August 25, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Dima Ballin

Writers: Kat Ellinger

Cast: Ian Ogilvy, Tom Baker, Kat Ellinger, Benjamin Halligan

Cert: 15 (TBC)

Producers: Dima Ballin, Kat Ellinger

Editor: Dima Ballin

Cinematographers: Jim Kunz, Constantine Nasr, Jon Robertson

Running time: 86mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: A documentary recounting the short, eventful life of British director Michael Reeves.

What’s the verdict: For most who have even heard of Michael Reeves, it is likely their knowledge extends to him directing Witchfinder General, dying young and delivering one of film history’s great put-downs...

August 25, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Larry Fessenden

Writers: Larry Fessenden

Cast: David Call, Alex Breaux, Owen Campbell, Joshua Leonard

Producers: Larry Fessenden, Chadd Harbold, Jenn Wexler

Music: Will Bates

Cinematography: James Siewert, Chris Skotchdopole

Editor: Larry Fessenden

Cert: 18 (TBC)

Running time: 114mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: In Brooklyn, a traumatised military surgeon constructs a person out of separate body parts.

What’s the verdict: Two centuries after its subject first took life in our collective imagination, artists are still drawing inspiration from the now-archetypal story of Frankenstein and his monster.

The universal scope of its themes – good vs. evil, man vs. nature – rarely lend themselves to intimacy; last year’s

August 25, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Jason Mewes

Writers: Dominic Burns, Chris Anastasi

Cast: Jason Mewes, Gina Carano, Vinnie Jones, Zach Galligan, Brian O’Halloran, Kevin Smith, Teri Hatcher, Dean Cain, Caspar Van Dien, Danny Trejo

Producers: Jason Mewes, Mickey Gooch Jr.

Music: Si Begg

Cinematography: Vince Knight

Editor: Adam Sykes

Cert: 15 (TBC)

Running time: 99mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: Jason Mewes, desperate to be taken seriously as an actor, discovers life becomes dangerously complicated when he is given a mysterious method acting manual.

What’s the verdict: We wish we’d liked Jason Mewes’ directorial debut...

August 25, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Tony Dean Smith

Writers: Tony Dean Smith, Ryan W. Smith

Cast: Adrian Glynn McMorran, Magda Apanowicz, John Cassini, Frank Cassini, Bill Marchant

Producers: Ryan Smith, Tony Dean Smith

Music: Matthew Rogers

Cinematography: Byron Kopman

Editor: Tony Dean Smith

Cert: 15 (TBC)

Running time: 91mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: A man able to see the future is plagued with visions of his own death when he becomes involved in a diamond exchange.

What’s the verdict: Remember Next, that Nicolas Cage movie where he could see a few minutes into the future? Probably not, it was forgettable trash with a title that echoed Cage’s approach to his film career.

But, that intriguing concept of someone who can see snatches of what ...

August 24, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Fabrício Bittar

Writers: Fabrício Bittar, Danilo Gentili, Andre Catarinacho

Cast: Danilo Gentili, Léo Lins, Murilo Cuoto, Dani Calabresa

Producers: Fabrício Bittar, Danilo Gentili

Music: David Menezes

Cinematography: Marcos Ribas

Editors: Nicholas Fettback, Bruno Nunes

Cert: 18 (TBC)

Running time: 103mins

Year: 2018

What’s the story: After a supposed possession in a local school, four online paranormal investigators are brought into perform a sham exorcism to dispel the spirit. But, Jack (Gentili), Fred (Lins), Tulio (Cuoto) and Caroline (Calabresa) are in for a night full of surprises.

What’s the verdict: If early career Peter Jackson made Ghostbusters, it might resemble this Brazilian blast of bad-taste horror...

August 24, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Staten Cousins-Roe

Writer: Staten Cousins-Roe

Cast: Katie Brayben, Poppy Roe, Ben Lloyd-Hughes, Sinead Matthews, Sarah Ball, Tomiwa Edun

Cert: 15 (TBC)

Running time: 81mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: Lonely, bullied wallflower Lou (Brayben) goes on a soul-searching road trip with life-coach Val, who also happens to be a serial killer.

What’s the verdict: Go Nuts in May would be another title for Staten Cousins-Roe’s feature debut.

The director’s primary target is the army of self-help gurus, pushing mishmash philosophies and empty platitude on the lonely...

August 24, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Graham Hughes

Writer: Graham Hughes

Cast: Graham Hughes, Annabel Logan, Paddy Kondracki, Joma West

Producer: Graham Hughes

Music: Cullah

Cinematography: Kevin Walls

Editor: Graham Hughes

Cert: 15 (TBC)

Running time: 88mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: A documentary entitled Death of a Vlogger investigates the strange story surrounding a YouTube filmmaker, whose flat is seemingly haunted by a poltergeist.  

What’s the verdict: Ironic for a film about the paranormal, Graham Hughes’ third directorial outing breathes fresh life into the mockumentary format. Wrapped in this initially standard looking horror mock-doc is an effective chiller and a blackly comic spin on social media stardom.

Graham (Hughes) is a likeabl...

August 23, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Lucky McKee

Writers: Chris Sivertson

Cast: Thora Birch, Caitlin Stasey, Sasha Frolova, Macon Blair, Isai Torres

Cert: 15 (TBC)

Running time: 90mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: Single-mother Chloe (Birch) has a testy relationship with her high school daughter Nicole (Frolova). Things change for better and worse following the arrival of Chloe’s sister, Sadie (Stasey)

What’s the verdict: A paper could be written on the role of woods in Lucky McKee movies (he even made a film titled The Woods back in 2006). He has a knack of shooting them in fairytale fashion as repositories of wonder or menace. The only certainty is, when characters enters the woods, nothing will be the same when they step out.

Kindred Spirits opens with cha...

August 23, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Jennifer Reeder

Writer: Jennifer Reeder

Cast: Grace Smith, Marika Engelhardt, Kate Arrington, Raven Whitely, Audrey Francis, Ty Olwin, Tim Hopper

Cert: 15 (TBC)

Running time: 111mins

Year: 2019

What’s the story: In a small midwestern town, the disappearance of a high school girl plays as the backdrop for the lives and intrigues of the townsfolk.

What’s the verdict: Lyrical, engrossing and infuriating, Jennifer Reeder’s magical realist take on teen angst is sometimes too pointed for comfort, but the end result gets under the skin.

Early on, band majorette Carolyn (Whitely) is seen rebuffing the advances of boorish boyfriend Andy (Olwin) during a nocturnal, lakeside tryst...

August 23, 2019, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Emma Tammi

Writer: Teresa Sutherland

Cast: Caitlin Gerard, Julia Goldani Telles, Ashley Zukerman, Dylan McTee, Miles Anderson

Cert: 15

Running time: 86mins

Year: 2018

What’s the story: When Isaac (Zukerman) is forced to leave his home to tend to a recent tragedy, his wife Lizzie (Gerard) is left alone on the vast expanse of frontier America with only the wind for company. And what that brings with it…

What’s the verdict: A magnificently assured feature debut from director Emma Tammi and writer Teresa Sutherland, The Wind is a five-star announcement of major new talents.

A Gothic Western, over 86-breathless-minutes it unleashes a tornado of psychological and supernatural batterings, leaving you stunned and exhilarated as th...