Reviews

Jump into adventure (and evolution) with Laika’s charming stop motion flick Missing Link By Poppy-Jay Palmer 23-04-19 2,272 Released: Out now Certificate: PG Director: Chris Butler Cast: Hugh Jackman, Zoe Saldana, Zach Galifianakis, Emma Thompson, Timothy Olyphant, Stephen Fry Distributor: United Artists Releasing Over the years, stop motion animation studio Laika has proven itself to
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It’s as unfair to approach Neil Marshall’s Hellboy pondering the what-ifs of Guillermo del Toro’s un-filmed trilogy closer as it is impossible. While this new take on Mike Mignola’s comic goes to some lengths to establish its own world and tone, there’s no escaping its predecessors’ long shadows. Which wouldn’t be such a problem if
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“Unclassifiable” can be such a lovely thing. It’s easy to understand why we’re always in such a rush to put stories into a genre, and then a sub-genre, whether you’re a publisher, reviewer or a fan, but there’s something quite wonderful about taking a step into an uncertain world. Especially when you’re in the hands
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An endlessly good young man might just be miraculous in Alice Rohrwacher’s superb Happy As Lazzaro By Jonathan Hatfull 05-04-19 6,949 Released: 5 April 2019 Certificate: 12A Director: Alice Rohrwacher Writer: Alice Rohrwacher Cast: Adriano Tardiolo, Alba Rohrwacher, Sergi López, Nicoletta Braschi Distributor: Modern Films If you like this, try… Wings Of Desire The late
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A grieving father is drawn into a dangerous conspiracy in near-future SF Zero Bomb By Jonathan Hatfull 04-04-19 7 Author: MT Hill Publisher: Titan Books Buy on Amazon If you like this, try… Kraken by China Miéville A missing giant squid is the catalyst for an impossible mystery Anyone looking to escape the grim reality
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Does Paramount’s Pet Sematary adaptation live up to Stephen King’s book? By Katherine McLaughlin 02-04-19 1 Released: 4 April 2019 Certificate: 15 Director: Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer Cast: Jason Clarke, John Lithgow, Amy Seimetz Distributor: Paramount If you like this, try… Wendigo Larry Fessenden’s creepy take on the Wendigo legend. The recent surge of Stephen
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Things get even more weird in Netflix’s The OA Season 2 By Poppy-Jay Palmer 19-03-19 2,100 Released: 22 March 2019 Creator: Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij Cast: Brit Marling, Jason Isaacs, Emory Cohen, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Patrick Gibson Distributor: Netflix If you like this, try… Russian Doll Almost as trippy as The OA and just as
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Jordan Peele follows Get Out with an ambitious and topical horror rollercoaster By Jonathan Hatfull 18-03-19 5 Released: 22 March 2019 Certificate: 15 Director: Jordan Peele Writer: Jordan Peele Cast: Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex Distributor: Universal If you like this, try… Funny Games Michael Haneke’s home
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Does horror The Prodigy push beyond the standard spooky kid template? By Amy West 15-03-19 1,194 Released: 15 March 2019 Certificate: 15 Director: Nicholas McCarthy Writer: Jeff Buhler Cast: Taylor Schilling, Jackson Robert Scott, Peter Mooney, Colm Feore, Brittany Allen Distributor: Vertigo Releasing If you like this, try… The Omen Creepy kids don’t come any
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“This house is a bitch,” pastor Ellie Mueller (Karen Woditsch) tells Don Koch (WWE legend Phil “CM Punk” Brooks) of the Victorian mansion opposite her church that he is fixing up so that he and his pregnant wife Liz (Trieste Kelly Dunn) can start a family there. “Certain places have personalities, and sometimes they’re rotten.
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When films open with establishing shots of a city, it’s normally to evoke a sense of place for a story that will, presumably, mostly take place there. When a horror opens this way, it can also be a way of setting up locations for third-act set-pieces. Zoo, written, directed, edited and scored by Antonio Tublen,
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“The following presentation is derived from footage captured by the catastrophic reality TV pilot Extremely Haunted Hoarders,” reads text at the beginning of The Hoard, over a rapid – indeed, so rapid as to be near inscrutable – montage of monstrosity, mayhem and murder. It is not just a precise prelude of what is to
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Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein’s film opens to the distorted strains of ice cream truck music, as seven-year-old Chloe (Lexy Kolker) peeks out at Mr Snowcone’s blue-and-pink vehicle parked in the suburban street below. Ice cream is such a simple, tantalising pleasure, yet Chloe’s dad Henry (Emile Hirsch) pulls Chloe back from the window
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Taking place (mostly) in an isolated petrol station on the night that the Danish football team is playing in the finals of the European Championship, Finale sets itself up as a familiar – indeed timeless – tale of predatory victimisation. The station owner’s daughter Agnes (Anne Bergfeld) and disgruntled employee Belinda (Karin Michelsen) are working
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This fourth feature from Ron Carlson (All American Christmas Carol, Tom Cool, Midgets Vs. Mascots) opens with a before-and-after sequence: a young woman buys peyote from Native American Bigfoot (Michael Horse) and his diminutive sidekick Firecracker (Danny Woodburn), with a warning of ‘grave consequences’ should their client disrupt the local fauna; and then the same
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Neo-feminist thriller Knives And Skin mashes genres into its small-town mystery By Katie Goh 25-02-19 945 Released: TBA Certificate: TBC Director: Jennifer Reeder Writer: Jennifer Reeder Cast: Grace Smith, Ireon Roach, Kayla Carter, Tim Hopper, Marika Engelhardt Distributor: TBC If you like this, try… Heathers The original tale of moody, teenage malaise is a classic
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