This is your ultimate guide to all the science fiction, horror, super hero, genre and quirky films you can expect to see released this year. Print out, circle in your diary, and find new films to anticipate. (These are all the British release dates, for readers from foreign climes)
11 January
Midnight Son -The story of a young man called Jacob who is confined to a life of isolation, due to a very rare skin disorder. His world changes when he meets a local bartender and falls in love. Jacob’s condition worsens and forces him to drink human blood for sustenance – leading to law enforcement suspecting him in a series of grizzly murders.
American Mary – The story follows medical student, Mary Mason, as she becomes increasingly broke and disenchanted with the surgical world she once admired. The allure of easy money sends Mary into the world of underground surgeries which ends up leaving more marks on her than her so called ‘freakish’ clientèle.
13 January
The Inside – 5 young girls go partying in an abandoned warehouse. Things begin to go quickly wrong however as they are subjected to a terrifying attack before succumbing to a supernatural horror that has no compunction between good or evil. The girls try to escape but are trapped in the building, with the only question left being – is there any way out?
18 January
Django Unchained – Former dentist, Dr. King Schultz, buys the freedom of a slave, Django, and trains him with the intent to make him his deputy bounty hunter. Instead, he is led to the site of Django’s wife who is under the hands of Calvin Candie, a ruthless plantation owner.
V/H/S – A group of misfits are hired by an unknown third party to burgle a desolate house in the countryside and acquire a rare tape. Upon searching the house, the guys are confronted with a dead body, a hub of old televisions and an endless supply of cryptic footage, each video stranger than the last.
25 January
Hollow – An old monastery in a small, remote village in Suffolk, England has been haunted by a local legend for centuries. Left in ruin and shrouded by the mystery of a dark spirit that wills young couples to suicide, the place has been avoided for years, marked only by a twisted, ancient tree with an ominous hollow said to be the home of great evil. When four friends on holiday explore the local folklore, they realize that belief in a myth can quickly materialize into reality, bringing horror to life for the town.
8 February
Warm Bodies – After a zombie becomes involved with the girlfriend of one of his victims, their romance sets in motion a sequence of events that might transform the entire lifeless world.
Wreck-It Ralph – Wreck-It Ralph longs to be as beloved as his game’s perfect Good Guy, Fix-It Felix. Problem is, nobody loves a Bad Guy. But they do love heroes… so when a modern, first-person shooter game arrives featuring tough-as-nails Sergeant Calhoun, Ralph sees it as his ticket to heroism and happiness. He sneaks into the game with a simple plan — win a medal — but soon wrecks everything, and accidentally unleashes a deadly enemy that threatens every game in the arcade. Ralph’s only hope? Vanellope von Schweetz, a young troublemaking “glitch” from a candy-coated cart racing game who might just be the one to teach Ralph what it means to be a Good Guy. But will he realize he is good enough to become a hero before it’s “Game Over” for the entire arcade?
Antiviral – Syd March is an employee at a clinic that sells injections of live viruses harvested from sick celebrities to obsessed fans. Biological communion – for a price. Syd also supplies illegal samples of these viruses to piracy groups, smuggling them from the clinic in his own body. When he becomes infected with the disease that kills super sensation Hannah Geist, Syd becomes a target for collectors and rabid fans. He must unravel the mystery surrounding her death before he suffers the same fate.
13 February
Beautiful Creatures – Ethan longs to escape his small Southern town. He meets a mysterious new girl, Lena. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town.
14 February
A Good Day to Die Hard – Iconoclastic, take-no-prisoners cop John McClane, for the first time, finds himself on foreign soil after travelling to Moscow to help his wayward son Jack – unaware that Jack is really a highly-trained CIA operative out to stop a nuclear weapons heist. With the Russian underworld in pursuit, and battling a countdown to war, the two McClanes discover that their opposing methods make them unstoppable heroes.
Young, High and Dead – A camping trip descends into chaos when a group of friends pitch next to the grave of a local missing child.
22 February
Cloud Atlas – Everything is connected: an 1849 diary of an ocean voyage across the Pacific; letters from a composer to his friend; a thriller about a murder at a nuclear power plant; a farce about a publisher in a nursing home; a rebellious clone in futuristic Korea; and the tale of a tribe living in post-apocalyptic Hawaii, far in the future.
Hansel and Gretel Witch Hunters – In this dark spin on the fairy tale, siblings Hansel and Gretel are a formidable team of bounty hunters who track and kill witches all over the world.
Mama – Annabel and Lucas are faced with the challenge of raising his young nieces that were left alone in the forest for 5 years – but how alone were they?
