There’s a strange, subtle tension in the experience of calling a cab. Uber gives us a genial thumbnail of our driver and their ratings, some semblance of a comfort blanket of who is going to be taking us from point A to B. But in the traditional lucky dip of […]
Movies & Documentaries
Tales from the Void (2024) Carefully Curated Horror Anthology based on R/NoSleep
In the late 2000s a whole eco-system was being born from the depths of the controversial forum 4Chan that would create a digital cavern for internet horror legends. The first Creepypasta to emerge from there spread like wildfire, and soon enough dedicated websites to these frightening tales were born. These […]
Gummo (1997) – Still Korine’s most indelibe work
After making quite the independent splash as screenwriter on Larry Clark’s notorious Kids in 1995, there was a small-but-devoted following keen to see what young, fresh-faced and whip-smart Harmony Korine would get up to next, but nobody could have predicted Gummo. Having left Nashville, Tennessee for the Big Apple (where […]
The Little Things & The Death of the House Party (2024): Two From Liverpool, With Love
I’m based in a little town called St Helens in Merseyside and, as regular readers of my reviews here at The Geek Show will know, that has made me ideally placed to be something of a local correspondent and champion of the increasingly exciting and steadily growing filmmaking community in […]
Noroi: The Curse (2005) A Modern Classic in the Analogue Canon
Mention the term ‘found-footage horror’ to anyone and they’re sure to bring to mind any of the big hitters: [REC], Cloverfield, Unfriended, Creep, and of course the big one, Paranormal Activity (as well as its many, many sequels). That film in particular took the genre to such a stripped back, […]
A Quiet Place in the Country (1969) A Haunted House for the Sexual Counter-Culture Age
When the hustle and bustle of urban life gets too much, don’t you just want to head out to the countryside for a bit of peace and quiet? Leonardo – played by Italian screen icon and original Django, Franco Nero – certainly seems to feel that way; the constant noise […]
Late Night with the Devil (2023) — the film that gave me hope for horror again
Found footage; analogue horror; demonic possession; a deal with the Devil… the top four tropes I, as a huge horror fan, have felt have been oversaturated and smothered with for the last decade or so. “Please,” I have too often thought to myself, “if you’re going to use yet another […]
Convoy (1978) Peckinpah Takes a Surprising Route from Novelty Record to Box Office Smash
Have you an eyeball on this, good buddy? Sam Peckinpah’s pop cultural classic road movie Convoy, starring the recently departed Kris Kristofferson, Ali McGraw and Ernest Borgnine, is coming to Blu-ray on the StudioCanal label from 28th October, 10-4! For those of you who weren’t around during the days of […]
Daiei Gothic (1959 & 1968) Three Chillingly Beautiful Tales of the Supernatural from Japan
Long before Britain made a subgenre of its folk traditions, Japan was mining its history (with the help of Greek-Irish author Lafcadio Hearn) to create chillingly beautiful tales of the supernatural. Three tales loom large for their influence: The Ghost of Yotsuya (Yotsuya Kaidan), The Snow Woman (Yuki-Onna) and The […]
Broken Oath (1973) The Ultimate Showcase for Angela Mao Ying
By the time Raymond Chow left Shaw Brothers to form Golden Harvest in 1970 (along with fellow Shaw Brothers alumni Leonard Ho) he had already been head of production at Shaw Brothers for 10 years. But being frustrated with the limitations of the restrictions put in place place by Run […]