Alongside the likes of Ring and Audition, Ju-on: The Grudge was one of the first Japanese horror films to ever grace my collection. I still contend that it’s simply one of the finest supernatural horrors of the past twenty-five years, though perhaps unfairly, it’s now often seen as so much less than that – a […]
When a director comes from independent beginnings and works their way through to the mainstream, it’s always interesting (and sometimes disheartening) to see how much or how little of the filmmaker’s personality survives the process. In this respect, Steven Soderbergh is one of the most notable figures of the past three decades. His 1989 feature […]
Most Beautiful Island is arguably one of this year’s most striking film debuts, perfectly defying classification as a clear-cut genre film and yet undeniably one of the most tense and horrific films I’ve seen recently. Straddling that always fine line between art and exploitation, and succeeding at both, Most Beautiful Island is certainly a challenge […]
Follow your dreams. It’s arguably the one message Hollywood has sold us most consistently over the decades. Passion, determination and perseverance will ultimately pay off, they say, so long as you’re true to yourself and stay strong in the face of adversity. Alas, as years of singing-based TV talent shows have so sadistically emphasised, ambition […]
There’s nothing cheesier than starting a conversation with the words “hey, do you remember the 90s?” But really, do you, 90s kids? Remember Rugrats, Gakk, getting slimed, or that spinning thing that twirled around your leg and counted how many times you jumped over it? What was the point of that thing? Anyway, as the […]
I first encountered the cinema of Jean Rollin via the UK’s Redemption Films, whose founder, Nigel Wingrove, became good friends with Rollin over the years; the film company deserves far more awareness of the great service they did by bringing so many of these films into the common consciousness in the Nineties, making the films […]
Vampirism is something monstrous, something impossible, but it’s a broad enough kind of monstrosity to mean it can be explored in a number of ways on screen. Unto Death, by director Jamie Hooper, uses the vampirism theme to explore a relationship, and how it is put under extraordinary pressure by the most extraordinary of circumstances. […]
It’s always interesting when an emerging filmmaker contacts us to share their work, so here – inside fifteen minutes for the lot – is a showreel from Andrew J. D. Robinson, which we are free to share. Making films this short is bound to be a challenge, but this is one of the ways in […]
Sometimes a film self-consciously goes for the ‘epic’ tag, and it’s clear from the very outset that this is the case with Park Hoon-jung’s 2015 movie The Tiger. With its sweeping Korean vistas, Sturm und Drang musical score and lone figure set against an unforgiving world it clearly fits the bill, and actually that’s just […]
Much as they have at the multiplexes, Marvel have carved out a real niche for themselves with their Netflix shows. Whilst their big screen ventures remain resolutely big budget, globe/universe-hopping fantastical adventures bringing the comic label’s most grandiose superheroes to life, these small screen offshoots, while ostensibly still set in that same (buzzword alert) cinematic […]
Most of us are too young to remember Silly Symphonies in its prime. Hell, most of our parents are too young remember it; but, much like Universal Monsters and WW2, we still seem to be talking about it. Silly Symphonies was a series of 75 Disney cartoons released between 1929 and 1939 focusing on combining […]