Working on Guy’s Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare
Subtitles
  • Off
  • English

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

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

We may earn a commission from links on this page.
Start Slideshow
Are these the movies we’ll be talking about this time next year?
Are these the movies we’ll be talking about this time next year?
Photo: Sundance

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.

Advertisement

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).

Advertisement
Previous Slide
Next Slide

2 / 14

Prisoners of the Ghostland

Prisoners of the Ghostland

Image for article titled 12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021's Genre Sleeper Hits
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.

Advertisement
Previous Slide
Next Slide

3 / 14

In the Earth

In the Earth

Image for article titled 12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021's Genre Sleeper Hits
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.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Previous Slide
Next Slide

4 / 14

How it Ends

How it Ends

Image for article titled 12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021's Genre Sleeper Hits
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.

Advertisement
Previous Slide
Next Slide

5 / 14

Eight for Silver

Eight for Silver

Image for article titled 12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021's Genre Sleeper Hits
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.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Previous Slide
Next Slide

Censor

Image for article titled 12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021's Genre Sleeper Hits
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.

Advertisement
Previous Slide
Next Slide

7 / 14

Cryptozoo

Cryptozoo

Image for article titled 12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021's Genre Sleeper Hits
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.

Advertisement

 

Advertisement
Previous Slide
Next Slide

Mayday

Image for article titled 12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021's Genre Sleeper Hits
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 realizing things aren’t what they seem.

Advertisement
Previous Slide
Next Slide

9 / 14

The Blazing World

The Blazing World

Image for article titled 12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021's Genre Sleeper Hits
Photo: Sundance Film Festival

A woman traumatized 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.

Advertisement
Previous Slide
Next Slide

10 / 14

Strawberry Mansion

Strawberry Mansion

Image for article titled 12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021's Genre Sleeper Hits
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.

Advertisement
Previous Slide
Next Slide

11 / 14

A Glitch in the Matrix

A Glitch in the Matrix

Image for article titled 12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021's Genre Sleeper Hits
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.

Advertisement

 

Advertisement
Previous Slide
Next Slide

12 / 14

Knocking

Knocking

Image for article titled 12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021's Genre Sleeper Hits
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.

Advertisement
Previous Slide
Next Slide

13 / 14

The Pink Cloud

The Pink Cloud

Image for article titled 12 Intriguing Sundance Movies That Could Become 2021's Genre Sleeper Hits
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.

Advertisement

For more, make sure you’re following us on our Instagram @io9dotcom.

Advertisement