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Here’s Your Horror Game Release Schedule for February
February will almost certainly improve on a mildly disappointing January that saw only two major releases and two failed crowdfunding attempts from the makers of Sylvio 2 and DARQ. There’s more promising games coming our way over the next few weeks, and they’re joined by the ongoing crowdfunding efforts for Ghost Theory and Visage.
Calendula
Fans of psychological horror games will want to have a look at Calendula, if only to understand what it means when its developer says it “begins as a usual game… until it is not anymore.” With an “obscure” atmosphere and a meta-narrative set inside a “labyrinth of metaphors and abstractions,” Calendula toys with the fourth wall as often as it does conventional game design.
Or, at least I think that’s what I read on its Steam page.
Release Date: February 2 (PC)
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
The best, or second best, Resident Evil is headed to the Wii U!
Release Date: February 4 (Wii U)
Dying Light: The Following
Techland is going all out with Dying Light: The Following, which will be the largest expansion the game has seen since it released a little more than a year ago. The expansive map it brings will take advantage of the new dune buggies, and with a story campaign that involves a mysterious cult and potential cure for the plague that’s swept Harran, this DLC has the opportunity to improve on the base game’s disappointing narrative.
The Following is included in the game’s $30 season pass, or for $20 as an individual purchase.
Release Date: February 9 (PC, PS4, XBO)
Dying Light Enhanced Edition
Dying Light will soon return with an Enhanced Edition that bundles all of the game’s DLC, including The Following, with a free “enhancement” update that’s mostly comprised of endgame content like bounties, meta-levels, and a Nightmare difficulty mode.
Release Date: February 9 (PC, PS4, XBO)
Pesadelo – Regressão
Pesadelo is a frightening indie horror game that immediately fell off my radar after I spent some time with it a few years back. This made the news of a story-expanding sequel a welcome surprise, especially since I honestly think the first game had a story. Set in a monster-infested cemetery, a church bereft of salvation and “the school where everything began” Pesadelo – Regressão promises to deliver another frightening gaming experience when it hits Steam later this month.
Release Date: February 11 (PC)
Layers of Fear
Of the handful of unexpectedly brilliant horror games that managed to sneak up on me last year (Bulb Boy, Albino Lullaby), it was the surreal psychological horror game Layers of Fear that still lingers with me. The game’s been simmering on Steam Early Access and the Xbox One equivalent while Bloober Team slaps on another coat of polish. When they wrap that up, Layers of Fear will get a full release on Steam and consoles, with Aspyr Media handling the latter.
Release Date: February 16 (PC, PS4, XBO)
The Walking Dead: Michonne
Telltale’s acclaimed episodic series is returning in a big way this year, starting with the three-part mini-series The Walking Dead: Michonne that’ll make sure we’re adequately prepared to reunite with Clem for a third helping of their emotionally draining episodic series.
Release Date: February 23 (PC, PS3, PS4, 360, XBO)
The Town of Light
The horrors that reside in The Town of Light aren’t comprised of serial killers, zombies, or monsters. Developer LKA is looking elsewhere for its emotionally devastating tale of Renée, a 16 year-old girl whose life is effectively stolen from her when she’s committed to an asylum.
The game is set in 1938 Italy, when a limited understanding of mental illnesses had much of the world employing decidedly medieval methods to cure them. If LKA can make something special out of such a promising concept, I’ll absolutely be grabbing this when it releases on Steam.
Release Date: February 26 (PC, XBO)
Visage / Ghost Theory
Kickstarter is hosting two very promising supernatural horror games that are vying for your cash monies right now, so let’s start with the one that’s ending this month. In Ghost Theory, the paranormal activity you’ll investigate as a ghost hunter gifted with clairvoyant abilities and an arsenal of gadgets will be taken from real haunting grounds.
If that sounds like your sort of thing, its Kickstarter campaign will need your help if its going to have any hope of reaching its ambitious $141,439 funding goal.
The P.T.-inspired psychological horror game Visage also has a long way to go in its crowdfunding efforts, but with a considerably lower target of $24,550 and more than a month left to get there, I won’t start worrying about it for a few more weeks.
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
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