After Theater Round Up: January & February

While the first two months of every year seem to be slim for good films released in theaters, there are always a few gems that are out and about if people are able to find them. However, we also live in a world where going to the movie theater to see every release is not possible for most people. Due to this, I have decided to recommend all the great films from the last two months that my friends and I have seen, whether they are still in theaters or now on home release. Here is the list for January and February.

We Bury The Dead

This was the first new movie of the year that I saw, and it was certainly not what I was expecting from the trailers. Starring Daisy Ridley and Brenton Thwaites. We Bury The Dead centers around an accidental weapon explosion near Tasmania that leaves part of the region destroyed, and the rest of it covered in dead people who have started coming back to life. While this film has the typical zombie situations that happen in every zombie apocalypse film of close, deadly encounters, these are actually a very small part of the film.

We Bury The Dead focuses more on the psychological status of both the living and the undead. For me, it made this a more enjoyable watch as it makes the viewer follow the thoughts of Daisy Ridley’s character, wondering if there is more to these undead than others want to believe.

Scarlet

Those who know me are aware that I am not a fan of anime. It seems like an interesting section of the animation medium, but it just doesn’t usually speak to me the way that other animation does. Scarlet is one of those unique situations where the trailer became stuck in my brain, and I couldn’t shake it loose.

Scarlet tells the story of a princess who goes on a revenge quest after her father is killed. During her journey, she runs into an idealistic man from another point in time, who causes her to question the path that she is going down. While the reception of this film among general audiences seemed to be favorable, it did not get a lot of interest while it was out, and there are definitely parts of the internet that despise it. If you are a fan of animated movies, I would suggest checking it out.

Iron Lung

Of all of the films that I expected to love this year, a movie made by a YouTuber about a man on an alien planet in a submarine was not on my bingo card at all. Regardless, here we are with the wildly successful Iron Lung, which was created by Mark Fischbach, aka Markiplier.

Iron Lung features a prisoner who is forced to participate in an exploration of an unknown planet/moon and begins to encounter a strange creature that begins to haunt his journey. While Iron Lung is quite good, it does also make me quite giddy at the fact that it went toe to toe with Sam Raimi’s Send Help, which just proves the power of the indie market when going up against some of the juggernauts in the industry, such as Disney.

Cold Storage

Cold Storage initially piqued my interest because of one thing: Joe Keery. When I saw that he would be doing a movie with Liam Neeson and Georgina Campbell, I was quite intrigued. Then I saw the trailer, and I was absolutely sold.

Cold Storage focuses on two storage warehouse employees stuck in the middle of an outbreak situation when a forgotten parasitic fungus escapes containment below their warehouse. While this seems at first to be a standard zombie horror film of sorts, I would classify it as a comedy horror since it is quite cheeky from time to time, and the dialogue in it is quite witty, which I find unusual in most standard horror films. Definitely worth a watch, especially for the chemistry between Keery and Campbell.

How to Make a Killing

Of all the films to come out in the last two months, this is the one that I was not expecting to have the biggest impact on how I view my life. How to Make a Killing is the newest offering from A24, starring Glen Powell. Based loosely on the book Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman, it follows a young man whose mother was disavowed by her wealthy family.

Many years after her death, and trying to live up to the promise he made to her as she died, he begins slowly killing the family members who stand in his way from acquiring the wealth he has been denied. How to Make a Killing made me question if I have been chasing the right things in life, and that perhaps a different perspective is needed before I lose myself entirely. I can’t guarantee that it will change your life, but it is definitely worth a watch.

That is all for this first edition of After Theater Round Up. Are there any other films that I should’ve mentioned, or ones that really spoke to you in January and February? If so, please let us know in the comments below.