By Marc Patterson Around these parts we’re big fans of short horror films. Creating a perfect anthology of shorts is a significant challenge to any producer. There’s a real art to the curation of shorts into a masterful anthology. One needs to consider the broad theme, the mood, and what overarching story (if any) there […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi I can’t say I’m overly familiar with the cheerleader subgenre (can we even call it that?) of exploitation filmmaking, but to say that The Swinging Cheerleaders lives up to my expectations of what a cheerleader film would be like is almost right. Luckily, it’s got those little Jack Hill flourishes that make […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi In cinemas soon, The Lighthouse is Chris Crow’s fourth feature as director, and his second feature collaboration with producer David Lloyd. Following Devil’s Bridge, Panic Button and The Darkest Day, The Lighthouse is a chamber piece, a psychological drama based on a real life event in Welsh maritime history. Chris and David […]
By Ben Bussey Rock stars in movies have a somewhat chequered past. For every David Bowie in The Man Who Fell To Earth, there’s a Roger Daltrey in Vampirella; for every Mick Jagger in Performance, there’s a Mick Jagger in Freejack. The original wild child Iggy Pop doesn’t exactly have a spotless track record here […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi We’re big fans of Chris Crow’s work here at Brutal as Hell, following Devil’s Bridge, Panic Button and The Darkest Day. With the arrival of his latest feature, I don’t think that’s going to change. It’s an unconventional film, which I’m certain will frustrate some viewers, but for me it’s Crow’s most […]
By Ben Bussey There are many approaches a no-budget horror movie can take in order to stand apart from the crowd, but surely one of the most effective is to come up with the silliest premise imaginable. So many cash-strapped productions shoot themselves in the foot from the off by trying to play it too […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi We all know I love Danger 5, the alt-history surrealist TV series by Dario Russo and David Ashby. Though there’s no sign of any more Danger 5 in the near future (I know, I’m sad too, but pastures new, and all that), the men collectively known as Dinosaur Worldwide have unleashed their […]
By Keri O’Shea ‘Based on an idea by Franck Khalfoun’: these are surely words to warm the heart for many horror fans, albeit based on rather little. But his remake of Maniac in 2012 was stylish and redemptive, and his subsequent absence from what I’m reluctant to call ‘the scene’ has no doubt been noted. […]
By Tristan Bishop Reshoots have been in the news recently, with a couple of forthcoming blockbusters apparently having footage reshoot to ‘lighten’ the dark tone (presumably in panicked response to the critical drubbing of Batman Vs Superman), but reshoots are nothing new, as this 2 disc package from Arrow Video attests. Blood Bath is perhaps […]
By Ben Bussey There are undoubtedly far worse ways to start your weekend than with this rather tasty short film from UK directorial duo Ben Franklin and Anthony Melton of Bloody Cuts. At barely four minutes, The Birch is very short, but it’s oh-so sweet, centring on a put-upon teen who, it turns out, has […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi In 2014 I saw the short film Baskin while at Celluloid Screams in Sheffield. My thoughts on that film were that I liked what I saw, but that it felt far too much like a scene from something bigger. Delight, then, when I heard that director Can Evrenol was indeed working on […]