Screenplay writer Nigel Kneale has a superb pedigree as a purveyor of the strange and the supernatural. Never is this made clearer than in his adaptation of the 1983 Susan Hill novella The Woman in Black. In fact, even mention this TV film to fans of a certain age and/or persuasion, and they will immediately […]
I’ve enjoyed following director Paul Hyett’s work to date: The Seasoning House and Howl both made great use of confined locations and escalating ordeals, whilst I had some misgivings with the latter film; we have something different altogether with Peripheral, however, as we delve into ‘tech terror’, combining age-old anxieties with the shock of the […]
In a world of Elevated Horror, Intelligent Horror, Woke Horror and horror that desperately wants to be ‘of the moment’, there’s a definite pleasure to be had from seeing a film that does not hold both the genre and its audience in thinly-veiled contempt. The joys of Mr Vampire are, for the most part, lightweight […]
A criticism often levelled at modern Western society is that our sense of community is gone. We’re all out for ourselves, unable to see the wider picture – and we would be so much happier, if only we could take the time to get to know our neighbours, or we could throw ourselves into a […]
Whilst it’s quite usual to hear of albums which are based on, or influenced by cinema or literature, it’s still a rarity to find albums which hinge entirely upon art. Neraterræ – the musical project of Alessio Antoni – has recently released an album which does just that, taking for its inspiration a range of […]
Writer Joe R. Lansdale has played an important part in both horror literature and later, film: without a doubt, his career to date is of interest to a wide range of fans. For my part, my first encounter with his fiction didn’t fill me with the instant enthusiasm shared by many of the contributors to […]
The second feature-length film by noted graphic designer Ryan Brookhart, Two Ways to Go West moves outside of the horror genre and endeavours to explore the big topics: personal demons, unspoken truths, repercussions. However, the style and approach it takes doesn’t really serve its themes; whilst visually sharp, it can feel tonally erratic, and badly […]
Based in Russia, one-woman ambient project Lamia Vox has been recording for some years now, with first album Sigillum Diaboli emerging in 2013. Magical belief and practice have always underpinned Alina Antonova’s work; with the new release Alles ist Ufer, however, the literary and occult influences are broader in nature, tending towards the idea of […]
Amulet is the feature-length directorial debut of actor Romola Garai – having cut her teeth on a short feature in 2012, here she has created a very sombre, often very gritty horror story, a world away from the period dramas in which she has so often appeared. In touch with her short feature, however, there’s […]
Death Ship has often been dismissed as a nautical rip-off of The Shining, but we should note that both films opened in the UK at almost the same time – not that such facts necessarily mean anything, given how long Kubrick’s film was in production, but this might be less a copycat and more one […]
Memory is something sinister and not to be trusted in Parallax (2020) – an unusual, character-centred story which admittedly takes a while to get going, but when it does, it goes somewhere very interesting indeed. Selfhood is offered as a theme straight away: via a dispassionate voiceover, a young woman called Naomi (Naomi Prentice) begins […]