JANUARY 2021 U.S. HIGHLIGHTS
titles also available on Shudder Canada, UK and ANZ as noted
NEW SHUDDER ORIGINAL/EXCLUSIVE MOVIES
HUNTED — January 14
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.
The live-action, English-language, and solo directorial debut for Academy Award-nominated French filmmaker and comic artist Vincent Paronnaud (Cannes Jury Prize Winner Persepolis, Chicken with Plums), Hunted is co-written by Paronnaud alongside Léa Pernollet and stars Magritte Award-winning actors Lucie Debay (The Confession) and Arieh Worthalter (Girl), with Ciaran O'Brien rounding out the intimate main cast. A SHUDDER ORIGINAL. (Also available on Shudder Canada, Shudder UK and Shudder ANZ) Trailer: https://youtu.be/TjSSbgg4Lwo
THE QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC — January 28
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 Slaves, Impetigore). 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. Starring Ario Bayu, Hannah Al Rashid, Adhisty Zara, Ari Irham and Muzakki Ramdhan. A SHUDDER ORIGINAL. (Also available on Shudder Canada, Shudder UK and Shudder ANZ) Trailer: https://youtu.be/9uC7_PFQgCc
NEW SERIES / NEW SEASONS
A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES Season 2 — January 9 (new episodes every Saturday)
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. Returning for Season 2: Alex Kingston (Doctor Who), Valarie Pettiford (Half & Half), Lindsay Duncan (The Honourable Woman), Edward Bluemel (Killing Eve), Aiysha Hart (Line of Duty), Daniel Ezra (All American) Aisling Loftus (War & Peace), Trevor Eve (Waking the Dead), Owen Teale (Game of Thrones), Malin Buska (The Girl King), and Gregg Chillin (Da Vinci’s Demons). A SHUDDER/SUNDANCE NOW ORIGINAL SERIES. (Also available on Shudder Canada) Trailer: https://youtu.be/_3yMVR1LUfc
THE WALKING DEAD: WORLD BEYOND Season 1 – January 21 (all episodes)
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. Starring Aliyah Royale (The Red Line), Alexa Mansour (Unfriended: Dark Web), Nico Tortorella (Younger), Annet Mahendru (The Americans), Nicolas Cantu (Vikes), Hal Cumpston (Bilched), and Emmy-winner Julia Ormond (Forever)
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NEW COLLECTIONS FOR JANUARY
STARRING PETER CUSHING — January 18
With a career that spanned six decades, Peter Cushing was one of the most iconic actors in horror history, bringing a profound dignity and vulnerability to every role—no matter how wild the premise or how rubber the monster. Celebrate his work with these four films from the ‘60s and ‘70s: haunted castle-set And Now the Screaming Starts with Herbert Lom, Patrick Magee and Stephanie Beacham; madhouse anthology Asylum with Lom and Magee again, plus Britt Ekland, Barbara Parkins and Charlotte Rampling; werewolf mystery The Beast Must Die with Calvin Lockhart, Ganja & Hess star Marlene Clark and Michael Gambon; and The Flesh and the Fiends (also available on Shudder Canada), a retelling of the Burke and Hare murders with Donald Pleasence.
ALL NEW TITLES FOR JANUARY
January 4
SUPER DARK TIMES (Director: Kevin Phillips)
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. Starring Owen Campbell, Charlie Tahan, Elizabeth Cappuccino. (Also available on Shudder Canada, Shudder UK and Shudder ANZ)
FINGERS (Director: Juan Ortiz)
When an employee shows up to work with a missing pinky, it awakens demons in his boss that she never knew she harbored. Starring Sabina Friedman-Seitz, Jeremy Gardner, Michael St. Michaels. (Also available on Shudder Canada, Shudder UK and Shudder ANZ)
January 9
A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES episode 201 (see above for details)
January 11
BEFORE THE FIRE (Director: Charlie Buhler)
As 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. Starring Jenna Lyng Adams, Jackson Davis, Ryan Vigilant, Charles Hubbell. (Also available on Shudder Canada, Shudder UK and Shudder ANZ)
CUB (Director: Jonas Govaerts)
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. Starring Maurice Luijten, Evelien Bosmans, Titus De Voogdt.
