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Shudder Brings on Witches, Zombies, and Horror Legends in January 2021!

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Shudder January 2021

I swear I wrote about the lineup for Shudder’s January 2020 schedule about eight years ago. Believe it or not, this year is almost over and it’s time to turn our attention to 2021 and all the horror goodies the all horror/thriller streaming service has lined up for fans.

From season two of A Discovery of Witches to a tribute to the iconic Peter Cushing, Shudder is going to give you plenty of reasons to stay in out of the cold through January. Take a look at the complete list below!

January 4th:

Super Dark Times: Zach and Josh are best friends growing up in the ‘90s in the suburbs—where teenage life revolves around hanging out, looking for kicks, navigating first love and vying for popularity. When a traumatic incident drives a wedge between the previously inseparable pair, their youthful innocence abruptly vanishes. Each processes the tragedy in his own way, until circumstances grow increasingly complex and spiral into violence. (Also available on Shudder Canada, Shudder UK, and Shudder ANZ)

Fingers: When an employee shows up to work with a missing pinky, it awakens demons in his boss that she never knew she harbored. Directed by Juan Ortiz. (Also available on Shudder Canada, Shudder UK, and Shudder ANZ)

January 9th:

A Discovery of Witches Season 2: SHUDDER/SUNDANCE NOW ORIGINAL SERIES. The highly anticipated return of the smash hit series based on the best-selling All Souls novels by Deborah Harkness. Season two sees Matthew (Emmy-nominated Matthew Goode, Downton Abbey) and Diana (Teresa Palmer, Hacksaw Ridge) hiding in time in the fascinating and treacherous world of Elizabethan London where they must find a powerful witch to help Diana master her magic and search for the elusive Book of Life. In the present day however, their enemies have not forgotten them. New episodes premiere every Saturday through the end of the season! (Also available on Shudder Canada)

January 11th:

Before the FireAs a global pandemic engulfs Los Angeles, rising TV star Ava Boone is forced to flee the mounting chaos and return to her rural hometown. As she struggles to acclimate to a way of life she left behind long ago, her homecoming attracts a dangerous figure from her past—threatening both her and the family that serves as her only sanctuary. (Also available on Shudder Canada, Shudder UK, and Shudder ANZ)

Cub: A boy scout on a camping trip realizes something evil is in the woods, but the other scouts, who love to pick on Sam, don’t buy his story. What nobody knows is that a deranged poacher and his feral son have booby-trapped the entire area and are eager to test out their toys on the clueless children.

The Pit: Twelve-year old Jamie is an outcast in his small town—he is bullied, he shows signs of being a sexual deviant, and he has no friends aside from his demonic teddy bear, Teddy. Influenced by commands he hears from Teddy, Jamie lures his unsuspecting tormentors one by one to a forest pit that he has discovered on the outskirts of town, so that they can be devoured by the man-eating troglodytes that dwell at the bottom of The Pit.

Celia: An imaginative and somewhat disturbed young girl fantasizes about evil creatures and other oddities to mask her insecurities while growing up in rural Australia. (Also available on Shudder Canada and Shudder UK)

January 14th:

Hunted: A SHUDDER ORIGINAL. What started as a flirtatious encounter at a bar turns into a life-or-death struggle as Eve becomes the unknowing target of a misogynistic plot against her. Forced to flee as two men pursue her through the forest, she’s pushed to her extremes while fighting to survive—but survival isn’t enough for Eve. She will have revenge. A modern and radical take on the Little Red Riding Hood fable, Hunted is an exhilarating, transcendent, and frequently brutal survival tale that elevates itself with the power of myth and magic, while still holding an exacting mirror to present-day society.

January 18th: Starring Peter Cushing Collection

Peter Cushing was one of the finest actors in the history of horror cinema with a career that spanned six decades and more roles that most actors could dream of in a lifetime. Shudder honors the man himself with four films that provide just a glimpse of the actor’s talent.  All four films are also available on Shudder Canada.

And Now the Screaming Starts: At the end of the 1700’s, Catherine and Charles’ honeymoon is thrown into chaos when she is raped and impregnated by a ghost. Before long, they’ve got to contend with a murderous severed hand, a skeptical psychiatrist, and other creepy circumstances.

Asylum: In order to secure a job at a mental institution, a young psychiatrist must interview four patients inside the asylum and hear their terrifying stories.

The Beast Must Die: A group of guests at a country house learn that one of them is secretly a werewolf in this supernatural mystery which famously included a “Werewolf Break” where audience members could guess who the guilty party is. Among the many suspects are an archaeologist, a piano player and diplomat, all of whom must submit to a series of strange werewolf tests.

