It’s no secret that found-footage is an often-derided format for horror films, and aside from some very good exceptions (Blair Witch, Cloverfield, Chronicle, etc), the whole gimmick of a family member or friend recording every strange occurrence until they drop the camera out of terror is extremely played-out. Inevitably, eyes […]
Vertigo Releasing
The Peasants / Chlopi (2023): An Innovative Combination of Historical Epic and Living Painting
Following on from the success of Loving Vincent, which utilised an innovative technique of recreating frames of recorded live-action scenes as oil paintings, DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman have found a new way of exploring their unique aesthetic. The Peasants is an adaptation of Wladyslaw Reymont’s novel of the same […]
There’s Something in the Barn (2023) Festive Comedy Horror that needs a sprinkle more Horror (Review)
Christmas can be an intense experience for everyone, and who hasn’t wished to spend the festive period in snowy, rural Norway to escape the hectic rush of the big city? Well Magnus Marten, (SAS Red Notice, Jackpot), seeks to answer this with the Christmas comedy-horror There’s Something In the Barn. […]
Suitable Flesh (2023) The Spirit of Stuart Gordon in this tawdry, knowing Lovecraft adaptation (Review)
It’s remarkable how much untapped potential lies in the work of H.P. Lovecraft -one of horror’s slipperiest and most indefinable writers. His weird tales of eldritch oddities and cosmic calamities have been the influence for many on the page, but few successes on the screen – despite a recent (if […]
It Lives Inside (2023): comfortingly uncomfortable horror with a twist (Review)
Spare a thought for the horror pseuds, folks like me who live to make strained sociopolitical interpretations of horror trends. The 21st century started off well for us, with the zombie revival and the torture wave mapping neatly onto post-9/11 anxieties. Why, though, is everything about exorcisms and possession all […]
Apocalypse Clown (2023): David Earl leads a circus at the end of the world (Review)
It’s been a rough decade for clowns, with everything from the re-emergence of Pennywise to the wave of 2016 real-life clown sightings tarnishing the image of these floppy-shoed circus mainstays. The nearest thing to a sympathetic clown in popular culture has been Joaquin Phoenix’s reading of The Joker, and yet […]
Mother May I? (2023): A Therapeutic Nightmare (Review)
The feature length debut from Laurence Vannicelli, best known up to this point for being a co-writer of Porno, is a memorably twisty, paranoid horror that continues Kyle Gallner’s hit-rate of memorable horror films, matched in energy and commitment by his co-star Holland Roden. In Mother May I? Gallner and […]
John and the Hole (2021); A Child’s Fantasy or an Eerie Nightmare? (Review)
Following its UK premiere at Frightfest, Vertigo Releasing’s John and the Hole is released in cinemas and digitally as the latest in the growing trend of indie arthouse horror. Nicolas’ Giacobone adapts his own short story, ‘El Pozo’ (approximately translated to ‘The Well’) with collaborator Pascual Sisto making his directorial […]