Malina (Sina Martens) wakes up to find herself in the trunk of a car – hence the title, apologies to anyone here for elephant-related action – but you’re here now, so you may as well read the rest of this. Unable to extricate herself from the vehicle before it sets off, her mobile phone is […]
Why would anyone go camping, ever, for supposed ‘pleasure’? It seems to be a lesson lost on South Koreans, too, if we can judge at least a little bit based on The Human Trap (2021). However, the camping aspect of the film is only a minor aspect of what the plot eventually has in store; […]
It’s no surprise at all that frontier horror, or Wild West horror, continues to hold such great potential for new storytelling. Consider it: an uncertain, changeable point in history; the arrival of immigrants from different parts of the world, coming together as strangers in a strange land; the land itself, potentially hostile, unknown and peopled […]
Accomplished scientist Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) gives new life to Bella (Emma Stone), a recently deceased young woman, via a brain transplant and some good old fashioned, Frankenstein-style electrical charge. In order to track Bella’s development, “God” enlists the help of student Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) and Max comes to fall for Bella’s unfiltered view […]
It’s a strange thing – I was prepared to write this review of The Frightened Woman as if this film is nothing more than a quirky time capsule, a pretty, picturesque piece of cinema coming from some very particular social and cultural mores. Of course, it is all of that, but its story of a […]
Brandon Cronenberg may not have the most extensive filmography on the block – as of yet – but, based on the films he has brought us so far, you could suggest that selfhood and the performance of self are important themes. Infinity Pool (2023) is certainly no exception, but as Cronenberg continues to grow his […]
Every year there’s always some comment about how it’s been a terrible one for horror movies, and every year I think “What have those people been watching”? The genre rarely fails to deliver terror of all types and, as usual, narrowing the field down to my favourite ten (plus five honourable mentions) has been just […]
It’s not just a big action biopic. That’s probably the first thing to get straight about Ferrari (2023), a film which could well just be a fairly straightforward story of making fast cars, racing fast cars and occasionally filling us on on the human drama unfolding nearby – always within reason, of course. Rather, Michael […]
Every year – and I have done lists like this for quite a few years now – I wonder what I’ll say for the little preamble: before getting straight to talking about the films themselves, it always feels proper to say a little something first. Well, this year I’ll start by saying this: 2023 has […]
Eli Roth is one of the best-known horror directors out there, which is perhaps surprising, given his relatively small body of work: some of that body of work has been pretty divisive, too. But his love of genre film has never been in question, he’s a horror guy, and his feature-length take on Thanksgiving is […]
A searing indictment of exploiting the proletariat for political and financial gain, this short film is essential viewing for anyone interested in the history of…nah, come on, look at what it’s called. It’s about a girl with a haunted vagina, the very idea of which will cause amusing pearl clutching by those who think we […]
