Ever wondered what Grosse Pointe Blank would have been like if, instead of the guy being a hitman, the girl was a pro-wrestler? Well, no, I can’t say that’s something I’ve ever given much thought to either. Nonetheless, that’s pretty much what we have in Chokeslam, a Canadian indie rom-com from director/co-writer Robert Cuffley. It’s […]
The sadly missed stop-motion animation pioneer Ray Harryhausen is one of the most unique figures in film history. The attachment of his name alone tells you basically all you need to know about the film, despite the wide variety of actors and directors he collaborated with over his decades-spanning career. While special effects may have […]
The very opening scenes of The Lodgers speak to the key themes of the film as a whole: a young woman, sitting alone by a lake at night, preoccupied by her thoughts, suddenly flees back to a dilapidated mansion house when she hears the clock striking midnight. This is the first, but not the last […]
Once more unto the minefield that is the indie horror scene. Director Eric Pham brings with him a degree of cult cred due to his association with Robert Rodriguez, having worked in visual effects on a number of RR movies including Sin City and Grindhouse; and his lead actor here, Elle LaMont, is also from […]
There’s always plenty to be said in favour of taking a distinctly unusual premise and building an unconventional film around it, which challenges conventions about storytelling and character. On occasion, such an approach has resulted in truly striking, in some instances genuinely groundbreaking cinema. However, it can also result in works that simply feel tedious, […]
A teenage girl, angry at her father for wanting to remarry, invites her schoolfriends to spend the summer break with her at her maternal aunt’s house in the countryside. Once there, the girls realise not all is right with the house, and they need all their wits about them to escape the terrible place. A […]
My relationship with the Hellraiser sequels is ambivalent at best, hostile at worst; as I’ve said previously, the first Hellraiser is rather important to me, and I’ve always yearned for a fully-realised entrant into the mythos to appear, but with the exception of Hellbound – itself a brilliant horror movie – I’ve always ended up […]
With the Paranormal Activity series still fairly fresh in the memory, and the ongoing box office success of the Insidious and The Conjuring franchises, the ghost movie has seemingly never been more popular – and arguably never in greater need of a shot in the arm. We all know the routine: dark rooms, lengthy silences, […]
To say that this film arrives with a weight of expectation on its shoulders is putting it mildly. For starters, The Shape of Water is the latest film from Guillermo del Toro, widely regarded one of the greatest, most singular cinematic visionaries of our time, not to mention one of my own personal favourite filmmakers […]
A lot of brilliant animators and creators have emerged from the Studio Ghibli workshop, but very few have attempted to capture the magic of Ghibli or make it their own as much as producer Yoshiaki Nishimura. Founder of Studio Ponoc, a contemporary to Studio Ghibli, Nishimura took several members from the Ghibli arthouse and launched […]
How short can you – legitimately – make a cinematic scare? There are people who would say that a second is enough, but these people are probably discussing jump-cuts. Jump-cuts aren’t scary; jump-cuts are the equivalent of someone screaming BOO! into your ear to trigger a reflex reaction. Most people need – and expect – […]