Festive Fear Galore with December’s Lineup

With the festive season looming closer, I thought it to be a good time to take a look at what’s to come in the world of horror cinema. With the return of an icon set to stomp its way back into the lineup, a sinister tale of pagan folklore and and action-packed invasion movie on the cards, it seems like December is going to bring one and all that much welcomed Christmas fear this Yuletide. So, deck the halls with bells of holly, cook Santa some cookies and get settled in for some festive horror.

Lord of Misrule

Set in a quaint and rural English village, Lord of Misrule is seeped in folklore and pagan tradition. Directed by Orphan Black helmsman, William Brent Bell, this up-and-coming promising horror will follow the village’s priest and her anguish at the disappearance of her daughter during a traditional harvest festival.

With the police and her fellow villagers combing the English countryside, our holy heroine will stop at nothing to find her missing child and it’s not long before her amateur sleuthing soon sees her on a breadcrumb trail that slowly uncovers the village’s dark and sinister history.

Just how far will Rebecca be forced to go to rescue her offspring from the clutches of evil?

Find out on December 8, when Lord of Misrule lands in the theatres and VOD.

Godzilla Minus One

Since the first movie in 1954, Godzilla has been a huge (in more ways than one) icon of horror cinema. Godzilla Minus One takes what worked in those early days and gives it the modern touch, to remarkably impressive results.

Being a remake, Godzilla Minus One will once again take place in post-war Japan. After having a long (65 million years) sleep, Godzilla wakes from his slumber a little grouchy and empowered by the radiation of the Hiroshima bombing and decides to take it out on the local populous (to be fair, that must have been some hangover).

Directed, written and with special effects by Takashi Yamazaki, the movie looks to be full of awe-inspiring devastation as the gargantuan radiated dinosaur wreaks his very own brand of total carnage. Going by the trailer alone, it’s easy to see just how much modern special effects can really elevate an age-old classic.

The Sacrifice Game

After premiering at the Fantasia International Film Festival in July of this year, The Sacrifice Game is set to hit streaming sites on December 8. Directed by Jenn Wexler (The Ranger and Darling), this soon-to-be-released holiday horror movie looks to tick all the right boxes and has certainly quickly found its way to my ‘to-watch’ list this December.

Set in the “Disco Decade” of the seventies, The Sacrifice Game is centered around a group of boarding school girls decide to stay behind for the Christmas break. However, seeing as though this alone wouldn’t make for great theatre, a malevolent group of strangers turn up with the intent of summoning a demon.

The trailer did its job in teasing the audience with some creepy quick cuts while not giving too much away. From what I could gather and have read since, The Sacrifice Game has all the hallmarks of an unforgettable pacey invasion movie.

The movie is set to stream on Shudder on December 8.

Nightmare on 34th Street

Nightmare on 34th Street is another horror movie to come this year that’s set in Britain. By independent movie maker, James Crow, the movie looks to be a smorgasbord of that token British quirkiness and is a collection of 4 short movies, told by a Santa Claus with a London gangster accent that breaks into the home of one unfortunate family.

With the four different stories to be somehow interlinked, it will be interesting to see how this one plays out. Nightmare on 34th Street will be available to stream on December 5.