You never really know which way it’s going to go in a survival story based at sea. What will the main issue be? – will it be the elements (The Perfect Storm)? Will it be the failings of the vessel, or human error (Open Water; Dead Calm; Adrift)? Or will there be something potentially supernatural […]
When vlogger Angus (Charlie Robb) gets an opportunity to enjoy the peace and tranquillity of a remote Northumberland retreat, he jumps at the chance to escape the stresses of everyday life and the thought of a digital detox certainly appeals. Well, until he gets there and sets up multiple cameras in order to record his […]
A teenager awakes in hospital; by the time we acknowledge this and what’s going on, she’s already hiding behind her mobile phone and headphones, which establishes a key motif in The Invisible Half (2024): the use of mobile phone technology to either facilitate, or block out, the outside world. We also see that the mobile […]
A woman awakes, alone, in a woodland clearing. She notices she has some injuries on her bare feet, suggesting she was walking for a while; however, she clearly can’t remember how she got there. Limping to the nearest main road, she is able to get her bearings, following the route back to what appears to […]
Independent cinema needs to do a lot with a little, and this has to be one of the reasons it now so often dodges linear narratives, preferring imagined spaces or fractured timelines in order to explore its key themes, particularly if they are large or significant themes. Horror is primed for this by its nature: […]
Bear with me, but here’s a question: how do you connect to other humans when you live in a harsh dystopian future where everyone shelters from the outside world in isolated pods with only apps for company? Phew. It gets answered in a light-touch, quirky kind of way in Future Date (2024), a film which […]
After throwing abusive stepfather figure and local drug dealer Gordy (Bryant Carroll) out of the family home, art student Bella (Alexandra Faye Sadeghian) forlornly hopes that he will stay out of the lives of both her and fragile mother Yeva (Pooya Mohseni). However, he’s back almost instantly, Yeva caving in to Gordy’s pleading and assuring […]
Restless (2024) is a domestic drama which, in places, edges close to the horror genre – with a few scenes and ideas which even suggest some ambitious horror genre-splicing. However, for the most part, it retreats into domestic drama, layering this with a psychological case study of a woman (described in the synopsis as an […]
Orphaned as a result of a smallpox epidemic, siblings Jack (Levon Hawke) and Lula Parker (Esme Creed-Miles) leave their homestead and, with their grandfather, begin a journey across forbidding territory to their aunt’s place. A run-in with notorious outlaw Cutthroat Bill (Juliette Lewis) ends with grandfather dead, Lula kidnapped and Jack needing to rescue his […]
Don’t take medication which isn’t intended for you. Think twice about taking medication which is intended for you. These are the takeaway lessons of Birdeater (2023) – a film which relies heavily on altered states for both its linear and experimental plot points. This is as much of a moral standpoint as anything you get […]
There’s a scene in Vulcanizadora where, in the darkness of the woods, one of the main characters unpacks a Discman and some analogue speakers he’s brought along to entertain his friend on their camping trip. Nothing works; the cable isn’t connected to the speakers at first, but they hiss anyway; the Discman skips and stutters, […]
