Caye Casas’ first solo feature is a difficult film to review because its plot hinges on an unexpected and horrifying event early on. It’s doubly difficult as it’s currently on the festival circuit with no clear future in terms of wider distribution, making it hard to recommend since it isn’t […]
Mike Leitch
The Guard from Underground (1992): Kiyoshi’s Kurosawa’s Brutal Nineties Slasher (Review)
Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa has explored a variety of genres in a career spanning over forty years, and this release of his fourth feature, The Guard from Underground, demonstrates that his confidence in genre-hopping came early on. The film begins as a work-based drama, but gradually shifts into slasher horror as […]
Good Boy (2023): A Horror Romcom with a Nasty Bite (Review)
Following its UK premiere at Frightfest in August this year, Blue Finch Film have released the much-anticipated Good Boy on digital, and although director Viljar Bøe’s third feature dabbles in the horror genre, as with films like Audition and Fresh, it initially plays out as a typical romantic comedy until […]
Raging Grace (Frightfest 2023): A Striking Genre Take on Immigration (Review)
In the last few years there have been a couple of interesting horror movies that focused on servitude like The Maid (2020), and Nanny (2022). Raging Grace continues this (hopefully growing), trend by following in Nanny’s footsteps and adding anxiety around immigration to the mix. The tale of an illegal […]
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 […]
Hiruko the Goblin (1991): A Uniquely Wild Fantasy Horror (Review)
Third Window continue their gradual releasing of director Shinya Tsukamoto’s filmography with his early feature known as Hiruko the Goblin overseas and Yokai Hunter: Hiruko in Japan, after the manga series of which two stories are adapted. Released in between the first two Tetsuo films that first made his name, […]
Sleep (2020): An Elusive Waking Dream from the heartland of Germany (Review)
Arrow’s release of Sleep / Schlaf, the debut feature of German director Michael Venus, on Blu-ray is not to be slept on. Puns aside, the film lives up to its name with a dreamy aesthetic and storyline that creeps under your skin. We start with Marlene playing a game of […]
The Kid (1921): Chaplin’s Classic Comic Melodrama Newly Restored (Review)
Over a century after its initial release, Charlie Chaplin’s debut feature, The Kid, is released in a new 4K digital restoration by Criterion. Initially released as part of his eight picture deal with First National Exhibitors, The Kid built off the prolific number of short comedies he’d been making since […]
Inland Empire (2006): How much more Lynch can this be? None, none more Lynch (Review)
Re-released in a new Criterion led restoration, Inland Empire is David Lynch’s most recent feature length film (if you’re not counting Twin Peaks: The Return, which is more contentious than you’d think), and generally has the reputation of being a collection of ideas and experimentations with filming in digital, lacking […]
Mexico Macabre: Four Sinister Tales from the Alameda Films Vault (1959-62) An unmissable collection of Horror Treats (Review)
In a world premiere on Blu-ray, Indicator presents a selection of four films from Mexican film company Alameda films from their early years, in this case, between 1959 to 1963. The quartet form an array of tales that showcase a variety of horror subgenres: a Poe-esque cautionary tale, an occult […]