What kind of films would be produced by a production house called the Directors Company? In a Western context, you could hazard a guess: serious-minded auteur films, unblemished by the crudities of genre, devoted to an artist’s personal vision. The Directors Company that existed in Japan from 1982 to 1992 […]
Movies & Documentaries
Pandora’s Box (1929) Dare You Open, or Will You Pabst? (Review)
Achieving its UK Blu-ray debut this week courtesy of Eureka Entertainment’s “Masters of Cinema” series is G.W. Pabst’s 1929 classic Pandora’s Box. Arguably one of Weimer German cinema’s – if not silent cinema in general’s – greatest masterpieces, Pandora’s Box is the film that catapulted the Kansas-born, twenty-two-year-old, one-time chorus […]
Beach of the War Gods (1973) A Seven Samurai retelling with epic intensions (Review)
Beach of the War Gods is an accumulation of a career, but before we get there it can never be overstated just how much of a star Jimmy Wang Yu was for Shaw Brothers in the late ’60s going into the early ’70s. With his boyish good looks and his […]
Suitable Flesh (2023) The Spirit of Stuart Gordon in this tawdry, knowing Lovecraft adaptation (Review)
It’s remarkable how much untapped potential lies in the work of H.P. Lovecraft -one of horror’s slipperiest and most indefinable writers. His weird tales of eldritch oddities and cosmic calamities have been the influence for many on the page, but few successes on the screen – despite a recent (if […]
Messiah of Evil (1973) “They say that nightmares are dreams perverted” (Review)
In Messiah of Evil (1973), co-written, produced and directed by Gloria Katz and William Huyck, Arletty travels to the seaside town of Point Dume to visit her estranged father. Upon arrival, she finds her father’s house deserted and the town inhabited by sinister locals. As she tries to unravel the […]
From Beijing with Love (1994) The Universal Language of Stephen Chow (Review)
Mo lei tau is a relatively new genre in terms of it’s history within Hong Kong pop culture. Born in the late 70’s and early 80’s through the comedy of the Hui Brothers (Michael, Samuel and Ricky Hui), and whilst their brand of humour was never officially called “Mo Lei […]
When Evil Lurks (2023) A Spirited, Grim Take On the Possession Movie (Review)
Coming off the critical success of Terrified (2017), and his standout segment in the horror anthology Satanic Hispanics (2022), Argentinian director Demián Rugna is back with another instalment of his brand of mean horror with When Evil Lurks – meaner and grimmer than before. Hot off the film festival circuit […]
Faceless After Dark (Grimmfest 2023)(Review)
At Grimmfest 2023, this critic asked director Raymond Wood if he considered Faceless after Dark to be a ‘woke’ film. He replied that he didn’t like the term, it was too vague and reductive, but described it as a feminist film from a man who considers himself a feminist ally. […]
Pearls of the Deep (1966) Manifesto of the Czech New Wave (Review)
Anthology and portmanteau movies are often something of a curate’s egg, and never more so than when those films feature the work of several directors. Released by Second Run this week, Pearls of the Deep was a 1966 showcase for young Czechoslovakian filmmakers. It was subsequently heralded as the manifesto […]
The Horrible Dr Hichcock (1962) & The Night of the Devils (1972) Radiance Italian Gothic (Review)
It’s that time of year again. The nights are getting longer and darker, all the leaves are brown, and everywhere you go, jack-o’-lanterns and fake cobwebs adorn windows and doorways – the season of the witch is well and truly upon us. Brand-new Blu-Ray distribution label Radiance Films have had […]