The Flesh and the Fiends: Horror audiences have long been fascinated by the tale of Robert Knox, a Scottish doctor who in 1828 became notorious for his complicity in a series of murders committed by grave robbers Burke and Hare, who received cash in exchange for fresh cadavers. John Gilling’s exceptionally eerie 1960 retelling, unlike John Landis’ 2010 slapstick BURKE & HARE, is historically accurate right down to Knox’s lazy left eye.

January 19th:

The Wolf House: Maria, a young woman, finds refuge in a house in the south of Chile after escaping from a sect of German religious fanatics. She is welcomed into the home by two pigs, the only inhabitants of the place. Like in a dream, the universe of the house reacts to Maria’s feelings. The animals transform slowly into humans and the house becomes a nightmarish world. Inspired by the actual case of Colonia Dignidad, “The Wolf House” masquerades as an animated fairy tale produced by the leader of the sect in order to indoctrinate its followers. The film won the Best Animated Film Award from the Boston Society of Film Critics in 2020. (Also available on Shudder Canada)

January 21st:

The Walking Dead: World Beyond: The most recent series in The Walking Dead Universe comes to Shudder. The Walking Dead: World Beyond delves into a new mythology and story that follows the first generation raised in the surviving civilization of a post-apocalyptic world. Two sisters along with two friends leave a place of safety and comfort to brave dangers, known and unknown, living and undead, on an important quest. Pursued by those who wish to protect them and those who wish to harm them, a tale of growing up and transformation unfurls across dangerous terrain, challenging everything they know. All episodes will be available to stream on the same day!

January 25th:

Nightbreed: The Clive Barker classic returns to the streaming platform! Aaron is tormented by visions of monstrous, graveyard-dwelling creatures. But his creepy therapist offers little solace. When he’s framed for serial slayings in the area, he heads for Midian, a place where undead monsters known as the “Nightbreed” live. (Also available on Shudder Canada)

Rawhead Rex: Based on the Clive Barker story from The Books of Blood! He’s pure evil… pure power… pure terror! RawHead Rex is a demon, alive for millennia, trapped in the depths of hell and waiting for release. He is held by an ancient seal, imprisoned for centuries in a barren field near the hamlet of Rathmore, Ireland. In time, this gruesome legacy has been forgotten, dismissed as an odd pre-Christian myth until Tom Garron decides to plow the field his ancestors knew better than to disturb. The seal is broken, and an unspeakable evil is unleashed. (Also available on Shudder Canada)

January 26th:

The Untold Story: After a severed hand washes up on a Macao beach, Police suspect Wong Chi Hang, the new owner of The Eight Immortals restaurant, famous for their delicious pork buns. The hands belong to the missing mother of the restaurant’s former owner who has disappeared along with the rest of his family. Staff at the restaurant continue to go missing but the police can’t find any hard evidence. Can they make him talk? And what was in those famous pork buns? (Also available on Shudder Canada)

The Woman: A man imprisons a violent, feral woman and enlists his family to help civilize her. Terrified of his domineering ways, his wife and daughters reluctantly go along with his plan. But his horny son needs no encouragement to start his own abusive treatment of the woman. Lucky McKee and Jack Ketchum’s shocking tale of American sadism is one of the most provocative horror films of the decade, unflinching in its depiction of extreme violence inflicted on women and the horror of unchecked male privilege. (Also available on Shudder Canada and Shudder UK)

January 28th:

The Queen of Black Magic: A SHUDDER ORIGINAL. The sins of the past come back with a vengeance in this new film from two of Indonesia’s modern masters of horror, director Kimo Stamboel (Headshot) and writer Joko Anwar (Satan’s SlavesImpetigore). A family travels to the distant, rural orphanage where the father was raised to pay their respects to the facility’s gravely ill director. But his and his best friends’ homecoming turns into a terrifying supernatural ordeal that threatens their and their families’ lives: someone is using dark magic to avenge evil deeds, long buried but not forgotten. Stamboel’s film is a reimagining of the 1981 Indonesian horror classic of the same name.

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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Trailer for ‘The Exorcism’ Has Russell Crowe Possessed

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The latest exorcism movie is about to drop this summer. It’s aptly titled The Exorcism and it stars Academy Award winner turned B-movie savant Russell Crowe. The trailer dropped today and by the looks of it, we are getting a possession movie that takes place on a movie set.

Just like this year’s recent demon-in-media-space film Late Night With the Devil, The Exorcism happens during a production. Although the former takes place on a live network talk show, the latter is on an active sound stage. Hopefully, it won’t be entirely serious and we’ll get some meta chuckles out of it.

The film will open in theaters on June 7, but since Shudder also acquired it, it probably won’t be long after that until it finds a home on the streaming service.

Crowe plays, “Anthony Miller, a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce.”

Crowe did see some success in last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist mostly because his character was so over-the-top and infused with such comical hubris it bordered on parody. We will see if that is the route actor-turned-director Joshua John Miller takes with The Exorcism.

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