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 […]
From the Festivals
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 […]
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 […]
Peril at Pincer Point (I) (Fantasia International Film Festival 2026)
Genre cinema is in remarkably good health in the U.S. with projects like Backrooms and Obsession signalling a new generation of inventive, internet‑age storytellers and emerging filmmakers who are already making waves. Here in Britain though, genre filmmaking often struggles to find the same cultural momentum, which is why the […]
The Mouths (Fantasia International Film Festival 2026)
For anyone who remembers the Japanese horror movie boom of the late ’90s and early ’00s, Takashi Shimizu (the man behind Ju‑on), is responsible for some of the most dread‑inducing, skin‑crawling images ever produced, and remains one of the genre’s defining architects. Even before The Mouths begins you know you’re […]