Hard to believe we’re about to bid another month adieu, but May is nearly upon us now, which means we have a ton of new films hitting various digital and VOD platforms in the coming weeks. Things kick off in a big way on the 3rd with a quartet of releases, including I’ll Take Your Dead from Shout! Studios, Paul Hyett’s The Convent, Dead Trigger and Cold Pursuit, featuring Liam Neeson.
May 7th is yet another busy day for digital releases, with Gaspar Noé’s Climax, Room for Rent, and the Scary Stories doc all making their digital debuts, and if you happened to miss it in theaters, Neil Jordan’s Greta hits various platforms a week later on the 14th. On May 17th, Slaughterhouse Rulez, featuring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, arrives on VOD, and the month of May’s digital releases wraps up with The Perfection, hitting Netflix exclusively on the 24th, and Starfish, coming out on the 28th (and genre fans should definitely make time for both of those films—I saw both at Fantastic Fest last year and they are great).
Cold Pursuit (Lionsgate) – May 3rd
A snowplow driver seeks revenge against the drug dealers he thinks killed his son.
The Convent (Vertical Entertainment) – May 3rd
In the early 17th century, innocent young Persephone is falsely accused and put on trial for her life. Her fate seems sealed except for the timely intervention of the mysterious Reverend Mother offering her not just sanctuary, but hope. For the Reverend Mother is the self-appointed leader of a small religious retreat, a secluded Priory, where her fellow Sisters devote their lives to the Lord and seek atonement for their pasts. But upon arrival, Persephone is plagued with terrifying visions and soon realizes that it’s not salvation that awaits but a battle for her very soul itself.
Dead Trigger (Saban Films) – May 3rd
When a mysterious virus kills billions and turns many others into bloodthirsty zombies, Captain Walker (Dolph Lundgren) leads an elite team to destroy them and save the world.
I’ll Take Your Dead (Shout! Studios) – May 3rd
William has a simple job: he makes dead bodies disappear. This isn’t something he likes to or even wants to do, but through circumstances out of his control, his little farm house in the country has become a dumping ground for the casualties of the gang-related murders in the nearby city. His daughter Gloria has become used to rough looking men dropping off corpses and is even convinced that some of them are haunting their house. After a woman’s body is dumped at the house, William begins his meticulous process when he realizes she’s not actually dead. As the gang activity increases, William patches the woman up and holds her against her will until he can figure out what to do. As they begin to develop a very unusual respect for each other, the woman’s murderers get word that she’s still alive and make plan to go finish what they started.
Climax (A24) – May 7th
Lured to an empty school and drugged, dancers try to survive a dark and explosive nightmare.
Room for Rent (Uncork’d Entertainment) – May 7th
Lonely widow Joyce rents out a room to make easy money. She meets mysterious drifter Bob and takes him in as a long-term tenant. She becomes obsessed with her much younger guest, making him the object of her deepest romantic fantasies. When a friend’s betrayal derails Joyce’s fantasy world, she seizes control of her own destiny with a deadly mission to finally get what she deserves.
Scary Stories (Wild Eye Releasing) – May 7th
Explore the history of one of the most controversial works of modern children's literature: The best selling teen classic Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, which scared a generation of young readers and became one of the most banned books of modern times. Scary Stories creates both the ultimate celebration and dissertation of this iconic piece of horror literature.
Don’t Look (Wild Eye Releasing) – May 14th
Don’t Look centers on five New York City Millennials who escape the big city for a rustic Thanksgiving weekend in the country. But as will happen in horror, something threatens to shatter their peaceful getaway and they are targeted for murder.
Greta (Universal Studios Home Entertainment) – May 14th
When a naïve woman (Chloë Grace Moretz) returns a handbag to its owner (Isabelle Huppert) the two become fast friends. But they soon discover that nothing is what it seems.
Our Evil (Uncork’d Entertainment) – May 14th
Our Evil follows Arthur (Ademir Esteves), a former exorcist and doting father preparing for his only daughter’s foray into college. Hiding a secret from his own past in order to protect her future, Arthur hires Charles (Ricardo Casella), a professional hitman and amateur serial killer, to help him fight a demonic power he believes is coming to destroy his daughter’s soul.
