deep in the woods near their new home. When tragedy strikes, the grief-stricken father is driven by the cemetery’s sinister power, setting off a perilous chain of events that unleashes an unfathomable evil with horrific consequences. Some secrets are best left buried in this twisted thriller.
Darlin’ (Dark Sky Films) – July 12th
Found at a Catholic hospital filthy and ferocious, feral teenager Darlin' (Lauryn Canny) is whisked off to a care home run by The Bishop (Bryan Batt, AMC's Mad Men) and his obedient nuns where she is to be tamed into a "good girl." However, Darlin' holds a secret darker than the "sins" she is threatened with, and she is not traveling alone. The Woman (Pollyanna McIntosh, The Walking Dead), equally fierce and feral, who raised her is ever present and is determined to come for her no matter who tries to step in her way.
Landing Lake (High Octane Pictures) – July 12th
A team of satellite technicians enter the woods to repair a communication station but they are forced to rescue the crew of an airplane that crashed near a lake. They quickly realize that something may be coming from the lake that is affecting their minds and the passing of time. As they lose their inhibitions their most primal desires take hold. Lured on by the unseen entity it seems that only one of the team is permitted to bond with it and so be reborn in a new physical body. A terrifying game of strategy not to survive, but rather to die with the promise of life anew.
Desolate (Uncork’d Entertainment) – July 12th
While trying to survive the worst drought in history, a family of farmers force their youngest brother down a path of crime and violence in order to survive. Betrayed by his brother after a robbery gone wrong, Billy is left for dead in an unfamiliar land. He must do whatever it takes to survive, endure and seek the revenge he deserves.
Point Blank (2019) (Netflix) – Exclusively on Netflix July 12th
When his pregnant wife is kidnapped and held as collateral, Paul, an ER nurse, must team with the badly injured career criminal and murder suspect under his charge in order to save the lives of his wife and unborn child. Pitted against rival gangs and a deadly ring of corrupt cops, the unlikely duo find a way to survive together in the fight of their lives. A gritty, action-packed thriller starring Anthony Mackie and Frank Grillo.
Trespassers (IFC Midnight) – July 12th
Two couples, each working through relationship issues, rent a gorgeous house in the desert for a sex- and drug-fueled escape from reality. Sarah (Angela Trimbur) and Estelle (Janel Parrish) are longtime best friends looking forward to reconnecting after a period apart; their boyfriends, Joseph (Zach Avery) and Victor (Jonathan Howard), however, are immediately wary of one another. As tensions escalate over the course of a debaucherous night, things take an unexpected turn when a woman (Fairuza Balk) claiming to be a neighbor with car trouble shows up at the door. She seems harmless enough…or so they think. As the twists and turns pile up so does the body count in this stylish, blood- and neon-soaked thriller which hits with the furious force of a machete to the skull.
The Curse of La Llorona (Warner Bros.) – July 16th
The timeless Hispanic legend comes to terrifying life in “The Curse of La Llorona.” She is The Weeping Woman and those who hear her death call in the night are doomed. She creeps in the shadows and preys on the children, desperate to replace her own. In 1970s Los Angeles, La Llorona is stalking the night—and the children. Ignoring the eerie warning of a troubled mother suspected of child endangerment, a social worker and her own small kids are soon drawn into a frightening supernatural realm. Their only hope to survive La Llorona’s deadly wrath may be a disillusioned priest and the mysticism he practices to keep evil at bay, on the fringes where fear and faith collide.
The Intruder (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) – July 16th
When a young married couple (Michael Ealy and Meagan Good) buys their dream house in the Napa Valley, they think they have found the perfect home to take their next steps as a family. But when the strangely attached seller (Dennis Quaid) continues to infiltrate their lives, they begin to suspect that he has hidden motivations beyond a quick sale.
They’re Inside (Epic Pictures) – July 16th
When two sisters go to an isolated cabin in the woods to film a passion project, family secrets start to get in the way… as do masked strangers filming a passion project of their own.
Into the Ashes (RLJE Films) – July 19th
Nick is an ex-con adjusting to a normal life in rural Alabama with a new job and a new wife. When some former associates track him down looking for retribution, he is forced back into the desperate and violent life he thought he left behind.
Iron Sky: The Coming Race (Vertical Entertainment) – July 19th
Following the devastating aftermath of nuclear war on Earth, a former Nazi Moonbase has become the last refuge for mankind. Limited supplies and overpopulation threaten the survivors until Obi, the leader’s daughter, finds a map pointing to a power buried deep under Earth’s wasted surface that could save mankind or destroy it once and for all. When an old enemy leads our heroes on an adventure into the Hollow Earth, they must fight an ancient shapeshifting reptilian race to save humanity.
Critters Attack! (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) – July 23rd
Dee Wallace (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), who starred in the original Critters as Helen Brown, will sink her teeth into the franchise for a second time in the mysterious role of Aunt Dee. Inspired by the film series from the ’80s and ’90s, Critters follows 20-year-old Drea (Tashiana Washington), who reluctantly takes a job babysitting for a professor of a college she hopes to attend. Struggling to entertain the professor’s children Trissy (Ava Preston) and Jake (Jack Fulton), along with her own little brother Phillip (Jaeden Noel), Drea takes them on a hike, unaware that mysterious alien critters have crash-landed and started devouring every living thing they encounter.
While being tracked by the ravenous critters, Drea and the kids encounter an adorable, seemingly harmless female critter named Bianca, an exiled royal fleeing the critterrace. As the critters converge on the college campus, Drea and the kids, who are now inextricably linked to Bianca, rush to head them off. Will Drea discover her inner badass, and will it be enough to stop the critter onslaught? And is the critter princess as innocent as she seems?
Pokémon Detective Pikachu (Warner Bros. Home Entertainment) – July 23rd
When an ace detective goes missing, his son teams up with a hilariously wise-cracking Pokémon - Detective Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds) - to help solve the mystery of what happened.
Rock, Paper, Scissors (Lionsgate) – July 23rd
From the writer of Friday the 13th and the director of Child’s Play comes this tale of a serial killer that’s been cured… or has he been? Released from a mental hospital, Peter (Luke Macfarlane, “Brothers & Sisters”) is haunted by memories of childhood abuse and murder victims while being menaced by the cop who put him away (Michael Madsen, The Hateful Eight). His only friend is pretty neighbor Monica, who says she wants to interview him for a book. But does she have a more sinister motive in mind?
Assassinaut (Epic Pictures) – July 30th
In the near future, aliens have invaded Earth and declared a galactic war resulting in thousands of human casualties. To save Earth, a team of four teenage astronauts brave the alien wilderness of a distant planet to stop an assassin from changing the course of history forever.
Avengers: Endgame (Marvel Studios) – July 30th
The fourth installment in the Avengers saga is the culmination of 22 interconnected films and the climax of an epic journey. Earth's heroes will finally understand how fragile our reality is--and the sacrifices that must be made to uphold it--in a story of friendship, teamwork and setting aside differences to overcome an impossible obstacle.
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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