You’d expect many things to have their origins in ABCs of Death 2 – toilet humour, heightened gore, old genres on a micro level, puns as horror, and a base level of horror debauchery. One thing you wouldn’t expect is a French/Lithuanian duo to collaborate on a thoughtful ecological sci-fi […]
Movies & Documentaries
Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror (1963/66)(Blu-Ray Review)
Horror, as a genre, flows from the Gothic like a river – but not all rivers flow in straight lines. In its heyday, a Gothic novel might mean the Gothic adventures of Ann Radcliffe or the Gothic romances of the Brontë sisters. Now, though, the term is unshakeably associated with […]
Mean Spirited (2022)Youtuber Found Footage’s buzz harshed by incessant Bro Chatter (Festival Review)
Horror fans are accustomed to certain tropes, and one of those is that any time a group of young people head off on a trip it is going to go wrong. From The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to The Evil Dead to Wrong Turn to The Cabin in the Woods, this […]
Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 80’s Kadokawa Years (Blu-Ray Review)
Lots of people throw the term “cult film” around or call somebody a “cult director” but very few people fit that definition as much as Nobuhiko Obayashi. A director who whilst having an incredibly long-standing career, which started in the mid-60s and lasted all the way up until his death […]
He’s Watching (2022)Lockdown Found Footage stumbles across the finish-line (VOD Review)
While their parents recover in hospital from a mystery illness, siblings, Iris and Lucas, must confront a series of strange happenings in their home. Is it a sense of paranoia between the two, or are they sharing the house with something more sinister? Following the release of Shudder exclusive Host […]
Maniacal Mayhem (1936/1940/1951) (Blu-Ray Review)
From the vaults of Universal Pictures comes Maniacal Mayhem, the Blu-Ray collection of three dark and moody tales of terror starring the iconic horror idol Boris Karloff. The Invisible Ray (1936) stars Boris Karloff as Doctor Janos Rukh, a scientist hellbent on the discovery and use of an element called […]
The Amusement Park (1975): George A Romero’s lost film comes back from the dead (Blu-Ray Review)
Of course, a man like George A Romero would leave us with one final shock. When he died in 2017, it seemed like his final film was Survival of the Dead, a middling 2009 entry into the zombie genre he redefined with his immortal 1968 debut Night of the Living […]
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) The Original Universal Monster makes his UK debut (Blu-Ray Review)
It’s a strange, spellbinding experience to witness Lon Chaney’s titular disfigured bell-ringer appear on-screen for the first time, knowing in hindsight that this film, in many ways, was the beginning of blockbuster cinema as we know it today. The first adaptation of many of Victor Hugo’s classic novel, Wallace Worsley’s […]
Take Back the Night (2021) A Disgustingly Evergreen Public Safety Movie (Blu-Ray Review)
Take Back the Night presents challenges for any prospective reviewer, especially this one. Gia Elliot’s micro-budget feature is not a broad, generalist horror movie: this is something which is bristlingly upfront about its goals and message. Take Back the Night is tackling sexual violence against women and the ramifications it […]
Shot in the Dark (2021) Mumblegore Torture Debut, minus the Torture (VOD Review)
Torture Porn was a ridiculous title to saddle upon horror and thriller movies that focus on people being held captive and subjected to grotesque violence. Yet somehow, once upon a time, they were a hot commodity. In 2022, they have become something of a curate’s egg – an occasional piece […]