The platypus is a confounding beast, one which defies and disregards all known laws of nature; it is undeniably a mammal, yet it has a bill, webbed feet, lays eggs, and produces venom. Even the plural of its name, “platypuses”, feels like it violates some deep, unspoken rule. British scientists […]
From the Festivals
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 […]
Our Effed Up World (FrightFest 2026)
Back in 2021, before I started writing for The Geek Show, I received an Instagram DM from a 17-year-old transfem filmmaker from Australia named Alice Maio Mackay, who had just completed her first feature film and wanted to share it with as many transgender people on the horror scene as […]
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 […]
Drag (Frightfest 2026)
Like all the best discoveries at a film festival, I went into Drag with no expectations whatsoever, and whether that helped or not, this ended up being the most fun I had at FrightFest. Directed by Raviv Ullman and Greg Yagolnitzer, with Danny DeVito as co‑producer, the film constantly shifts […]
What to look out for at Fantastic Fest 2026
Born at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, Fantastic Fest seems to spread its geographical and cultural remit a little further every year. There aren’t many genre festivals that can boast an advance screening of a likely Oscar contender, as well as restored silent movies and new films from Venezuela, […]
Invoking Scream (Frightfest 2026)
Invoking Scream does something immediately helpful: it explains the plot of Invoking Yell in its opening minutes, and as someone who hasn’t seen the first film, I appreciated the clarity. The original was shot to look like it was made in 1997, full of found‑footage visual degradation, grimy textures, and […]