Dark Skies – As the Barret family’s peaceful suburban life is rocked by an escalating series of disturbing events, they come to learn that a terrifying and deadly force is after them.
1 March
The Bay – Chaos breaks out in a small Maryland town after an ecological disaster occurs.
Citadel – An agoraphobic father teams up with a renegade priest to save his daughter from the clutches of a gang of twisted feral children who committed an act of violence against his family years earlier.
After the World Ended – An astronaut crashes in the middle of nowhere. A young woman searches for her family in an abandoned urban wasteland. A prisoner prepares for a space program that will make him the first human being on Mars.
8 March
Oz: The Great and Powerful – Oscar Diggs, a small-time circus magician with dubious ethics, is hurled away from dusty Kansas to the vibrant Land of Oz. At first he thinks he’s hit the jackpot-fame and fortune are his for the taking. That all changes, however, when he meets three witches, Theodora, Evanora, and Glinda, who are not convinced he is the great wizard everyone’s been expecting. Reluctantly drawn into the epic problems facing the Land of Oz and its inhabitants, Oscar must find out who is good and who is evil before it is too late. Putting his magical arts to use through illusion, ingenuity (and even a bit of wizardry) Oscar transforms himself not only into the great and powerful Wizard of Oz but into a better man as well.
Robot & Frank – In the near future, Frank is a retired cat-burglar living alone while his successful son, Hunter, tries to cares for him from afar. Finally, Hunter gets him a robot caretaker, but Frank soon learns that it is useful as a burglary aide. As Frank tries to restart his old profession, the uncomfortable realities of a changing world and his worsening dementia threaten to take beyond what any reboot can do for him.
9 March
51 Degrees – When Damon Miller, a talented, young London film-maker becomes involved in the disturbing research surrounding Near-Earth Objects he stumbles onto the discovery that the Earth stands on the brink of an extraterrestrial disaster.
15 March
The Last Exorcism Part II – As Nell Sweetzer tries to build a new life after the events of the first movie, the evil force that once possessed her returns with an even more horrific plan. It turns out that no, the last exorcism was not the last.
Blacklits – A female driven futuristic film, set in a London where the population are strictly controlled by ID cards. The protagonists are performers in an underground burlesque club, where the rich and powerful use their influence to control those around them.
22 March
The Host – A parasitic alien soul is injected into the body of Melanie Stryder. Instead of carrying out her race’s mission of taking over the Earth, “Wanda” (as she comes to be called) forms a bond with her host and sets out to aid other free humans.
Jack the Giant Slayer – A modern day fairy tale in which the long-standing peace between men and giants is threatened, as a young farmer leads an expedition into the giants’ kingdom in hopes of rescuing a kidnapped princess.
About Time – As he goes through life, a young man who can travel through time learns his unique gift can’t save him from the sorrows and ups and downs that affect all families, everywhere.
27 March
G.I. Joe: Retaliation – The G.I. Joes are not only fighting their mortal enemy Cobra; they are forced to contend with threats from within the government that jeopardize their very existence.
5 April
The Odd Life of Timothy Green – After receiving bad news from a fertility doctor, Cindy and Jim Green try to bury their dreams of having a child by writing out all the great traits their child would have and putting them in a box in the garden. During a freak storm in the middle of the night, they awake to find a boy named Timothy, with leaves growing from his ankles, standing in their kitchen calling them mum and dad. Cindy and Jim are thrown into the midst of parenthood and over the coming months, Timothy will teach them more than they could have imagined about being parents and raising a child, no matter how he comes into their lives.
Carrie – Carrie White is a lonely and awkward teen who is constantly bullied at school by her peers, and beaten at home at the hands of her religious mother. But Carrie has a secret: She’s been blessed with the terrifying power of telekinesis; and when her peers decide to pull a prank on her at prom, they’ll soon learn a deadly lesson: If you play with fire, you get burned.
12 April
Oblivion – One of the few remaining drone repairmen assigned to Earth, its surface devastated after decades of war with the alien Scavs, discovers a crashed spacecraft with contents that bring into question everything he believed about the war, and may even put the fate of mankind in his hands.
15 April
The Woods of Daemar – When Eva finds herself trapped in evil demon Daemar’s unforgiving world, she must rely on a total stranger to help her get out alive.
19 April
Evil Dead – A remake of the original. Mia, a young woman struggling with sobriety, heads to a remote cabin with her brother and a group of friends, where the discovery of a Book of the Dead leads to danger and horror.
26 April
Iron Man 3 – Tony Stark uses his ingenuity to fight those who destroyed his private world and soon goes up against his most powerful enemy yet: the Mandarin.