THE PIT (Director: Lew Lehman)
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. Starring Sammy Snyders, Jeannie Elias, Sonja Smits.
CELIA (Director: Ann Turner)
An imaginative and somewhat disturbed young girl fantasizes about evil creatures and other oddities to mask her insecurities while growing up in rural Australia. Starring Rebecca Smart, Nicholas Eadie, Victoria Longley. (Also available on Shudder Canada and Shudder UK)
January 14
HUNTED (see above for details)
January 16
A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES episode 202 (see above for details)
January 18 — STARRING PETER CUSHING
AND NOW THE SCREAMING STARTS (Director: Roy Ward Baker)
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. One of Amicus Studios' few non-anthology films, ANTS remains a superb slice of 70's British brutality. Starring Peter Cushing, Herbert Lom, Patrick Magee, Stephanie Beacham, Ian Ogilvy.
ASYLUM (Director: Roy Ward Baker)
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. Starring Barbara Parkins, Richard Todd, Sylvia Syms, Peter Cushing.
THE BEAST MUST DIE (Director: Paul Annett)
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. Starring Calvin Lockhart, Peter Cushing, Marlene Clark.
THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS (Director: John Gilling)
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. Starring Peter Cushing, June Laverick, Donald Pleasence. (Also available on Shudder Canada)
January 19
THE WOLF HOUSE (Director: JoaquÃn Cociña, Cristóbal León)
Winner — Best Animated Film, Boston Society of Film Critics Awards 2020. 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. Starring Amalia Kassai, Rainer Krause. (Also available on Shudder Canada)
January 21
THE WALKING DEAD: WORLD BEYOND Season 2 (see above for details)
January 23
A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES episode 203 (see above for details)
January 25
NIGHTBREED (Director: Clive Barker)
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. Barker's follow-up to HELLRAISER developed a cult following on video, and its recent restoration proves its important place in horror cinema. Starring Craig Sheffer, David Cronenberg, Anne Bobby. (Also available on Shudder Canada)
RAWHEAD REX (Director: George Pavlou)
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. Screenplay by Clive Barker. Starring David Dukes, Kelly Piper, Niall Toibin, Ronan Wilmot, Niall O'Brien, Donal McCann. (Also available on Shudder Canada)
January 26
THE UNTOLD STORY (Directors: Danny Lee, Herman Yau)
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 (Director: Lucky McKee)
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. Starring Pollyanna McIntosh, Lauren Ashley Carter, Sean Bridgers, Angela Bettis (Also available on Shudder Canada and Shudder UK)
January 28
THE QUEEN OF BLACK MAGIC (see above for details)
January 30
A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES episode 204 (see above for details)
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20. Repuked- Dawn of Reintoxication- Repuked's third album is equally repulsive, fun, and crushingly heavy. Read my full review here.
19. The White Swan- Nocturnal Transmission- Yes, I know this is an EP, but I would fucking be completely off if I didn't rank this. Cause, this sludge metal band fronted by Kittie's Morgan Lander is damn, fucking good! My full review. 
18. Incantation- Sect of Vile Divinities- This classic death metal act are back with this smashingly brutal release. My full review. 
17. Poppy- I Disagree- Poppy's I Disagree might be this year's most pleasant and adventurous surprise. She takes the kawaii metal sounds made famous be acts like Babymetal and really improves upon it. And, while I usually hate this brand of metal, I love what she does here. Mixing pop, industrial, metal, and nu-metal sounds, it's a fun, catchy, and original bit of music.
