February may be the shortest month of the year, but you’d never know it from all the horror movies, shows and video games that have been jam-packed into the next four weeks.
Your month of nightmares begins in the interactive realm. Dawn of Fear premieres February 3, exclusively on the PlayStation 4, and puts you in control of a man returning to his childhood home, only to find horrors within. The game has been described as a throwback to earlier eras of horror gaming, like the original Resident Evil. Or, if you just want to blow up Nazi zombies, you can wait until February 4 and get Zombie Army 4: Dead War for the PS4, Xbox One and/or PC.
Over on the streaming front, February 6 brings with it Dogs Don’t Wear Pants, a new Shudder exclusive about a man who loses his wife in a deadly accident and forms a new relationship with a dominatrix. Then, on February 7, Shudder debuts their Horror Noire: Uncut podcast series, featuring extended interviews from the acclaimed documentary, and Hulu debuts the latest installment of their Into the Dark series of monthly, holiday themed horror films. The latest, Maggie Levin’s My Valentine, tells the story of a pop singer whose ex-boyfriend and manager steals her songs and persona and bestows them to another artist. It will not go well for them.
And of course, February 7 brings with it the new Netflix series Locke & Key, the long-awaited TV series adaptation of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez’s award-winning comic book series about siblings who move into a house with three keys that alter reality.
On the theatrical front, you’ll find The Lodge and Come to Daddy in theaters on February 7. The Lodge stars Riley Keough as a woman trapped in a house during a blizzard with her two new stepchildren, when the demons of her past return to haunt them. Come to Daddy stars Elijah Wood as a man who travels to an isolated cabin to reconnect with his estranged father, only to find himself in an unexpected nightmare.
Valentine’s Day is for lovers, but some lovers really love horror movies. So they’ll probably want to check out Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island, a new interpretation of the classic television series about a resort where your fantasies literally come true. The new scary movie version of Fantasy Island stars Lucy Hale, Maggie Q, Michael Rooker and Michael Peña, and comes courtesy of director Jeff Wadlow (Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare). Or, if you’re looking for something less tropical, you can also head out to the theater to see VFW, starring Stephen Lang, William Sadler and Martin Kove as Vietnam vets against a gang of violent young punks.
But wait! There’s more! On February 20, Netflix debuts the new series Spectros, about teenagers who accidentally get dragged into a war between Japanese ghosts and Brazilian witches. On the same day, Shudder debuts the new film Jessica Forever, about a woman fighting for her life in a future world full of dangerous miscreants.
In theaters, February 21 brings with it Brahms: The Boy II, the sequel to the unexpected horror hit The Boy, which finds Katie Holmes protecting her child from the sinister influence of a seemingly haunted doll. Then, in True Fiction, a young woman gets a job working for her favorite author, only to find out he needs her to take part in a psychological experiment.
Hey, did you ever hear of this series The Walking Dead? Apparently it’s kind of a big deal. It returns to AMC on February 23 and promises to be full of controversies and zombies.
And finally, the Universal Monsters get rebooted (again) with a new rendition of The Invisible Man, written and directed by Leigh Whannell (Upgrade), and starring Elisabeth Moss as a woman who inherits her abusive ex’s house, only to discover that he might still be living there.
Creepy, huh?
