While the first couple months of the year is usually a dumping ground for Hollywood leftovers, there looks to be a few bright spots in 2013. Steven Soderbergh once again debuts a thriller (his last theatrical film for the foreseeable future) and we’ve got new films from Kim Ji-woon and a few semi-proven up-and-comers with Jonathan Levine, Seth Gordon and Ruben Fleischer. Today we’ve got the very first looks at two more promising films thanks to Entertainment Weekly.

First up, above, one can see a terrified (and brunette) Jessica Chastain in her obligatory horror film after having a string of success last year with The Tree of Life, Take Shelter and an Oscar nomination for The Help. Produced by Guillermo del Toro and directed by Andres Muschietti, who is updating his previous short into a full-length feature, Mama follows Chastain’s character and her husband, played by Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau who look after their nieces, who have just returned after being lost in the forest for five years. I’m at least intrigued by the premise, something I’m certainly not with January’s other horror offering, Texas Chainsaw 3D.

Then we’ve got the first two looks from the next film from The Book of Eli co-director Allen Hughes. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Kyle Chandler and Barry Pepper, Broken City follows a private investigator who is tasked with looking into the possible affair of a mayor’s wife. Described as a “smart adult movie” and likened to Chinatown by Wahlberg (yeah, we’ll see how that turns out), a larger scandal emerges and his character dives deep into the political underbelly. Check out the stills below, followed by the short film Mama was based on.

Broken City and Mama both open on January 18th.