Grimmfest Review: Extra Ordinary
There are very few genre combinations as difficult to master as those of horror and comedy. It’s so easy to get wrong. The trick is balancing the scares with the humour. Normally one will dominate, and more often than not a director fails on both counts trying to satisfy both masters. However, when it’s done …
Grimmfest Review: The Wretched
Throughout the ages, and often due to good old misogyny, witches have played a prominent role in folklore, legend, and latterly, popular culture. Whilst traditionally they’ve been seen as incarnations of evil or infernal creatures, nowadays they’re as likely to appear in children’s books as in bedtime stories. The Pierce Brothers’ new film, The Wretched, …
Grimmfest Review: Artik
There has been a huge spurt of interest in horror films over the last few years. Not only are they suddenly ‘elevated’ in the eyes of some critics, they’ve also because Box Office hits for film studios. As you might expect, producers are falling over themselves to make the next It Follows, Get Out, Heredity …
Grimmfest Review: Tone-Deaf
With certain directors, you either love or hate their output. Whilst this holds true across all genres of cinema, in horror there tends to be slightly less polarisation of opinion. Step forward Richard Bates Jr., who is arguably one of the most ‘marmite’ film-makers working in genre cinema today. His last film, Trash Fire, tended …
Grimmfest Review: Darlin’
Over the last decade there has been a huge sea-change within cinema. Female voices are beginning to be heard on a regular basis and making films is no longer just the boys club it used to be. This change has been most pronounced in horror cinema. A genre where female protagonists have often come off …
Grimmfest Review: A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life
Self-help books are by no means a recent phenomenon. They date back all the way to the ancient Greeks. However, it wasn’t until the latter part of the twentieth century that a multi-million-dollar industry shot up around the world. Whilst the Classics may have concentrated on wellbeing or ethics, this new explosion covered just about …
LFF Review: Lucky Grandma
We live in a materialistic society. On a daily basis we’re constantly reminded how little we have and how much better our lives would be if we had more. Hard work and effort will get the average person somewhere but it’s vastly unlikely to make them well-off. Let alone rich. Given the disparity between the …
LFF Review: Cold Case Hammarskjöld
In 1961, the UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld died when his plane crashed on the way to cease-fire negotiations during the Congo Crisis. Described as the “greatest statesman of our century” by John F. Kennedy, the Swede was posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for ‘strengthening the organisation’ and was considered to the template his …
LFF Review: Bacurau
Brazilian cinema is in rude health at the moment. The South American country, which has given the world such great films as City of God, House of Sand, Central Station and Pixote, has a strong pedigree in delivering vibrant and challenging film-making. In the last decade, Araby, Neighbouring Sounds, A Wolf at The Door and …
Grimmfest Review: Every Time I Die
Whilst traditionally, visions of horror cinema have revolved around monsters (whether human or not), the supernatural and the occult, there’s nothing more terrifying that what goes on inside our heads. Psychological thrillers and mental imbalance, whilst tricky subjects to marry, open up an almost infinite range of possibilities. None more so than for introspection and …