There are a lot of great movies arriving on VOD for the month of August, which should undoubtedly please all you genre fans who love to catch on some of the best indie horror and sci-fi titles from the comfort of your own homes. We kick things off with The Last Survivors from Dark Sky Films and the very same day, Uncork’d Entertainment is unleashing their werewolf flick Dark Moon Rising which stars Eric Roberts.
On August 7th, A24 is planning on taking viewers to some Dark Places, and we’ve got a handful of movies arriving in mid-month including the thriller Cop Car starring Kevin Bacon and the stylized revenge tale Final Girl featuring the always great Abigail Breslin. A few days later, SpectreVision’s The Boy arrives on VOD and one of my personal favorite films of 2015, the spunky post-apocalyptic action adventure tale Turbo Kid, will be released on August 28th.
Dark Moon Rising (Uncork’d Entertainment)- August 4th
Eric Roberts (The Human Centipede III), Mika Padilla (NCIS), Billy Blanks (The Last Boy Scout), and Jared Allman (The Hunger Games : Catching Fire) star in the hair-raising chronicle of a group of shape-shifting werewolves that descend upon a small town in search of a girl who is re-born once every 2,000 years. She holds the key to their survival, and all will die who stand in their way.
An American Werewolf in London takes a bite out of Near Dark in this bloody, unique take on The Wolfman legend. Written and directed by Justin Price, this Dark Moon Rising stars Eric Roberts, Mika Padilla, Billy Blanks, and Jared Allman.
The Last Survivors (Dark Sky Films)- August 4th
THE LAST SURVIVORS centers on a teenage girl fighting to protect the last working well in a drought-stricken land. At the edge of an expansive, dusty valley, all that remains of the Wallace Farm for Wayward Youth are some hollowed-out husks of buildings. Seventeen-year-old Kendal (Haley Lu Richardson of The Bronze, and ABC Family's Ravenswood) can barely recall when the Oregon valley was all lush farmland. It's been a decade since the last rainfall, and society at large has dried up and blown away.
Kendal and her last friend on earth, Dean (Booboo Stewart, The Twilight Saga, X-Men: Days of Future Past) barely scrape by while dreaming of escape. Dean is ill and can stay alive only by drinking water regularly - luckily, he and Kendal have access to a special well with enough water for both of them. But when a greedy water baron lays claim to what little of the precious resource remains underground, Kendal must decide whether to run and hide or bravely fight for the few cherished things she has left.
Co-starring Max Charles (The Amazing Spider-Man, American Sniper), Jon Gries (Napoleon Dynamite, Taken), Michael Welch (The Twilight Saga), Jacqueline Emerson (The Hunger Games) and genre veteran Barbara Crampton (You're Next, Re-Animator, We Are Still Here). The film was written by Tom Hammock and Jacob Forman (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) and edited by director Adam Wingard (The Guest, You're Next, VHS 1&2).
Dark Places (A24)- August 7th
Libby Day (Charlize Theron) was only seven years old when her mother and two sisters were brutally murdered in their rural Kansas farmhouse. In court, the traumatized child pointed the finger at her brother, Ben (Tye Sheridan), and her testimony put the troubled 16-year-old in prison for life. Twenty-five years later, a broke and desperate Libby has run through donations from a sympathetic public and royalties from her sensational autobiography, without ever moving past the events of that night.
When Libby accepts a fee to appear at a gathering of true-crime aficionados led by Lyle Wirth (Nicholas Hoult), she is shocked to learn most of them believe Ben is innocent and the real killer is still at large. In need of money, she reluctantly agrees to help them reexamine the crime by revisiting the worst moments of her life. But as Libby and Lyle dig deeper into the circumstances surrounding the murders, her recollections start to unravel and she is forced to question exactly what she saw – or didn’t see. As long-buried memories resurface, Libby begins to confront the wrenching truths that led up to that horrific night. Also starring Christina Hendricks, Corey Stoll and Chloë Grace Moretz, Dark Places is an ingeniously twisted thriller based on the best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)."
Written and directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, Dark Places stars Charlize Theron, Chloë Grace Moretz, Christina Hendricks, Corey Stoll, and Tye Sheridan.
Amnesiac (XLRator Media)- August 14th
Kate Bosworth and Wes Bentley star in the psychological thriller AMNESIAC about a man who wakes up in bed suffering from memory loss after being in an accident, only to begin to suspect that his wife may not be his real wife and that a web of lies and deceit deepen inside the house where he soon finds himself a prisoner.
Cop Car (Focus World)- August 14th
Kevin Bacon (The Following, HBO's Taking Chance, Mystic River) stars in director Jon Watts' delightful throwback thriller Cop Car. When two good-natured but rebellious young boys (James Freedson-Jackson and Hays Wellford) stumble across an abandoned cop car hidden in a secluded glade they decide to take it for a quick joyride. Their bad decision unleashes the ire of the county sheriff (Kevin Bacon) and leads to brutal consequences.
