horror
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark review - mild-mannered nightmaresSaturday, 24 August 2019
Guillermo del Toro considered directing this adaptation of Alvin Schwartz’s bestselling campfire tales, and his sensibility can still be discerned in its kind sort of fantasy and concern with outsiders. He finally settled for producing, and turning... Read more... |
Gwen review - gothic horror set in north WalesThursday, 18 July 2019
This gothic yarn set in 1850s Snowdonia stars Maxine Peake as Elen. She’s left alone with two young daughters to manage an isolated farm when her husband goes off to war. Mysterious omens – a sheep’s heart filled with nails festoons the farm... Read more... |
Annabelle Comes Home review - devil doll plays niceThursday, 11 July 2019
Annabelle, the demonically-possessed doll now making its third appearance, makes its intentions clear pretty early here. Scarred by earlier misadventures so no sane child would want it, and sitting balefully in the back car-seat of married... Read more... |
Stranger Things 3, Netflix review - bigger, dumber, betterTuesday, 09 July 2019
It sometimes feels like an age between Stranger Things seasons. Blame Netflix. The binge-watching trend that it helped solidify means that most people consume all eight hours of content in a single weekend. It comes and goes in a flash. But don’t... Read more... |
Midsommar review - hell is other peopleThursday, 04 July 2019
Who would have thought that Ari Aster could top the satanic delights of Hereditary? Yet with Midsommar, a psychedelic twist on folk horror, he has. Aster abandons the supernatural to show that it’s not things that go bump in the night that scare us... Read more... |
Thomas Harris: Cari Mora review – mayhem in MiamiSunday, 19 May 2019
This March, a real-estate office in Miami Beach, Florida, put a parcel of prime seafront land on the market. A vacant estate with plans filed for a luxury mansion, the plot at 5860 North Bay Road cost $15.9 million. It also happens to be the site of... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: NovemberTuesday, 14 May 2019
Life in rural 19th century Estonia looks hard. The ice and the squalor are tough enough, but then you’ve the kratts to contend with. We see one in the eye-popping opening sequence of Rainer Sarnet’s 2017 epic November, an unsettling creature cobbled... Read more... |
Greta review – Isabelle Huppert goes full psycho in eccentric stalker thrillerWednesday, 17 April 2019
Isabelle Huppert is famed for the chilly intensity of many of her performances, and a willingness to mine all manner of darkness and perversity – her recent, award-laden turn in Elle being a good example. So it’s surprising how rarely she’... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: The White ReindeerFriday, 05 April 2019
Finnish horror is a niche genre if ever there was one. Erik Blomberg’s directorial debut The White Reindeer is a seminal example, a beguiling, unsettling little film that’s two parts local colour to one part metaphysical thriller. Blomberg cut his... Read more... |
Border review - genre-defying Oscar-nominated Swedish filmSaturday, 09 March 2019
This might just be the most challenging film review I’ve had to write in decades. The best thing would be to go and see Border knowing nothing more than that it won the prize for most innovative film at Cannes. Don't watch the trailer, and... Read more... |
The Hole in the Ground review - parental horror stays on the surfaceMonday, 04 March 2019
Mothers’ fears for and of their children are primal horror material: The Babadook and Under the Shadow set recent standards for exploring its emotional terror. Lee Cronin’s debut, The Hole in the Ground, has similarly profound subtexts in mind, and... Read more... |
Crucible of the Vampire review - Neil Morrissey meets lesbian vampires, subtlySaturday, 02 February 2019
Ghosts of previous B-movies flit through this low-budget lesbian vampire flick. Part Hammer horror, J-horror, Witchfinder General and The Wicker Man, it is ultimately about a young woman in a very large house full of unpleasant people out for her... Read more... |
