Fantasia Festival Review: Bring Me Home
Is there anything which causes more anxiety for parents than the fear of losing a child? Whilst this can often lead to overly protective or cosseted behaviour, the miniscule chance that something bad will happen can become all-absorbing. The trauma caused by the disappearance of a son or daughter is hard to quantify, but it’s …
Blu-Ray Review: Koko-Di Koko-Da
One popular conceit which film-makers love to play with is throwing their main character(s) into a situation and watching them replay a scenario over and over again. Groundhog Day or Happy Death Day are probably the most famous examples, but there have been many variations on a theme. Johannes Nyholm combines this premise with one …
Film Review: Watch List
As part of his election campaign in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte was adamant that he was going to crack down on drug dealers. Whatever your feelings are about the president of the Philippines, he has certainly been true to his word. The ‘war on drugs’ has resulted in the deaths of thousands of Filipinos. Extra-judicial executions …
Fantasia Festival Review: Wildland
Blood is thicker than water and families have to stick together. You can’t choose the clan you’re born into but sometimes it can provide you with a safety net when all else fails. That’s not to say that everyone likes their relatives. The fact you come from the same lineage doesn’t mean you have anything …
Fantasia Festival Review: Minor Premise
Hollywood loves a science fiction film, with an emphasis on the latter and little adult thought given to the former. These films are almost always loud, brash and more than a little ridiculous, but even LA will struggle to surpass Will Smith punching an alien. However, there are a small cohort of intelligent independent sci-fi …
Fantasia Festival Review: Undergods
In the current climate in Europe, it almost already feels like we’re living in some sort of dystopian future. Politics has taken a seemingly uncertifiable lurch to the right. Societies have never been more polarised. Governments practice divide and rule. Everything has to be black and white. Global pandemic, Brexit, climate crisis, freak weather conditions, …
Film Review: Two Heads Creek
Australia’s rugged terrain and host of dangerous and deadly wildlife has inspired numerous stories of survival and terror. For someone who lives in a temperate climate the sheer heat, barrenness and isolation of much of the country is a little overwhelming. Not to mention the propensity of the animal population towards murder. However, as Wake …
Fantasia Festival Review: Sanzaru
Asia is full of ghosts. Of spirits and demons of centuries past and unhappiness long forgotten. Migration has, in some ways, spread these myths, legends and traditions far from those shores. These often wash-up on the coast of America. The New World has its own spectres, most of which were created by the ‘colonisation’ of …
Fantasia Festival Review: The Dark & The Wicked
Whilst, until recently, mainstream genre cinema has been dominated by bloated franchises and recognisable characters, there has always been room for a certain amount of imagination; hovering just below these studio behemoths. Independent horror is perennially a fertile and innovative area of film-making. There are so many great movies which you may never have heard …
Fantasia Festival Review: The Block Island Sound
One of the most powerful elements of superior genre cinema is that of mystery. It’s hard to process or categorise the unknown. That which cannot be explained by science or which sends your senses into overload. Admittedly, as The Happening so notoriously demonstrated, it doesn’t always guarantee a good film. Especially when the temptation to …