Black Christmas 2019 takes the bare bones of the sorority chiller to deliver something new…but does it work? By Sarah Dobbs 16-12-19 1,086 Released: Out now Certificate: 15 Director: Sophia Takal Writer: Sophia Takal and April Wolfe Cast: Imogen Poots, Aleyse Shannon, Cary Elwes, Caleb Eberhardt Distributor: Universal Forget everything you know about the two
Horror
It’s a golden rule in horror films that the rich people in that big house up the street are up to something weird, and pizza delivery woman Sam (Hayley Griffith) is about to find out just how true that is in crowd-pleasing horror comedy Satanic Panic. When she’s stiffed on her tip by the snooty
Mike Flanagan has already tackled King with his very strong take on Gerald’s Game and iconic haunted houses with his excellent spin on Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting Of Hill House, but with Doctor Sleep he had an amazing and rare opportunity, to faithfully adapt King’s version of what happened to the Torrances next and to
A killer death clock app picks off users one by one in smart and fun horror surprise Countdown By Katherine McLaughlin 24-10-19 1,034 Released: 25 October 2019 Certificate: 15 Director: Justin Dec Writer: Justin Dec Cast: Elizabeth Lail, Anne Winters, Charlie McDermott Distributor: STX International If you like this, try… Final Destination 5 The sneaky
The biggest challenge of splitting Stephen King’s leviathan of a novel into two films was always going to be the adults, the grown-up Losers who return to Derry 27 years later to finish what they started. It’s one thing to sell the idea of a monstrous clown hunting children, it’s quite another to conjure that
A title like Sadistic Intentions comes with a certain expectation/bracing oneself, but writer-director Eric Pennycoff’s tightly wound debut is more interested in exactly what the title describes, and whether or not said intentions will come to fruition, than a violent payoff. After a shocking prologue, we watch as Chloe (Taylor Zaudtke) receives a phone call
Stirring mental illness into supernatural horror is a tricky thing to get right. The allure of the “is this really happening?” element is understandable but it can be so dispiritingly manipulative and exploitative when done carelessly, so: hats off to director Brian Hanson and his co-writer Richard Handley for working hard to maintain ambiguity and
The Soska Sisters return with their pointed and bloody remake of David Cronenberg’s Rabid By Katherine McLaughlin 27-08-19 25 There was a moment in fashion back in 2001 when Alexander McQueen confronted the hypocrisies of the industry with his Asylum show. He literally held up a mirror to those in charge with a final reveal
Andrew Desmond’s feature debut The Sonata, co-written with Arthur Morin, opens with composer Richard Marlow (the late Rutger Hauer) putting the finishing touches on a musical score. He then walks downstairs, heads outside into the dark night with a petrol canister and candle in hand, douses his body in the fuel and sets fire to
The beginning of Henry Jacobson’s feature debut Bloodline seems comfortable (at least to the horror viewer) because it is so steeped in cliché. A nurse (Christie Herring) wanders an empty hospital corridor at night, thinks she hears something behind her, enters the shower room, undresses, and has a shower, while a POV shot makes it
The vengeful revenant at the heart of Adam Egypt Mortimer’s feature debut Some Kind Of Hate (2016), co-written with Brian DeLeeuw, embodies and enacts the darkest drives of the film’s living characters. In its follow-up, Daniel Isn’t Real, adapted by Mortimer from DeLeeuw’s 2009 novel In This Way I Saved, once again mental illness takes
As its title implies, Master Of Dark Shadows, directed by David Gregory (Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey Of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr Moreau, 2014; Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life & Ghastly Death Of Al Adamson, 2019), has two focal points. The first is the romantic gothic TV series Dark Shadows that played on
Witches In The Woods opens with a quote from playwright and screenwriter Robert Oxton Bolton: “A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind.” These words introduce the film’s central theme – the irresistible power of belief, misapprehension and deception over our thinking and actions –
“They say when you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes,” says James (Adrian Glynn McMorran) in voice-over at the beginning of Volition. “I wish it were that simple.” James is practically announcing that this film, directed by Tony Dean Smith and co-written with his brother Ryan Smith, is a chronicle of a death
Young student Harper (Katie Stevens) is a victim twice over. She still bears – faintly – the bruise on her face from where her alcoholic almost-ex stalker boyfriend Sam (Samuel Hunt) hit her the other night; and she also bears the mental scars of her childhood home – which she expressly terms the ‘haunted house’
