“What if, like, a fairy godmother came down from the sky, and she said, ‘Jeanette, with one wave of my magic wand, I’m going to give you the perfect life.’ What would you say?” This is Douglas (Tim Seyfert) speaking as he lies on the grass alongside his addressee, Jeanette Harper (Freya Berry) – through…
The Turning first published (in a shorter version) by Little White Lies “This can’t be real,” exclaims Kate (Mackenzie Davis) as she enters the vast Fairchild estate (supposedly somewhere coastal in the US, but in fact Killruddery House in County Wicklow, Ireland) where she has been hired as live-in governess for young, orphaned Flora (Brooklynn…
Master of Dark Shadows first published by SciFiNow 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…
The Sonata first published by SciFiNow 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…
Witches in the Woods first published by SciFiNow 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…
Spiral first published by SciFiNow In 1995, Malik (Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman) and his husband Aaron (Ari Cohen) move with Aaron’s teenaged daughter Kayla (Jennifer Laporte) into the small town of Rusty Creek, far from their old home in Chicago. Both men are very much in love and entirely open about being gay, but stay-at-home freelance ghostwriter…
The Dark Red first published by VODzilla.co The Dark Red begins in Cherokee County, Georgia, with Child Support Officer Katherine Warren (Jill Jane Cements) visiting a trailer home where she discovers a mother lying deceased and beginning to decompose on the bed, and her three-year-old daughter Sybil hiding in a toy box. “You’re safe,” Katherine…
Dark Encounter first published by VODzilla.co On 17th November, 1982, in Blue Hill County, Pennsylvania, Ray (Mel Raido) and Olivia (Laura Fraser) Anderson had returned home from a dinner date in town to find the hot water tap running and their daughter missing. Now, one year to the day after eight-year-old Maisie’s mysterious disappearance, the…
Ghost Killers vs. Bloody Mary first published by SciFiNow “So you are the guys who imitate the Ghostbusters,” observes Conan (Digão Ribeiro) in Fabrício Bittar’s Brazilian Ghost Killers vs. Bloody Mary (Exterminadores do Além Contra a Loira do Banheiro), as he greets Caroline (Dani Calabresa), Fred (Léo Lins), Jack (Danilo Gentili) and Túlio (Murilo Couto)…
There is a temptation, when it comes to Richard Bates Jr, to subscribe to the otherwise flawed notion of nominative determinism. After all, much as his full title literally signifies his juniority and his status as the latest in line to have inherited the family name, so too all his features – Excision (2012), Suburban…
“I will always be your father.” These words close the letter that Giulia Fontana (Giada Colagrande) reads – and that we hear in voiceover – as she circles a cloister at the beginning of Padre. Famous composer Giulio (played by singer, artist and filmmaker Franco Battiato) has died, leaving for his adult daughter a mysterious…