8 New Movies to See This Week: ‘Scream’ Is Back!

Scream

This week we have a horror film staple returning, a batch of animated films, a documentary, a rom-com, and an Academy Award contender!

Here’s the rundown of new movies coming out this week in theatres! As well as those coming out on the major streaming platforms.

New Movies Coming Out January 10 – 16, 2022

Scream
Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Scream  (2022)

Rating: R 

Release Date: In theatres nationwide on Friday, January 14, 2022.

Summary:  Scream takes place twenty-five years after Woodsboro was first torn apart by a series of gruesome murders. Now a new killer has emerged, and Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has returned to stop the murderer again.

What to Watch For: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette are back in this film and have played the same characters in four separate decades; 90s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s.

Word on the Street: This is the first film in the franchise not directed by Wes Craven, who died in 2015. Kevin Williamson, whose first feature film screenplay was Scream back in 1996, is one of the executive producers of this film.

My Take: I love that the cast got together on Halloween night and watched the first Scream film.

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania
Photo courtesy of Amazon Studios

Hotel Transylvania: Transformania   (2022)

Rating: PG

Release Date: Available on the Amazon Prime platform on Friday, January 14, 2022.

Summary:  In Hotel Transylvania: Transformania, Van Helsing (voiced by Jim Gaffigan) has invented a ‘Monsterfication Ray’ that has gone haywire, and Drac (voiced by Brian Hull) and all his monster friends have been transformed into something horrible; humans.

What to Watch For: Selena Gomez, Fran Drescher, Molly Shannon, Keegan-Michael Key, David Spade, Steve Buscemi, and Kathryn Hahn make up the voice cast of this animated film.

Word on the Street: This is the fourth film in the Hotel Transylvania series, which started in 2012.

My Take: I have become a fan of Selena Gomez after her starring role as Mabel Mora on the hit Hulu series Only Murders in the Building.

Drive My Car
Photo courtesy of Janus Films

Drive My Car   (2021)

Rating: N/R

Release Date: In select theaters on Friday, January 14, 2022.

Summary:  Drive My Car is about Yûsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), a well-known actor and director who is happily married to his screenwriter wife, Oto (Reika Kirishima), when she suddenly dies. Two years after her death, Yûsuke is asked to put on a play in a town across the country. And he is given a driver (Tôko Miura) to transport him from his remote hotel to the rehearsal space.

On the long trips, Yûsuke listens to a tape that Oto recorded for him before her death. And it brings back old memories, both good and bad.

What to Watch For: The film has become a front-runner to win the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film but is also a possibility for being nominated for Best Picture.

Word on the Street: The Atlanta Film Critics Circle and the Southeastern Film Critics Association picked the film as its Best Foreign Language Film. It was just selected by the prestigious National Society of Film Critics as the Best Film of 2021.

My Take: Hidetoshi Nishijima did the voice of Honjo in one of my favorite Studio Ghibli films, the 2013 animated film The Wind Rises.

Belle
Photo courtesy of Hulu

Belle   (2021)

Rating: PG

Release Date: In select theaters on Friday, January 14, 2022.

Summary:  Belle is an animated film about Suzu, a 17-year-old shy high-school student living in a rural village with her father. One day, she enters ‘U,’ a virtual world that has over 5 billion members on the Internet.

In the ‘U,’ she becomes Belle, a world-famous singer. And she embarks on a journey of discovery, challenges, and love that will change her forever.

What to Watch For: This animated film is from award-winning filmmaker Mamoru Hosoda, whose 2018 film Mirai was nominated for an Oscar as Best Animated Feature.

Word on the Street: The film is up for five Annie Awards, given by the Los Angeles branch of the International Animated Film Association.

My Take: I am a big fan of Mamoru Hosoda’s work, especially the fantastic 2006 film The Girl Who Leapt Through Time.

Sex Appeal
Photo courtesy of Hulu

Sex Appeal   (2022)

Rating: N/A

Release Date: Available on the Hulu platform on Friday, January 14, 2022.

Summary:  Sex Appeal is the story of Avery Hansen-White (Mika Abdalla), a super-smart young woman, who has overachieved in everything during her school years. The problem is Avery knows nothing about sex. And her long-distance boyfriend wants to take their relationship to the next level.

To prepare, Avery sets out to master her sexuality. And she employs her oldest and closest friend, Larson (Jake Short), to help her. Avery is about to learn that there is more to love and relationships than just research and mechanics.

What to Watch For: Paris Jackson, who plays Danica McCollum, a classmate that tries to give Avery guidance on sex, is, of course, the daughter of legendary singer Michael Jackson.

Word on the Street: Jake Short is best known for his role as Fletcher Quimby on the Disney Channel series A.N.T. Farm.

My Take: This is the first trailer I have watched on IMDB where I had to put in my age in order to see it.

This House
Photo courtesy of Netflix

The House   (2022)

Rating: TV-MA

Release Date: Available on the Netflix platform on Friday, January 14, 2022.

Summary:  The House is an eccentric, dark comedy about a house, told through three surreal tales of the individuals who made it their home through the years.

What to Watch For: The anthology is directed by some of the leading filmmakers in independent stop-motion animation: Emma De Swaef and Marc James Roels (This Magnificent Cake!), Niki Lindroth von Bahr (Something to Remember), and Paloma Baeza (Poles Apart).

Word on the Street: The voice cast includes Helena Bonham Carter, Paul Kaye, Will Sharpe, Mathew Goode, Claudie Blakey, and Ayesha Antoine.

My Take: I love stop-motion animation, so you know I will be watching this film.

Italian Studies
Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

Italian Studies   (2021)

Rating: N/R

Release Date: In select theaters on Friday, January 14, 2022.

Summary: Italian Studies is about a young writer, Alina (Vanessa Kirby), who has suddenly lost her memory. Alina is now adrift in NYC, not knowing who she is or how she got there. She connects with a group of teenagers that promise to help her find her way home. But Alina has no way to know if what she is experiencing is real or imagined.

What to Watch For: Vanessa Kirby is best known for portraying Princess Margaret in the TV series The Crown.

Word on the Street: The film is from award-winning filmmaker Adam Leon, whose 2012 movie Gimme the Loot was a huge hit at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

My Take: I am interested in watching this film after seeing Vanessa Kirby in the role of The White Widow in the 2018 film Mission: Impossible – Fallout.

The Velvet Queen
Photo courtesy of Oscilloscope Films

The Velvet Queen   (2021)

Rating: N/A

Release Date: In select theaters on Friday, January 14, 2022.

Summary:  The Velvet Queen is a documentary about Vincent Munier, one of the world’s greatest wildlife photographers, who takes novelist Sylvain Tesson (In the Forest of Siberia) on a journey in the Tibetan plateau in search of one of the rarest big cats on the planet, the snow leopard.

What to Watch For: The film won the Best Documentary Feature at the 2021 Santa Fe Independent Film Festival and was a nominee for the Golden Eye Award at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

Word on the Street: This is the first feature film for co-director Vincent Munier, who has appeared in numerous nature documentaries on French TV.

My Take: One of my favorite animals is the snow leopard, an incredibly rare and endangered animal.

What New Movies Are You Planning to Watch This Week?

And those are your new releases for the week of January 10 – January 16, 2022! In our comment section below, let us know what new movies you are excited to see this week!

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