Thriller
Blue Ruin
Seemingly managing to blend a Western with a contemporary revenge thriller, Blue Ruin is never quite what you expect. Tinged with biting grit and occasional horror writer-director Jeremy Saulnier conjures something minimalistic...
Transcendence
Great sci-fi films have the ability to tap into very real issues that potentially face mankind in the future. Artificial Intelligence is nothing new to cinema, dating back as far as Fritz Lang’s 1927 Metropolis and then cemente...
Locke
Meet Ivan Locke, construction foreman, devoted father and loving husband. That’s how we meet him anyway. Apart from a glimpse in the very opening scene there is no one else on screen but Mr Locke for the film’s intr...
The Raid 2
In 2012 a film erupted onto our screens that generously reinvigorated the action genre and injected a much needed shot of epinephrine into our martial arts veins. That film was The Raid and this spring serves up The Raid 2, pos...
Pioneer
Norway is a very prosperous nation, with a large part of its success down to North Sea oil. It’s also had a major boom in recent years with its film industry, with many notable titles getting quite acclaimed runs in the U...
The Double
Seeped in drab grays and browns Richard Ayoade’s The Double is, aesthetically speaking, far removed from his debut film Submarine. And yet, two films into his directing career he has established a style and tone that is quinte...
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...
Wake in Fright
This has been a long time coming. Ted Kotcheff‘s 1970 film Wake in Fright has often been acknowledged as being a major milestone in the development of Australian cinema. Even though the film was made with a mostly Engli...
Non-Stop
Planes can be excellent places for thrillers, even though they’re statistically still the safest way to travel. There have been many memorable films made around planes/people in planes in jeopardy, from Fearless, to Airpo...
Stranger by the Lake
For a film set entirely at a sun-dazzled lakeside during a hot summer, Stranger by the Lake is impressively dark and claustrophobic. It’s as much a subtle, eerie bad dream as it is a disorientating thriller, playing with time a...
The Monuments Men
Art is the signature of civilisation. For centuries conquering armies have appropriated not just land, but the culture and history of the people they’ve displaced. During WWII, the Nazis perpetrated perhaps the greatest arts he...
Lone Survivor
Entering Lone Survivor with a hint of trepidation is to be expected given it comes from director Peter Berg, the man whose last film was the also military-based sinkhole Battleship. Fear not though for Lone Survivor is based o...
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit
There’s nothing really wrong with Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, everything’s in the right place, but that’s sort of the problem. It isn’t just average but, on top of that, generic. Any potential personal engagement is robbed...
Big Bad Wolves
As soon one mentions a horror/thriller involving torture, your mind may turn towards the likes of the Saw franchise. Rest assured that Big Bad Wolves is nothing of the sort. This Israeli film doesn’t dwell so much on th...
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The original Hunger Games left with an unashamed set up for a sequel. As a triumphant Katniss raises hands with her co winner Peeta under the brooding glare of second love interest Gale, the tone is already set for plenty more ...
The Counsellor
Ridley Scott’s lavish film of Cormac McCarthy’s The Counsellor is a flamboyant and baffling account of a wealthy businessman caught in the murky depths of shady dealings. This is McCarthy’s screenwriting debut, and with a thron...
Gravity
Like such films as Star Wars, The Matrix and Avatar, Gravity is a game-changer. A film that takes the convention of ‘cinematic experience’ to a level so stratospheric it’s unlikely the force of gravity is actually having any i...
Last Passenger
Of all the excuses British Rail has churned out over the years, from the wrong snow on the track to “slippery rain”, it’s unlikely you’ve heard “crazed man has taken the train hostage” but this is the concept behind action thri...
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...
Machete Kills
Machete started out as a joke. The first film was an expansion of a fake trailer made for Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino‘s Grindhouse. The idea was to give the impression of an exploitation movie based on a Mexic...
