By Keri O’Shea and Ben Bussey Oh dear, looks like we once again need to contemplate changing the name of this site from Brutal As Hell to Contrary As Fuck. Everyone and their uncle seems to be currently raving about It Follows, and not without just cause: it’s rare that we see such a well-publicised […]
Review by Ben Bussey Mild spoiler alert, on the off-chance anyone’s going to give a monkeys about this movie: that image you see above of the guy in an orange jumpsuit holding an axe as he psyches himself up to take on the onslaught of zombies about to burst through the glass doors? That’s the […]
By Quin Within Madness is not a particularly enjoyable film. For me, its flaws outweigh its strong points, but I know that some of you out there will really love this. So, stick with me for a bit and I’ll walk you through it. But first, you might want to check out the three minute […]
By Keri O’Shea Hating clowns is pretty much a religious observance in Western culture. No one really needs to explain, ‘I hate clowns’, and no one ever seems to be indifferent to them, let alone like the things, save for women of a certain age who are into naff figurines; it’s weird, though, that so […]
By Ben Bussey It is with some surprise that I sit down to write this review of The ABCs of Death 2 and realise that I am the first person at Brutal As Hell to do so. I say this because, over 2012 and 2013, its predecessor became one of the most written about movies […]
By Ben Bussey Hard to believe it’s almost eight years since Rodriguez and Tarantino released their ambitious double-feature Grindhouse in US cinemas to a staggering lack of success. Stranger still to think that a cinematic venture that was deemed a colossal failure on release has in fact proved so influential that we’re still feeling its […]
By Tristan Bishop Japanese director Sion Sono has been gradually making an international name for himself since the eighties. He really started attracting attention in 2001 with the gruesome and creepy Suicide Club, riding the J-horror wave that exploded after Hideo Nakata’s Ringu (1998), and in recent years has seen enormous critical success with 2010’s […]
How well can a TV show hold up after fifty years? Surprisingly well, it turns out. No doubt we could pick and choose any number of once-popular shows from the 60s, 70s, 80s and even 90s and be overwhelmed by how dated they feel, how old hat the storytelling and dialogue seem, how cheesy and […]
By Ben Bussey I can think of almost nothing more certain to make every reader aged over 30 wince in agonising realisation of their own increasing years than the fact that Drew Barrymore has just turned 40. How could it be that the cute little moppet who melted the hearts of the world in ET […]
By Nia Edwards-Behi It was recently reported that David Cronenberg is no fan of self-appointed online film critics who lack the backing of a legitimate powerhouse of say, a newspaper. Well, if he’s right, here’s hoping I’m one of the ‘quite good’ ones, even if I do continue to ‘dilute’ the voices of those real […]
By Keri O’Shea Post-apocalyptic or dystopian movies always seem to be balanced on a knife-edge, both telling audiences about certain anxieties that existed for the future, whilst also being very much of the time when they were made; they act as both time-capsule and time machine. In the case of Hardware, re-released here on its […]