2020 Hindsight - The Horror Movies that Happened and a Look at a New Year

When we previewed the 2020 horror movie lineup last January, we listed 36 films not including five Into the Dark episodes that would finish out its second season. We were way ahead of the previous year’s forecast and even though 2020 started with that awful reboot of The Grudge, there was a lot to look forward to.

By the time pandemania closed theaters across the globe, only ten of these movies made their release schedule. With the exception of a few Netflix and Hulu exclusives, everything on the calendar from March forward was delayed. Some films like The New Mutants, Do Not Reply and The Empty Man finally released to near-empty theaters where and when venues were allowed to reopen. The Rental got creative and held its theatrical premiere at a California Drive-In during lockdown. It went on to top both the box office and VOD charts during its opening weekend - the second film in history to do that. Antebellum and Random Acts of Violence went straight to VOD while I’m Thinking of Ending Things had a limited release in August, one week before its distribution on Netflix. Hulu continued to release monthly episodes of Into the Dark through July, but the pandemic finally took its toll and the last two episodes were put on hold. One of the most anticipated events of the year, The Haunting of Bly Manor, hit its predicted release date in September to the relief of Hill House fans.  

But this cinematic horror drought didn’t mean we were left without new material to keep us cozy during lockdown. Plenty of films escape the January preview because I lack the tools and the talent to crawl through so much data –and new horror seems to come out of nowhere. Like Host on Shudder, a found footage film of a séance conducted on the Zoom platoform – filmed entirely on the Zoom platform during quarantine. How cool is that?  Or They Live Inside Us, winner of Best Halloween Film at the 2020Halloween International Film Festival. This full-length feature is based on the fourth episode the award-winning anthology, The Witching Season. Too much award winning? I don’t think so, check them out for yourself. And finally, Amazon unleashed a collection of films called Welcome to the Blumhouse while Hulu gave us its first season of Monsterland. Streaming platforms have been disrupting the movie industry for years, but completely took over when the COVID wrecking ball slammed into Hollywood. Thanks to everyone who kept horror the alive.

With so much horror left on the books, we expect 2021 to be an epic year. I have been chasing the moving target of release dates since November so forgive me where they miss. And on with the forecast.

January

January is sort of infamous for bad movies and the post-holiday season is usually bad for the box office. But the box office was much different this year and streaming brought us three of the five movies this month.

First up is Vampire in Oakland, a low-budget film about . . . a Vampire in Oakland? Even at this late date there is very little information about this film that was released in San Francisco, which will probably be the last city get out of COVID jail so we’ll see if it makes its way to streaming. Hunted is a modern-day Little Red Riding Hood tale that debuted at the Nighstream Film Festival in October and was made available exclusively on Shudder in January. Midnight Screening follows employees of a movie theater to their untimely demise while children unwittingly unleash an alien overlord in the comedy-horror Psycho Goreman. Another Nightstream debut, The Night, visits a couple trapped in their hotel room and forced to confront their demons - real and imagined. The last two movies are available now on Amazon.

February

I spent a lot of time searching for Saint Maud because its release date seemed to be changing more than most. By the time I tracked it down, it out on streaming media and I was able to view it with a free trial of ePIX on Amazon Prime. Into the Dark finally returned from hiatus with Tentacles, a supposed Valentine’s Day themed episode. Which is interesting since it was filmed mostly before quarantine and intended to be an August holiday theme. I didn’t get Valentine’s Day out of it, but you might. Shudder keeps the horror going early in the year with five exclusives premiering in February: After Midnight, The Dark and the Wicked, Stay out of the F**ing Attic, Shook, and a Frankenstein adaptation, A Nightmare Wakes. More reasons to keep that Shudder subscription all year ‘round. And the latest installment in the Wrong Turn series is Wrong Turn 2021 (formerly Wrong Turn: The Foundation) which enjoyed a brief theatrical release before moving to VOD in February.

March

The Hulu original series Into the Dark closes out its second season with Blood Moon in honor or the spring full moon. And it’s probably pushing it to call a movie about a possessed pair of jeans wreaking havoc on the staff of a trendy clothing store a horror film, but there you have it: Slaxx, exclusively on Shudder. And if you’re still watching Shudder but looking for something a bit . . . more, check out Lucky, an original film about a woman stalked by a masked man who appears every night . . . even after he is killed. The last movie on the March menu is The Seventh Day, a film about a renowned exorcist who teams up with a rookie for his first day of training. Did somebody say an old priest and a young priest?

April

April is looking a little lean, and in fact movies that have been delayed due to the pandemic are still being delayed. A Netflix original, Things Heard and Seen starring Amanda Seyfreid is really the only thing I could come up with. Unless Into the Dark makes a comeback, but I wouldn’t count on it.

May

The internets are divided on whether A Quiet Place Part II will make it to theaters by May. The COVID production delays are real, but so are empty theaters, so we’re not sure what is driving the uncertainty. We’re hoping for something in the spring but may have to wait until September. Surely the insanity will surely be over by then?

The ninth installment in the Book of Saw is Spiral and even if it doesn’t meet its projected May release date, we know so much more about this previously untitled project than we did last year. Like its official title and that it stars Chris Rock. Don’t confuse this with the Shudder original film, Spiral, unless you want to see what happens when you move into the wrong neighborhood. Actually, do see that film because it’s pretty good.

I put Terrifier 2 on the calendar for May because it is still in post production despite a number of sources reporting a January 2021 release date. And if not, Netflix is expected to come through with it’s original production of Army of the Dead in May. I wish Netflix had a “coming soon” option on its app, but for now we have to rely on teasers and rumors - and the occasional wiki page that puts this film in the “Zombie heist” genre. I didn’t even know there was such a thing.

