There’s an alternate universe where Harrison Ford’s single biggest (or only) franchise role is that of Han Solo in the Star Wars series, and that’s because the role of Indiana Jones went to first choice, Tom Selleck. In our universe (or, reality, as some might say), Selleck had to pass […]
Movies & Documentaries
Grind (Grimmfest 2026)(II)
The world isn’t short of sources of horror at the moment, but there is a particular dread that creeps over people of my loose age group – older millennial, raised on Gen X culture, able to remember a world before the internet – whenever someone talks about “hacking” their personality. […]
Survive Style 5 (2004) The Return of a Stone Cold Cult Classic Weirdo
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 […]
The Shout (1978): cryptic, constantly rewarding folk horror classic
Jerzy Skolimowski’s The Shout is the kind of film Criterion made their reputation on. It’s not just that it’s extremely good – although it is – but your appreciation of its good qualities can only be heightened by having it selected as part of this collection. Without this curatorial effort, […]
Wildwood (BFI London Film Festival 2026)
I think I’ve had several different introductions to this review floating around in my head for two or three years now. It’s been so long since Laika announced Wildwood as their next animated project after Missing Link, a film that unfortunately severely underperformed at the box office, and for a […]
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 — […]
Ray Gunn (BFI London Film Festival 2026)
The novelty of seeing a new original animated film by the legend that is Brad Bird never really wore off during all two hours of watching Ray Gunn. Bird reminds me of Henry Selick in that for all that they’re a veteran in the animation medium, they have a beloved […]
Nightborn (London Film Festival 2026) (II)
I don’t know quite what I was expecting from Nightborn, but it certainly wasn’t the film it ended up being and it was all the better for it. The promotional material and general aesthetic called to mind modern folk horrors like Daniel Kokotajlo’s Starve Acre, but Nightborn is considerably more […]
Eastern Trails – The Western at DEFA (1967-75): go east, young man!
In many ways, the Western was always a propagandistic art form. America was still a relatively young country when cinema began, and it needed a national founding myth. The story of brave white men heading west, civilising a savage land and finding gold in them there hills fitted the bill […]
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 […]