Searchlight Pictures Announces New Release Dates For 'Antlers', 'Nightmare Alley', 'The Night House', And 'The Eyes Of Tammy Faye'

Last year obliterated movie release date plans, and as we begin 2021 there's still some question of what films will open when – and where. For now, the majority of the studios are holding out hope for the return of theatrical releases – especially Disney. Sure, they have streaming services Disney+ and Hulu, but they're not ready to abandon the theatrical experience just yet.

Case in point: Disney-owned Searchlight Pictures, formerly Fox Searchlight, has released a line-up of new theatrical release dates. The new Searchlight Pictures release dates include the horror flick The Night House, The Eyes of Tammy Faye with Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield, the Guillermo del Toro-produced Antlers, and the Guillermo del Toro-directed Nightmare Alley.

The Night House, a horror film directed by David Bruckner and starring Rebecca Hall, Sarah Goldberg, Evan Jonigkeit, Stacy Martin, and Vondie Curtis Hall, will arrive in theaters on July 16, 2021. The film follows "a widow (Rebecca Hall) who begins to uncover her recently deceased husband's disturbing secrets." I caught The Night House at Sundance in 2020, and found it very effective despite some messy storytelling. I'm kind of surprised Searchlight is gung-ho on a theatrical release for this, as it seems like the small type of horror movie destined for streaming.

Then there's The Eyes of Tammy Faye, the latest from Michael Showalter. That will hit theaters on September 24, 2021, with a cast that includes Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Fredric Lehne, Mark Wystrach, Sam Jaeger, Gabriel Olds, and Vincent D'Onofrio. The movie is billed as "an intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. In the 1970s and 80s, Tammy Faye and her husband, Jim Bakker, rose from humble beginnings to create the world's largest religious broadcasting network and theme park, and were revered for their message of love, acceptance and prosperity. Tammy Faye was legendary for her indelible eyelashes, her idiosyncratic singing, and her eagerness to embrace people from all walks of life. However, it wasn't long before financial improprieties, scheming rivals, and scandal toppled their carefully constructed empire."

Antlers, a horror film directed by Scott Cooper and produced by Guillermo del Toro, was supposed to open in theaters on April 17, 2020. Then it got moved to February 2021. Now it has a new date: October 29, 2021. Starring Keri Russell, Jesse Plemons, Jeremy T. Thomas, Graham Greene, Scott Haze, Rory Cochrane, and Amy Madigan, Antlers follows "a middle-school teacher (Keri Russell) and her sheriff brother (Jesse Plemons)" who "become embroiled with her enigmatic student (Jeremy T. Thomas) whose dark secrets lead to terrifying encounters with a legendary ancestral creature who came before them."

Finally, Nightmare Alley, Guillermo del Toro's first feature film since he won the Oscar for The Shape of Water, is set to open in theaters on December 3, 2021. Nightmare Alley follows "an ambitious young carny (Bradley Cooper) with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words" who "hooks up with a female psychiatrist (Cate Blanchett) who is even more dangerous than he is." In addition to Cooper and Blanchett, the stacked cast features Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, David Strathairn.