Bitch Ass had its world première at SXSW 2022 Bill Posley’s Bitch Ass opens in Academy ratio, with the title Hood Horror Movie Nights written in a cheap-looking font, and with the show’s host tapping out minor-key notes on a piano surrounded by cobwebs and dusty VHS cassettes. Turning to camera, he says: “I’m sure…
Sissy had its world première at SXSW 2022 At the beginning of Sissy, from co-writing/co-directing team Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes (For Now, 2017), we see online influencer Cecilia (Aisha Dee) preaching the bland bromides of wellness. Yet the hyperventilation exercise that Cecilia has been demonstrating seems not a little unhinged, and as the recording…
The New Kids first published by Little White Lies, as entry 106 in my Cinema Psychotronicum column “You’re gonna make it, kids. You’ve gotta be strong.” This is Colonel ‘Mac’ MacWilliams (Tom Atkins) in the opening sequence of The New Kids, giving his teenaged children Loren (Shannon Presby) and Abby (Lori Loughlin) a pep talk…
Mon Mon Mon Monsters (Guai guai guai guaiwu!) first published by VODzilla.co As if the title were not signifier enough, Mon Mon Mon Monsters (Guai guai guai guaiwu!) announces itself as a creature feature right from its opening scene where a hobo, wandering into the basement of an old building for shelter, is attacked by…
Let The Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in) first published by Film4 Summary: Comedy director Tomas Alfredson turns his hand to a quiet horror story of pre-teen angst and vampiric longing in Cold War Stockholm. Review: “Not too close, not too far. Keep distance.” The broken Swedish of gym teacher Mr Avila (Cayetano Ruiz)…
The Terror Of Hallow’s Eve first published by SciFiNow “Does this make you feel tough? Does this make you want to be a big bad monster?” It is Halloween, 1981, and 15-year-old “mamma’s boy” Tim (Caleb Thomas) has just been caught with a horror magazine by local bullies Brian (JT Neal), Spaz (Mcabe Gregg) and…
When we first meet Iona (Lily Newmark) and Lyn (Joanna Scanlan), they are in transition – literally moving into a new home in a new town, with their 17-year-old pet budgie and endless boxes of bric-a-brac. Hunchbacked Lyn and her flame-haired daughter are like figures from a fairytale – both a tight, loving mother-and-daughter pair,…
First published, a long, long time ago, by Movie Gazette You might not know his name, but I guarantee that you will recognise Clint Howard’s face. With his indefinably odd looks, he is, like Steve Buscemi, Danny Trejo and Tony Shalhoub, a memorable ‘character actor’ doomed forever to play sleazeball antagonist or goofy buddy to…
Some Kind of Hate first published by TwitchFilm After finally standing up for himself against a vicious bully, troubled teen Lincoln (Ronen Rubinstein) is sent to a New Age reform school in the Californian desert, where he is quick to find himself the target of further bullying. In a moment of frustrated anger, he accidentally summons…
The Gift first published by Sight & Sound, October 2015 Review: In the opening scene of The Gift, as Simon (Jason Bateman) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall) view a stylish house in the hills of Los Angeles, Simon peers in from the porch at his wife, their faces close but separated by a glass sliding door, and…