With on-screen text which tells us that events in the film genuinely took place in Brisbane, Australia in 1997, Bliss of Evil avowedly sets itself up as something other than the more typical supernatural set-up we often get when music – particularly rock music – is concerned. And indeed, the opening scene is very grisly, […]
Whilst starting from a reasonably realistic, grounded place, Surrogate (2022) is soon racing along with a raft of recognisable supernatural plot elements, sacrificing its chances at doing something original or innovative to do something tried-and-tested. It’s an often attractive film which does much with its limited budget in terms of its framing, lighting and limited […]
Childhood is hell and it can lead to traumas which follow you around for, oh, at least a decade or so, maybe much longer: we shouldn’t expect people to change all that much in that amount of time, either. That’s been the lesson in many excellent horror titles up until now and it’s been given […]
It always seems to me a bold move – and a risk – to start your film with what are evidently the closing scenes, but that is just what we get with Next of Kin, a mystery mixed with a horror, and the sole foray into genre film from director Tony Williams. A young woman, […]
It’s comparatively rare these days to go into a film viewing with no idea of what to expect, so often your best chance at this is to gain access to an online screener – particularly if these screeners come via film festivals which, for good or ill, have a fairly selective audience until such time […]
By Matt Harries Editor’s Note: for the first part of Matt’s special feature, click here. So, Australia’s Outback can inflict lethal damage on the unwary. What, though, about the most dangerous beast of all? What happens to the man who lives there, far from the reach of the western world and its focus on ease […]
By Matt Harries For a country which has often courted an image of a roguish bonhomie and raffish conviviality, Australia seems also to possess a dark heart, which lies perhaps in the great vastness of the continent away from the densely populated coastal regions and their cosmopolitan modernity. Since being sighted by Dutch explorer Willem […]