“The wind seems to blow colder here. There’s a dark decay under the surface. And it torments. People are cruel. But I cling to the beauty. Even in death.” So says Fay Corr (Laura Bayston) in voice-over at the beginning of Paul Holbrook’s latest short film When She Sings (which Bayston co-wrote). Her words are…
The Mannequin had its UK première at FrightFest 2025, Sunday 24 August The Mannequin opens in 1955, as catalogue model Ruth Calvert (Krystle Martin) is being photographed with a flash camera in a private Los Angeles studio by its current owner, whistling Jack Bernard (Jack Sochet). Jack is a sleazebag, getting a little too handsy…
The Dive first published by SciFiNow “I still get a bit nervous every time,” says Drew (Sophie Lowe), about to step off a narrow jetty into the sea for a cave dive. “Lucky you,” replies her sister May (Louisa Krause), “Nervous is good. Excitement’s a good thing.” May does not get nervous. This is not…
Writer/director Anubys Lopez’s feature debut Those Who Call opens in well-worn generic territories. Lauren (Reese Fast) is driving alone in the wooded outskirts of Whispering Pines. With its signposted population of 53, it is the kind of town that you just pass through, and sure enough, Lauren is on a long-haul interstate trip when she…
Funuke: Show Some Love, You Losers! first published by Film4 Summary: Daihachi Yoshida’s directorial debut is a black domestic dramedy in which family frictions seek artistic outlets. Review: The dysfunctional family is a traditional subject for Japanese cinema that perhaps achieved its best known and most refined form in Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953). Daihachi Yoshida’s…
Like his feature debut The God Inside My Ear (2017), director/producer Joe Badon’s Sister Tempest (which Badon also co-wrote and co-scored with Jason Kruppa) is a delirious psychodrama in which a woman’s trauma-tinged descent into madness and self-knowledge plays out like multiple overlapping movies in different genres. “I, Anne Hutchinson, hereby promise you that I…
Absentia first published by Little White Lies “When the mind can’t deal immediately with trauma, with grief, guilt – it’s sometimes easier to create something to help us process it.” So says psychiatrist Dr Elliott (Scott Graham) to his heavily pregnant patient Tricia (Courtney Bell). Tricia has certainly experienced more than her fair share of…
Review first published by Film4. Synopsis: Disney’s 53rd animation retains the fairytale setting of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen, while importing more contemporary feminist sensibilities. Review: Disney has been toying with adapting Hans Christian Andersen’s fairytale The Snow Queen since as early as 1943, but kept running aground on the difficulties of turning its…