Editorials
10 Horror Films Released in January That Were Actually Good!
As many of you may know, January is typically the dumping ground for horror films. Typically a slower month for the box office with the exception of the Oscar nominees that get an extra push, studios take January as their opportunity to get rid of some lesser-quality films for a quick buck. This is especially true for any studio that has a horror film collecting dust on the shelf. Films like The Devil Inside, Devil’s Due and many others get released in this awful month for horror-thirsty moviegoers to spend their money on. This January has already seen the release of the sub-par The Forest and the perfectly average The Boy, but it’s not alway bad! Sometimes (rarely), a good horror movie gets released in January. Here are 10 well-regarded horror films that had the misfortune of seeing a January release.
***SPOILERS for some of the films to follow***
The Stepfather (January 23, 1987)
It’s hard to believe that this cult classic was released in January, and almost 30 years ago! Terry O’Quinn gives a career-defining performance as the titular parent, who is actually a serial killer who moves from family to family and changes his identity after murdering each one. It may be possible that January wasn’t known as the “Dump Month” in 1987, and this film would be a prime example why.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
You must be logged in to post a comment.