ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — When it comes to new movies, January is better known as “Dump-uary.” Typically, the first month of the year is a wasteland for moviegoers yearning for big blockbusters or prestige awards fare. The good thing is, that invariably means there will be room on the marquee for a few smaller movies to sneak onto the big screen.

This year, the Dumpuary gems are a trio of horror flicks: “The Plague,” Charlie Polinger’s body horror movie about bullying at a water polo camp, “Primate,” Johannes Roberts’ gory chimpanzee slasher and “We Bury the Dead,” a thoughtful zombie movie starring “Star Wars” alum Daisy Ridley. Read our reviews below.

“THE PLAGUE” (2025, 95 min., directed by Charlie Polinger)

(Courtesy: Independent Film Company) “The Plague” sets its tale of terror at a water polo camp.

I love horror movies. From the gnarliest gore to the most atmospheric slow-burners, I love ’em all, and at this point, it takes a lot to rattle me. “The Plague” is the exception. It might be the scariest movie I’ve ever seen.

“The Plague” is somehow Charlie Polinger’s debut feature, but the director clearly knows what he’s doing. “The Plague” follows an awkward 13-year-old kid navigating bullying at a water polo summer camp, and combines hair-raising sound design, sick body horror and a confident handle on prepubescent cruelty to create an absolute nightmare of an hour-and-a-half.

Watching “The Plague” feels like drowning. I recommend checking it out with headphones in, if possible. The film is scored to a discomfiting chorus of moans and rapid breathing, which would be eerie enough, but its oneiric underwater sequences had a way of submerging the sound that made me feel like I was suffocating. “The Plague” is tense, claustrophobic and inescapable, which is, in fact, exactly what a bad week at summer camp is when you’re 13.

The movie stars Everett Blunck, who does great work as the protagonist of the piece, but it is the smarmy, satanically cherubic Kayo Martin who steals the show. Though set in the early aughts, Martin’s bully feels wholly modern, sharing a lot of common DNA with last year’s “Adolescence” in its examination of toxic, shameless youth. There just happens to be a little more water polo and a couple more oozing rashes in this take on the subject matter.

Rating: 4/5

“PRIMATE” (2025, 89 min., directed by Johannes Roberts)

(Courtesy: Paramount Pictures) Benjamin Cheng, Victoria Wyant, Jessica Alexander, Johnny Sequoyah and Miguel Torres Umba as “Ben” in “Primate.”

In the first five minutes of “Primate,” a guy gets his face ripped off by a rapid chimpanzee. If that doesn’t sound like your thing, the rest of “Primate” is probably not for you. However, if that tease makes you froth at the mouth like said rabid chimp, you are in for a chimpan-treat.

“Primate” is a lean, mean slasher about Ben, a beloved pet turned sadistic killer via a bite from a rabid mongoose. The bulk of the movie follows Ben terrorizing a group of 20-somethings vacationing in Hawaii. While some modern slashers would make an effort to flesh out those characters before turning them into piles of monkey-bitten goo, “Primate” is refreshingly retro, eschewing dramatic arcs and complex narratives for quick, nasty kills.

The closest thing to real characters in the film are the protagonist, Lucy, played by relative newcomer Johnny Sequoyah, and her father, Adam, played by Academy Award-winning Deaf actor Troy Kotsur. American Sign Language plays a major role in “Primate,” serving a practical purpose for the characters, who are able to communicate in chimp-proof silence, and showcasing Deaf culture as an organic part of American life, which is always an appreciated mission, even in a gory monkey movie.

Trust me: It cannot be overstated how violent “Primate” is. The film is unsparingly gross, and more than a little tonally unbalanced. Are we supposed to laugh at the kills, or is the characters’ situation supposed to be totally distressing? “Primate” isn’t sure.

Nonetheless, for the first two weeks of 2026, “Primate” makes a strong bid for best movie of the year.

So far.

Probably not by December. That would be bananas.

Rating: 3.5/5

“WE BURY THE DEAD” (2024, 95 min., directed by Zak Hilditch)

(Courtesy: Vertical) Daisy Ridley in “We Bury the Dead.”

Daisy Ridley has had an interesting career. The actor had her breakout in 2015, when she starred as Rey, the Jedi heroine of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” After that tremendously high profile trilogy, Ridley has spent the last half decade in relative obscurity, making one or two small films a year. However, the movies she has chosen to make are predominantly pretty cool thrillers, “We Bury the Dead” included.

I want to shout out “The Marsh King’s Daughter,” which came out in 2023, made $3 million at the worldwide box office and then sank into the marshes of anonymous streaming tripe. It’s fun!

“We Bury the Dead” is significantly less fun, but it is a thoughtful, meditative take on the zombie movie, and handsomely shot, too. Ridley stars as a woman attempting to find her husband after the United States accidentally blows up the Eastern coast of Tasmania, an explosion which inadvertently creates a bunch of zombies, whose primary undead characteristic is a newfound love for grinding their teeth. Teeth-grinding is a scary noise, and filmmaker Zak Hilditch knows it.

The film, set months after the explosion, follows Ridley’s character, Ava, working on a body retrieval detail for the Australian government. But, as the zombies wake up, old memories resurface for Ava, and “We Bury the Dead” toggles between a good old fashioned Aussie road movie and a frustratingly stale metaphor for crumbling marriage. At least it has ideas, which is an indicator of more brains than most zombie flicks boast. The closest comp to “We Bury the Dead,” in fact, is the fantastic “28 Years Later,” the sequel to which, unluckily for its competition here, comes out this weekend.

Rating: 3/5