Fear not, northern-hemispherians, spring is almost here, and to get you through the rest of the cold days are some tried-and-tested films. Whether you’re in the mood for some horror, romance, comedy or drama, we’ve got it all right here for you this month.

This month’s TTRs consists of: Blink Twice, IF, The Innocents, My Dead Friend Zoe, Presence, Red Rooms, The Watchers, We Live in Time, Wolf Man, and Your Monster.

Director: Zoë Kravitz
Writers: Zoë Kravitz, E.T. Feigenbaum
Cast: Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Alia Shawkat, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Liz Caribel Sierra, Levon Hawke, Trew Mullen, Geena Davis, Kyle MacLachlan

As debut films go, this wasn’t a bad one for writer/director/producer Zoë Kravitz, whom you may know more for her acting roles (The Batman, Mad Max: Fury Road, Fantastic Beasts, to name a few). Frida (Ackie) works as a cocktail waitress at an event hosted by disgraced billionaire Slater King (Tatum). As they hit it off, Slater invites Frida to spend a vacation on his private island with him, his friends, and other women they have invited. Pretty soon, Frida and the women come to find that the men have brought them to the island for more than they had agreed to. Kravitz’s film is certainly a great exposition on the way women are treated by many men, particularly men in power, and its attempt at producing a feminist message is admirable, but it is overshadowed by the slasher aspect and the comedy that comes from the men. It has decent shocks and surprises, but perhaps could have been a little deeper. Still, Kravitz is absolutely one to watch, behind the camera, for the future.

Director: John Krasinski
Writer: John Krasinski
Cast: Cailey Fleming, Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fiona Shaw, Steve Carell, Louis Gossett Jr., Alan Kim

The majority of filmmakers are adults, and the majority of the time, they are adults trying to capture the way films made them feel as kids, and the way life felt as kids. Krasinski’s IF is no different. Young girl Bea (Fleming) is dealing with the death of her mother and her father’s (Krasinski) upcoming heart surgery. While exploring the building where she is staying with her grandmother, she soon comes across Cal (Reynolds), a man who is trying to pair forgotten imaginary friends with new children, and Bea resolves to help him. It really is a sweet, heartfelt film, and many will relate to much of its events and themes. Fleming gives an amazing performance, guiding the audience through the film through her preteen eyes, eyes that are reluctantly leaving childhood behind. Krasinski’s performance is likely based on his own experience as a father, and it gives a grounding realism to his scenes with Fleming. Reynolds is mildly fun as Cal, often overshadowed by the voice performances (which also include Krasinki’s and Reynolds’s wives, Emily Blunt and Blake Lively, respectively), but has great chemistry with Fleming. IF is a beautful reminder of the highs and lows of life, no matter your age, and to hold on to that childlike imagination as much as we can.

Director: Eskil Vogt
Writer: Eskil Vogt
Cast: Rakel Lenora Fløttum, Alva Brynsmo Ramstad, Sam Ashraf, Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim, Ellen Dorrit Petersen, Morten Svartveit, Kadra Yusuf, Lisa Tønne

If the X-Men were a little less comic-booky and more realistic, The Innocents might be the result. Sisters Ida (Fløttum) and Anna (Ramstad), move to a new apartment building where they meet new friends Aisha (Asheim) and Ben (Ashraf). It soon comes to light that Anna, Aisha and Ben all have telekinetic powers, powers that are strengthened when they are near each other, something that is particularly powerful for Anna, as she has non-verbal autism. However, something has always been off with Ben, and the girls soon find they need to protect themselves when he starts to abuse his powers. It is such a well-done film. The use of the childrens’ powers is done rather subtly, instead focusing on the effect it has on their personalities and moral understanding, yet the threat is always bubbling under the surface. It works to create a horror/thriller that isn’t forced down our throats, but instead assumes the audience is one with a modicum of intelligence. It also creates depth by varying the family situations for each child, informing the way they deal with their respective telekinesis. The performances of the young actors are very good, and if ever there were a film that needs a sequel, it is this one, particularly when it appears that other children around the main foursome are susceptible to the supernatural power, too.

Director: Kyle Hausmann-Stokes
Writer: Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, Cherish Chen, A.J. Bermudez
Cast: Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris, Morgan Freeman

If there’s been one constant with the human race since time immemorial, it’s war. As a result of the experience of war and anything of the like, trauma and mental illness is rife amongst veterans and serving men and women. In My Dead Friend Zoe, Merit (Martin-Green), a veteran from a family of veterans, is dealing with the loss of her best friend Zoe (Morales). Zoe is quite literally haunting Merit, and although Merit tries to return to a “normal” life while attending compulsory therapy, her potential happiness tends to get thwarted by Zoe’s presence. Hausmann-Stokes has managed to channel his own apparent experiences into this film, exploring the repercussions and trauma of a veteran’s war experiences, and it really is an eye-opener for civilians. Merit’s grief is also highly relatable, and the character’s need to find light in the darkness is inspiring. The performances are fantastic, particularly from Martin-Green, and it really is an important film that feels like it has been a long time coming.

