Independent film is full of people from other professions in the creative industries taking a turn behind the camera. Stunt men, visual effects artists, action choreographers, cinematographers, and stand-up comedians have and continue to make the leaps necessary to direct. With her latest directorial project, The Runner, Michelle Danner is […]
Rob Simpson
Vesper (2022) The best small-scale world building in indie sci-fi for years (Cinema & VOD Review)
You’d expect many things to have their origins in ABCs of Death 2 – toilet humour, heightened gore, old genres on a micro level, puns as horror, and a base level of horror debauchery. One thing you wouldn’t expect is a French/Lithuanian duo to collaborate on a thoughtful ecological sci-fi […]
Take Back the Night (2021) A Disgustingly Evergreen Public Safety Movie (Blu-Ray Review)
Take Back the Night presents challenges for any prospective reviewer, especially this one. Gia Elliot’s micro-budget feature is not a broad, generalist horror movie: this is something which is bristlingly upfront about its goals and message. Take Back the Night is tackling sexual violence against women and the ramifications it […]
Shot in the Dark (2021) Mumblegore Torture Debut, minus the Torture (VOD Review)
Torture Porn was a ridiculous title to saddle upon horror and thriller movies that focus on people being held captive and subjected to grotesque violence. Yet somehow, once upon a time, they were a hot commodity. In 2022, they have become something of a curate’s egg – an occasional piece […]
Police Story 3: Supercop (1992) It’s the Michelle Yeoh Show (Blu-Ray Review)
The original police story is one of the essential movies in Jackie Chan’s career, helping cement his international career, and an action masterpiece. Beyond that, the series gets wildly inconsistent. In its initial 6-movie run and questionable in its two-movie run after being revived in 2003 under the moniker New […]
The Guest (2014) Aged like Fine Synth (Blu-Ray Review)
Things move at such a fast pace in the movie world. Rewind 10 years ago, horror was not in the healthy position it is now – some things did cut through the noise, but mostly it was a very middle-of-the-road era. A few directors had some degree of cultural cache. […]
Frightfest 2022: Short Films & Everyone Forgot
We conclude our frightfest coverage for 2022 with a look at the short films that featured as part of the events discovery screen. For the full down of all the shorts that were featured, we have a handy article for your reading pleasure HERE. Besides being a nice palette cleanser, […]
Frightfest 2022: Incredible but true (Festival Review)
Quentin Dupieux is a fascinating multihyphenate. For my generation, he emerged with the puppet Flat Eric and his dance single, flat beat. Since then, he emerged as a filmmaker and his first notable cut-through came in 2010’s Rubber A.K.A. The killer tyre movie, and in the decade since he’s continued […]
The Weapon The Hour The Motive (1972) A left turn too many for this rare Giallo (Blu-Ray Review)
Once upon a time, the Giallo as a sub-genre was primarily lost to obscurity – available only to those engaged in the tape trading scene. Even during the DVD boom era, this ever-sleazy wave of Italian murder mysteries never managed to break through. It has only been during the blu-ray […]
Tremors 4K (1990) Electric Paced Creature Feature & ‘Modern’ Classic (Blu-ray Review)
Tremors, Ron Underwood’s 1990 creature feature & ode to the classics made in the 50s, is there any movie that is served worse by the franchise it spawned? Based on the fact that it has gone out of control, spanning a further 23 films – at the time of writing […]