As our world becomes increasingly horrifying in new and unfathomable ways, there is no better time than now for horror to help us seek out a distraction from them.

Unfortunately, this January’s releases have not provided as helpful of a distraction as I had hoped for — except for one film from one of my favorite directors that presented a fresh take on the traditional haunted house story.
“The Damned”
January serves as the perfect time for a winter-set horror movie like “The Damned” to come out. While it is one of the first horror films to be released this year, it is far from being the greatest one.
Odessa Young gives a solid performance as a community leader whose tough survival choices provoke an ominous spirit, and the film does manage to tug on a few thematic threads regarding the powerful grip of superstitions and self-preservation which I found interesting.
At just under 90 minutes long, “The Damned” rushes through a lot of beats that might have felt more impactful if they had moved at a slower pace — anything gruesome or scary happens either just a bit too fast or a bit too late in the film for it to have any real impact.
Afflicted further by an ending that nearly deflates everything that preceded it, I was entertained by the frigid setting of this movie. However, there isn’t much else for me to take away from it that would give it an edge over better folk horror fare.
“Wolf Man”
When “The Invisible Man” came out in early 2020, I was stunned by how well Leigh Whannell — who had already won me over with his work on “Saw” and “Insidious” — managed to juxtapose a classic monster with current issues like gaslighting.
Much to my surprise, Whannell’s approach to werewolf horror with “Wolf Man” lacks any of the intensity or timeliness that his prior films possess. Instead, the film came across as lethargic rather than frightening.
While impressive at first, it quickly becomes evident that the gnarly body horror elements that the film hinges upon are doing a lot of work to cover up the film’s absence of scares.
This makes it even worse when the final creature design is as disappointing as it is.
Both Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner — often the best parts of even bad movies — are unable to elevate the material they are given to work with here as their performances are completely stifled by the film’s awkward dialogue and subpar stakes.
Whatever “Wolf Man” is trying to say about modern-day anxieties surrounding parenthood or passing down trauma fails to transform into anything meaningful.
By the time the film ends, it merely resembles an animal waiting to be put out of its misery.
“Presence”
Finally haunting theaters a year after its Sundance Film Festival premiere, Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence” is less of a horror film and more of a supernatural drama. Still, the innovative form through which it unfolds is still eerie and exciting to watch.
By framing this narrative entirely through a ghost’s point of view, Soderbergh — who steps behind the camera as per usual — gets a lot of mileage out of determining what the viewer is and isn’t privy to when it comes to witnessing the tragic disintegration of a family.
The film falters a bit, however, when Soderbergh’s experimental directing style and writer David Koepp’s dialogue clash with each other. Although this dynamic proves that the movie has more on its mind than just a great concept, quite a few over-scripted moments hold it back from excellence.
While “Presence” bristles against the mold of a classic horror movie, its unique perspective on a ghost story shows that Soderbergh still knows how to think outside of the box nearly forty years into his career.
As January comes to a close, I’m eager to see what the rest of 2025 has in store for the genre.