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: David Koepp
Cast: Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland, Julia Fox

On moving to a new house, a slightly dysfunctional family of four come to find that they are sharing their space with an unknown presence that interferes with their lives, but not necessarily maliciously. If you’re familiar with Soderbergh’s work, you’ll likely sniff him out from the off, whether you know this is one of his films or not. The cinematography and framing screams Soderbergh, as does the depth of the writing and the characters, and the feeling that we the audience are playing a part within the film. It’s a little predictable at times, and rather than feeling like we can imagine what could come next, we are left with some loose ends that would have been nice to have tied up. However, it is paced well and will keep you intrigued to the very end, and the performances are engaging.

Director: Pascal Plante
Writer: Pascal Plante
Cast: Juliette Gariépy, Laurie Babin, Elisabeth Locas, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, Natalie Tannous, Pierre Chagnon

Life is weird, and weird things and people happen. Red Rooms is a testament to that. Fashion model Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) becomes fascinated with a murder case in which a man is accused of the torture and murder of three teenage girls. It’s a fascination that soon becomes an obsession as Kelly-Anne continues to show up to the trial in person and use her computer hacking skills to dive down some serious rabbit holes. It’s a great psychological piece on the obsession with true crime and regular people trying to turn detective, whether that be for the better or worse, and is both fascinating and terrifying at the same time. Kelly-Anne’s self-destructive slide from casual observer to near-partaker in the murder case is fantastically done and paced extremely well. There’s a lot of depth to her, and it makes for an interesting POV for the murder case. While the details of the murder are gruesome, everything that surrounds it is nearly just as gruesome in its own perverted way. With excellent performances, particuarly from Gariépy as Kelly-Anne, this is one for the crime documentary watchers that fear their own obsessions.

Director: Ishana Night Shyamalan
Writer: Ishana Night Shyamalan
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Olwen Fouéré, Oliver Finnegan, Georgina Campbell, Alistair Brammer, John Lynch

The Watched (The Watchers in the US) is the writing and directorial debut of Ishana Night Shyamalan, daughter of famed horror/thriller/supernatural filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan. In the story, Mina (Fanning), a fairly troubled American woman living in Ireland, finds herself trapped in the woods with three other people. They are unable to leave due to the Watchers, unknown entities that are unable to come out in the daylight and do not let anyone leave the woods once they are lost within. In much the same way as many of her father’s works, Shyamalan’s story is predictable right down to its twist, and is overall quite monotonous. The antagonists are fairly interesting but not at all used to their full potential. Mina’s backstory doesn’t really mesh with the situation she finds herself in, and many of the performances lack any real heft.

Director: John Crowley
Writer: Nick Payne
Cast: Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, Grace Delaney, Lee Braithwaite, Aoife Hinds, Adam James, Douglas Hodge

This is one of those films that would be advisable to watch in a strong headspace, as it features some tough scenes . Tobias (Garfield) and Almut (Pugh) find their lives irrevocably changed upon their meeting. Together, they experience the highs and lows of marriage, parenthood and illness, figuring out how to deal with their problems together while indulging in their happier times. The film is non-linear in its framing, which at first is a little jarring but soon becomes expected and easier to follow. Garfield and Pugh have wonderful chemistry, which makes following the journeys of Tobias and Almut, both independently and as a couple, a bittersweet experience. It is likely to resonate with many people who have been through similar events as the characters, but you’d have to be pretty hardened to not feel some emotion as the story progresses and we get to know Tobias and Almut. It’s a lovely if hardhitting story, extremely humanistic and very real.

Director: Leigh Whannell
Writer: Leigh Whannell, Corbett Tuck,
Cast: Christopher Abbot, Julia Garner, Matilda Firth

Once upon a time, in 1941, cinema-going audiences were introduced to The Wolf Man, a story about a man who becomes a werewolf. We’ve had many more werewolves stories since, and even attempts and remakes of the 1941 film here and there, and now we have its latest iteration. Blake (Abbot) heads to his childhood home with his wife and daughter after his missing father is officially declared dead. Not long before they arrive, they encounted a strange humanoid figure that chases them to the house, locking them in a deadly battle for the night. Whannell is quite well-known for his horror flicks as a writer and/or director, many of them being pretty much classics now (the Saw and Insidious franchises, for example), but this one is probably not going to be rated highly on his roster. Much of the action happens quite soon in the movie, leaving it to taper off for the rest of the time. The werewolf aspects seem less wolfy and more like a different kind of supernatural entity. It retains the skeleton of The Wolf Man premise, but goes off in its own less entertaining direction.

Director: Caroline Lindy
Writer: Caroline Lindy
Cast: Melissa Barrera, Tommy Dewey, Edmund Donovan, Meghann Fahy, Kayla Foster

As rom-coms go, this one is great on both sides of the genres it straddles. Stage actress Laura (Barrera) is dealing with a cancer diagnosis and the subsequent break up with her self-absorbed boyfriend Jacob (Donovan). She soon meets Monster (Dewey), who has been living in her closet. As Laura and Monster get closer, she worms her way in to the play written by Jacob, with a leading role written for and based on Laura, and tries to work through her emotions, resulting in some hilarious and deadly consequences. The film comes across as a sort of modern Beauty and the Beast, if the Beast was never a prince and Belle was less confident in herself. Monster is performed so well by Dewey, with much of the dialogue being funny rather than cheesey, something that could have happened with a lesser actor. His chemistry with Barrera goes a long way to make that humour, as well as making the audience root for them both, even if things might not go the way we think. It’s funny, tragic and weird, but most of all relatable, in a bizarre kind of way.