3 May
Byzantium – Two mysterious women seek refuge in a run-down coastal resort. Clara meets lonely Noel, who provides shelter in his deserted guest house, Byzantium. Schoolgirl Eleanor befriends Frank and tells him their lethal secret. They were born 200 years ago and survive on human blood. As knowledge of their secret spreads, their past catches up on them with deathly consequence.
17 May
Star Trek Into Darkness – After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.
18 May
Trust – With the age of Reality Shows, one in particular offers the chance of fame and fortune for twelve ex-reality TV Stars. But at what cost, is fifteen minutes of fame worth more than their lives?
24 May
Epic – A teenager finds herself transported to a deep forest setting where a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil is taking place. She bands together with a rag-tag group characters in order to save their world – and ours.
6 June
When the Devil Rides Out – After a car accident, an author of horror stories starts to see visions of the devil.
7 June
After Earth – One thousand years after cataclysmic events forced humanity’s escape from Earth, Nova Prime has become mankind’s new home. Legendary General Cypher Raige returns from an extended tour of duty to his estranged family, ready to be a father to his 13-year-old son, Kitai. When an asteroid storm damages Cypher and Kitai’s craft, they crash-land on a now unfamiliar and dangerous Earth. As his father lies dying in the cockpit, Kitai must trek across the hostile terrain to recover their rescue beacon. His whole life, Kitai has wanted nothing more than to be a soldier like his father. Today, he gets his chance.
14 June
Man of Steel – A child, sent to Earth from a dying planet, is adopted by a couple in rural Kansas. Posing as a journalist, he uses his extraordinary powers to protect his new home from an insidious evil. It’s the Superman reboot.
21 June
World War Z – A U.N. employee is racing against time and fate, as he travels the world trying to stop the outbreak of a deadly Zombie pandemic.
12 July
Pacific Rim – When an alien attack threatens the Earth’s existence, giant robots piloted by humans are deployed to fight off the menace.
Monsters University – A look at the relationship between Mike and Sulley during their days at the University of Fear – when they weren’t necessarily the best of friends.
19 July
Kick-Ass 2 – The costumed high-school hero Kick-Ass joins with a group of normal citizens who have been inspired to fight crime in costume. Meanwhile, the Red Mist plots an act of revenge that will affect everyone Kick-Ass knows.
The Conjuring – A family encounters spirits living among them in their New England farmhouse.
26 July
The Wolverine – Wolverine travels to Japan to train with a samurai warrior. Let’s hope it’s better than Origins.
2 August
300: Rise of an Empire – The Greek general Themistocles battles an invading army of Persians under the mortal-turned-god, Xerxes.
9 August
The Lone Ranger – Native American spirit warrior Tonto recounts the untold tales that transformed John Reid, a man of the law, into a legend of justice. This promises to be an uncomfortable watch with Johnny Depp playing a racially insensitive depiction of a Native American.
10 August
Silent Cradle – Suffering from a miscarriage, Leanne struggles to deal with the recent loss of her unborn child which in turn affects her relationship with boyfriend Michael. Leanne becomes reclusive and begins to hear noises; babies crying and animalistic ritual sounds merging together. Disconnected from the world Leanne begins to experience strange phenomena all around her until one day she receives news that she has inherited a house from a strange distant relative. Leanne feels compelled to find out more about this inheritance and pulled to go to the house and does so thus starting a chain of events that lead Leanne into a what has been calling her all along.
12 August
Saga: The Shadow Cabal – A ruthless elven bounty huntress shoots down the dragon ridden by the fugitive orc shaman, Fangtor Bloodmoon. When Fangtor refuses to surrender quietly, the huntress must battle for her own life against the dangerous villain, and comes away with more than just his head.
14 August
The World’s End – 20 years after attempting an epic pub crawl, five childhood friends reunite when one of them becomes hell bent on trying the drinking marathon again. They are convinced to stage an encore by mate Gary King, a 40-year old man trapped at the cigarette end of his teens, who drags his reluctant pals to their home town and once again attempts to reach the fabled pub, The World’s End. As they attempt to reconcile the past and present, they realize the real struggle is for the future, not just theirs but humankind’s. Reaching The World’s End is the least of their worries.
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters – Percy Jackson, accompanied by his friends Annabeth Chase, Clarisse La Rue and Tyson, his half brother, goes on a journey to the Sea of Monsters to retrieve the Golden Fleece and save Camp Half-Blood.
