The bleak dead of winter is a time that tries movie lovers’ souls. It’s when over-hyped holiday blockbusters and Oscar-buzzed prestige pictures have settled in for their long winter runs. It’s when studios look to dump obvious turkeys, formulaic programmers and hard-to-market odd-goods on the cabin-fevered masses. It’s the traditional in-between season when studios are preoccupied with awards and seem to give short shrift to new releases.

But from now until the first inklings of spring, there are a indeed a handful of big-studio releases that promise a little heat to relieve the winter doldrums.

Here are a few “event pictures” that should feed our movie jones until April.

“Legion” (Friday). God is angry, and the Apocalypse is nigh in this thriller that sports Paul Bettany as a studly Archangel Michael, who appears at a greasy-spoon diner to say grace over a pregnant waitress whose baby is the only hope for mankind. First-time director Scott Stewart, former head of a cutting-edge FX company, promises awesomely celestial special-effects battles as legions of macho angels descend on Earth.

“The Wolfman” (Feb. 12). Universal Pictures mines its vaults to resurrect one of its most hair-raising monsters in this butched-up, retro retelling of the popular old folk tale. Benicio Del Toro plays a nobleman who returns to his ancestral land when he learns that his brother and many villagers have been fatally mauled by a nightmarish beast. With a classy cast that includes Anthony Hopkins and Emily Blunt and a reliable director in Joe Johnston (“Hidalgo”), this could be frightfully good.

“Shutter Island” (Feb. 19). Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio reunite in this thriller about a psychotic killer (Emily Mortimer) who disappears from a fortress-like mental institution and the U.S. Marshals (DeCaprio and Mark Ruffalo) who come to track her down. Skeptics wonder why this big-name, big-budget project was relegated to the off-season, but fans of Scorsese shudder with anticipation at what the master will do with this tantalizing formula.

“Alice in Wonderland” (March 5). Who better to translate the crazy-weird visions of Lewis Carroll to the big screen than Tim Burton? The eccentric, hyper-artistic Burton imagines a 19-year old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) returning to the magical world of her childhood storybook adventure and trying to put an end to the Red Queen’s reign of terror.

“Green Zone” (March 12). Matt Damon reunites with his “Bourne Supremacy” and “Bourne Ultimatum” director Paul Greengrass in this political pot-boiler about a U.S. Army officer who goes rogue in search of weapons of mass destruction in an unstable Middle Eastern region. These two certainly know how to pump up the action and maintain stomach-knotting tension.

These high-profile releases should deliver the goods. And for dedicated movie lovers willing to search the far corners of the multiplex, a few limited-release movies (such as “Frozen,” “The Yellow Handkerchief,” “Greenberg,” “The Runaways” or “I Love You Phillip Morris”) might provide some off-Hollywood winter solace.

– Dennis King

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