In many ways, Retreat has been a long time coming, with reports of it being shot back in 2020. Its origins go back further with writer and director Ted Evans’ short film of the same name in 2013, though only the setting is retained (an isolated community focused on supporting […]
From the Festivals
Redux Redux (Imagine Film Festival 2025)
WARNING! This a film worth going into blind. While this review does not contain spoilers, it does outline the premise that it might be more fun to discover for yourself. Still here? Well then, let’s proceed. Revenge is a dish best served cold, or in the case of Redux Redux, […]
Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie (Imagine Film Festival 2025)
I was unaware of Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s lo-fi comedy TV series, Nirvanna the Band the Show, before pressing play on Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie for the Imagine Fantastic Film Festival in Amsterdam. The title should have been self-explanatory, yet it’s so absurd I completely took it for granted. […]
Reflection in a Dead Diamond (Imagine Film Fest 2025)
You can’t move for nostalgia in the cinema today. People go to the movies to escape into the reassuring, and studios are only too happy to supply them with cinematic safety blankets made from IPs of old, the comic book hero, the remake, the TV reboot. But for those of […]
Horror in the Andes: Ayacuchean Cinema in the Making (Imagine 2025)
Academic analyses of film can sometimes be esoteric and alienating. References to theorists and terms like ‘mise-en-scene’, ‘postcolonialism’ and ‘intersectional understanding’ might cause readers to lose interest, and in some cases, annoy filmmakers. The documentary Horror in the Andes: Ayacuchean Cinema in the Making indicates such annoyance with its opening […]
I Live Here Now (Imagine Film Festival 2025)
Since its premiere at Fantasia a few months ago, I Live Here Now has been gaining some traction among festival goers and horror fans. The directorial debut of Julie Pacino (yes, she’s related), is a surrealist and claustrophobic piece of horror where one budding actress’s stay in a hotel quickly […]
New Group: Offbeat Horror on the Fear of Conformity (Imagine Festival 2025)
Yuta Shimotsu has become the latest breakout writer/director of Japanese horror after the arrival of his debut, Best Wishes For All dropped on Shudder this year. It’s awkward and strange tone immediately stands out in its uniquely unnerving way and it’s a style Shimotsu continues with his follow-up New Group. […]
Boorman and the Devil (Imagine Film Fest 2025): Exorcising a Much-Maligned Sequel
From 30th October to the 9th November, Imagine Film Festival invites you to reconsider John Boorman’s much maligned horror sequel to 1973’s record-breaking success The Exorcist – the ill-fated film Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977). William Friedkin, who directed the original, held nothing back in his verdict of Boorman’s film, […]
Mag Mag (Imagine Film Festival 2025)
While self-explanatory, a director only gets to debut once, so they better make it count. A note that the popular Japanese comedian Yuriyan Retriever took in her stride with her first feature film, Mag Mag, which played at 2025’s Imagine Film Festival in Amsterdam (and Frightfest’s 2025 Halloween event, too). […]
Incomplete Chairs (Grimmfest 2025): The Serial Killer / Furniture Builder Film We Never Knew We Needed
Ken’ichi Ugana returns to Grimmfest, after the showing of Love Will Tear Us Apart in 2023, with Incomplete Chairs further showcasing his imaginative storytelling. His latest is more akin to another of his films currently playing festivals this year, The Curse, in leaning more into outright horror than comedy. Incomplete Chairs opens with Shinsuke Kujo (Ryu Ichinose) […]