Psychological Thriller Tag Archive
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Corruption (1968)
Of the old guard horror icons, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, John Carradine, Vincent Price, none is perhaps more enjoyable to watch in a role of villainy than Cushing. Of course, Lee was a fantastic Dracula and Price brings a delectable campery to his villains, but its Cushing who perhaps delivers the best surprises in roles […]
Session 9
The crispness of vision and the timelessness of both its location and story are testament to why Brad Anderson’s Session 9 is still lauded as one of the finest examples of contemporary horror. Session 9 is a classic haunted house story. A group of men take a short-term, high-pressure, job to get a big payout. […]
It Comes at Night
Though not intended as such at the time, Trey Edward Shults’ It Comes at Night has taken on a different weight in the post-pandemic world. Originally released in 2017, Shults’ sophomore feature is a study in the anxieties and losses one family weathers whilst trying to survive a viral apocalypse. In Shults’ film, an unexplained […]
Lake Mungo – The Saddest Scariest Movie of the 21st Century
Of all the 00’s found footage films none perhaps have achieved the underground adoration of Joel Anderson’s Lake Mungo. The Australian Indy underdog made waves at film festivals but never achieved a full cinematic release, instead sneaking quietly onto DVD and floating insidiously out into the world with little fanfare bar word-of-mouth. It deserved so much more. […]
All the Gods in the Sky – DbD 2019
Tous les Dieux du Ciel (All the Gods in the Sky), from French director Quarxxx, is an incredibly bold piece of genre filmmaking and a spellbinding debut to boot. Nodding carefully to the surrealist likes of David Lynch, the body horror of David Cronenberg, the unfathomable terror of Lovecraft, and the stark realism of the […]