23 August
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones – Clary Fray tumbles into the supernatural world when she visits a club called Pandemonium, and witnesses a murder. Following this tragic event Clary’s mother, Jocelyn, is kidnapped by a man called Valentine. She then calls on those who she saw at the club, and asks them to help her. In the search for the Mortal Cup, Clary makes decisions harder than any she has ever made. She falls in love, struggles with her best friend, and becomes the person her mother feared she would become.
You’re Next – Crispian brings his new girlfriend to a family reunion getaway, where the happy occasion is shattered by a gang who bring to take down the family with brutal precision, until one member of the family shows a hidden talent for fighting back.
9 September
Extraction – A scientist who has invented a technique to watch people’s memories finds himself in a dangerous situation after he’s tasked with entering a heroin addict’s mind to see whether the man committed murder.
18 September
I, Frankenstein – Frankenstein’s creature finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans.
20 September
Elysium – Set in the year 2159, where the very wealthy live on a man-made space station while the rest of the population resides on a ruined Earth, a man takes on a mission that could bring equality to the polarized worlds.
1 October
Judas Ghost – A team of professional ghost finders are trapped in an old village hall. The haunting they set out to investigate turns out to be far worse than they anticipated. Who will survive and what will be left of their souls?
11 October
Haunt – An introverted teen sparks with his new neighbour, and together the couple begins to explore the haunted house that is family has unknowingly just purchased.
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones is also released in 3-D.
18 October
The Seventh Son – John Gregory, a seventh son of a seventh son and the local Spook, has protected the country from witches, boggarts, ghouls and all manner of things that go bump in the night. However, John is not young any more and has been seeking out an apprentice to carry on his trade. The last hope is a farmer’s son, Thomas Ward. Will he survive the training to become a spook when so many others failed? Should he trust the girl with pointy shoes? How can Thomas stand a chance against Mother Malkin, the most dangerous witch in the country?
25 October
Ender’s Game – The Earth was ravaged twice by the Buggers, an alien race seemingly determined to destroy humanity. Seventy years later, the people of Earth remain banded together to prevent our own annihilation from this technologically superior alien species. Ender Wiggin, a boy of only six, may become the saviour of the human race. He is separated from his beloved sister and brought to battle school in deep space. He will be tested and honed into an empathetic killer who despises himself as he learns to fight in hopes of saving Earth and his family.
Paranormal Activity 5 – the official plot has yet to be released, but no doubt it’ll be as pointless as the last instalment in the franchise.
Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith is also released in 3-D.
30 October
Thor: The Dark World – Thor battles an ancient race of Dark Elves led by the vengeful Malekith who threatens to plunge the universe back into darkness after the events of The Avengers. This is already in my top ten list of 2013.
31 October
Tarot – Two city girls attempt to help their grieving friend by taking her on a weekend trip, but accidentally trigger a bloodthirsty witch’s deadly spell by playing with an ancient Tarot deck.
7 November
Apocalypse Nerd – The end of the world is the least of their problems. That’s all known about the plot currently.
22 November
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – The continuing adventures of Katniss Everdeen, which take place in a futuristic dystopian world, as she prepares for the Quarter Quell. Another already in my top ten list of 2013.
29 November
Mr. Peabody & Sherman – A young boy and his dog, who happens to have a genius-level IQ, spring into action when their time-travel machine is stolen and moments in history begin to be changed.
13 December
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – The Dwarfs, Bilbo and Gandalf have successfully escaped the misty mountains, but Bilbo has gained the one ring. They all continue their journey to get their gold back off the Dragon, Smaug.
15 December
Revival – An elderly man runs a funeral services and has the power to possess the body of someone who has recently died in the past in order to prevent their death.
20 December
Frozen – A mountain climber and a young girl named Anna journey through snowy peaks and dangerous cliffs to find the legendary Snow Queen and end the perpetual winter prophecy that has fallen over their kingdom.
26 December
Dance of the Goblins – Many scientists believe that about every 200,000 years, a magnetic pole shift flips the axis of the earth, resulting in sudden and devastating climate change and planet-wide devastation. We are overdue. Five generations after the next ‘Turning’, the descendants of the few surviving humans carve out a medieval-like existence in the rubble of a ruined city of London. Meanwhile, the goblins live a shamanistic, anarchic lifestyle and stay unseen by humans for their own survival. Until one day a human wanders into one of the forgotten underground stations where he is captured and drugged with a mushroom potion that causes memory loss, then expelled. A search party happens to see one of the goblins, and the humans try to dig out the ‘demons’. A goblin woman is taken captive but escapes, and it is up to the leader of the humans, Count Anton, to find her and return her to her people…
Fantastic guide, Jess!