10 Nunsploitation Films first published by BFI, 13 April 2022 Includes capsules of: The Devils, School of the Holy Beast, Alucarda, Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun, Behind Convent Walls, Killer Nun, Dark Habits, Nude Nuns With Big Guns, St Agatha, Agnes Where exploitation films occupy the nether regions of cinema’s margins, taking advantage of…
10 Dystopian TV Shows first published by BFI, 7 April 2022 Includes capsules of: The Prisoner, Threads, Twin Peaks, Serial Experiments Lain, Dead Set, 3%, The Handmaid’s Tale, SS-GB, Watchmen, Squid Game While by no means the only, or even the first, dystopian novel, George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four – first published in 1949 – has…
10 Autumnal Horror Films first published by BFI, 21 Oct 2021 Includes capsules of: To Kill A Mockingbird, Symptoms, Halloween, Children of the Corn, Ghostwatch, The Blair Witch Project, Monster House, Trick ‘r Treat, Hellions, November Spooks love thresholds, gateways and portals. They famously congregate on Walpurgis Night, the evening before May Day that marks…
10 Sci-Fi Adaptations first published by BFI, 14 October 2021, to coincide with the release of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune Includes capsules of: Frankenstein, Forbidden Planet, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Horror Express, Starship Troopers, War of the Worlds, A Scanner Darkly, 1, The Congress, Aniara With its immense world building, vast ensemble of characters, and complicated…
Lost souls: faith in the Cult strand of the London Film Festival 2021 first published by the BFI Includes capsules of: A Banquet, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon, Lamb, DASHCAM, The Medium, Juju Stories, The Rope, Shepherd You might, in casting an eye over Michael Blyth’s Cult strand for the London Film Festival, observe…
Rituals and cycles of grief: 10 picks from FrightFest 2021 first published as a preview piece for BFI Includes capsules of: Post Mortem, Slapface, Offseason, Nocturna: Side A – The Great Old Man’s Night, Hotel Poseidon, Dawn Breaks Behind The Eyes, The Unburied, Coming Home In The Dark, Ultrasound, Broadcast Signal Intrusion Grief is an…
10 Great European Horror Films first published by BFI, Nov 2019 Includes capsules of: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari; Vampyr; The White Reindeer; Eyes Without A Face; Who Can Kill A Child?; Possession; Cemetery Man; Let The Right One In; Amer; Berberian Sound Studio Europe was the birthplace not just of cinema, but also of…
Heroic Bloodshed: Hong Kong, Hollywood and the Cycle of Influence first published by BFI in July 2019 The yesterdays of A Better Tomorrow Every origin story has a prequel. It was Rick Baker, editor of martial arts magazine Eastern Heroes, who in the late Eighties first identified in print an emergent genre for which he…
10 Great X-Certificate Films first published by BFI, and occasioned by the BFI’s release of Jack Clayton’s Room at the Top (1959) in Dual Format (Blu-ray/DVD) Includes: Island of Lost Souls, La Ronde, Beat Girl, Psycho, Victim, A Clockwork Orange, The Devils, Last Tango in Paris, Alien, The Evil Dead In 1912, the British Board…