Photo: Claire Folger/ Amazon Prime Video
A new year means new films to stream and rent on VOD
A new year means a new slate of releases to look forward to. Scream, The Batman, Morbius (though a bit later than we’d like), and whole slew of other great films coming out in theaters this winter. In addition, there’s a bunch of new movies available to stream and rent on VOD this month, including George Clooney’s The Tender Bar starring Ben Afleck and Tye Sheridan, the Russian sci-fi horror film Superdeep, American Siege starring Bruce Willis, and more!
To help you get a handle on what’s new and available, here are the new movies you can watch with the click of a button this weekend.
The Tender Bar
Where to watch: Available to stream on Amazon Prime Video
Photo: Claire Folger/ Amazon Studios
Based on J. R. Moehringer’s best selling memoir, the 2021 coming-of-age drama The Tender Bar stars Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One) as a young man with aspirations of becoming a writer growing up in the ’70s and ’80s without a father. In his journey to adulthood, he looks to his uncle Charlie (Ben Affleck), his cantankerous grandfather (Christopher Lloyd), and a community of good-hearted locals at his uncle’s bar for guidance on how to live and carry himself in the world.
See For Me
Where to watch: Available to rent for $4.99 on Apple; $6.99 on Vudu
Image: IFC Midnight
The 2022 horror-thriller See For Me stars Skyler Davenport as Sophie, a blind former skier cat-sitting in a luxurious mansion secluded in the mountains. Ambushed by invaders intent on robbing the house, Sophie is forced to rely on the help of Kelly (Jessica Parker Kennedy), an army veteran working as an operator for a smartphone app in order outmaneuver and overcome her would-be killers. From our review,
Movies like Dancer in the Dark, Julia’s Eyes, The Eye, Blink, and In Darkness all use blindness to make already-vulnerable female leads even more vulnerable — not just to stalkers, predators, and supernatural threats, but to self-doubt, marginalization, and dismissal from the people who should be protecting them. More than any of these, though, the new thriller See For Me plays like a modern update of the 1967 classic Wait Until Dark, with Audrey Hepburn trying to outwit manipulative criminal Alan Arkin after he invades her home. See For Me updates the home-invasion formula with a couple of clever twists and a key relationship. But writers Adam Yorke and Tommy Gushue and director Randall Okita only push the formula so far before they run out of innovation.
Four to Dinner
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Netflix
The Italian rom-com Four to Dinner follows several different alternate realities in which four single friends couple up in different combinations. The question at the heart of the film’s premise is this: is the concept of “soul mates” real and iron-clad, or is there more to a successful relationship than cosmic compatibility? Four to Dinner stars Matilde Gioli, Ilenia Pastorelli, Giuseppe Maggio, and Matteo Martari.
Superdeep
Where to watch: Available to stream on Shudder; available to rent for $4.99 on Amazon, Apple; $3.99 on Vudu
Image: Shudder/RLJE Films
The Russian horror film Superdeep (or The Superdeep) asks one simple question: what if there was like, a really deep hole with horrible nightmares inside of it? After numerous reports of unexplained screams and dozens of missing people, a small team of researchers and soldiers descend into the bowels of the Kola Superdeep Borehole in search of answers and survivors. What they find is a terrifying presence that threatens all of humanity.
American Siege
Where to watch: Available to rent for $12.99 on Apple and Vudu
Image: Vertical Entertainment
Once again, Bruce Willis stars in a direct-to-video action thriller, this time as Ben Watts, an ex-NYPD officer-turned-sheriff who is forced to defuse a volatile hostage situation by solving the disappearance of a young woman in a small rural town in Georgia. American Siege also stars Timothy V. Murphy as Charles Rutledge, a powerful local businessman who commands Watts, and Cullen G. Chambers as John Keats, a local doctor with close ties to Rutledge who finds himself held hostage by militant extremists.
The Wasteland
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Photo: Lander Larrañaga/Netflix
The Wasteland, originally titled El Páramo (“The Beast”), centers on the story of a small family isolated from society who suddenly find the tranquility of their quiet existence shattered by the arrival of horrific creatures that stalks their home. The trailer looks moody and evocative, calling into question whether this “creature” is real or a fabrication born out loneliness and a blanket fear of the unknown.
And here’s what dropped last Friday:
The Lost Daughter
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Netflix
Olivia Colman (The Favourite) stars in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter as Leda, a woman on a seaside holiday whose curiosity towards a young mother (Dakota Johnson) and her daughter gradually morphs into a dark obsession. Unnerved by the pair’s relationship, Leda’s memories of her own tumultuous past as a young mother are triggered from deep within her, forcing her to confront the choices and consequences of her parenting that had until then remained long dormant and buried.
Mass
Where to watch: Available to rent for $5.99 on Amazon, Vudu; $4.99 on Apple
Image: Bleecker Street Media
Reed Birney (The Hunt), Ann Dowd (The Leftovers, Hereditary), Jason Isaacs (The Patriot), and Martha Plimpton (Beautiful Girls) star in the 2021 drama Mass as two sets of parents who, brought together by an unspeakable tragedy that tore their lives apart, have agreed to meet with one another in order to make sense of their shared loss and move forward. Not exactly the type of premise you would expect for the directorial debut of actor-writer Fran Kranz (Dollhouse, The Cabin in the Woods), but a remarkable premise nonetheless. The trailer looks thoroughly tense and devastating, and each of the four lead performances have garnered significant praise. Take a look for yourself first if you’re interested in watching this one.
Red Snow
Where to watch: Available to rent for $4.99 on Amazon, Apple; $3.99 on Vudu
Image: 4Digital Media
The horror comedy Red Snow stars Dennice Cisneros (NCIS) as Olivia Romo, a struggling horror writer who nurses an injured bat back to health while spending her Christmas holiday alone at her deceased mother’s cabin. When the bat transforms into a handsome vampire, Olivia finds herself enamored with the creature, feeding him animal blood as a nascent romance sparks between the two. Things quickly take a dangerous turn however when a gang of vampires descend on Olivia’s cabin in search of her would-be lover.
