12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021’s Genre Sleeper Hits

12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021’s Genre Sleeper Hits

Even though no one will actually be in Park City, Utah to see it, the 2021 Sundance Film Festival is still happening. It’s taking place mostly online from January 28-February 3 and anyone can go, if they buy tickets and passes. Those go on sale January 7 so, in the build-up to that, we went through the schedule and picked out 12 very interesting sounding genre films that we’re excited to check out.

If Sundance tradition holds, many of these could end up being some of 2021’s most buzzed-about hits (for example, last year Possessor, His House, and Save Yourselves all premiered at Sundance).

[referenced id=”1660973″ url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2020/12/the-12-best-and-6-worst-genre-movies-of-2020/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/30/merlin_168171219_f7e3c49d-1a6f-4ec8-bf4c-a8fe5a7d9eb4-superJumbo-e1609291716864-300×169.jpg” title=”The 12 Best (And 6 Worst) Genre Movies of 2020″ excerpt=”Here’s how weird 2020 was for movies: Unless you saw something in January or February (like The Invisible Man, Birds of Prey, or Bloodshot), there’s a good chance you didn’t see a movie in a movie theatre for the entire year. A whole year without going to the movies. Frankly,…”]

Prisoners of the Ghostland

Photo: Sundance Film Festival
Photo: Sundance Film Festival

The English language debut of director Sion Sono follows a criminal played by Nicolas Cage who has five days to rescue a mob boss’s daughter by traversing some kind of supernatural plain. Um. Hell to the yes on this one.

In the Earth

Photo: Sundance Film Festival
Photo: Sundance Film Festival

Director Ben Wheatley is known for intense films like High Rise and Free Fire. For his latest, he follows two people trying to find a hidden research base after a global apocalypse.

How it Ends

Photo: Sundance Film Festival
Photo: Sundance Film Festival

An asteroid is going to hit Earth. It’s over. We’re done. But on the way to the last party of existence, a woman has her car stolen and is forced to traverse Los Angeles on foot, while dealing with her past in the form of her younger self.

Eight for Silver

Photo: Sundance Film Festival
Photo: Sundance Film Festival

A werewolf movie set in the 19th century. That got into Sundance. Pretty much that’s all we need to hear or know.

Censor

Photo: Sundance Film Festival
Photo: Sundance Film Festival

A film censor who takes pride in not allowing audiences to see things she deems inappropriate is assigned a horror film that eerily, and not coincidentally, resembles her actual life.

Cryptozoo

Photo: Sundance Film Festival
Photo: Sundance Film Festival

From Dash Shaw, the director of My Entire High School, Sinking into the Sea, comes this latest animated film about a group of people who have to decide how to deal with finding a hidden space where mythical creatures live.

 

Mayday

Photo: Sundance Film Festival
Photo: Sundance Film Festival

Randomly transported to an alternate dimension, a store clerk finds other women trapped in a never-ending, violent war against men. She joins up and becomes a sharpshooter before realising things aren’t what they seem.

The Blazing World

Photo: Sundance Film Festival
Photo: Sundance Film Festival

A woman traumatised after seeing her sister die has to travel into her own imagination to deal with her fears and get rid of them before she dies by suicide.

Strawberry Mansion

Photo: Sundance Film Festival
Photo: Sundance Film Festival

Be careful what you dream about, it could literally cost you. That’s the plot of Strawberry Mansion, which follows a man who audits people’s subconsciousness for tax purposes. On one assignment though, he finds more than he bargained for: love.

A Glitch in the Matrix

Photo: Sundance Film Festival
Photo: Sundance Film Festival

A new documentary by Rodney Ascher explores whether the world we’re living in could actually be a simulation, much like the world of The Matrix. Watch the trailer below.

[referenced id=”1659075″ url=”https://gizmodo.com.au/2020/12/are-we-living-in-the-matrix-a-new-documentary-tries-to-find-out/” thumb=”https://gizmodo.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/17/mvdw4dmfygqkhe0xfzsv-300×169.jpg” title=”Are We Living in the Matrix? A New Documentary Tries to Find Out” excerpt=”After a trip to the dentist, viral superstar David said it best: “Is this real life?” Most of us assume: yes. Of course, the reality we are living in is exactly that. Reality. Others go the other way. They believe everything around us is a simulation, much like was imagined…”]

 

Knocking

Photo: Sundance Film Festival
Photo: Sundance Film Festival

We’ve all heard weird noises in our homes. But what if it didn’t stop and no one else could hear it but you? That’s what happens to the lead character in Knocking, who becomes obsessed with finding out what the noise is and why only she can hear it.

The Pink Cloud

Photo: Sundance Film Festival
Photo: Sundance Film Festival

In this Brazilian feature debut, a global pandemic has hit and, due to unforeseen circumstances, two people who just met are forced to live together. Apparently, there’s some sci-fi twist too because otherwise, filmmaker Iuli Gerbase is telling an all too familiar story for 2020.