December is a very quiet month for VOD (Video on Demand) and digital releases. Of this month’s titles, only Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, Trolls Band Together, and Killers of the Flower Moon are widely known. Although the premise of It’s a Wonderful Knife is so amusing that it seems likely to draw both horror and comedy fans.
The rest of December’s VOD titles are either experimental films or low-budget horror flicks that didn’t make much of an impact in theaters. New VOD arrivals aren’t cheap, but they do tend to be less expensive than buying two or more movie tickets if you are planning a night out with your friends or loved ones. Sometimes, it just makes more financial sense to stay in and watch a new movie from the comfort of home.
Read on for our updated list of what’s new on VOD and digital in December 2023. If you decide to rent or buy any of these titles, you should be able to find them at the major digital outlets, including Prime Video, Apple TV, Vudu, and Google Play.
It’s a Wonderful Knife (2023)
Christmas horror has been a tradition for decades, but never quite like this. As the title implies, It’s a Wonderful Knife mixes slasher horror with the general idea behind the Christmas classic, It’s a Wonderful Life. Jane Widdop stars as Winnie Carruthers, a young woman who came face-to-face with a serial killer known as The Angel, and ended his reign of terror.
One year later, Winnie is so severely depressed that she wishes that she had never been born. Suddenly, Winnie finds herself in an alternate timeline where she didn’t stop the Angel and people keep getting killed. Not even Winnie’s parents, David (Joel McHale) and Judy Carruthers (Erin Boyes), know who she is. To make matters worse, Winnie is the only one who knows that the Angel is Henry Waters (Justin Long), the disturbingly cheerful mayor of Angel Falls.
Release Date: December 1
You can rent or purchase It’s a Wonderful Knife on Prime Video and other digital outlets.
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
There are plenty of dark chapters in American history, and Killers of the Flower Moon is shedding light on crimes that took place over a century ago. In the film, the Osage tribe of Native Americans became wealthy thanks to the massive amount of oil on their lands. William King Hale (Robert De Niro) can’t stand to see that happen, because he wants that oil for himself. So Hale sets in motion a deadly plan to exterminate the Osage and steal their land.
Hale’s nephew, Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), is both a pawn and complicit in his uncle’s plans. Ernest is also married to an Osage woman, Mollie Kyle (Lily Gladstone), which puts his loyalty to his uncle in question.
Release Date: December 5
You can rent or purchase Killers of the Flower Moon on digital outlets.
Lord of Misrule (2023)
Although it’s not a Christmas story, Lord of Misrule does offer horror fans something to watch in December. Tuppence Middleton stars as Rachel Holland, the new vicar in Burrow, an English village that may be more into its pagan rituals than its Christian rites. When Rachel’s ten-year-old daughter, Grace (Evie Templeton), is named Harvest Angel, Rachel and her husband, Henry (Matt Stokoe) barely bat an eye.
But when Grace goes missing, Rachel’s panic is more than understandable. Especially since the local pagan cultists, seemingly led by an incredibly creepy guy named Jocelyn Abney (Ralph Ineson), taunt Rachel in her own church about the fate of her daughter. How far will Rachel go to save her child from these lunatics? Because the power of prayer won’t be enough.
Release Date: December 8
You can rent or purchase Lords of Misrule on digital outlets.
Divinity (2023)
Set aside any preconceived notions that you have about Divinity because this is a deeply strange movie that doesn’t take place in a reality that resembles our own. Writer and director Eddie Alcazar and producer Steven Soderbergh appear to be going for an art house approach, with a film shot entirely in black and white. And in this world, humanity’s decline may only be stopped by a serum called Divinity.
Sterling Pierce (Scott Bakula) created Divinity for the good of all mankind, but that benevolent philosophy doesn’t seem to have rubbed off on his son, Jaxxon Pierce (Stephen Dorff). To save this world, someone else must either seize control of Divinity or destroy it.
Release Date: December 12
You can rent or purchase Divinity on digital outlets.
Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (2023)
Will Taylor Swift fans shell out more big bucks to see Taylor Swift: The Era Tour on-demand just a few weeks after its theatrical run? Of course they will. The Swifties are a passionate bunch, and Swift herself is very media savvy. That’s one of the reasons why the on-demand version of the concert will include three songs that weren’t in theaters. So it’s a more complete look at one of the most popular concert tours of all time.
Release Date: December 13
You can rent or purchase Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour on Prime Video and other digital outlets.
The Delinquents (2023)
The Delinquents features a moral dilemma that most will never face. A lowly bank teller named Morán (Daniel Elías) discovers that his colleague, Román (Esteban Bigliardi), has successfully stolen $650,000 from their employer. Román not only doesn’t deny his crime, he’s willing to turn himself in and do time for it. With a catch, of course.
Román wants Morán to hide the stolen money during his incarceration, and in return, he’ll be able to keep half of it for himself. That’s a lot of money, and people have betrayed each other for far less. Can either Morán or Román truly trust each other when the stakes are this high?
Release Date: December 15
You can rent or purchase The Delinquents on digital outlets.
Four Daughters (2023)
Four Daughters is a difficult movie to explain, but we’ll do our best. It’s both a documentary and dramatization of a true story about a woman named Olfa and her four daughters. Two of the daughters became followers of radical Islam and completely disappeared from the lives of their family.
For the purposes of this film, two actresses will stand in for the missing daughters as Olfa and her two remaining daughters share the stories of their real lives and try to make sense of what happened to their family and why.
Release Date: December 19
You can rent or purchase Four Daughters on digital outlets.
Trolls Band Together (2023)
Would you believe that Trolls Band Together features former boy band member Justin Timberlake playing a troll who was also in a boy band? Timberlake’s Branch was once in BroZone alongside his brothers John Dory (Eric André), Spruce (Daveed Diggs), Clay (Kid Cudi), and Floyd (Troye Sivan) until a bad breakup left the family estranged for years.
In the present, Floyd has been captured, and his life is in danger. So Branch and the love of his life, Poppy (Anna Kendrick), need to find the remaining members of BroZone and bring them together to save Floyd.
Release Date: December 19
You can rent or purchase Trolls Band Together on digital outlets.
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