Frogman Returns joins a select group of horror sequels that improves on its predecessor, even reckoning on the original’s barking mad hypnosis-impregnation final act. Cousins’ second entry in the Frogman series, however, takes the formula in a welcome new direction, with significantly better effects, a media satire subplot and some […]
From the Festivals
The Peril at Pincer Point (II) (Frightfest 2026)
Anybody who has made a film in any capacity will know that the process of working with sound is a multi-layered hell. Surely, there is a reason why filmmakers tamed the image before they were able to accompany it with recorded sound; like the sea, it is a force to […]
Ghost in the Cell (Frightfest 2026)
Perhaps it’s a marker of my strange sense of humour but I found my funny bone thoroughly tickled by Joko Anwar’s splatter-comedy Ghost in the Cell, where a ghost dismembers prisoners and turns them into grizzly art exhibits that nevertheless amaze in their ingenuity. Think of Smile 2 but directed […]
Heraldry Paranormal (Frightfest 2026)
A spectre is haunting Yorkshire. In the late 1960s, a family living on a council estate in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, claimed to have been terrorised by the apparition of a ‘black monk’ which hurled objects and violently attacked their youngest daughter – with the case eventually being adapted into the […]
Bunny Rabbit (Frightfest 2026)
Set in Australia after environmental disasters and bushfires have brought the world to a standstill, James Branson’s Bunny Rabbit appropriately shows that living in that post-apocalyptic land wouldn’t be all that fun. The bulk of the runtime is dedicated to showing a father-daughter relationship. They scrounge for supplies, food is […]
Colony (Frightfest 2026)
Zombies have long been used as an allegory. From the Haitian legend that treated zombification as an extension of slavery to the Civil Rights and consumerist concerns of George A. Romero; from the mindless shuffle of everyday life in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ to the class divisions in ‘Train to […]
Bad Karaoke (Frightfest 2026)
Bad Karaoke opens with a tone so CW‑coded it’s almost confrontational; there was certainly nothing else at this year’s FrightFest that even came remotely close. The casting leans heavily on hot young things, the cinematography has that overtly digital gloss you associate with mid‑budget American genre TV, and the banter […]
Snapshot (Frightfest 2026)
The year is 1888, and the British Isles are full of wonder and horror. In Leeds, the French pioneer Louis Le Prince has just invented the first moving-picture camera, whilst down in smog-bound London, William Friese-Greene and Alexander Parkes are conducting early experiments in celluloid; next door in Whitechapel, a […]
Tokyo Burst: Crime City (Fantasia International Film Festival 2026)
Eiji Uchida’s Tokyo Burst: Crime City, which hits the city’s Kabukichō district with an unmistakable Ryu Ga Gotoku swagger, is kind of a spinoff of the Roundup series fronted by Don Lee (Ma Dong‑seok). From street brawls to gang politics and host‑club intrigue, the director’s narrative chicanery turns small disturbances […]
God Skin (Fantasia International Film Festival 2026)
With Mortal Kombat 2 already released and Street Fighter coming out later this year, 2026 appears to be the year of the fighting game movie. To that list we can probably add Paween Purijitpanya’s God Skin as even though it’s not actually adapted from a video game, it’s basically close […]