What can I say about Jim Henson’s classic 1986 fantasy film Labyrinth that hasn’t already been said? No really, what can I say? Labyrinth is one of those movies that almost everyone has seen. Even if you haven’t seen it, you’ve heard about it, or at least about David Bowie’s outrageous bulge during Dance Magic […]
Taken on their own, the terms ‘found footage’ and ‘home invasion’ have long been enough to send many a horror fan into shivers of despair, not so much because they suggest a truly hair-raising 90 minutes, but rather because they would seem to indicate a been-there, done-that, wasn’t-that-great-in-the-first-place routine which we’ve seen all too often […]
Depending on how closely you follow the news coming out of Hollywood, Red Sparrow is a film which is pretty much impossible to take entirely on face value. Everything from the premise, to the casting of Jennifer Lawrence, to the tag line ‘Take Back Control’ marks the film out as a thriller with a distinctly […]
There has long been a relationship between horror cinema and the humble waxwork museum. Though now sadly fallen out of favour, waxworks were a de rigeur form of entertainment before cinema existed; the world-famous Madame Tussauds opened its first ‘chamber of horrors’ in 1802 after the successes of the French ‘Caverne des Grands Voleurs’, which […]
Is it just me, or does the ‘found footage’ craze of the past fifteen years or so seem to have died back a little of late? This sub-genre seemed to dominate indie cinema for what seemed like forever, becoming infamous as a go-to model for those on a shoestring budget. Well, found footage films are […]
Any film that opens on a title card bearing a quote from HP Lovecraft is guaranteed to get horror fans sitting up and taking notice. Whether the subsequent hour and a half of They Remain will keep them in that upright, attentive position is another matter. Writer-director Philip Gelatt’s film strives to give us an […]
I have a theory that if you’re ever looking for a good comic, your best bet is to read anything written by an author who has worked on Swamp Thing. Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Mark Millar, Brian K. Vaughn, the list goes on and on. Every writer who has worked with the anthropomorphic pile of […]
Ever wondered what Grosse Pointe Blank would have been like if, instead of the guy being a hitman, the girl was a pro-wrestler? Well, no, I can’t say that’s something I’ve ever given much thought to either. Nonetheless, that’s pretty much what we have in Chokeslam, a Canadian indie rom-com from director/co-writer Robert Cuffley. It’s […]
The sadly missed stop-motion animation pioneer Ray Harryhausen is one of the most unique figures in film history. The attachment of his name alone tells you basically all you need to know about the film, despite the wide variety of actors and directors he collaborated with over his decades-spanning career. While special effects may have […]
The very opening scenes of The Lodgers speak to the key themes of the film as a whole: a young woman, sitting alone by a lake at night, preoccupied by her thoughts, suddenly flees back to a dilapidated mansion house when she hears the clock striking midnight. This is the first, but not the last […]
Once more unto the minefield that is the indie horror scene. Director Eric Pham brings with him a degree of cult cred due to his association with Robert Rodriguez, having worked in visual effects on a number of RR movies including Sin City and Grindhouse; and his lead actor here, Elle LaMont, is also from […]