Low-fi indie sci-fi is a surprisingly fertile sub-genre, something that can be traced back to classics like The Twilight Zone that lacked the budget for epic effects but used their limitations to explore big concepts. It’s a great place to showcase great film-makers who go on to bigger budgets, such […]
Mike Leitch
I'm an autistic guy living in Cardiff, searching for any excuse to write and make the most out of what he got from his English Literature MA. Main interests are horror, in pretty much any medium, theatre and literature.
Bookworm (2024): Offbeat Coming-of-Age Struggles with Tone
A reunion of Come to Daddy director Ant Timpson, writer Toby Harvard and stars Elijah Wood and Michael Smiley, with the addition of Nell Fisher after her star making turn in Evil Dead Rise, would pique the interest of most horror fans, but despite showing at Frightfest earlier this year, […]
V H S Beyond (2024): Far From Out Of This World
If you look at the list of directors and writers who have contributed to the V H S series, it is impressive how many would go on to huge success such as Adam Wingard, David Bruckner, Benson and Moorhead and Chloe Okuno, to name a few. By this point though, […]
The Vourdalak (2023) An Inventive and Unique Vampire Tale (Review)
Dracula may be the best known fictional vampire around but Bram Stoker’s creation is far from the origin point. European folklore and stories like John Polidori’s “The Vampyre” from 1819 had long established vampires as frightening creatures, and it’s this tradition that Adrien Beau draws on for his take. He […]
Lore (2024): An Entertaining Addition to the British Horror Anthology Tradition (Review)
From Dead of Night in 1945 to The House in 2022, anthologies are a familiar, and usually comforting presence in British horror. There’s much that could be, and likely has been, discussed about how this harks back to short stories from British writers like M. R. James and Charles Dickens, […]
House of Sayuri (Fantasia 2024)(Review)
Koji Shiraishi is one of the most prolific directors currently working, yet beyond cult hits like Noroi, Occult, and his ongoing series Senritsu Kaiki File, his work seems to have gone under the radar for those not intimate with Japanese horror. House of Sayuri has the potential to reach a […]
Sting (2024): Fun and Slick Creature Feature with Bite (Review)
It is a strange coincidence that in the same year two nunspolitation films (Immaculate and The First Omen) were released close together, the same has happened with two spider-centric horrors. Infested/Vermines was released on Shudder at the end of April and just over a month later Sting now arrives in […]
Parvulos (Fantasia 2024)(Review)
Isaac Ezban is a regular on festival circuits, with films like Evil Eye and The Similars establishing him as an interesting, if under-seen, contributor to Mexican horror. His latest film, Parvulos, is his longest feature at just under two hours, and he shows considerable ambition with this dystopian tale of […]
The Tenants (Fantasia 2024)(Review)
There’s something depressingly relatable in seeing art about housing crises from other countries as it’s something that hits people so personally, knowing that we’re not alone. The sad part is obviously that it’s happening at all, with little social security, and this is the feeling that dominates The Tenants – […]
The Beast Within (Fantasia 2024) Familial and Familiar Take on Werewolf Legend (Review)
There’s no attempt to hide what the titular Beast Within is in Alexander J. Farrell’s first horror feature (co-written with Greer Taylor Ellison), which opens with the quote “There are two wolves inside all of us … they’re always at war”, followed by the classic “lone person killed by monster” […]