DVD Review: Takashi Miike’s ‘Crows Zero’ (2008)

Review by Keri O’Shea “There is no clean fight in a war.” Like many cult movie enthusiasts, I declare myself to be a huge fan of the films of Takashi Miike but in truth, I have only seen a tiny fraction of his work. To be fair, it’s hard to keep up with his output […]

DVD Review: The Yellow Sea

Review by Keri O’Shea  Some of the hardest things to watch unfold on screen are tales in which ordinary people – people  who are perhaps only once-removed from being any one of us, thanks to an event in their lives – are propelled into extraordinary circumstances, as they simply try to get by. This isn’t […]

Film Review: ‘The Raven’

Review by Keri O’Shea The Raven feels as though it has sneaked up on its audience a bit. I remember hearing about this proposed release a long time ago: my initial excitement gave way to a sneaking suspicion that the whole project had collapsed in on itself, as so often happens to compelling projects – […]

Ia! Ia! Lovecraft at the Movies

by Keri O’Shea “We shall swim out to that brooding reef in the sea and dive down through black abysses to Cyclopean and many columned Y’ha-nthlei, and in that lair of the Deep Ones we shall dwell amidst wonder and glory for ever.” Those of you who are regular visitors to Brutal as Hell might […]

DVD Review: ‘A Horrible Way To Die’

Review by Nia Edwards-Behi This keeps happening to me. I hear about a film. I avoid the specifics of why everyone loves it. It becomes something of a festival darling or a genre fan favourite. Then, I eventually watch it and… oh. That’s it? Is the hype machine doing its worst, here, or am I […]

Blu-ray Review: Corman’s World – Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

Review by Ben Bussey What makes a rebel? The dictionary definition is “1. a person who refuses allegiance to, resists, or rises in arms against the government or ruler of his or her country; 2. a person who resists any authority, control or tradition.” Presumably we’re safe to disregard the first definition in relation to […]

Blu-Ray Review: ‘The Shrine’

Review by Stephanie Scaife Here we have the sophomore effort from Canadian director Jon Knautz, who brought us the amusing festival pleaser Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer in 2007. This time he plays it entirely straight in this ambitious but ultimately disappointing horror film that arrives on DVD and Blu-ray this week. Ambitious young journalist Carmen […]