Na Hong-jin’s latest feature Hope takes its title from the name of the village in and around which its action is set. Hope is a relatively small coastal community whose population is disproportionately made up of retirees and the elderly, and whose location is near the Demilitarised Zone between a South and North Korea still…
Her Will Be Done (Que ma volonté soit faite) first published by Dirty Movies, for its screening at MotelX 2025 It begins impressionistically, in the dark. A face, barely visible at all, emerges from the shadows, and then we see more faces, more clearly, as a small clan gathers around blazing flames to bear witness to…
Carnage for Christmas had its Montreal première at Fantasia 2024, 19 July; first published by SciFiNow With her friend Riley (Olivia Deeble), Lola (Jeremy Moineau) runs a successful murder podcast known as Nancy Crew – a name which alludes to a popular fictive amateur sleuth while punning on the programme’s queer constituency. Like Alice Maio…
After a brief 1991-set prologue in which the drinking, drug-taking and fornication of two teenagers (Dylan McEdward, Kaitlyn Bacon) are brought to a brutally murderous end by, yes, a clown in a cornfield, Eli Craig’s latest feature skips to the present day, where 17-year-old Quinn (Katie Douglas) is driving with her father Glenn (Aaron Abrams)…
Hot Fuzz first published by EyeforFilm, 6 Feb 2007 How do you follow up a runaway success like rom-zom-com Shaun of the Dead (2004)? Well, the team that brought us television’s anarchic flat-sharing sit-com Spaced has come up with a simple answer: repeat the winning formula. For, like his Shaun of the Dead, Edgar Wright’s…
Boston McConnaughey’s feature debut Alien Country hits the ground running, with James Walker (Jasen Wade) on his motorbike fleeing the police in a high-speed cross-country dash and, when surrounded, making his final getaway by using an alien device to open a portal. This act of improbable escapism, encapsulating the very essence of the film, in…
Happy Halloween had its European première at FrightFest 2024, 22 Aug “You know I hate this Halloween shit,” says high school senior Campbell (Ethan Mannecke) at the beginning of writer/director Brittney Greer’s feature debut. Text messages, supposedly from his ex Lila, have lured Campbell to a cornfield decorated with jack o’ lanterns and a creepy…
Test Screening had its world première at FrightFest 2024, 22 August Test Screening takes place in 1982, often regarded as one of the most inventive, and one of the geekiest, years for American cinema releases. The news, though, has not quite reached the isolated, unincorporated community of New Hope in Oregon, where local theatre manager…
Milk Teeth (Milchzähne) has its UK première at the Glasgow Film Festival 2024 “She was just standing in our garden, as if by magic,” greying Edith (the aptly named Susanne Wolff) tells her young adult daughter Skalde (Mathilde Bundschuh) of the strange little girl Meisis (Viola Hinz) who has turned up unannounced at the beginning…
Antibodies (Antikörper) first published by Film4 summary: The Hollywood psychothriller meets the German morality play in Christian Alvart‘s intelligent twister. Review: There is a long tradition of police dramas (or Krimis) on German television, and sometimes on the big screen. In 2002, Robert Schwentke’s Tattoo gave the genre a Seven-inflected overhaul. Christian Alvart‘s Antibodies also draws inspiration…
“We may all be sliding towards the edge, but it’s up to you how comfortable you are doing it,” says Clayton Minor (an electrifying Stephen Dorff), near the beginning of Nicholas Maggio’s feature debut Mob Land. Clayton has just coolly pistol-whipped a gun shop employee near to death to impress upon the owner the need…