As far as Japanese movies which aren’t available in the UK are concerned, Survive Style 5 is one of the big ones. An entire generation of Japanese cinema fans were introduced to this slice anarchy by a long out of print Manga Entertainment DVD. That release climbed to the legendary […]
Rob Simpson
Chief Editor
Host of the Uncut Network. With a love of movies kicked off by Hong Kong Action and Claymation Monsters, Rob has forever been cradled in the bosom of Cinema. Rob has his hands in many a pie, including no budget film making. Filthy
Crawlers (Grimmfest 2026)
While the mini revival of creature feature horror films may have its outliers like Johannes Roberts’ Primate, but it’s the arachnid who has been receiving the lion’s share of new movies. We’ve had Sébastien Vanicek’s audacious Infested, Kiah Roache-Turner’s interstellar Sting, and earlier this year Christopher Smith’s Spider Island — […]
Oddities (Grimmfest 2026)
I originally saw Oddities on the fifth day of FrightFest in a press screening room where everyone was exhausted. For any movie, I don’t think that is the most conducive environment – movies need to breathe – and with writer/director Tyler Savage’s (Stalker, 2020) new movie getting its Northern Premiere […]
Compliance (Fantastic Fest 2026)
Getting its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest 2026 is Kyle Mangione-Smith’s directorial feature debut, Compliance. And while the name may have had many outings over the years, the actual content of the movie is far less well-worn. On the eve of a landmark deal for a major tech start-up, […]
The Ones Who Grieve (Fantastic Fest 2026)
Director Quarxx had his English-language breakthrough with 2024’s vision of hellish ordeals, Pandemonium, offering himself up as a director specialising in “day-ruiners.” Making its World Premiere at 2026’s Fantastic Fest is the French director’s latest, The Ones Who Grieve. Taking place on an isolated farm in the French countryside, Zélie […]
Girl in the Night (Fantastic Fest 2026)
One of the joys of film festivals is stumbling across something utterly new, sometimes that goes as far as a national cinema you know little about. Girl in the Night is, to the best of my knowledge, my first contemporary Slovenian film, and if it’s representative of the kinds of […]
Kung Fu Deadly (Fantastic Fest 2026)
Ireland and Hong Kong meet in Kung Fu Deadly, directed by Fergal Costello from a screenplay by Paul Markey and Paddy McDonald. Opening with a storybook sequence detailing its backstory, it’s elegantly presented, classically Chinese, and very tasteful. While it doesn’t quite set the tone for the irreverence ahead, it […]
The Glorious Dead (Frightfest 2026)
John Adams, Toby Poser and their daughters Zelda and Lulu have become something of an anomaly in American indie filmmaking as they’ve carved out a genuinely self‑sustaining creative ecosystem: shooting everything themselves, sharing duties across the family, and building films from the ground up with a DIY ethos that never […]
Trauma or, Monsters All (Frightfest 2026)
FrightFest is typically full of guest filmmakers, speakers and actors, all arranged well in advance – and then there’s Larry Fessenden, who arrived at the screening of his new film Trauma or, Monsters All unannounced for a surprise Q&A. Before what would turn out to be a very successful UK […]
Grind (Frightfest 2026)
I’d heard a lot of hype about GRIND from its American festival run, and as someone already a fan of Brea Grant’s directorial work, I went in curious but without fixed expectations — anthologies haven’t exactly been in their halcyon era lately. What I got was one of the most […]