Final Girl (Cinedigm/Nasser Entertainment)- August 14th
FINAL GIRL follows a group of charismatic yet sadistic boys who every night, trick a young, blonde girl into meeting them for a date with the intention to hunt and kill her. However, their horrifying ritual takes a turn when they select the beautiful Veronica (Abigail Breslin) as their next victim. When the hunt begins, the boys soon realize they messed with the wrong girl.
FINAL GIRL is co-written by Stephen Scarlata, Alejandro Seri and Johnny Silver with a screenplay from Adam Prince.
The Glass Man (Indican Pictures)- August 14th
From the outside, Martin seems to have the perfect life. On the inside, however, his world is falling apart. He gets fired from his job, his wife suspects he’s having an affair, and he owes money to the wrong people. One fateful night a loan shark comes to collect what he is owed and offers an ultimatum – be his accomplice for the evening or lose everything. As they hurtle towards the terrible deed that Martin must perform, it becomes clear that Martin’s entire existence will be shattered beyond repair.
Return to Sender (Image Entertainment)- August 14th
Miranda (Academy Award nominee Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl) is a dedicated nurse, an exquisite cake maker, and an impeccable friend. But when she agrees to a blind date and the wrong man comes to her door, her perfect world is shattered by a brutal assault. Even after her attacker, William (Shiloh Fernandez, Evil Dead), is convicted and locked away for the crime, Miranda can’t overcome the fear and trauma enough to put her orderly life back together. Desperate for closure, she reaches out to William – first through letters, then prison visits – and slowly builds a relationship with him. But when William is paroled and comes looking for her, Miranda seizes the opportunity to exact revenge.
The Boy (Chiller Films/NBCUniversal)- August 18th
It’s the summer of 1989. Nine-year-old Ted Henley (Jared Breeze) and his father John (David Morse) are the proprietors of The Mtn. Vista Motel, a crumbling resort buried in the mountains of the American West. Since Ted's mother left, John has drifted into despondency—becoming a living ghost, haunting the motel—leaving Ted to fend for himself. In this isolation, unchecked by the bounds of parenting, Ted’s darker impulses begin to manifest. The arrival of a mysterious drifter, William Colby (Rainn Wilson), captivates young Ted and the two form a unique friendship - setting the stage for Ted’s final, unnerving metamorphosis. THE BOY is a chilling, intimate portrait of a 9-year-old sociopath's growing fascination with death.
Queen of Earth (IFC Films)- August 26th
Catherine (Elisabeth Moss) has entered a particularly dark period in her life: her father, a famous artist whose affairs she managed, has recently died, and on the heels of his death she's dumped by her boyfriend James (Kentucker Audley). Looking to recuperate, Catherine heads out to her best friend Virginia's (Katherine Waterston) lake house for some much-needed relaxation. However, once Catherine arrives relaxation proves impossible to find, as she is overcome with memories of time spent at the same house with James the year before. As Catherine reaches out to Virginia with attempts at connection, Virginia begins spending increasing amounts of time with a local love interest, Rich (Patrick Fugit), and fissures in the relationship between the two women begin to appear, sending Catherine into a downward spiral of delusion and madness.
A bracing, eerie look at the deep bonds of friendship and the horrific effects of such bonds being frayed, Queen of Earth is a thrilling examination of a deeply complex relationship between two miserable women.
Turbo Kid (Epic Pictures Group)- August 28th
Set in the post-apocalyptic year of 1997, this retro-futuristic and nostalgic tribute to 80’s action-adventure films follows an orphaned teenager who goes on an adventure to save his female robot companion from the hands of an evil warlord who controls the only water supply. Turbo Kid is directed by trio François Simard, Annouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell and stars favorite American character actor Michael Ironside and Canadian natives Munro Chambers (“Degrassi”) and Laurence Leboeuf (“Trauma”). The Canadian/New Zealand co-production was produced by Ant Timpson (Housebound, Deathgasm), Anne-Marie Gelinas (Mars & Avril), Tim Riley, and Benoit Beaulieu and executive produced by Jason Eisener (Hobo with a Shotgun).
When Animals Dream (Radius-TWC)- August 28th
Marie is a beautiful and lonely 16-year-old who lives in an isolated village on a small island off the west coast of Denmark. Marie’s mother is seriously ill, suffering from an unknown disease – on medication, mentally absent, and tied to a wheelchair. Marie’s father, Thor, runs the small grocery store and tries to make life as normal as possible for the small family. On the surface, everything seems fine – and yet, Marie can’t help feeling that Thor is hiding something about her mother’s illness.
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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