Hood Witch had its UK première on Saturday 28th Oct at the Halloween FrightFest The original French title of Saïd Belktibia’s feature debut is Rokya, which is the word for a kind of officially sanctioned kind of Islamic spiritual healing and exorcism, while its English title is Hood Witch, which suggests TheHoodWitch.com, a popuIar one-stop…
Accused had its world première at The Overlook Film Festival 2023 Whether with his crime drama Villain (2020) or his single-take kitchen thriller Boiling Point (2021), actor turned director Philip Barantini has proven expert at staging simmering tensions in contemporary Britain. Accordingly, even though his latest feature Accused concerns a witch-hunt, it is set not…
Nightsiren (Svetlonoc) has its UK première at Glasgow Film Festival 2023 “Even in modern Europe, in certain lonely villages, folklore and medieval superstitions are still considered a way of life,” reads text at the beginning of Nightsiren (Svetlonoc). The film opens with a primal scene: faced with the hair-pulling wrath of her abusive mother Alžbeta (Petra Vajdová), little Šarlota (Sára…
Witches in the Woods first published by SciFiNow Witches in the Woods opens with a quote from playwright and screenwriter Robert Oxton Bolton: “A belief is not merely an idea the mind possesses; it is an idea that possesses the mind.” These words introduce the film’s central theme – the irresistible power of belief, misapprehension…
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark first published by Little White Lies, as the 71st instalment of my Cinema Psychotronicum column James Signorelli’s Elvira: Mistress of the Dark is a film full of dualities and ironies, where things tend to come in pairs. First there is the titular heroine Elvira, appearing, according to the closing credits,…
Assassination Nation first published by Sight & Sound, December 2018 Review: “This is 100% a true story,” says 18-year-old Lily Colson (Odessa Young) in her opening voiceover, promising a tale of a town losing its mind and wanting to kill four teenaged girls. “It gets pretty graphic,” she adds. Indeed, while many films begin with…