Horror
Crimson Peak
With its powerful opening scene, Crimson Peak draws you in and, though loosens its grip at times, manages to keep hold of the audience’s attention until the end. Director Guillermo del Toro has pulled together a stunning cast,...
Cub
The most numerous slasher franchise of all time, Friday the 13th, was set at a summer camp but only one of the whole series (Jason Lives) actually had children present. This seems like a missed opportunity, as the extra tensio...
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Ana Lily Amirpour’s hipster flick, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, is a little like the Director herself: a product of many cultures. Part Iranian New Wave, part Spaghetti Western, part budget indie, this monochrome delight c...
Spring
Spring is one of those examples of the romantic horror. Romance and horror might not seem like perfect bedfellows but they’re as old as Dracula and increasingly bring out the best of both worlds. Normally lending itself natural...
Judas Ghost
There’s something about the phrase ‘cracking little ghost story’ that seems a bit patronising. So perhaps this review should start with a run down of some of this cracking little ghost story’s credentials. Written by New York T...
The Voices
Marjane Satrapi – known primarily for critically acclaimed animated coming-of-age drama Persepolis (2007) – has clearly taken a bold u-turn with her first foray into the landscape of English-language film. Playing l...
It Follows
For quite a long time there has been a close relationship between sex and death in horror films, both in metaphorical and literal terms. We all know the cliché of the virginal “final girl” leads in slasher films, even though th...
The Woman In Black: Angel of Death
The Woman in Black from 2012 was the biggest success (so far) of the recently revived Hammer Films. Capturing much of the essence of Susan Hill’s novel, along with a big dose of old fashioned gothic, it was a huge success at t...
Horns
While the author of Horns Joe Hill may sound like a Batman villain he is in fact the son of horror maestro Stephen King. And like his dark minded dad Hill seems to have a wondrous ability to tap into a macabre, twisted sense of...
The Babadook
Whilst on the surface just another foray into the ‘monster in the attic’ genre, The Babadook serves a slightly more thoughtful entry into the world of scary cinema. Positioning itself as a psychological thriller rat...
Annabelle
There’s a line delivered in Annabelle that sort of says ‘the more we know about monsters, the less they can frighten us’. That’s a dangerous thing to say in the context of this prequel to The Conjuring. In the origi...
Life After Beth
Jeff Baena’s directorial debut if anything can be classed as unique. Zombie comedies, and even romantic zombie comedies have been brushed upon before as the undead factor brings further complications to an angst ridden relation...
Honeymoon
If you’re looking for the quintessential body-horror about a marriage collapsing around all manner of icky and existential terrors then seek out Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession. It’s a wonderfully dark and disturbing little film ...
Oculus
Oculus is based on a short film by the same director (Mike Flanagan), Oculus: The Man with a Plan. After the director’s previous feature film, Absentia, expectations were pretty high for this one and this does emerge as ...
Under The Skin
The less you know going into Under The Skin the better. The reason being that what director Jonathan Glazer has created is an often daunting, visually arresting experience that taps into a very primal fear of the unknown. Hen...
Devil’s Due
Team Radio Silence originally started out making viral YouTube videos as little showcases for their directing and special effects skills. They became viral hits, so much so that the team got the chance to showcase in a feature...
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones
Remember when Paranormal Activity seemed like something new and fresh? Seems a really long time ago doesn’t it? The first film was a slick, lean, keep-it-simple-stupid piece of work, getting great mileage from focusing ...
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
We are unbelievably lucky to be able to see Nosferatu at all. This is famously the earliest film adaptation of Bram Stoker‘s Dracula, although not exactly officially. Director F.W. Murnau didn’t get the rights to ...
V/H/S/2 – FrightFest Review
The V/H/S franchise is a revival of the old portmanteau horror format combined it with the current vogue for found footage films. The first film though was a severely flawed piece of work. While the idea was sound, and itR...
The Wicker Man – The Final Cut
Given 2013 marks The Wicker Man’s 40th Anniversary it is a high accolade indeed that it is still considered one of the greatest horror films of all time. With an original, previously thought lost, cut recently discovered, the ...
