A Labour of love from Annie Riordan and Keri O’Shea Annie: Summer, 2003. Pirates Of The Caribbean had only been in theaters for a month and I was already sick as shit of Jolly Roger eye patches and “Talk Like A Pirate” day. I mean, sure – it was a cool movie and I’d enjoyed […]
by Ben Bussey As I think we’ve established by now, the 80s were a boom period for the sword and sorcery genre; indeed, in a way it’s hard to think of the genre existing before that time. But obviously that’s not the case. Tales of gallant knights or otherwise courageous swordsmen doing battle with hissable […]
by Ben Bussey “I have mastered your god! Accept me! NOW!” As film fans in the 20teens, just how often nowadays do we truly feel like we’ve made a discovery? Here in the wonderful world of cyberspace – with IMDb, Wikipedia and the proliferation of blogs and fan sites of which your beloved Brutal As […]
by Keri O’Shea Movies released on the eponymous Indonesian label Rapi Films were nothing if not a pleasing fusion of East meets West; playing with recognisable genres, yet distinctly Indonesian in theme, you could always be sure of a mix between the familiar and the batshit insane. The Warrior is probably one of the best […]
by Ben Bussey Between the time when the ocean drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons of Aryas, there was an age undreamed of… a time when there was a conspicuous lack of movies featuring muscle-bound swordsmen doing battle with hideous monsters and black-hearted warlocks whilst quivering, nubile, near-enough butt naked women gripped feverishly […]
Review by Nia Edwards-Behi I wanted to like War of the Dead. I really did. The film even got me on its side right from the off-set, where the historical(ish) basis for the film is written on the screen, followed by the words ‘this much is true.’ How droll, I thought. How knowing! Alas that […]
Review by Ben Bussey How fondly and vividly I recall the build-up to Piranha 3D. From the moment those first photos came online, with Kelly Brook and Riley Steele dancing in their bikinis and throngs of nameless extras plastered in astonishingly gruesome make-up, my heart was captured, along with that of every other horror fanboy. […]
Review by Stephanie Scaife Piggy is the debut feature film of young Brit writer and director Kieron Hawkes. It is a psychological revenge thriller starring Martin Compston (The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Sweet Sixteen), Neil Maskell (Kill List) and Paul Anderson (A Lonely Place to Die). Although a fairly solid effort from all concerned it […]
Review by Keri O’Shea Since cinema’s earliest inception, the presence of the Devil has been ubiquitous – whether Old Scratch appears as a monstrous entity or a cunning outsider, a gentleman magician or a horned miscreant, the silver screen has never been long without him. That is the central thesis of author Nikolas Schreck’s far-reaching […]
Review by Ben Bussey Ah, football (or soccer, for the benefit of our American readers who give that name to a sport which strangely doesn’t involve much kicking). The beautiful game, they call it; up and down the British Isles it is celebrated for bridging the generation gap, uniting communities, and giving mindless pissheads an […]
by Keri O’Shea Nothing, absolutely nothing, will make you want to see a film more than being told you can’t. This is a maxim which holds true now (some filmmakers seem to actively court the type of controversy which will get their film banned) and, back in the pre-DVD days, before you could spend five […]