My Little Eye first published by Daily Info, 14 Oct 2002, here slightly altered Why do we watch reality entertainment? What is it about shows like Survivor, Temptation Island, and especially Big Brother, which makes them so appealing to the viewing public? Is it the greed and paranoia? The voyeurism and exhibitionism? The interpersonal drama…
Win or bust: Darwinian struggles for survival and Greek myths of (im)mortality in Netflix’s Physical: 100 (2023) first published (in Korean translation) in the book 한류를 읽는 안과 밖의 시선: 2024 K-콘텐츠 [The inside and outside perspectives of reading the Korean Wave: 2024 K-Content], Kyunghee University Press, February 25, 2024, pp.131-9 Real physiques Created by…
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End first published by Film4, 4 Dec, 2007 Summary: Redneck cannibals and reality TV make for a bloody hybrid in this sequel, cooked up with outrageous élan by first-timer Joe Lynch. Review: Introducing his feature debut Wrong Turn 2: Dead End to the Film4 FrightFest 2007 audience, director Joe Lynch expressed his…
“Sooner than you think…” reads the text that opens Michael Elliott’s telemovie The Year of the Sex Olympics, filmed as part of BBC2’s Theatre 625. It is a promise of prescience in this science fiction from 1968 – and viewed now, it is all too easy to discern something of our own present being extrapolated…
Kolobos first published by Little White Lies, as the 77th instalment in my Cinema Psychotronicum column “The other day I came into her room and she was repeating a word over and over in her sleep. Kolobos.” “Kolobos? What does it mean?” “I have no idea.” “Six years of med school, all I really needed…
The Hoard first published by SciFiNow “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…