Jessica Forever, Shudder

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Shudder has something very special planned for horror lovers during February 2020. AMC Network’s premium streaming video service is adding to its best selection with a bunch of new movies and exclusive streaming premieres. 

As we previously mentioned, Māori warrior, Waka Nuku Rau (Te Kohe Tuhaka), is sent back to the world of the living to redeem his sins. But the world Waka returns to is ravaged by a breach between Life and the Afterlife as the spirits of the newly dead now stalk the land and hunt the living. Waka encounters a determined young woman, Mehe (Darneen Christian), who becomes both his protégé and moral compass. Together, they navigate tribal politics, the unsettled ghosts of Ancestors and other forces both natural and supernatural, on a quest to discover who “broke the world” and how to repair it—if it’s not too late for The Dead Lands

Here are 5 reasons why we excited for Shudder in February:

5) The Podcast!

Jessica Forever

 Horror Noire: Uncut — premieres Friday, February 7

Following last year’s popular Eli Roth’s History of Horror: Uncut podcast, Shudder will once again be offering full conversations from genre icons in podcast form, this time featuring interviews from last year’s acclaimed original documentary, Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror. The six episode series will feature original Candyman Tony Todd; a conversation between Blacula director William Crain and Tales from the Hood actor Paula Jai Parker; a conversation between the duo of actors Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead) and Keith David (The Thing); author and educator Tananarive Due (My Soul to Keep); Horror Noire: Blacks in American Horror Films from the 1890s to Present author and educator Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman; and The Craft’s Rachel True. The podcast is hosted by Horror Noire producer/co-writer Ashlee Blackwell

4) Exclusive Movies! 

Dogs Don’t Wear Pants (premieres Thursday, 2/6)

Juha develops an unexpected but powerful connection with a dominatrix named Mona, following a tragic event in his life that has left him emotionally paralyzed. Uncovering his dangerous addiction to suffocation, Mona leads them both down wild, violent path towards emotional enlightenment. Dogs Don’t Wear Pants is a darkly humorous story of loss, love and the sweet pain of being.

3 From Hell (premieres Thursday, 2/13)

After barely surviving a furious shootout with the police, Baby Firefly, Otis Driftwood and Captain Spaulding are behind bars. But pure evil cannot be contained. Teaming up with Otis’ half-brother Wilson, the demented Firefly clan are back to unleash a whole new wave of death and depravity in this long-awaited sequel to Zombie’s cult hits, House of 1000 Corpses (2003) and The Devil’s Rejects (2005).

3) The Classics! 

3 From Hell

February 1

Child’s Play (Director: Tom Holland)

When serial killer Charles Lee Ray is mortally wounded in a police shoot-out, he uses a voodoo spell to transfer his soul into Chucky, a “Good Guys” doll. Young Andy receives the doll as a birthday gift, and Chucky soon resumes his killing spree. However, Charles doesn’t want to be trapped in the body of a doll forever. His only escape would be to transfer into the first human he revealed his true identity to… which places Andy in mortal danger.

Escape from New York (Director: John Carpenter)

In a bleak, alternate future, Manhattan Island has become the nation’s only maximum security prison. When Air Force One crash lands in the prison, the government sends in a disposable hero—Snake Plissken, outlaw and combat veteran—to get him out.

The Fog (Director: John Carpenter)

The ghosts of shipwrecked sailors return to get revenge on a seaside village on the 100-year anniversary of their deaths at the hands of the town’s founders.

My Bloody Valentine (Director: Patrick Lussier)

Wearing a miner’s mask and armed with a pickaxe, an unstoppable killer is on the loose. Ten years ago in the town of Harmony, an inexperienced coal miner caused an accident that trapped and killed five men and sent the only survivor, Harry Warden, into a permanent coma. But Harry Warden wanted revenge. Exactly one year later, on Valentine’s Day, he woke up…and brutally murdered twenty-two people with a pickaxe before being killed. Now, after years of peace, something from Harmony’s dark past is back. Harry Warden may have returned.

