Saltburn
Saltburn, the sophomore film from Promising Young Woman writer/director Emerald Fennell, quickly became one of the most talked-about films of 2023. For some the cutthroat class parable was relatively vanilla, for others it was rampant filth. Debates about its High-Brow or Low-Brow aspirations became mind-numbing whilst contrarian arguments blossomed from the fertile grounds of shock, […]
Dark Harvest
Its criminal that David Slade’s creature feature Dark Harvest wasn’t a bigger deal this Halloween. Based on the lauded novel by Norman Partridge and delayed twice due to Covid 19 and studio reshuffles, the much-anticipated adaptation has just slid, rather unceremoniously, onto Amazon Prime. Every Halloween, in an isolated midwestern farm town, a monstrous entity […]
Sisu
Sisu is the long-awaited latest from Finnish director Jalmari Helander, director of Christmas horror Rare Exports and pulpy presidential adventure Big Game. Since Big Game in 2014, Helander hasn’t had a feature film and, whatever the reason, it’s great to see him back swinging with such an explosive, beautifully shot, and timely reintroduction. Aatami (a […]
Frenzy
Frenzy, the penultimate film from Alfred Hitchcock, is a far cry from the director’s classics. Hitch had, after all, held a strangle hold on Hollywood for most of the 60’s. He defined cinematic espionage, the psychological thriller, even helped legitimize and popularize the horror film. But Frenzy offers a different kind of Hitchcock. It feels […]
Sick
It’s kind of mad that a new film written by Scream scribe and co-creator Kevin Williamson slipped out into the world unannounced this year. Sick, directed by John Hyams (director of the much loved, sadly overlooked Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning), is a pandemic horror, something we’ll probably see a lot more of over the […]
Altered States
Though written by three-time academy award winning writer Paddy Chayefsky (adapting his own novel), Altered States had a surprisingly tough trip to the big screen. Pawned off by production companies, plagued by budgetary issues, and shunned by a litany of directors, the film eventually found salvation in Ken Russel. Altered States’ heady, sometimes silly, mix […]
The Last Voyage of the Demeter
In the context of fatigued properties, André Øvredal’s The Last Voyage of the Demeter, adapted from just one short chapter in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, is a refreshing concept. It’s a big budget Gothic sea-fairing horror, a cinematic curiosity somewhere between Hammer Horror and The Pirates of the Carribean. When it was announced that the man who […]
Hatchet for the Honeymoon
Mario Bava, best known for his Giallo-instigating film Blood and Black Lace, is perhaps one of the most influential, original directors of the 20th century. The horror genre is still working with, and trying to deviate from, a blueprint he crafted half a Century ago. Whilst Hatchet for the Honeymoon is by no means Bava’s finest […]
Knife + Heart
With queer retro slasher Knife + Heart, Yann Gonzalez takes us on an evocative, dangerous, journey through the sensual underbelly of Paris’s sex industry, circa 1979. It’s a world of underground nightclubs, porn theatres, cruising areas, baroque porn sets, and rain-spattered sidewalks, all populated with gorgeous queers and drenched in lurid primary colours. The attention […]
Madhouse (1974)
Though perhaps not as technically or visually impressive as their Hammer counterparts, Amicus Productions’ slew of late-60s/early 70s horror output is often savvier and timelier. Aside from their superb anthology films, nothing in the Amicus catalogue proves this more than Jim Clark’s 1974 film Madhouse. Paul Toombs is a horror icon who has made […]
