Whereas many will undoubtedly be raving about the wonderful selection of new premieres at the 2024 edition of Fantasia Fest for weeks to come – and for good reason, as its lineup is tremendous – I’d certainly advise genre film fanatics to not ignore the restored and resurrected titles on […]
From the Festivals
The Beast Within (Fantasia 2024) Familial and Familiar Take on Werewolf Legend (Review)
There’s no attempt to hide what the titular Beast Within is in Alexander J. Farrell’s first horror feature (co-written with Greer Taylor Ellison), which opens with the quote “There are two wolves inside all of us … they’re always at war”, followed by the classic “lone person killed by monster” […]
Dark Match (Fantasia 2024) – A Wrestling Picture for the Old-School Fans (Review)
The inherent contradiction of the most successful movies about wrestling (The Iron Claw and The Wrestler to name just two examples), is that they tend to be high-level productions that set their sights on major awards contention, which puts them somewhat at odds with the real-life sports entertainment industry they […]
Adrianne and the Castle (Fantasia 2024): Clinging onto a Lifetime of Fantasy When Reality Takes Over (Review)
Adrianne and The Castle is a fascinating oddity of a documentary from filmmaker Shannon Welsh, a fantastical love story told from the perspective of a fairytale that is sadly over. It follows Alan St-George, an artist and entrepreneur of a world famous mascot company, responsible for numerous iconic cuddly heroes […]
I Saw The TV Glow (2024) An urgent personal plea that could change the world (Review)
I Saw The TV Glow should come with a warning. It’s a film you can’t prepare for, with no easy answers other than the ones you may not want to face, a film you can’t unsee. There are few adjectives more thudding when critiquing a film than ‘important’, but it’s […]
Carnage for Christmas and Liminal (Salem Horror Fest 2024)(Review)
As both a transgender woman and an enthusiast in horror, folklore, and all things spooky and fortean, I find myself frequently considering the relationships that people have with places; with horror, I frequently consider the ways in which locations can be haunted (literally or figuratively) by the actions of people […]
In The Rearview (Kinoteka 2024)(Review)
When Maciek Hamela was shooting this documentary on the roads between Ukraine and Poland there was probably still hope that this would remain a relatively short-lived war. Indeed, several of Hamela’s passengers – refugees carried in his volunteer’s van from urban and rural areas across the nation – often speak […]
7 Keys (SXSW 2024): Stylish Execution of High Concept British Thriller (Review)
Receiving its world premiere at SXSW, Joy Wilkinson makes her feature film debut as writer and director with 7 Keys, having found success in theatre, television, and radio. Immediately, she shows confidence in executing her vision with the opening shots of houses and flats around London, each one tinged with […]
Horror Story – (Kinoteka 2024)(Review)
As the feature debut of writer-director Adrian Apanel, Horror Story pulls off a nice little magic trick. When fresh-faced finance graduate Tomek (Jakub Zajac), rents a room in a crumbling boarding house that’s straight out of the horror cinema interior decorating textbook, we expect things to go full-blown supernatural (or […]
In Flames (Glasgow Frightfest 2024)(Review)
Fifteen or so years ago a movie called In Flames would’ve conjured up images of Scandanavian terror, full of blacks and dark blues, probably quite nihilistic, where an unlucky group were victim to supernatural terrors from beyond. Admittedly, part of that hypothetical may be influenced by sharing a name with a Swedish […]