Cinema is officially back! After a quiet start to the year with several major releases under performing at the box office, June and July has seen a major resurgence, with ticket sales going through the roof. This has been down to the release of the major summer blockbusters, with several of them including; “Inside Out 2”, “Twisters” and “Deadpool and Wolverine” breaking all kinds of records in their respective genre and/or age bracket.
Even moderately budgeted horror films like “Longlegs”, “A Quiet Place: Day One” and “MaXXXine” have managed to bring genre aficionados back to the cinema in recent weeks and hopefully this continues into the month of August. There is also a plethora of horror films throughout next month with the upcoming releases of; M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap”, Zoe Kravitz‘s “Blink Twice”, Indonesian Horror “Dancing Village: The Curse Begins”, “Cuckoo”, A.I. horror “AfrAId”, Lee Daniel‘s “The Deliverance”, a remake of the 1994 gothic action horror “The Crow”, and most notably Fede Alvarez‘s “Alien” reboot, “Alien: Romulus”.
Outside of horror there are action flicks “Borderlands”, “Jackpot!” and “The Union” and potential Oscar contenders “Sing Sing” and “Didi”.
Which August release are you most excited for?
Harold and the Purple Crayon (PG)
Dir: Carlos Saldanha
Cast: Zachary Levi, Lil Rel Howery, Jemaine Clement, Tanya Reynolds, Alfred Molina, Zooey Deschanel
Synopsis: The adventurous Harold (Zachary Levi) grows up with his magical purple crayon and draws himself off the book’s pages and into the physical world, he finds that he has a lot to learn about real life.
Didi (15)
Dir: Sean Wang
Cast: Izaac Wang, Joan Chen
Synopsis: In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love his mom.
Borderlands (12A)
Dir: Eli Roth
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Bobby Lee, Jack Black, Edgar Ramirez, Ariana Greenblatt, Florian Munteanu, Gina Gershon, Jamie Lee Curtis
Synopsis: Returning to her home planet, an infamous outlaw forms an unexpected alliance with a team of unlikely heroes. Together, they battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find a missing girl who holds the key to unimaginable power.
It Ends with Us (TBC)
Dir: Justin Baldoni
Cast: Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Brandon Sklenar
Synopsis: Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) moves to Boston to chase her lifelong dream of opening her own business. A chance meeting with charming neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) soon sparks an intense connection, but as the two fall deeply in love, she begins to see sides of Ryle that remind her of her parents’ relationship.
Trap (15)
Dir: M. Night Shyamalan
Cast: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills, Alison Pill
Synopsis: A man and his teenage daughter realize they’re at the centre of a dark and sinister event while watching a concert.
Babes (15)
Dir: Pamela Adlon
Cast: Ilana Glazer, Michelle Buteau, John Carroll Lynch, Oliver Platt, Sandra Bernhard, Stephen James, Hasan Minhaj
Synopsis: Pregnant from a one-night-stand, Eden (Ilana Glazer) leans on her best friend and mother of two, Dawn (Michelle Buteau), to guide her through gestation and beyond.
Jackpot! (12A)
Dir: Paul Feig
Cast: Awkwafina, John Cena, Simu Liu
Synopsis: In the near future, a ‘Grand Lottery’ has been newly established in California – the catch: kill the winner before sundown to legally claim their multi-billion dollar jackpot.
Alien: Romulus (15)
Dir: Fede Alvarez
Cast: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn, Aileen Wu
Synopsis: Space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life-form in the universe while scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station.
The Union (TBC)
Dir: Julian Farino
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Halle Berry, Mike Colter, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Alice Lee, Jackie Earl Haley, J.K. Simmons
Synopsis: Mike (Mark Wahlberg), a down-to-earth construction worker, is thrust into the world of super spies and secret agents when his high school sweetheart, Roxanne (Halle Berry), recruits him on a high-stakes US intelligence mission.
Dancing Village: The Curse Begins (TBC)
Dir: Kimo Stamboel
Cast: Aulia Sarah, Maudy Effrosina, Jourdy Pranata
Synopsis: A mysterious presence called Badarawuhi terrorizes the citizens of a remote Indonesian village.
Cuckoo (15)
Dir: Tilman Singer
Cast: Hunter Schafer, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Jessica Henwick, Dan Stevens
Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) reluctantly leaves America to live with her father at a resort in the German Alps. Plagued by strange noises and bloody visions, she soon discovers a shocking secret that concerns her own family.
The Crow (TBC)
Dir: Rupert Sanders
Cast: Bill Skarsgard, FKA Twigs, Danny Huston
Synopsis: Soulmates Eric Draven (Bill Skarsgard) and Shelly Webster (FKA Twigs) are brutally murdered when the demons of her dark past catch up with them. Given the chance to save his true love by sacrificing himself, Draven returns to seek bloody revenge against the killers, traversing the worlds of the living and the dead to put the wrong things right.
Blink Twice (TBC)
Dir: Zoe Kravitz
Cast: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Kyle MacLachlan, Haley Joel Osment, Geena Davis, Alia Shawkat
Synopsis: When tech billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) meets cocktail waitress Frida (Naomie Ackie) at his fundraising gala, he invites her to join him and his friends for a dream vacation on his private island. Wild nights soon blend into sun-soaked days, but when strange things start to happen, Frida must uncover the truth if she hopes to make it out alive.
Kneecap (18)
Dir: Rich Peppiatt
Cast: Naoise Ó Cairealláin, Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, JJ Ó Dochartaigh, Josie Walker, Fionnula Flaherty, Jessica Reynolds, Adam Best, Simone Kirby, Michael Fassbender
Synopsis: When fate brings a Belfast teacher into the orbit of self-confessed ‘low life scum’, the needle drops on a hip hop act like no other. Rapping in their native Irish, they lead a movement to save their mother tongue.
Sing Sing (15)
Dir: Greg Kwedar
Cast: Colman Domingo, Clarence Maclin, Sean San Jose, Paul Raci
Imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit, Divine G (Colman Domingo) finds purpose by acting in a theatre group alongside other incarcerated men, including a wary newcomer.
AfrAId (15)
Dir: Chris Weitz
Cast: John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Havana Rose Liu, Lukita Maxwell, David Dastmalchian, Keith Carradine
Synopsis: Curtis (John Cho) and his family are selected to test a revolutionary new device — a digital assistant called AIA that takes smart homes to the next level. As AIA begins to learn everyone’s behavior and anticipate their needs, it soon makes sure nothing and no one gets in the family’s way.
The Deliverance (TBC)
Dir: Lee Daniels
Cast: Andra Day, Glenn Close, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Mo’Nique, Caleb McLaughlin, Omar Epps
Synopsis: A family living in a home in Indiana discover strange, demonic occurrences that convince them and the community that the house is a portal to hell.
Dan Loves Film 
Awesome movie list….👍👍👍
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Which are you most excited for?
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It Ends with Us (TBC)
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Never read the book so not too familiar myself
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Babes. Pamela Adlon and Ilana Glazer sounds like a winning combo to me.
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Alien Romulus is on my to watch list. even if I think the facehuggers are scarier than the xenomorphs.
Union did not hear anything about this, yet you piqued my interest, Dan. Guaranteed watch in theatres? I might read a review and / or watch a preview, and go from there.
thanks
Borderlands, Anime videogames and comics are normally right up my alley, and yet i’m not excited about this one.
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I found this post very useful.
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