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 […]
A 25th Anniversary Retrospective by Ben Bussey Reader Advisory: Moderate Spoilers ahead… I’m not sure how well we all remember 1987 – blimey, some of our readership and possibly even some of our staff might not have been born back then – but it was quite a year for horror cinema, seeing the release of […]
by Keri O’Shea Editor’s note, 23/02/2012 – since we posted this article, it has come to light that Lina Romay, star of this film and lifelong muse to Jess Franco, passed away last week after a long battle with cancer. We at Brutal As Hell are deeply saddened by this news and offer our deepest […]
Review by Stephanie Scaife “A repo man spends his life getting into tense situations.” I should start off by saying that Alex Cox’s (Sid & Nancy, Straight to Hell) Repo Man is one of my all time favourite movies, making this review a little tough to write as it’s near impossible to be objective when […]
Review by Ben Bussey A word of advice to microbudget filmmakers who plan on subjecting us to yet another by-the-numbers torture flick: might be best to give yourselves a title that doesn’t invite cockney rhyming slang. Flashing the word ‘terrible’ in the opening sequence perhaps isn’t the best step either. First impressions count for a […]
Review by Keri O’Shea Sometimes, when you least expect it, you stumble upon a movie which is so strange and so wonderful that it just lodges itself in your affections and refuses to budge, come what may. Sure, the warm afterglow of the first viewing will fade somewhat, but the impression overall remains – even […]
Time and again we’re told we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. How often do we really heed that advice, though? Does experience generally show the old adage to be true? I could almost certainly list dozens of works that were neither more nor less than the image on which they were sold. When […]
Review by Stephanie Scaife New from Arrow Video and on its first ever outing onto Blu-ray comes Red Scorpion, a quintessential 80s action movie from Joseph Zito, he who brought us such classics as Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter as well as the exemplary Chuck Norris pictures, Missing in Action and Invasion USA. But […]
Review by Keri O’Shea Good ghost stories are hard to find on film these days – and directors, I would argue, know as much. Of course, there are myriad reasons for the glut of endurance horrors we have had in recent years, but at least part of that must stem from the fact that it […]
Review by Keri O’Shea When editor Ben asked if there were any takers to review a Bulgarian neo-noir entitled Zift, I’ll admit it – I jumped at the chance. My knowledge of Bulgaria is limited, but I find Eastern Europe fascinating and the cinema I have seen from that part of the world doubly so, […]
Review by Ben Bussey Ambition; perhaps both the most vital, yet also most hazardous attribute a filmmaker can have. If you aim high and deliver, you will vindicate yourself and by all rights should be applauded for it. However, if you fall short of the mark you may well end up the subject of a […]