January is always a hit and miss month for horror. Generally, this is where studios tend to dump the properties that they have less than stellar expectations for. Referred to as the Dump Months, January and February have a checkered past of hits and misses.
Thankfully we have television. Today in This Week in Horror we share the happy news of an all-new American Horror Story: Hotel. This season is wrapping up and we are just a few episodes away from seeing who will be the last hotelier standing.
In Film we have a collection of home video releases including the Blumhouse Productions, “Sinister 2” and “Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension”. Ghost Dimension boasts a collection of 8 writers for a film that lasts a mere 1hr and 22 minutes. Is that a record of some sort? In theaters we get the new home invasion cum revenge flick, Intruders, directed by Adam Schindler. Dive in folks, the horror’s fine.
Television
| American Horror Story: Hotel – Blu Ray/DVD (Jan 12th) | ||
| RATING: | TV-MA |  Be Our Guest
Iris and Liz oversee a new era at the Cortez. John and Alex struggle to adapt to life outside the hotel.
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| Network: | FX | |
| Runtime: | 1 hr | |
Film
| Sinister 2 – Blu Ray/DVD (Jan 12th) | ||
| RATING: | R |  A protective mother and her nine-year-old twin sons find themselves marked for death by an evil spirit.
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| Genre: | Horror | |
| Runtime: | 1 hr. 37 min. | |
| Directed By: | Ciarán Foy | |
| Written By: | Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill, Scott Derrickson, C. Robert Cargill | |
| Howl – Blu Ray/DVD (Jan 12th) | ||
| RATING: | NR |  On a dark and stormy night the last train out of London comes to a sudden halt deep in the middle of a forest. After the driver ventures out to investigate and never returns, the passengers are in a state of panic – particularly after seeing the driver’s mutilated body outside the carriage. Realizing there’s something dangerous lurking in the forest, a ticket-collector, Joe (Ed Speleers), tells the passengers to make barricades to secure themselves in the carriage, but soon the deadly creature is stalking the besieged train and smashing through their defenses, picking them off one-by-one. Joe rallies his pack of passengers to fight back. During a vicious battle they manage to kill the creature, revealing it to be a hideous mutated fusion of human and wild animal – a werewolf. However, celebrations are cut short when they hear more howls coming from the forest…
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| Genre: | Horror | |
| Runtime: | 1 hr. 19 min. | |
| Directed By: | Paul Hyett | |
| Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension – Blu Ray/DVD (Dec. 29th) | ||
| RATING: | R |  The Ghost Dimension, follows a new family, The Fleeges – father Ryan (Chris J. Murray), mother Emily (Brit Shaw) and their young daughter Leila (Ivy George) – Who move into a house and discover a video camera and a box of tapes in the garage. When they look through the camera’s lens, they begin to see the paranormal activity happening around them – including the re-emergence of young Kristi and Katie.
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| Genre: | Horror | |
| Runtime: | 1 hr. 22 min. | |
| Directed By: | Gregory Plotkin | |
| Written By: | Jason Pagan, Andrew Deutschland, Adam Robitel, Gavin Heffernan, Brantley Auffiel, Jason Pagan, Andrew Deutschland, Oren Peli
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| Contracted Phase 2 – Blu Ray/DVD (Jan 12th) | ||
| RATING: | R |  THE VIRUS IS SPREADING…
Picking up immediately after the events of the first film, this riveting sequel follows Riley (Matt Mercer, Contracted), now infected and running out of time, as he attempts to find out more about the virus and its mysterious host. As he digs deeper into its origins, Riley attracts the attention of a detective (Marianna Palka, Good Dick) who doubts his innocence, and BJ (Morgan Peter Brown, Absentia), who holds the key to the virus (and perhaps the destruction of mankind as we know it) leading to a blood-soaked finale you have to see to believe. Hang on to your barf bags, buckle up, and get ready for the genre ride of the year!
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| Genre: | Horror | |
| Runtime: | 1 hr. 18 min. | |
| Directed By: | Josh Forbes | |
| Written By: | Craig Walendziak | |
| Intruders – In Theaters (Jan 15th) | ||
| RATING: | R |  Anna suffers from agoraphobia so crippling that when a trio of criminals break into her house, she cannot bring herself to flee. But what the intruders don’t realize is that agoraphobia is not her only psychosis.
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| Genre: | Horror | |
| Runtime: | 1 hr. 30 min. | |
| Directed By: | Adam Schindler | |
| Written By: | T.J. Cimfel, David White | |
That was the Week of Horror for January 11th. If you haven’t done so, we hope that you have checked out our latest column, 52 weeks of Halloween. Now you can stretch the best holiday to each week of the year!
