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 […]
Review by Keri O’Shea Robin Hardy is obviously a man who likes to take his time. It’s been the best part of forty years since The Wicker Man first graced screens and yet, this year, he has – finally – completed and released The Wicker Tree, based on his novel Cowboys for Christ. I saw […]
Review by Ben Bussey An hour and a half of non-stop trailers might not sound like the most entertaining way to spend an evening. However, when the trailers in question are for some of the most ridiculous looking films you’ve ever seen (or, more likely, never seen), plumbing the far reaches of Z-grade horror, ultraviolence, […]
Review by Stephanie Scaife Deadly Blessing was a weird one for me because, despite being directed by Wes Craven and starring Sharon Stone (in her first speaking role no less), I’d never heard of it before sitting down to watch this new DVD release from our good friends at Arrow Video. Turns out there was good […]
by Ben Bussey He was the first great horror director of the talkies era. Responsible for four of the very best 1930s Universal classics, horror cinema would be a very different place without James Whale. While he will of course always be most remembered for the Frankenstein films, he did a lot more than […]
Continuing our celebration of Frankenstein’s 80th Anniversary, Keri O’Shea looks at some of the weird and wonderful Frankenstein films that have come in its wake… The influence of the Universal Frankenstein movies cannot be underestimated. Boris Karloff’s ‘dear old monster’ has become a horror archetype, crossing the breach into popular culture and staying there, for the best part […]
Review by Keri O’Shea It’s probably fair to say that, for those who form part of a prospective audience, not many of us know too much about the country of Serbia. So, when trying to estimate the efficacy of a movie which purports to be ‘an allegory about Serbia’, we’re already in dangerous territory. If […]
Review by Keri O’Shea It’s odd – sometimes when a film itself makes a claim about how ‘original’ it is or how it is somehow ‘redefining genre’, you wonder why you’re hearing it from them, not the fans. Sometimes it even comes across like a kid establishing their version of events first, before you discover […]