Horror
Infinity Pool Review
Infinity Pool, the most recent film from Brandon Cronenberg, is a twisted extended metaphor for the trappings of luxury and inner darkness we all harbour, with some graphic and artfully kaleidoscopic sex scenes thrown in for good measure. It is set on a fictional island that seems to be a pastiche of various locations around the globe that have been exploited by the super rich as they construct hy...
The Pope’s Exorcist Review
Julius Avery and Russell Crowe invite us to the mouth of hell to witness a bipolar cinematic spectacle. With 2018’s Overlord, Avery proved his talent for directing pulpy action horror films. The Pope’s Exorcist is more of the same, without the full metal jacket and with a few doses of comedy. The film as a whole can’t decide exactly what it is supposed to be, but as a piece of entertaining popcorn...
Scream VI Review
The first Sidney Prescott-less Scream instalment re-locates the carnage to the Big Apple, cranks up the number of stab wounds, and revels in murder memorabilia in this satisfying entry in the long-running horror series that is proving hard to kill. Buckle in, there is some ground to cover. It’s a year after the Scream ’22 killing spree and survivors Sam (Melissa Barrera), her younger h...
Knock at the Cabin Review
On the big screen since February 2nd, Universal Pictures and M. Night Shyamalan (Signs, The Village) invites you to witness the apocalypse. Knock at the Cabin demands an hour and forty minutes of your time, perhaps as the credits roll you may wish it really was the end of the world. Based on Paul Tremblay’s 2018 novel The Cabin at the End of the World, the film takes a few liberties, becoming some...
M3GAN Review
Risking comparison to murderous doll flicks of yesteryear, M3gan swings gracefully on screen in January 2023 with mechanical grace and manic sass. Based on the promo material alone, one can be forgiven for passing the film off as a gender bent Chucky riff. This is a disservice. On viewing it is clear, director Gerard Johnstone, screenwriter Akela Cooper, producers James Wan and Jason Blum have cra...
Bones and All Review
Definitely do not have meat for dinner if you’re going to see the new coming of age thriller Bones and All, directed by Luca Guadagnino. Set in the 1980s Midwest, it is an adaptation of a novel with the same name by Camille DeAngelis. It follows two beautiful and oddly relatable young cannibals as they seek out the secrets of their pasts that lay hidden across a myriad backroads of the Midwest, a...
Halloween Ends Review
Is Halloween Ends a return to form or does the film continue the downward spiral that began with Kills? It is both. There, I said it. Once again, David Gordon Green and Danny McBride subvert the tropes this iconic series founded, attempting to pull the franchise in a different direction. But much like Halloween Kills, Ends feels like a (not a Halloween) movie, within a Halloween movie. In the eyes...
The Retaliators Review
THE RETALIATORS is a completely gratuitous blood-fest of gore and violence. And I absolutely adored it. THE RETALIATORS tells the story of a handsome young Preacher and 100% Good Dad, whose eldest daughter is horribly murdered. The Preacher falls apart, and seems destined to destroy himself. Until the cop investigating the murder offers him the chance to take revenge on his daughter’s killer. Hone...
Bodies Bodies Bodies Review
I’m not really too sure what I went in expecting from Bodies Bodies Bodies, the much anticipated new film from director Halina Reijn and A24 Films, but it wasn’t quite this. Billed as a horror-comedy, reviews ran that this painfully Gen-z slasher was going to herald a new wave of woke, self-reflective, gore filled romps; and while it is all of things, it leaves a lot to be desired. Beginning in a...
Nope Review
Below is a somewhat spoiler-y (though not as spoiler-y as its three minute trailer) review of Nope. I’m still not entirely sure where I land on the film, so please take the following appraisal as a first impression left on the stove for a few days and only just remembered. Nope stands for Not Of Planet Earth and may describe the state of Jordan Peele’s mind as he dreamed up his third feature ̵...
The Black Phone Review
Based on a short story by Joe Hill, Scott Derrickson’s The Black Phone is a well paced thriller that successfully crosses genre boundaries. Subverting expectations along the way is nice, but unfortunately the story telegraphs its main punches a mile off. This review contains spoilers, so if you wish to view The Black Phone impartially scroll straight to the last two paragraphs. Denver, 1978; A mas...
Men Review
Alex Garland brings two of the most talented actors of modern cinema and theatre together, stacks the odds against one of them and gaslights an entire viewership in the process in Men, a gorgeously absurd new film that ponders the question: if a strange bloke turns up naked at your house but doesn’t actually get inside, has any harm been done? Garland takes a different approach at highlighting the...