“Be me, then be yourself”, advises self-help guru Chuck Knoah (Ben Lloyd Hughes) in the motivational video that opens A Serial Killer’s Guide To Life. “You can be like me, but you can’t be me,” he adds, sounding like an unhinged – and somewhat confused – narcissist. “You can be like me.” The psychotically manipulative
Siblings Jesús (Pablo Sigal) and Maria José (Valeria Giorcelli) work symbiotically. The siblings live together in their late father’s apartment. They have their own routine. They don’t particularly want to be disturbed. So, when their half-sister Magdalena (Augustina Cerviño) arrives from Spain suggesting that dad’s death means it’s time to sell the place and split
When you’re dealing with a film as self-consciously odd as Ant Timpson’s directorial debut Come To Daddy, casting is so important. Get it wrong and you end up with something infuriating, get it right and it can be a joy. This is why there’s a real thrill to be had from seeing Pontypool’s Stephen McHattie
Alexandre Aja will direct an interactive horror film for Amblin By Poppy-Jay Palmer 15-08-19 2,580 The Hills Have Eyes director Alexandre Aja will helm a new interactive haunted house film for Amblin, according to Collider. The film is set to be a choose-your-own-adventure style story and was inspired by an idea from The Haunting Of Hill House‘s
Chucky slashes his way into a high-tech new world in the Child’s Play remake By Elena Lazic 20-06-19 792 Released: 21 June 2019 Certificate: 15 Director: Lars Klevberg Writer: Tyler Burton Smith Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Mark Hamill, Brian Tyree Henry, Gabriel Bateman, Tim Matheson If you like this, try… Silent Night, Deadly Night The traumatised
Creep director Patrick Brice knows how to hit that mark where awkward laughs turn to real fear (and back again), and writer Sam Bain has explored a world of gut-wrenchingly awkward interactions from the domestic (Peep Show) to the horrifying (Four Lions). However, one of the most surprising things about workplace satire Corporate Animals is
Octavia Spencer is having the best time in the title role of Tate Taylor’s twisted, twisty Ma By Jonathan Hatfull 31-05-19 5,106 Released: 31 May 2019 Certificate: 15 Director: Tate Taylor Writer: Scotty Landes Cast: Octavia Spencer, Diana Silvers, Juliette Lewis, McKayley Miller, Corey Fogelmanis, Luke Evans Distributor: Universal If you like this, try… The
After the exquisitely crafted The Witch, director Robert Eggers returns with an intense two-hander starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe as two lighthouse keepers stuck in a perpetual nightmare of booze, hard graft and tall tales. Shot on 35mm and in black and white Eggers’ creates a claustrophobic sweatbox for the two men to go
Under The Shadow’s Babak Anvari plunges Armie Hammer and Dakota Johnson into body horror hell in Wounds By Katherine McLaughlin 28-05-19 1 After the accomplished slow-burn horror of Under The Shadow, director Babak Anvari, claws his way through a grotesque body horror that pays disturbing homage to David Cronenberg, David Lynch and Nic Roeg. Armie
First love lives on in Alice Furtado’s sweaty and stylish teenage zombie film Sick Sick Sick By Katherine McLaughlin 28-05-19 1 Released: TBC Director: Alice Furtado Writer: Alice Furtado, Leonardo Levis Cast: Luiza Kosovski, Juan Paiva, Digao Ribeiro Distributor: TBC There are shades of Claire Denis’ charged eroticism in this Brazilian zombie film from debut
The first teaser trailer for IT Chapter Two arrived and it’s one hell of a reintroduction to Derry, Maine…give it a look. Yes indeed, Pennywise is back and the Losers are all grown up 27 years later to put a stop to him once and for all. We’re loving the choice to lead with one
The Stephen King remake train rolls on, and it’s time for his vampire classic Salem’s Lot to get an update. THR reports that the similarly unstoppable duo of James Wan and Gary Dauberman are the ones tackling the script, taking a break from their ever-expanding Conjuring-verse. Dauberman is writing and Wan is not confirmed to
Over the last 10 years or so Amy Seimetz as emerged as one of the most interesting actors and filmmakers out there. She made her mark on horror fans with a dazzling break-out turn in Adam Wingard’s A Horrible Way To Die, starred in Shane Carruth’s superb (and uncategorisable) Upstream Color and appeared in the
The story of Norwegian band Mayhem is turned into a stomach-turning and intelligent horror film with Lords Of Chaos By Katherine McLaughlin 29-03-19 1,365 Released: 29 March 2019 Certificate: 18 Director: Jonas Åkerlund Writer: Dennis Magnusson, Jonas Åkerlund Cast: Rory Culkin, Emory Cohen, Jack Kilmer Distributor: Arrow Films If you like this, try… Green Room
There can be few people working in horror more prolific than the great Larry Fessenden. As a producer he’s worked with the likes of Ti West, Jim Mickle, Ana Asensio, Micky Keating and arthouse trailblazer Kelly Reichardt, and you’ll have seen him in everything from You’re Next to The Strain (and far too many awesome indie
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