Even in a festival as dedicated to the unexpected as Slamdance, there’s only one strand where you can see a film whose descriptive subtitles specify the sound of “[downpour of fish]”. It’s the experimental shorts strand, a useful opportunity to press your ear to the film-making underground. The fishy rain […]
Graham Williamson
Senior Contributor
Demon Mineral (Slamdance Film Festival 2024)(Review)
Now just a year away from its thirtieth birthday, Slamdance remains focused on low-budget films from emerging directors. This doesn’t necessarily mean it’s alienated from the mainstream, though. The 2024 festival has specialist strands dealing with two areas that have been unexpectedly prominent in mainstream media of late. One of […]
The Civil Dead (2022) A Mumblecore Shaggy Dog Story with None of the Downsides (Review)
Giving himself a home-made haircut that turns into a “full-on mullet”, Clay – the hero of The Civil Dead, released in UK cinemas this week – can see the hopeful side. His photography business has been struggling: having terrible hair might be the gimmick he needs. The Civil Dead itself […]
Murder Obsession (1981): Late-Period Meta-Giallo With Some Unforgettable Set-Pieces (Review)
In terms of titles that encapsulate the appeal of a whole genre, there aren’t many competitors, are there? You have the murder, you have the obsession, and every giallo must feature both, but only one of them is called Murder Obsession. Riccardo Freda’s final film, reissued on Blu-Ray by Radiance […]
Booger (Soho Horror Festival 2023)(Review)
You’re right, it’s quite a title, and it could have been worse as, if Ted Nugent wasn’t such an unacceptable figure these days, Mary Dauterman’s feature debut could have been called Cat Scratch Fever. Anna, the film’s protagonist, receives a nasty clawing from her pet cat Booger that results in […]
Hippo (Soho Horror Film Festival 2023)(Review)
The title character of Mark H. Rapaport’s debut film, played by the film’s co-writer Kimball Farley, is an amateur film-maker who, quoting Nikola Tesla, promises his audience “man-made horrors beyond your comprehension” – and the Soho Horror Festival seem to have agreed by hosting the film’s UK premiere. It’s no […]
Lost in the Night (2023): the environmental thriller too pulpy for Cannes? (Review)
Barcelona-born Mexican director Amat Escalante made his name internationally when he won Best Director at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for Heli – a slow, unflinching film that posited cartel violence and police brutality becoming mutually supportive forces. It drew plaudits, but also some accusations of feeding into American preconceptions […]
Door / Door 2 (1988/1991): the high art of gut-level sleaze (Review)
What kind of films would be produced by a production house called the Directors Company? In a Western context, you could hazard a guess: serious-minded auteur films, unblemished by the crudities of genre, devoted to an artist’s personal vision. The Directors Company that existed in Japan from 1982 to 1992 […]
8 Found Dead (2022) Crime Thriller Playing ‘Guess the Sub-Genre’ (Review)
For all screenwriters moan about how mobile phones and social media have made certain traditional thriller plots obsolete, the internet has also opened up new possibilities for suspense cinema. For example, future books about horror subgenres will have to include a section on “AirBnB horror”, as recent films like Barbarian, […]
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 […]