Night of the Comet (Director: Thom Eberhardt)

A huge comet passes near the earth, vaporizing nearly the whole planet. Only a few teenagers inside a steel movie projection booth survive as all those outside are turned to dust. But a few partially exposed people are now hideous, blood-thirsty zombies–and they begin a deadly hunt for the last remaining humans.

2) Before Valentine’s Day!

February 3

Like Me (Director: Robert Mockler)

A masked YouTuber draws fame, followers and a few vocal haters from her increasingly dangerous videos.

February 10

The Golden Glove (Director: Fatih Akin)

Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, the gruesome tale of notorious German serial killer Fritz Honka as he haunts Hamburg’s red light district in the 1970s, frequenting his favorite bar of boozy castaways, the “Golden Glove,” and chasing after any lonely woman he might just be able to lure into his attic.

The Hills Have Eyes (Director: Wes Craven)

A family on vacation are attacked by mutant killers in the desert. After the success of Last House on the Left, Craven served up another terrifying tale of family survival with a still-relevant Vietnam-era moral question at its core: which family deserves to live? The normal American family? Or the inbred cannibals damaged by nuclear testing designed to keep “upstanding” families safe?

Prom Night (Director: Paul Lynch)

For six long years, Hamilton High School seniors Kelly, Jude, Wendy and Nick have been hiding the truth of what happened to 10-year-old Robin Hammond the day her broken body was discovered near an old, abandoned convent. They kept secret how they taunted Robin, backed her into a corner until, frightened, she stood on a window ledge and fell to her death. Fearing they’d be held responsible, they vowed never to tell. However, someone else was there that day and now, is ready to exact their revenge – on prom night.

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (Director: Bruce Pittman)

Sexually voracious bad girl Mary Lou Maloney is burned alive after winning prom queen in 1957. 30 years later, her spirit returns to possess Vicki, a cheerleader who’s been chafing under her parents’ repressive rules. Mom and Dad soon get an eyeful after Vicki starts acting out, but Mary Lou is more focused on revenge on the man who caused her early exit from Earth, who’s now the school principal.

1) After Valentine’s Day!

Dogs Don’t Wear Pants

February 17

Seoul Station (Director: Yeon Sang-ho)

In this chilling animated prequel to the Korean horror smash Train To Busan, a zombie outbreak spreads amongst homeless people in the area surrounding Seoul Station. At the same exact moment the chaos begins, a worried father arrives in the district hoping to track down his runaway daughter. But the odds are not in their favor, because as any fan of zombie cinema knows, the real bad guys are never the undead, but selfish monsters of the flesh-and-blood variety.

Return of the Living Dead III (Director: Brian Yuzna)

The government is still experimenting with the reanimating chemical Trioxin. When a young man loses his girlfriend in an auto accident, he uses the research to bring her back and helps as she consumes the only thing that will nourish her—human brains.

February 24

Dog Soldiers (Director: Neil Marshall)

A group of soldiers dispatched to the Scottish Highlands on special training maneuvers face their biggest fears after they run into Captain Ryan – the only survivor of a Special Ops team that was literally torn to pieces. Ryan refuses to disclose his mission even though whoever attacked his men might be hungry for seconds. Help arrives in the form of a local girl who shelters them in a deserted farmhouse deep in the forest…but when they realize that they are surrounded by a pack of blood-lusting werewolves, it’s apparent their nightmare has just begun.

Empathy, Inc. (Director: Yedidya Gorsetman)

An investor in a VR startup discovers that the reality the company provides isn’t virtual.

Wendigo (Director: Larry Fessenden)

A blue Volvo makes its way through the fading light of a chilly winter evening in Upstate New York. Kim, George and their eight-year old son, Miles, are city dwellers stealing a weekend away at a friend’s country farmhouse. But a fluke accident sets off a chain of events that alters their lives forever and conjures up the ferocious spirit of the Wendigo, a Native American myth made manifest in Miles’ imagination.

Readers can find out more on Shudder here:

By Jorge Solis