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 […]
Pop Culture
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 […]
Colony (Frightfest 2026)
Zombies have long been used as an allegory. From the Haitian legend that treated zombification as an extension of slavery to the Civil Rights and consumerist concerns of George A. Romero; from the mindless shuffle of everyday life in ‘Shaun of the Dead’ to the class divisions in ‘Train to […]
Bad Karaoke (Frightfest 2026)
Bad Karaoke opens with a tone so CW‑coded it’s almost confrontational; there was certainly nothing else at this year’s FrightFest that even came remotely close. The casting leans heavily on hot young things, the cinematography has that overtly digital gloss you associate with mid‑budget American genre TV, and the banter […]
Snapshot (Frightfest 2026)
The year is 1888, and the British Isles are full of wonder and horror. In Leeds, the French pioneer Louis Le Prince has just invented the first moving-picture camera, whilst down in smog-bound London, William Friese-Greene and Alexander Parkes are conducting early experiments in celluloid; next door in Whitechapel, a […]
Outside the Blue Box: Last Night in Soho (2021)
All you need to see is the recent viral clip of Matt Smith expressing amazement that Keanu Reeves was watching Morbius on a flight, and you’ll realise that the former Eleventh Doctor’s film career has been spotty to say the least. From the bizarre experiments (Lost River), to the aborted […]
Tokyo Burst: Crime City (Fantasia International Film Festival 2026)
Eiji Uchida’s Tokyo Burst: Crime City, which hits the city’s Kabukichō district with an unmistakable Ryu Ga Gotoku swagger, is kind of a spinoff of the Roundup series fronted by Don Lee (Ma Dong‑seok). From street brawls to gang politics and host‑club intrigue, the director’s narrative chicanery turns small disturbances […]
God Skin (Fantasia International Film Festival 2026)
With Mortal Kombat 2 already released and Street Fighter coming out later this year, 2026 appears to be the year of the fighting game movie. To that list we can probably add Paween Purijitpanya’s God Skin as even though it’s not actually adapted from a video game, it’s basically close […]
I Love Paris (Fantasia International Film Festival 2026)
There seems to be some confusion in the horror community about mockumentaries so let’s clear that up by saying the key word here is “mock”, which in the context of films means funny, satirical or parodical. Yes, the word can also mean “fake”, but the term faux-documentary already exists and […]
Outside the Blue Box: Virtual Murder – A Torch for Silverado (1992)
2026 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Jon Pertwee. As such, it seems only fair that we shine a light on an example of his work, specifically a relatively overlooked example of his work at the twilight of his days. The early 90s BBC telefantasy crime series Virtual […]