June

The third installment in The Conjuring series, The Devil Made Me Do It, is on track for a summer release. It promises to be the most terrifying Conjuring film so far andit is and based on the true story of Arne Johnson, the first person in United States history to use “the devil made me do it” as a legal defense to murder. We can’t wait to see Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga return as Ed and Lorraine Warren who investigated the case and testified on Johnson’s behalf. I have less confidence that The Crooked Man will make it by June since it is still in production without any teaser trailers. Situated firmly in The Conjuring Universe, this fictional story about a woman who buys a zoetrope for her young daughter to cope with her father’s death takes the haunted artifact turn when they learn that a dark spirit inhabits the toy. Go ahead, look up “zoetrope.” I had to.

Blood Pageant has been delayed several times and is reported to be in post production. A reality show turns into a reality nightmare when a talent competition is fueled by witchcraft and demonic forces. It sounds silly and ridiculous but at least it’s not The Bachelor. And finally, fresh off the TBA list is False Positive, a modern day Rosemary’s baby, available only on Hulu.

 July

Celebrate Independence Day as you have every year, with the latest installment from The Purge. I have to admit I have seen none of the sequels but I watch the original every July. This year might be different since freedom has taken on a new meaning for most of us and like a lot of suburban Americans, I watched in horror as the summer of COVID showed me a world I did not recognize. The Forever Purge is reported to be the final installment in the series but, like I said, things are different so who knows?

The Night House premiered at Utah’s Sundance Film Festival in 2020, and is finally making its way to the public. We don’t know much about the plot other than the tag line: a widow uncovers disturbing secrets of her recently deceased husband. And that Rebecca Hall takes the starring role, an actress whose work I have admired since her first major role in The Prestige.

August

A couple of sequels may send you into the theater in the heat of the summer. Candyman is Jordan Peele’s latest project and while it is not a direct sequel to the original or either of the two lesser sequels, it does follow an artist who moves into a loft where the previous project was torn down. This is Jordan Peele, so expect a social justice statement woven into this familiar story.

I wasn’t a fan of the original Don’t Breathe movie so I’m not holding my breath for the sequel. Steven Lang returns as the blind man who terrorized a group of home invaders in the original, but Don’t Breathe 2 has a new director making his debut. It is on track for an August release.

September

We are really hoping that James Wan comes through with Malignant in September - it would be a really nice contribution to an otherwise uneventful preseason. Not much is known about the plot other that the film is not based on Wan’s graphic novel Malignant Man, and that Annabelle Wallis returns for a second collaboration with Wan. The first was Wallis starring as the terrorized mother in the movie Annabelle. September is the month for pre-season horror streamathon, so maybe Hulu, Shudder, Amazon or Netflix will come up with some new material to get us in the mood. These streaming giants pretty much kept us going in 2020.

October

Three of the four films on the October menu are delayed releases from 2020. Antlers teased us with a February release date that didn’t happen. The film has been completed so it isn’t clear if the film is waiting for a friendlier theatrical environment, or if the owners (Disney) are moving it straight to digital. Rumors are that Hulu is in play but whatever the platform, we will be there to see Keri Russell in this take on the legend of Wendigo.

Halloween Kills is the sequel to Halloween 2018 - which is the sequel to Halloween 1978. You remember the return of Jamie Lee Curtis in the sequel that told you to forget all of the intervening sequels, including the ones with Jamie Lee Curtis. Which I had no problem with because none of them lived up to my favorite Halloween movie anyway. Including the 2018 sequel. When Halloween Kills hits theaters after a one-year delay, it will be the first time we have seen Lindsey Wallace (the original) and Tommy Doyle (not the original) since 1978. And that is definitely worth the wait.

We know a little more about Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho than we at the time of last year’s preview. So if you were hoping for something in the spirit of Shawn of the Dead, then be ready for Wright’s first non-comedic horror movie. What we got right was a time travel theme, although I wasn’t expecting a fashion designer being transported to the 1960s London where she meets her idol. Hopefully it isn’t Austin Powers. And since this is horror, you can expect the whole time travel thing to go horror-bly wrong. And last on or October playlist is Dwellers. A filmmaker and his crew uncover more than truth and conspiracy when making a documentary about suspicious disappearances in a homeless community.

November

It feels like we have been waiting for Ghostbusters: Afterlife forever. The movie has been delayed three times since its original summer 2020 premiere. It is now scheduled scheduled to hit theaters in November . . . just in time to miss Halloween. Which Dr. Sleep did in 2019. But no worries, any time is a good time for what we assume will be the passing of the torch to a new generation of Ghostbusters.

And Pulp Fiction meets Tales from the Crypt just in time for the holidays. Nightmare on 34th Street is an anthology of three interconnected horror stories recalled by a Santa that mysteriously arrives on 34th Street to change the way you look at Christmas forever . . . or at least this year. Because 2020 didn’t change the way you looked at Christmas enough, right?

December

Nothing to see here. Don’t worry, you can check out our Holiday Horrorthon instead.

TBA

Run, Sweetheart, Run is another horror movie that premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and is yet to have a release date. Amazon Prime acquired the distribution rights shortly after the pandemic closed theaters so we know where, just not when. Fear Street was on last year’s TBA and has since been acquired by Netflix. But wait, it gets better. It is now being released as the Fear Street Trilogy. That’s right! Three for the price of one and scheduled for an unspecified summer release. There’s Someone Inside Your House will also be brought to us by Netflix some time this year.

And there you have it. Just like so many movies from 2020, our belated horror preview. I apologize for the delay and promise to do my part to make this an epic year of horror.