By Keri O’Shea As we sit in our lit, heated homes, awaiting the arrival of Trick or Treaters who invariably arrive with a watchful parent or two these days, it may be hard to recall just what the arrival of Winter may have meant for our ancestors. And yet, we mark the same date they […]
Review by Stephanie Scaife I have to admit that I did not relish the prospect of having to sit through a double-bill of The Human Centipede when the screeners came through my letter box. I’d seen the first film at FrightFest in 2009 and hadn’t been particularly impressed, and when I heard about the sequel […]
By Ben Bussey Gather round young ‘uns, and I shall spin ye a tale of Halloween night some twenty years past… yes, it’s another one of those retrospectives based in childhood reminiscence. What can I say? Writing this shit down and posting it on the internet is considerably cheaper and more convenient than psychotherapy. Anyway, […]
Review by Stephanie Scaife The Hunter may not be the typical sort of film that you see us discussing here at Brutal as Hell, as although it treads into thriller territory at times it isn’t technically a genre film. It is however a haunting and memorable film that has an undeniable air of uncanniness about […]
By Keri O’Shea A young woman (Axelle Carolyn) goes to collect her post one day and discovers that she’s been sent a mysterious DVD entitled ‘Watch Me’. Curiosity, of course, gets the better of her. She places the disc in her player, and – that’s her first, significant mistake. What she sees on the disc […]
Review by Nia Edwards-Behi Superficially, you might think ‘oh god, not another found footage film’ when reading about Entity in synopsis. From the outset let me say – it’s not found footage. First time feature director Steve Stone cannily explains the hand-held elements of the film as a ‘motivated camera’, and he’s spot on. While […]
Review by Annie Riordan Every photograph leaves behind a negative image of itself, an inversion of darkness on light and shadow on sun. Can the same be said for photographic memories? And if so, where are those negatives stored? October – much like his namesake – is beautiful but melancholy. Returning home after a long […]
Review by Ben Bussey When a seasoned director of note steps back behind the camera, it puts an inevitable slant on the viewing experience. We can’t help but reflect on past glories and relate them to what we see before us now. Sometimes, if the latest work does not stand up well in comparison with that of […]
Review by Kit Rathenar When a film runs to a full two hours and inside the first half hour has already managed to demolish a church and stage a funeral for an elephant, you know you’re dealing with a director of remarkable if somewhat skewed vision. Alejandro Jodorowsky’s extraordinary Santa Sangre (“Holy Blood”), originally released […]
Review by Marc Patterson César (Luis Tosar) is a perpetually unhappy man. Everyday is a waking hell for him. However, to the residents of the apartment building he works in, they would never know it. This faithful doorman is the embodiment of polite servitude, a man whose character you’d never question. Underneath his polished exterior […]
by Stephanie Scaife 1987 was a good year to be a vampire. In October, just a few months after the release of The Lost Boys, Kathryn Bigelow’s vampire western hybrid Near Dark was unleashed on cinema screens across the US. Although initially doing poorly at the box office, Near Dark was well received by critics […]