Welcome to January. A graveyard for prestige film, but a bonanza for horror fans. Can this January’s batch of horror films match the terror of the real world “watch the news through your fingers” terror? Let’s find out!
We Bury the Dead (January 2nd, 2026)
Up first, a film you can go see right now, but run to the theater because movie runs in theaters last less time than bananas take to ripen. After an experimental weapon creates a catastrophic loss of life, we learn that a small percentage (the survivors in World War Z be like “oh, that sounds hard”) come back as zombies.
Daisy Ridley (the Star Wars sequels) signs up for the “body retrievable unit” in the affected zone to search for her missing husband. The film promises to deliver a new take on zombies, which I’m excited about, but they do appear to be fast zombies, which at that point, you might as well lie down and the road and give up. Game over, man.
Primate (January 9th, 2026)
One would think at this point, keeping a full-grown chimpanzee as a pet is a truly terrible idea. Even when it’s not infected with 𝚛̶𝚊̶𝚐̶𝚎̶ ̶𝚟̶𝚒̶𝚛̶𝚞̶𝚜̶ rabies. But the film Primate asks, “What if we took that chimp attack scene in Jordan Peele’s Nope and made it into a full-length B-movie? But it’s different rabies, the kind of rabies that allows for strategy and patience. Could be fun. If you want to hear about a real-life rabid animal attack that didn’t lead to death but will make you very nervous about meeting a raccoon in the woods, check out the third story in this classic This American Life piece. The whole episode is great for horror fans.
28 Days Later: The Bone Temple (January 16th, 2026)
Ralph Fiennes goes full Jane Goodall on the jacked-up alpha infected while Spike, the boy from the sanctuary island, falls in which a cult modeled after real life monster Jimmy Savile. A once beloved British entertainment personality Savile was ultimately discovered to have been one of the most prolific serial abusers of children in England.
Cilian Murphy (Peaky Blinders) makes his much-anticipated return as the OG survivor of the apocalypse, caused by, of all things, animal rights activists. Shout out to Primate!
Night Patrol (January 16th, 2026)
What if racist cops were also…vampires!? Justin Long (Barbarian) stars as an LADP cop who joins a division called “The Night Watch”, and initiation is a bitch.
The vampire cops are terrorizing the residents of the same housing project where Justin Long’s character grew up.
It’s hard enough to expose police brutality without having to try to convince people said cops are also literal vampires. The film follows a much overdue trend of exploring horror from the perspective of Black Americans.
Return to Silent Hill (January 23rd, 2026)
It’s been twenty years since the release of the original American-made Silent Hill. The original film starred Radha Mitchell as a mother searching for her missing daughter in the abandoned town infested by the very corporeal spirits of those who died there years early. A direct sequel, Silent Hill: Revelation was released in 2012.
The latest film is not a direct sequel, but rather a standalone adaptation of the Silent Hill 2 video game. The movie follows James (Jeremy Irvine), who is lured back to Silent Hill by a mysterious letter from his long lost love. The creatures featured in the trailer would do Guillermo Del Toro proud.
Send Help (January 30th, 2026)
Rachel McAdams (The Notebook) pretends to not be pretty in this stranded-on-a-deserted-island horror film.
The only non-supernatural film on this list, the story follows a much abused and belittled office worker (McAdams) who’s over the top Gen-Z boss, portrayed by Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner). Trope alert: he practices golf strokes in his office while psychologically terrorizing her character.
The worm turns when they get stranded on a deserted island together and he’s injured and at her mercy.
That’s it for January. Looking forward to Febuary, we have the 7th Scream film, yet another re-imagining of Dracula, and zombie horror comedy Cold Storage, starring Liam Neeson (an actor of very particular skills) and Joe Keery (Stranger Things) playing a character that’s like if Steve Harrington got hit in the head.
