Originally posted on The Twin Geeks.
The existing filmography of James Wan already shows a wide array of influences. His taste for gory horror, police procedural, spooky mysteries and all out action have spread throughout his films. Now, we have the one that does it all. The film that brings all of his impulses and obsessions together, and throws in a whole lot more, in stumbling but gleeful fashion. It is a complete hodgepodge of a film, a film that…
For a certain kind of person, a new Motern movie is a big event. This very independent outfit, in which a troupe of actors make low-budget movies, usually scrappy horror films that are actually goofy comedies, for the love of creating. At the heart of this is Matt Farley and Charles Roxburgh (the director of this film), local legends with a dedicated following. It is a kind of fame that their latest film deals in. This is familiar thematic territory…
The title here is a great litmus test. If this combination of words piques your interest, you're going to love this.
This is a Japanese Evil Dead homage set in a small haunted house. There are five credited cast members and, for the majority of the film, it's just three figures getting more and more coated in blood. Or getting dismembered. It's good stuff.
It feels much older than it is and, well, that's because it is much older than…
This takes its time, piling up discrete episodes that lack incident until there's a snowballed chronology. So much of it is so little, stripped back everything to just locales, people and ghosts. Oh, and cats.
For two-thirds of its runtime, it doesn't work. The sequences lack any real drive or interest, the ascetic approach bores. But it builds to something, things overlap and the horror climaxes start to escalate. Each episode ends with a distinct image, at first it is…
Disclaimer: I don’t usually write very personally on this site, but in this review I do. So, be warned.
I dedicate this to three inspirations, who are three of my favourite writers on the site because they can be so personal - a thing I fear:
Cormac, Ben, Samantha.
Though immediately successful as a smart critique of alcohol culture, specifically in Denmark (though, as a Brit, the film certainly has messages for us), Another Round is special because it is…
The new divisive film from M. Night Shyamalan is divisive purely because it is an M. Night Shymalan movie. Few other filmmakers have the arguable gift to force viewers to find positives in their films, especially as evidence to the contrary keeps accruing. This film is very Shyamalan to the extent it could not come from anybody else; yet, I have the sneaking suspicion that, were he to use a pseudonym, this movie would transition from divisive to universally derided.…