Saint Bernard (Severin Films) – May 14th
Shot on Super 16mm and 35mm film, Saint Bernard fixes on a classical musical conductor who unravels into the abyss of insanity. Jason Dugre (“Bosch”), Katy Sullivan (“Last Man Standing”), Peter Iasillo Jr. (HellBilly 58), Bob Zmuda (Man on the Moon) and Warwick Davis (Leprechaun, Solo, Return of the Jedi) star.
Gabe Bartalos, the film's director, writer and special effects artist pulls heavily from his ripe imagination, creating extraordinary characters, bizarre set designs, and incredibly inspired prosthetic effects. Amid a palette of dark themes, the film takes its audience on a turbulent ride through Bernard’s surreal adventures as he spirals into madness.
Silencio (Uncork’d Entertainment) – May 14th
In order to save her son’s life, Ana must find a powerful stone. Her grandfather originally discovered it in the Zone of Silence, the Bermuda Triangle of Mexico. Throughout her desperate search, Ana stumbles upon family secrets and enemies who believe the stone’s power is worth killing for.
Aniara (Magnolia Pictures) – May 17th
ANIARA is the story of one of the many spaceships used for transporting Earth’s fleeing population to their new home-planet Mars. But just as the ship leaves the destroyed Earth, she collides with space junk and is thrown off her course. The passengers slowly realize that they’ll never be able to return. The protagonist, MR, runs a room where a sentient computer allows humans to experience near-spiritual memories of the Earth. As the ship drifts further into the endless void more and more passengers are in need of MRs services. Pressure builds on MR as she is the only one who can keep the growing insanity and lethal depression at bay. In Aniara’s inexorable journey towards destruction there is a warning that cannot be emphasized enough. There’s only one Earth. It’s time to take responsibility for our actions.
Slaughterhouse Rulez (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) – May 17th
Welcome to Slaughterhouse, an elite boarding school where boys and girls are groomed for power and greatness...and they’re about to meet their match. This ancient and ordered world is about to be shaken to its foundations - literally - when a controversial frack site on prized school woodland causes seismic tremors, a mysterious sinkhole and an unspeakable horror is unleashed. Soon a new pecking order will be established as pupils, teachers and the school matron become locked in a bloody battle for survival.
Avengement (Samuel Goldwyn Films) – May 24th
While released on furlough from prison, a lowly criminal evades his guards and returns to his old haunts to take revenge on the people that made him a cold-hearted killer. It’s an epic, bloody battle to search for the soul he lost years ago on the streets of an unforgiving city.
The Perfection (Exclusively on Netflix) – May 24th
The most buzzed-about movie at last year's Fantastic Fest, THE PERFECTION is an elegant and terrifying suspense ride filled with unexpected twists and turns. When troubled musical prodigy Charlotte (Allison Williams) seeks out Elizabeth (Logan Browning), the new star pupil of her former school, the encounter sends both musicians down a sinister path with shocking consequences.
Starfish (Yellow Veil Pictures) – May 28th
In Starfish Virginia Gardner (Halloween 2018, Marvel’s The Runaways) stars as Aubrey, a young woman suffering from the death of a close friend. When a mysterious signal from an unknown dimension summons the end of days, it appears as if only Aubrey is left on earth. Trapped in the apartment of her recently deceased best friend, the only clue she has is a single cassette left behind after her friends death, labeled: "THIS MIXTAPE WILL SAVE THE WORLD."
Thrust into a mystery orchestrated by her friend and stricken with grief, Aubrey begins to piece the clues together, uncovering a series of tapes all with pieces of the mystery signal. Along the way, progress is impeded when monstrous creatures begin to overrun the world and enclose in on her. Aubrey is forced to fight off the encroaching creatures and move beyond her own crippling grief in order to find the remaining tapes. But will completing the signal save the world?
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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