Boots On The Ground first published by SciFiNow In October 2014 – the eve of the British pull-out from conflict in Afghanistan – a unit of five squaddies is under fire in the Hindu Kush. Coming to a huge British-engineered fort (“Leftovers from the First Afghan War”, as one of them wryly observes), they see…
Rec (aka [Rec]) first published by Little White Lies Cannibal Holocaust (1980) and The Blair Witch Project (1999) may have set the ball rolling, but it was the terrors of 11th September, 2001, recorded live by amateurs at the scene, that made reportage the vehicle of choice for today’s horror films, from Diary of the…
V/H/S/2 first published by Grolsch FilmWorks “Most of his collection I would say was snuff and CP, but he had at least one that was the real thing. I don’t even think he knew what it was.” So says missing student Kyle (L.C. Holt) in a webcam recording that a pair of camera-toting private investigators…
The Found Footage Phenomenon had its world première at FrightFest 2021 “The following is based on real events,” reads the glitchy, juddery text that opens The Found Footage Phenomenon, as though we were watching a VHS of one of the very films this documentary celebrates. That, of course, is a crucial point established early here:…
As In Heaven, So On Earth had its UK première at FrighFest 2021 “It was a mess. We kept finding pieces of evidence, putting them together, but we couldn’t find the right order.” So says Leonardo Constantini (Paolo Ricci), chief inspector of the Viterbo Police Department, in a secretive interview that he is conducting on…
Samuel Marko’s Every Single Someone opens with a potential explanation of its title. As impressionistic handheld footage shows Denver sophomores Lee (Luke Krogmeier) and Arlis (Megan Elisabeth Kelly) enjoying a date out on the town together and sharing their first kiss, we are witnessing two single folk becoming a couple. Yet by the time, moments…
Assimilate first published as an audio contribution to The Grimm Exchange John Murlowski’s sci-fi horror Assimilate opens with a close-up of tiny ant-like creatures swarming on a large leaf. In a single fluid motion, the camera pans left to reveal a well-lit suburban middle-class home at night. We cut to inside, and a young, panicked…
Journalist Camilla (Kristi Lovas) has decided to make a documentary about the psychics who often help police with criminal investigations. Camilla is open-minded on the issue, but her cameraman Thomas (unseen, and played by the film’s writer/director Tomas Sem Løkke-Sørensen) believes that all psychics are frauds, and seems far more interested in Camilla herself. Yet…
They’re Outside first published by VODzilla.co They’re Outside, the feature debut of Sam Casserly and Airell Anthony Hayles, layers its central narrative in a succession of frames. On the one hand, it is the latest (and last) video made by YouTube pop psychologist Max Spencer (Tom Wheatley) with his girlfriend Nicole (Nicole Miners), as he…
Noroi: The Curse (Noroi) first published by VODzilla.co Around the turn of the millennium, a slew of Japanese horror films came out which updated old superstitions and traditional long-haired spectres to a new technological era, and spread their malign influence across the Pacific. For each of Hideo Nakata’s Ring (1998) and Dark Water (2002), Kiyoshi…
Hell House LLC first published by VODzilla.co The phrase ‘Hell House’ in a title – as in John Hough’s The Legend of Hell House (1973), Mitch Marcus’ The Haunting of Hell House (1999) and Jason Crowe, Roni Jonah and T.J. Moreschi’s Hell House (2009) – is a clear indicator of horror to come, almost certainly…