Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it’s generally determined by the standards of society, and when that society is patriarchal, women suffer. It’s a fairly trite observation that’s the subject of a fascinating exploration in The Ugly Stepsister – a version of Cinderella that’s dark and malevolent […]
Vincent Gaine
Grizzly Night (2026): A Sombre, Fact-Based Portrait of a Wilderness Tragedy
A rookie park ranger. A holidaying family. Two groups of teenagers. A chalet manager. A hiking couple. Several grizzly bears. These and more characters come together on a fateful night on which extraordinary odds led to dreadful happenings and major ramifications for humans and animals alike. This is the setting of […]
Potwash (2026, Short) An Intriguing and Enveloping Tale of Work, Music, and Escapism
Potwash, the latest film by East Anglian based filmmaker Josh Trett, is a portrait of initially familiar tropes, that receive an intriguing treatment. The titular Potwash, Isaac (Kyle Malan), is a shy pub kitchen worker. His employment and work colleagues occupy most of his time, and the film embraces this […]
Redux Redux (Imagine Film Festival 2025)
WARNING! This a film worth going into blind. While this review does not contain spoilers, it does outline the premise that it might be more fun to discover for yourself. Still here? Well then, let’s proceed. Revenge is a dish best served cold, or in the case of Redux Redux, […]
Horror in the Andes: Ayacuchean Cinema in the Making (Imagine 2025)
Academic analyses of film can sometimes be esoteric and alienating. References to theorists and terms like ‘mise-en-scene’, ‘postcolonialism’ and ‘intersectional understanding’ might cause readers to lose interest, and in some cases, annoy filmmakers. The documentary Horror in the Andes: Ayacuchean Cinema in the Making indicates such annoyance with its opening […]
Derelict (2024) Grimly realistic Franco-British Revenge Thriller and the Grief of Vengeance
Derelict is a curious combination of gritty social realism and arthouse stylistics, the former coming from the locations, characters and narrative. Set, and largely filmed, in the English Midlands (but including Hereford, Manchester and London), we’re introduced (via the title card), to Abigail (Suzanne Fulton), who lives in a small […]
The Haunting at Jack the Ripper’s House (Frightfest 2025)
“Screen life” or “livestream” films have become prominent in contemporary horror, and from Unfriended to Deathstream to Dashcam, this concept has many of the same ideas as found footage. Viewers are vicariously put in the position of the characters, and therefore experience a sense of immediacy – the trend reflecting […]
Five (Frightfest 2025)
Hallmark films have a reputation for being obvious, laboured, schmaltzy and (perhaps impressively), both cheesy and corny, which makes them a fairly soft target for humour, and one that gets skewered in Five – a comedy horror from writer, director, and actor Dani Barker. The story follows the (mis)fortunes of […]
Witness (1985) Harrison Ford’s Finest Hour
Upon first glance, Peter Weir’s Witness appears as a straightforward detective thriller with some romance and fish out of water comedy. An Amish mother and son, Rachel (Kelly McGillis) and Samuel (Lukas Haas) are involved in a murder investigation once Samuel witnesses a murder in Philadelphia. A homicide detective, John […]
Superman (2025) Rebooting for a more colourful universe
Is it a bird! Is it a plane! No, it’s James Gunn – the strange filmmaker with a Troma background who’s come to DC Studios from another comic book franchise, and as the writer-director of Superman, he’s rebooting the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), into the new DC Universe (DCU), for […]