The Best Movies to Ever Release in January

January is the month films go to die. As Oscar hopefuls get their wide releases, studios begin dumping out the movies they just don’t have much faith in. However, once every so often, January finds greatness. Here are the best movies to release in January.

10. 27 Dresses

There is an art to a great rom-com, but it didn’t seem like 27 Dresses had that art when Fox unceremoniously dumped it in January of 2008 (the greatest January in film history) despite featuring the red-hot Katherine Heigl. Critics were pretty savage to it, but audiences did turn up. However, its inclusion on this list above some other critically acclaimed January films is because of the movie’s legs and the fact that it feels far more like a January movie than those movies.

Despite being full of cliches, 27 Dresses has stood the test of time and is now, at the very least, remembered as an outright rom-com classic. Consider the sheer amount of rom-coms that come and go with no one remembering them at all, and that’s a pretty impressive feat.

9. Before Sunrise

Speaking of higher-quality films, Before Sunrise may be the best one on this list, especially when considering it spawned two sequels. A rumination on young love and relationships, Before Sunrise takes viewers through a single night when Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) meet on a train and then disembark in Vienna.

Released in January of 1995, the plot is minimalistic and Hawke and Delpy deliver performances that are nearly impossible to forget. The only reason the movie isn’t higher on the list is that its dream-like study of self-discovery through otherness feels, in retrospect, incomplete without the other two films in the trilogy that transform the original into a meditation on love, loss, and aging.

8. From Dusk Till Dawn

From Dusk Till Dawn is a film that just wouldn’t be released in January anymore. A movie led by George Clooney, written by Quentin Tarantino, and directed by Robert Rodriguez would be blockbuster summer or holiday fare now, not dumped at the start of the year. Yet, at that time, those names didn’t mean as much, and a grindhouse-style vampire flick taking place in a strip club basically screams January where it can fade away into cult film history.

Instead, From Dusk Till Dawn is now a classic. A bloody, campy, tour-de-force for everyone involved, it’s arguably Rodriguez’s best movie. Tarintino’s tight screenplay shows off his expert understanding of the genre, and almost everyone in the film seems to get that it’s more than just your average low-budget vampire action flick.

7. Plane

Plane? Yes, Plane. The aptly named film about a plane that is forced to land on a tropical island controlled by gangs is on this list for two reasons. First, it is a surprisingly quality film despite its totally outlandish premise and the fact that it feels like they kept the screenplay’s draft title and never updated it. Carved down to the bare minimum of storyline to set up its plot and characters, the movie clips along fantastically with a surprisingly strong directorial style that ratchets up its low-budget action into something special.

Second is the fact that it stars Gerard Butler, a man who actually has become the human representation of January movies, even if most of his films aren’t released in the month. Not having Butler on this list would be downright negligent considering he has mastered the art of the mid-tier action film like no one else, and Plane is a fantastic way to get him on here.

6. Cloverfield

Probably the most successful found footage film to release that isn’t The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield might be the least January movie on this list. Backed by a clever marketing campaign that dripped details online during the early years of Internet sleuthing, by the time Cloverfield landed, it felt like the exact opposite of a dumped film. In fact, being released in January probably helped it to succeed given the lack of quality competition during the month.

That, of course, is all well and good for a film, but it wouldn’t have become a classic if it wasn’t any good. Taught and innovative, Cloverfield is also just a fantastic entry into the monster movie genre, and while its sequels (both first-quarter releases) are a bit hit or miss, they’re still unique and worth watching.

Related: Star Trek: Section 31 Should Probably Be Sectioned Off [Review]

5. Scanners (January 14, 1981)

Scanners is the earliest film on this list and was released as the January doldrums were just becoming a thing. However, it’s justified, as horror has become one of the mainstays of the January release schedule, and Scanners is an all-time classic.

The world’s true introduction to body-horror genius David Cronenberg, Scanners is part disturbing visual horror, part indie social commentary, and part thriller, making it a mix of genres that often find themselves dumped into the month of January. While not especially well received by critics at the time, it was an international hit and became a cult classic thanks to the rapidly growing video rental industry, where its disturbing box art drew the eyes of every ’80s kid roaming an aisle they shouldn’t.

4. Taken

And so we come to the true king of January, Liam Neeson. The actor has two features on this list and, since making Taken, has probably put out more “January” movies than any other working actor – for better or worse. In the case of Taken, it’s for the better.

Still one of the best “certain set of skills” old guy action movies ever made, Taken launched the entire genre when it exploded onto the screen and redefined Neeson’s career. This January had already delivered us a smash hit in Cloverfield, but Taken came on the last day of the month and said, “Hold my beer.” The film eventually landed a global box office of $226,837,760 and still holds up to this day as one of the best flip-it-on-and-watch movies in existence.

3. Waiting for Guffman

The impact of Christopher Guest on modern comedy probably can’t be overstated, but back in 1997, he had only directed one surreal comedy and was known simply as one of the writers and actors of This Is Spinal Tap. Hell, the term mockumentary wasn’t even truly born yet, so it should come as no surprise that Waiting for Guffman, a festival darling, was crammed into January because the studio had no idea what to do with it.

What the film turned out to be, however, was a comedy classic that established Guest as the leader of the mockumentary charge that eventually led to shows like The Office. Chock full of a stellar comedy cast that improvises most of the lines, the movie, about a community theater production, is hilarious to this day.

2. The Grey (January 27, 2012)

Only four years after Taken, The Grey brought Neeson back to January in a film about a lonely drifter having to survive a pack of wolves in the Alaskan wild. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the film was some Taken rip-off but set in the wild given the way the trailers promoted it, but it is an entirely different beast.

Director Joe Carnahan’s masterpiece (yes, I said masterpiece) is a survival thriller that focuses far more on the psychological than the physical, delivering one of Neeson’s best performances to date as it unwinds in brilliant and unsuspecting ways. There’s a world where a more confident studio, one not hellbent on trying to market this as the next Taken, releases The Grey as an awards contender instead of a January dump-off and sees Oscars because of it. If you haven’t seen The Grey, stop what you’re doing and go now.

1. Paddington 2

“It made me want to be a better man.”

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent uses this as a punchline, but it’s only funny because it’s true. There are few films, if any, as sincerely good in every aspect as Paddington 2. For those who have yet to be convinced to watch it because it’s a children’s movie about a talking bear or because it was released in January, just put all your hangups down and go. Let yourself enjoy things that are pure, simple, and good. There is nothing more January than learning to enjoy a movie you aren’t expecting to, and no film in history has delivered on that promise than Paddington 2.

And those are the best movies to ever release in January.