Recently restored, The Birthday is a quirky little film. Taking place in a hotel that could rival the Overlook as far as bad visits go, this Corey Feldman film begins as a surrealist comedy that follows Norman Forrester, a painfully awkward man who is attending his posh girlfriend’s father’s birthday and […]
Reviews
Special Effects (1984) New York sleaze with a Stern Gaze on Hollywood Power
Manhattan-born genre auteur Larry Cohen, best known for his slimy, effects-laden creature-features, is the brain behind such cult favourites as It’s Alive (1974), Q: The Winged Serpent (1982), and most famously, The Stuff (1985) – all of which have goopy gore and rubber monsters aplenty. When the late, great director […]
Silence of the Sea (Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2026)
It’s crime, but is it art? Art forgers are a strange breed of criminals, in that the criticism they inspire is closer to the criticism I’m writing here than the moral denunciation given out to other outlaws. Most people aren’t ethically offended by someone turning out counterfeit Roman sculptures or […]
ELSE (2024) A Claustrophobic French Body Horror That Gets Under Your Skin
Not that it needs explaining, but there’s a marked difference between a traditional horror movie and one that deals in body horror. A traditional movie would feature an external threat hunting down our heroes, and although there are exceptions, it’s as close to a hard-and-fast rule as you are likely […]
The Stunt Man (1980) When Making a Movie Becomes a Matter of Life and Death
One of the Special Feature commentaries for The Stunt Man opens with director Richard Rush claiming that “Putting a dog licking his balls in the title sequence, I suppose, is letting the audience know it’s going to be an iconoclastic picture.” It’s an eye-catching opening, a wild accompanying statement and […]
The Ugly Stepsister (2025) A Beautifully Deranged Fairy Tale
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but it’s generally determined by the standards of society, and when that society is patriarchal, women suffer. It’s a fairly trite observation that’s the subject of a fascinating exploration in The Ugly Stepsister – a version of Cinderella that’s dark and malevolent […]
Libido (1965) Argento may be The Artist, but Gastaldi is The Man
Giallo is known by its directors – Fulci, Bava, Argento, maybe Sergio Martino if you do some digging, but someone just as important is screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi. Active for nearly thirty years in Italian cinema, he penned the scripts for some of the most iconic gialli, his many credits including […]
Redux Redux (2025) Reclaiming the Multiverse, One Brutal Reality at a Time
After its UK screening at FrightFest 2025, I’ve long wanted to revisit Redux Redux, the follow-up to Kevin and Matthew McManus’s lo-fi horror The Block Island Sound. That movie felt like something a few friends could knock together in their local community — a modern regional horror piece pitched far […]
Jimmy & Stiggs (2024) The Messy, Mean, DIY Splatterfest Begos Was Born to Make
In returning to his roots with Jimmy & Stiggs, Joe Begos becomes a conflicting and truly beguiling filmmaker. As a fan of independent music and the punk ethos, a filmmaker who champions those ideals should be right up my street — and for his breakout Bliss (2019), he was. However, […]
Charisma (1999) / Cloud (2024): A Showcase for One of the Greatest Living Filmmakers
A new physical release of a Kiyoshi Kurosawa film is always something to celebrate, however what is notable about Eureka’s choices for the latest release in their Masters of Cinema series is that they highlight Kurosawa’s skills outside the horror genre. With films like Cure and Pulse arguably being his […]