From the opening shots of dark woods and a woman calling a name, The Beast Within creates an ominous atmosphere that doesn’t let up throughout its running time. Director Alexander J. Farrell weaves an intricate, slow burn tale of dread, secrets, and various forms of bodily betrayal that both rewards […]
Reviews
Sting (2024): Fun and Slick Creature Feature with Bite (Review)
It is a strange coincidence that in the same year two nunspolitation films (Immaculate and The First Omen) were released close together, the same has happened with two spider-centric horrors. Infested/Vermines was released on Shudder at the end of April and just over a month later Sting now arrives in […]
Dancing Village: The Curse Begins (2024): Nimbly avoids the curse of Prequels (Review)
When’s the best time to watch a prequel? You’d think it’d be natural to get them in first, and plenty of people do just that. I have several friends who’ve introduced their kids to Star Wars in chronological order, from the crushing disappointment of The Phantom Menace, to the crushing […]
Dial (2024)(Short Film) The Horror of Isolation (Review)
Grief, mental illness and haunting are common bedfellows in cinema, and major feature films like The Babadook, The Father and Relic have interwoven these tropes, manifesting them as something potentially supernatural. Into this fertile emotional ground comes Dial – a short film by writer-director Josh Trett that tells the story […]
Point Break 4K (1991) 100% Pure Adrenaline from Kathryn’s Bigelow’s Iconic Crime Thriller (Review)
The cultural reputation of Point Break might characterise it as a silly film, with gunplay resting alongside homoeroticism, and some new age, hippy-dippy mumbo-jumbo bound up with surfing (Hot Fuzz has a lot to answer for). If one looks closely at the film itself however, Kathryn Bigelow’s action heist/buddy flick […]
Risky Business (1983) An Interesting And Unusual Start To Tom Cruise’s Stardom (Review)
I think I went into Risky Business with the wrong impression. I didn’t grow up in the 1980s, I grew up in the 2010s, so my view of ’80s teen comedies has been entirely shaped by John Hughes and the Brat Pack. I think of films like Ferris Bueller’s Day […]
Santa Sangre (1989): Carnage at the Circus in Jodorowsky’s Chaotic Classic (Review)
What can you say about Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Santa Sangre, or more specifically, what can you say about it that isn’t said somewhere on this enormous four-disc Blu-Ray from Severin Films? The scale of this release is extraordinary, and includes the film itself in 4K and standard forms, a commentary with […]
Mississippi Mermaid (1969): Truffaut’s Misunderstood Tale of Mystery and Erotic Obsession (Review)
Released to Blu-ray by Radiance Films this week is Mississippi Mermaid, a 1969 Hitchcockian thriller from François Truffaut that tells of an obsessive love affair between Jean-Paul Belmondo and Catherine Deneuve. By the late 1960s, Truffaut had long since earnt his spurs as an acclaimed auteur within the French New […]
The Nico Mastorakis Collection (1984-1992) Movie (Review)(Part Two)
This is the second part of an extensive two-part review of Arrow Video’s new boxset, The Nico Mastorakis Collection, which you should check that out for context (this part is a continuation after all), and to get a proper sense of the man, the myth… the Mastorakis. READ PART ONE […]
The Nico Mastorakis Collection (1984-1992) (Review – Part One)
For those of you who don’t know who Nico Mastorakis is allow me to fill you in with a bit of context. Mastorakis is an 83-year-old Greek filmmaker, radio DJ, and journalist, who was responsible for a slew of cult genre titles like The Zero Boys (1986), Hired to Kill […]