Reviews
Hostile
Whenever Xavier Gens’ name pops up in the opening credits of a film, I wonder what awful shit I’m about to be subjected to. Not that he’s a bad director, or the quality of his stuff is ever awful, it’s just that he has a habit of dispensing, or putting his name to, films which dispense […]
Beau Is Afraid
On release, Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid quickly became one of those contentious litmus tests for cinematic boundaries, creative freedom, and personal taste. The people that loathed the film called it the result of an indulgent director and a permissive studio. The folks that loved it cited pretty much the same. Either way, Aster, a […]
The Outwaters
If you’re interested in genre film, you’ve probably heard some shouting and screaming about Robbie Banfitch’s bold nightmarish debut; The Outwaters. After storming the fest circuit in 2022, The Outwaters has kept popping up and with a surprising lack of info or spoilers which have helped it maintain the air of a cult curio. In all […]
X
When Ti West first burst onto the scene nearly a decade ago, it was with style, grit, and savvy. The one-two punch of retro-fitted occult babysitter flick House of the Devil and surprisingly endearing, but terrifying, docu-horror The Innkeepers announced a major genre talent. Here is a guy who can deliver effective, stylish, thrills and […]
In the Earth
Hands up if you went into 2020 thinking we’d spend a year dodging in and out of lockdowns as a viral pandemic swept across the world like something out of a movie? In the Earth is, for all intents and purposes, a pandemic horror film and one of the first of its kind. The latest […]
Halloween Kills
For a lifelong Halloween fan, David Gordon Green’s Halloween Kills, the much-anticipated sequel to his 2018 reboot, is a gory gift bag of tricks ‘n’ treats. For those who enjoyed the fan service, visceral kills, and return to the franchise’s roots in 2018, there’s more of that and then some. After an thrilling flashback to […]
Saint Maud
Saint Maud, from director Rose Glass, finds religious obsession and psycho-sexual horror on the Whitby coast. The film is a surprisingly underhanded showcase for debut director Glass, not to mention her crew of British talent. Following in the footsteps of DePalma and Friedkin, the latest genre offering from A24 follows the studio’s penchant for quietly […]
Gretel & Hansel
Whichever version of the story you read as a kid, it usually takes a few years for the inherent brutality of Hansel and Gretel to dawn. As far as Grimm fairy tales go, it’s one of the grimmest, and has been brought to startling life by Oz Perkins in Gretel & Hansel, a feminist reinterpretation led by IT’s Sophia […]
Body Melt
In the 80’s and 90s Australian TV cranked out some of the most intense public service announcements released anywhere on the globe. The aim? To scare the living shit out of any potential drug users and drunk drivers. Philip Brophy’s 1993 horror film Body Melt takes a page out of the anti-drug PSA’s book and savages the […]
The Invisible Man
Of all the classic Universal Monster movies, The Invisible Man is debatably the most terrifying. Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wolfman are prey to thier own ghastly conditions, often painted as sympathetic figures. The Invisible Man however, based on the seminal sci-fi novel by H.G.Wells, is a different matter altogether. His discovery of an invisibility serum marks him a genius but […]
