Review by Stephanie Scaife Eureka Entertainment brings us the next instalment from their Masters of Cinema series in the form of the little known pseudo-documentary called Punishment Park, directed by cult British director Peter Watkins (The War Game, Culloden). After a poor critical response and with its tough, political subject matter ensuring distribution near impossible, […]
Review by Ben Bussey In another fortuitous turn of events, our Japanese Exploitation month sees a new release from one of the most eminent contemporary J-sploitation directors, Noboru Iguchi. Now, it’s a bit strange to sit down to watch the ninth film of a film franchise – itself adapted from a long-running manga series – […]
Review by Nia Edwards-Behi If I may, before I begin to review this film properly, get a complaint out of the way. Whoever designed the cover of this DVD needs a pat on the back for having seen the cover for the I Spit on Your Grave remake and a big fat medal for thinking […]
Review by Ben Bussey There is a particular potency to films (or stories told in any medium, for that matter) which go to lengths to establish a naturalistic context, then introduce a supernatural element. When we are presented with a story world which we can swallow as real, it gives that bit more power to […]
by Ben Bussey Right then… 2011. Okay. Man, these end of year reviews don’t half do my head in. There’s always a degree of assumption about them; an implication that the one writing the list has impeccable taste and saw everything of note that was released in the twelve months previous. This year more than […]
Review by Keri O’Shea 2011 has been a bumper year for horror comedies, it seems. At least, I’ve had the benefit of a pretty clear run of horror-comedies this year that have worked very well – which is a nice surprise, as it can be rough terrain at times – neither horror nor comedy, fish […]
Review by Nia Edwards-Behi Editor’s note: be warned that this review contains substantial spoilers. For a less spoilery (though not much more postive) appraisal, see Ben’s review from FrightFest. Alternatively, stop reading once you reach the picture of the person in the funny-looking mask… It’s always pleasing to witness a British genre film gain some […]
by Keri O’Shea At this time of year, you invariably hear a great deal about keeping the ‘true meaning’ of Christmas: it’s too schmaltzy, it’s too commercial, it isn’t what it was… well, it certainly isn’t what it was, but the idea that Christmas has always been a peaceable Christian festival is just plain incorrect. […]
Review by Ben Bussey Okay. At least 600 words on a movie about man-eating sharks that swim in the sand instead of the sea. I can do this. Of course I can. Never mind that it basically requires no review as the title, DVD cover and trailer tell you all you need to know. Never […]
Review by Keri O’Shea I’m going to start this review with a confession: I’m not a huge fan of the giallo genre. Gialli are stylish to look at, but once I get over the visual good stuff I find their plots are often contrived to the point of predictability, even when the eventual outcomes are […]
Review by Ben Bussey Sex, mental illness, Japan: these are at the heart of both these films. I should stress straight away that, while I’ve chosen to review the films together, they are not being sold together; they are from neither the same filmmakers nor the same distributor, and were made almost two decades […]