For an entire generation of horror fans, the movies that came out of Japan around the turn of the millennium were crucial stopovers in our journey of cinematic discovery. They fell under the collective-yet-reductive umbrella of “J-Horror”, which had slowly burned out by the mid-’00s, but in 2023 the smouldering […]
Pop Culture
To Fire You Come at Last (Frightfest 2023)(Review)
Throughout the English countryside, there are roads built for the dead. Very few of these paths still exist in any easily detectable way, with many of them now overgrown and forgotten to time, but there was a time when these “corpse roads” were a necessity for remote rural communities, marking […]
Enter the Clones of Bruce Lee & J-Horror Virus (Frightfest 2023) (Review)
The Frightfest line-up is often home to some exceptional documentaries that chronicle everything from cultural curios to cinematic movements. They act as a sort of cinematic sorbet from the fictional chills and thrills that surround them, and this year is no different with two strong examples being Enter the Clones […]
River (2023) Junta Yamaguchi with another ambitious time-twisting treat (Frightfest 2023) (Review)
Junta Yamaguchi is a filmmaker who loves repeating himself, which is understandable given that his feature film work so far has concerned itself with two-minute cycles and loops in time that infuriate and complicate in equal measure. It should be clear from the outset, however, that this is not necessarily […]
Raging Grace (Frightfest 2023): A Striking Genre Take on Immigration (Review)
In the last few years there have been a couple of interesting horror movies that focused on servitude like The Maid (2020), and Nanny (2022). Raging Grace continues this (hopefully growing), trend by following in Nanny’s footsteps and adding anxiety around immigration to the mix. The tale of an illegal […]
Hostile Dimensions & HERD (Frightfest 2023)(Review)
HOSTILE DIMENSIONS After Death of a Vlogger, Graham Hughes takes another stab at making a distinctly modern found-footage film, and it begins with what you might call a Blair Witch speedrun. A pair of documentarians exploring a derelict house find something uncanny and disappear without a trace. It’s then revealed […]
Strange Days (1995): The Future and Racial Tensions (Opinion Piece)
Strange Days (1995) remains an anomaly. A story from the mind of James Cameron, it is Kathryn Bigelow’s first film since Point Break and it starred a post-Schindler’s List Ralph Fiennes. But it went all wrong. It was a box office bomb and is most likely the reason that Bigelow’s […]
10 of Our Favourite Inside No 9 Episodes (I)
Inside No. 9 was a show that I’ve wanted to dive into for a long time now, and once my A-Levels were finished I went to work. Within a month I had binged the entire series, because screw going outside and being an active member of society when you can […]
Frightfest 2023 Preview
The annual FrightFest programme has been released, with new films and classics alike jostling for space at Cineworld Leicester Square and the Prince Charles Cinema. This year, the festival welcomes Pigeon Shrine as its new headline sponsor supporting the five-day event that runs from Thursday 24th to Monday 28th August. […]
Inland Empire (2006): How much more Lynch can this be? None, none more Lynch (Review)
Re-released in a new Criterion led restoration, Inland Empire is David Lynch’s most recent feature length film (if you’re not counting Twin Peaks: The Return, which is more contentious than you’d think), and generally has the reputation of being a collection of ideas and experimentations with filming in digital, lacking […]