One thing that distinguishes horror fans from other genre fandoms is this; they have a healthy curiosity about why their chosen genre works for them. You cannot watch movies where people are chased, stabbed, tortured and dismembered without encountering at least one person who wrinkles their nose and asks “Why […]
Movies & Documentaries
The Nameless Ballad (Frightfest 2026)
OOne of the many films receiving its World Premiere at FrightFest 2026 is The Nameless Ballad. Federico Zampaglione’s film has a familiar setup: a musician who has recorded a hit debut album is under pressure from his record label, so he retreats to an isolated Italian villa, hoping the change […]
Buddy (FrightFest 2026)
In the brief frenzy of deal-making that followed Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, Mattel executive Kevin McKeon said the company was developing an “A24-style” Barney the Dinosaur movie with Daniel Kaluuya which would be “leaning into the millennial angst of the property”. At this, the world rose and spoke with one voice: […]
World Noir Vol. 5 – Post War Italy in Crisis (1946, 1950 & 1951)
A friend of mine, who is becoming an avid film fan and physical media collector, was asking me about Radiance Films. He said that their stuff always looked good but he had next to no knowledge about any of it. This is where my face lit up. That’s the beauty […]
Ithaqua (Frightfest 2026)
It’s the 19th century in Northern Ontario, Canada. The winter is harsher than usual, and the fur trade is in decline. Food is scarce, and tension is plentiful. The woods are quiet. Too quiet. It’s the late 1970s. England’s beloved home-grown horror studio Hammer Film Productions is struggling in the […]
Frogman Returns (Frightfest 2026)
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 […]
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 […]