February
Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built
Date: February 2nd
Director: Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig
Writers: Tom Vaughan, Michael Spierig, and Peter Spierig
Cast: Helen Mirren, Sarah Snook, Jason Clarke.
Sarah Lockwood Pardee married William Wirt Winchester in 1862 and, after the death of both him and their only child, became the heir to a fortune built upon the success of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company. According to legend, Sarah was informed by a medium that her family was cursed to be haunted by all those killed by Winchester rifles, and she moved to an 8-room Californian farm house in 1884, for the purpose of housing herself and the spirits of the dead.
Believing that she would die if construction on the house ever stopped, she spent her ever-increasing inheritance expanding the house into a bizarre labyrinth that never found completion. The Winchester Mystery House stands today as a tourist attraction, but this film explores the myth behind it as a horror story– with Academy Award winner Helen Mirren starring as Sarah Winchester.
Cloverfield Movie
Date: February 2nd
Director: Julius Onah
Writers: Oren Uziel and Doug Jung
Cast: Elizabeth Debicki, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Daniel Bruhl, Chris O’Dowd, Ziyi Zhang, David Oyelowo, Aksel Hennie, John Ortiz, Roger Davies.
Previously referred to as God Particle, this is the third instalment in the Cloverfield anthology film franchise. With the series opener arriving in 2008 as a found-footage action movie featuring an other-worldly creature destroying Manhattan, 2016’s 10 Cloverfield Lane delivered a more claustrophobic story, with a young woman waking up in a bunker during what the bunker owner claims is an unseen but catastrophic event.
Cloverfield Movie takes that claustrophobic atmosphere, and relocates it to space, with a space station scientific experiment going awry and leaving the astronauts isolated from Earth. The draw here is three-fold. Firstly, the fact that this is a Cloverfield franchise instalment makes it a must-see project. Secondly, any thriller set in near-space is something to get excited about. Thirdly, this film has assembled a phenomenal cast of epic proportions.
Fifty Shades Freed
Date: February 9th
Director: James Foley
Writer: Niall Leonard
Cast: Dakota Johnson, Jamie Dornan, Arielle Kebbel, Kim Basinger, Tyler Hoechlin, Eloise Mumford, Eric Johnson, Rita Ora, Marcia Gay Harden, Max Martini, Luke Grimes, Andrew Airlie.
This is part three of the contentious Fifty Shades trilogy, based on the best-selling book series of the same name, by E.L. James. Director James Foley returns to direct this final instalment, which sees lovers Christian and Ana settling in to married life, while external forces gather to derail their seemingly idyllic situation. With its two previous instalments having earned over $900m in global box office takings, Fifty Shades Freed will take the movie franchise into the billion dollar club with ease.
Peter Rabbit
Date: February 9th
Director: Will Gluck
Writers: Will Gluck and Rob Lieber
Cast: James Corden, Daisy Ridley, Margot Robbie, Elizabeth Debicki, Sam Neill, Rose Byrne, Domnhall Gleeson, Sia.
In this combination of live-action and animation, the famous literary character Peter Rabbit competes with his legendary nemesis Mr. McGregor for the affections of their neighbour, (and fictional version of the author) Beatrix Potter. This interesting approach to the adaptation of the classic children’s tales from English literature is expected to bring a new audience to the work of Potter, as the film presents a viable alternative to the other, more adult fare available in theatres during February.
Black Panther
Date: February 16th
Director: Ryan Coogler
Writers: Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole
Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Gurira, Marton Freeman, Daniel Kaluuya, Andy Serkis, Angela Bassett, Forest Whitaker, Letitia Wright, Winston Duke, Sterling K. Brown, John Kani, Florence Kasumba.
This is, undoubtedly, one of the most highly anticipated films of 2018 – being the first solo movie of the excellent Marvel character that was introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War. Until the predecessor of this film – Thor: Ragnarok – was released in 2017, the MCU had been directed exclusively by white men, and consisted entirely of stories led by white male superheroes.
Black Panther changes all of that with the first black male director in the franchise, and the first leading black male superhero. In addition, and most crucially, Black Panther features a cast that includes many black women in roles that are significant, and help drive the plot – which is also a first for this film series.
Annihilation
Date: February 23rd
Director: Alex Garland
Writer: Alex Garland
Cast: Tessa Thompson, Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Oscar Isaac, Gina Rodriguez, Benedict Wong.
This female-led thriller is based on the best-selling novel of the same name, written by Jeff VanderMeer – and sees four nameless women set out on an exploratory, scientific expedition to investigate Area X. This region is isolated from civilization, and has seen many expeditions end in death and disaster for all involved – including the husband of the group’s leader, The Biologist. Aside from the fact that the movie boasts four formidable leading women, and Oscar Isaac in a supporting role, it’s also directed by Alex Garland, who previously delivered The Beach and Ex Machina.