M3GAN [2023] – ★★★ Everything in M3GAN is “in vogue”: sentient artificial intelligence (readers must have had their fill of it with Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun and McEwan’s Machines Like Me, and viewers – with After Yang (2021), Finch (2021) and Brian and Charles (2022)), cinematic mishmash of genres, and, in line with Ari Aster’s popular…
Tag: Horror
“Titane” Review
Titane [2021] – ★★★★ 🔥 Titane hypnotises and mystifies as it repels and shocks, delivering not only a story, but also “an experience”. Titane is the second feature film of French director Julia Ducournau (Raw (2017)) and the Palme d’Or winner of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. The film is not for the faint of…
David Lynch: “Rabbits” (2002)
Rabbits is a series of short surreal films with the overall running time of forty minutes. It features three humanoid rabbits (two female and one male) in one single room. They sit on a sofa, enter and go out of the room, talk to each other and recite poetry. Through eerie music, rabbits’ nonsensical dialogue…
Recently Watched: The Servant (1963), A Kiss Before Dying (1956), & Isle of the Dead (1945)
I. The Servant [1963] – ★★★★1/2 Directed by Joseph Losey, The Servant is considered by some to be one of the finest British films. It tells of Tony (James Fox), a flamboyant member of the upper class, who has just moved in to his central London residence after a period spent in Africa. He immediately…
“Midsommar” Review
Midsommar [2019] – ★★★★★ ☀️ In this immersive, subtle and unsettling horror master-work, Ari Aster takes his audience by the hand, and slowly and surely introduces the disturbing beneath the festive, relaxing and innocent. Ari Aster takes horror to a completely new level in his latest film Midsommar. Inspired by The Wicker Man and horror…
“Antiviral” Review
Antiviral [2012] – ★★★★ In 2012, a science-fiction film titled Antiviral hit both the Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto Film Festival, and what everybody talked about was that this film is from David Cronenberg’s son – Brandon Cronenberg. People started to look for similarities between Antiviral and David Cronenberg’s films and trademarks, and they…
“The Little Stranger” Review
The Little Stranger [2018] – ★★★ This film adaptation of Sarah Waters’s novel The Little Stranger has had some bad public reviews, and, so, naturally, I was curious to see it. In the story, Dr Faraday (Domhnall Gleeson) reacquaints himself with one stately house (Hundreds Hall) he used to admire in his childhood. This is…
“The Babadook” Review
The Babadook [2014] – ★★★★1/2 📖 A well-made horror film with oppressive atmosphere that also explores deeper, thought-provoking themes of coming to terms with trauma and overcoming grief. I am wishing all my followers and readers a very Happy Halloween, and am presenting a scary and psychologically-interesting Australian horror film The Babadook. This film by…
“In Fabric” Review
In Fabric [2018] – ★★★ 👗 A critique of consumerism and employment culture invades a ghost story, and with the 1970s aesthetics, and enough eccentricities and humour, culminates in a very unusual viewing experience. Peter Strickland is known for such unusual and, in some way, “brave” films as Berberian Sound Studio (2012) and The Duke of…
“Hereditary” Review
Hereditary [2018] – ★★★★ 🏠 Ari Aster treats his horror like an epic masterpiece, paying close attention to story, setting, acting, pacing, look and small symbolic details, & the reward is, finally, a “quality” horror we’ve all been waiting for. Ari Aster’s debut feature horror film has caused quite a stir so far. With such…
Hitchcock’s “The Birds”: Review & Analysis of Main Elements
The Birds [1963] – ★★★★★ 🐦 Fifty-five years on, Alfred Hitchcock’s highly atmospheric, suspenseful and original horror creation is still a “must-see” film. This film by the “master of suspense”, Alfred Hitchcock, takes inspiration from a story by Daphne Du Maurier (Rebecca (1940)) of the same name, and is about strange behaviour of birds in…
“A Quiet Place” Review
A Quiet Place [2018] – ★★★★ 🤫 Silence never felt as terrifying as in A Quiet Place, a film that is truly scary, without appearing over-done. John Krasinski’s dystopia A Quiet Place is currently on everyone’s lips, a horror that tries to “reinvent” the horror genre (if such thing is possible after Get Out (2017) and The Witch (2015))….
“The Limehouse Golem” Review
The Limehouse Golem [2017] – ★★★★ This film, based on a novel by Peter Ackroyd Dan Leno and The Limehouse Golem, starts with Victorian London being shaken by a series of gruesome murders deemed to be perpetuated by an individual so mythical he is called Golem. Eccentric Inspector John Kildare (Bill Nighy) is assigned to…
The Horrorathon: Les Diaboliques (1955)
Maddy at Maddy Loves Her Classic Films is hosting the Horrorathon, celebrating horror movies in the light of the forthcoming Halloween, and I have decided to contribute with a review of one intelligent and highly influential film which some view to be one of the precursors to the modern psychological horror/thriller genre. Les Diaboliques [1955] –…
“Get Out” Review
Get Out [2017] – ★★★1/2 🦌 An atmospheric and strange combination of The Stepford Wives (1972) and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), but with some “over-the-top” horror in the mix and, thus, hardly offering anything new or subtle by the end. Get Out is one of the best-reviewed films of this year. It is a…
“Raw” Review
Raw [2016] – ★★★★ 🥩 A staggering film debut with “unflinching” gore and disturbing atmosphere, reviving the best of what became known as the New French Extremity movement. Julia Ducournau’s debut feature film Raw provoked extreme reactions from critics and audiences alike. However, despite its grim story and graphic imagery, the film still managed to…
“Psycho” Review
Psycho [1960] – ★★★★★ 🚿 A true classic which stood the test of time, revolutionising the presentation of horror on screen and showcasing Hitchcock’s unparalleled talent for creating suspense. Adapted from a novel by Robert Bloch, this film is a classic of psychological horror genre, which practically revolutionised the way horror films were shot ever since…
“Brimstone” Review
Brimstone [2017] – ★★★★ Brimstone is a highly controversial film produced by Dutch director Martin Koolhoven. The film’s non-linear plot follows Liz (Dakota Fanning), a young girl and then woman, who is plagued by the harassment and persecution of one – the Reverend (Guy Pearce). Unflinching in a way it portrays highly controversial topics and…
“The Neon Demon” Review
The Neon Demon [2016] – ★★ 📷 Despite the visual beauty of certain scenes, Refn’s parade of random and confused ideas about LA show business and its qualities and appearances, produces a film which is the pretentious boredom, or the boring pretentiousness itself (as you like it). “Beauty isn’t everything. It’s the only thing”, says Roberto…
Film vs. Book: Shyamalan’s “The Village” & Haddix’s “Running Out of Time”
“The Village” is a 2004 film directed by M. Night Shyamalan (“The Sixth Sense” (1999) and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, Sigourney Weaver, William Hurt and Bryce Dallas Howard. “Running Out of Time” is a popular 1996 book by Margaret Peterson Haddix for young adults about a girl (Jessie) in a 19th century village who is sent on a mission to town to look for medicine to cure a diphtheria epidemic in her village. Even though the plots of both “The Village” and “Running Out of Time” look different, there are considerable similarities between the two. The ways in which the book and the film are similar speak volumes when one considers the most important things of both: “Running Out of Time”’s narrative and “The Village”’s final plot twist.
Spotlight on Film 