16. Testament- Titans of Creation- One of thrash metal most endearing and classic bands continue to release constantly great music. I slightly prefer the couple of albums before this one, but that just goes to show the quality of their output. As this is a fucking awesome blast of thrash assault! 
15. Annihilator- Ballistic, Sadistic- One of the year's earliest releases remains one of the best thrash metal albums of 2020. My full review.
14. Necrot- Mortal- Necrot continue to bring us the old school death metal, in this their best work to date. My full review. 
13. Deftones- Ohmes- After the disappointing Gore, the Deftones came right back up with this solid return to form. The album is a long time listen, as it takes a few spins to really get its hooks into you. But, once it does it sticks to you and only gets better with every listening. 
12- Napalm Death- Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism- Let it never be said that Napalm Death aren't afraid to add a few new twists to their classic sound. This killer album ranks as their finest release in many a moon. Heavy and angry as fucking hell, this album is an absolute ripper that will leave listeners beaten and bloody on the floor (even without the added bonus of concert mosh pits).
11. Abysmal Dawn- Phyolgensis- This album introduced me to brutality of Abysmal Dawn and with that they gained a new fan. Here is my review of one of the very best death metal albums of the year.
10. Trivium- What the Dead Men Say- Trivium are on a fucking roll after their amazing last The Sin and Sentence. This is a truly worthy follow up to that modern classic. Melodic, heavy, and technically strong, Trivium continue to put to shame many of other bands simialr to them and beyond. What the Dead Man Say is one of the listenable metal releases of this year, with the title track being one of the coolest singles and videos of 2020.
9. AC/DC- Power Up- 2020 definitely sucked a big bag of dicks. But, some good things came from it. And, one of the best things has to be the return of the mighty AC/DC! It's great to have Brian Johnson back signing in what might be the greatest hard rock act of all fucking time. And, Power Up is their best work in many years. Sure, I liked albums like Black Ice and Rock or Bust, but where Power Up rules is in the quality. You see many of the the tracks here rank among the most memorable songs they have composed in many, many years.
8. Lindsay Schoolcraft- Worlds Away- While, not a metal album in purest sense, this incredible record is the most beautiful and haunting release of 2020. My review of this amazing and powerful disc can be found here. 
7. Lucifer- Lucifer III- Three albums into their career, and Lucifer have become one of my favorite bands out there. Their seventies/ early eighties inspired metal sound is magnificently done. And, Lucifer III is their best yet. Songs like "Midnight Phantom", "Leather Demon", and "Lucifer" are some of my most played songs of 2020. 
6. Warbringer- Weapons of Tomorrow- My absolute favorite modern era thrash band continue to put out albums that puta lot other bands in this style of music, both new and old, to shame! The full frontal assaults of Weapons of Tomorrow is proof, yet again of this. Angry, fast, and filled with lyrics on war, this is killer thrash at its finest! 
4. Sodom- Genesis XIX- German thrash masters Sodom are back! This is not only with their best album since their 80s heydays, but the best thrash release of 2020. My full review. 
3. Lamb Of God- Lamb of God- If it works stick with it! And, that's just what Lamb Of God does with groove laden crusher. It features songs that get you pumped up and wanna open a whole can of whoop ass. There are even team ups with Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta and Testament's Chuck Billy for further musical beatdowns.
2. Body Count- Carnivore- Here is another winner from motherfucking Body Count! It's pissed off, badass, timely, and a total ass kicker. In fact, this runner-up fits 2020 like a leather fucking glove that punches your right in the fucking nuts! And, it gets bonus points for having duos with singers like Amy Lee of Evanscence and the late, great Riley Gale of Power Trip.
1. The Black Dahlia Murder- Verminous- And, once again The Black Dahlia Murder top the list with their latest. Killer music, lyrics, and artwork all amount to another yet another masterpiece from their excellent catalogue. TBDM is light years of not just most fellow melodic death metal acts, but I would say death metal in general. A shame we didn't get to experience this killer live, but at least we can enjoy this motherfucking awesome beast!
