Glasgow FrightFest 2020 was one of the last film festivals to take place in BC (Before COVID), and the subsequent two years saw film festivals along with so much more turn online. In March 2022, FrightFest Glasgow returned with a vengeance, screening 12 films over three days at the beautiful […]
Movies & Documentaries
Homebound (2021) Claustrophobic Debut Horror (Glasgow Fright Fest Review)
During a horror movie, it is common practice for the audience to urge a character to run away. Our level of engagement may well be influenced by how characters respond to threatening situations. Respond sensibly and we’re on board; respond stupidly, as is all too often the case, and we […]
The Phantom of the Monastery (1934); A Well Preserved Piece of Mexican Film History (Review)
In a world premiere on Blu-Ray, Indicator has released a restoration of Mexican horror The Phantom of the Monastery / El Fantasma del Convento from 1934. It follows a group of three lost on a walk who meets a mysterious man and his dog, Shadow, who leads them to the […]
A Time for Dying (1969) Audie Murphy’s Last Stand (Review)
Here’s a curio released by Indicator Powerhouse this week, the final film of both director Bud Boetticher and star Audie Murphy, A Time for Dying was made in 1969 but didn’t actually receive a cinema release until 1982, having been tied up with litigation in the intervening thirteen years. This […]
Pale Flower (1964) Humble, Contrarian Anti-Yakuza Classic (Review)
In the solitary extra of Criterion’s new Blu-ray of 1964’s Pale Flower, Masahiro Shinoda says that his writers wanted to make something fresh, something Shochiku studio wasn’t doing. In the 1960s, Yakuza cinema was full of rough boys driven by anger and anachronistic musical numbers. The leading men were manly […]
Boat People (1982): Ann Hui’s controversial snapshot of post-war Vietnam (Review)
There’s an extra on Criterion UK’s Blu-Ray of Ann Hui’s 1982 film Boat People that’s so good, I’d like to beg your indulgence to deal with it before we get to the main feature. Keep Rolling is a two-hour documentary about Hui’s life and career by Man Lim-Chung. Made in […]
Mandrake (2022) Unbalanced yet promising Irish Folk Horror (Glasgow Fright Fest Review)
Horror is a genre with many conventions, and adherence or non-adherence to these conventions are what can make or break a horror film. Slow and suggestive can be more effective than fast and furious; commitment to a straightforward premise may work better than a set of convoluted and unnecessary elements. […]
Europa (2022): gripping outsider’s view of Fortress Europe (Review)
A tough, stripped-back refugee story, it’s tempting to say that Europa (released in cinemas and on-demand by Bulldog Distribution) is a timely release. Except that would imply it wouldn’t have been timely if it was released, say, three months ago. The Ukrainian crisis is the one that’s currently in the […]
Mad Dog Morgan (1976) A nonchalantly average & confused Australian Western (Review)
For a brief period of time, it seemed as if Dennis Hopper was going to be one of the brightest stars of Hollywood. After appearing in a string of mostly low budget films in the 60s (The Trip, Night Tide, Cool Hand Luke etc) his popularity culminated in Easy Rider, […]
Midnight (2021) Who said the wheel needed reinventing? (Review)
Between Gangnam Style, BTS, Parasite, and Squid Game, we have some monumentally successful Korean exports, each one putting the small peninsula on the cultural map to an entirely different audience than the last. Squid Game is especially relevant to Montage Pictures’ release of Midnight – the casting of Wi Ha-jun […]