Director: Mark Tonderai Starring: Omari Hardwick, Loretta Devine .USA. 1h 31m
18 years on from Ian Softleys powerful hoodoo thriller Skeleton Key (2005), the time and tested horror had graduated into Spell, which is a strange name for a rootworking movie but nonetheless no one will be surprised when the incantations, grimoire and ritual work is let loose. However this darkened story has closer ties with Misery (1990) and the Hills Have Eyes (1977/2005).
Director: Brandon Cronenberg Starring: Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Sean Bean, Jenniger Jason leigh .Canada. 1h 43m
the junior Cronenberg stirkes again with yet another brilliant, mind bending, reality busting concept, this time he’s matures his process and developed a highly stylish assasination bureau where agents enter the minds of a close associate of their victim via an implant, allowing the prefect kill to be commited, once the job is done, the agent gets their host to commit suicide and they are “pulled” out of the persons mind and back into their own body, it’s advanced, but so simple and intraceable.
Director: Robert Eggers
Starring: Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson .USA/Canada. 1h 49m.
An uncategorizable and slightly experimental frolic through unfinished literature and art. Rober Eggers and his brother Max attempt to finish a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe with a gusty and challenging drama that borders on fantasy.
Two Wickies (Lighthouse Keepers) are stranded on their isolated island for an extended time due to a prolonged storm and they begin to trip down a psycho sexual rabbit hole during some intense alone time that draws in cabin fever.
Director: Mark Mylod
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Anna Taylor Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau .USA. 1h 47m
An incredible bold and brilliant descent into the dizzying depths of revenge and devotion with the best possible silverware. The Menu follows a dinner date with an eccentric chef, Chef Slowik (Fiennes), who is about to unveil his magnum opus among a few hand picked patrons at his exclusive island retreat. It becomes apparent early on that one of the guests, Margot (Taylor Joy) isn’t on the painstakingly selected guest list and is a total spanner in the works.
Director:Kyle Edward Ball Starring: Lucas Paul, Dali Rose Tetreault, Ross Paul,Jaime Hill .Canada. 1h 40m
Every now and again a director comes from left field and reminds us that new things are still possible, which is what Kyle Edward Ball has done with his tour de force trippy horror which is causing major ripples in the horror community. To say it appeared from nowhere is far from the truth, it was by no means an accident, through several years of making short movies depicting people’s most vivid nightmare, eventually Ball was able to gather all of that experience and forge together Skinamarink, an almost indescribable horror movie that digs deep into the childhood memories of the audience and eliminates another darker aspect of the Liminal space genre.
Director: Nick Rowland EXE Producer Michael Fassbender Starring: Cosmo Jarvis, Barry Keoghan, David Wilmot, Ned Dennehy, Niamh Algar .UK. 1h 40m
There’s a point in everyone’s life when their past catches up with them and atonement, regret and a moment of awakening can’t be ignored. But when your past is muddled with the dark underbelly of the Ireland fighting and gang scene this event usually arrives with a shed load of pain and grief and that’s what Arm has to deal with in Nick Rowlands debut movie.
Rowlands career was mostly shorts and TV segments, and I don’t think anyone would have been something this powerful coming next, but Calm with Horses is a masterclass of powerful drama and questionable characters.
Director: Jane Schoenbrun Starring: Anna Cobb; Michael J Rogers .USA. 1h 26m
In reasponse to a slew of online challenges, either real or unreal, our children have been exposed to the horrors of Slenderman and Momo, and challenged to chuck ice water over themselves to spread awareness or apparently the comitt suicide in the blue whale challnge or wishing for death in Randomnautica, and this is only the tip of the iceberg of this cyber phenomenan. We’ve already seen what an entity from the web can do to a young woman in Daniel Goldhaber’s Cam (2017), but this is something of a step in the “weird” direction..
Director: Scott Derrickson Starring: Ethan Hawk, Miguel Cazarez, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies USA. 1h m
Black phone does all it can to NOT be the typical horror movie, and what it achieves is something not only beautifully crafted but it will keep fans puzzling over the finer details for decades.
Initially kicking off with the troubled life of 13 year old Finney Blake (Thames) , he’s shy and spends his days avoiding bullies and amusing his adorable little sister Gwen (McGraw), their father is constantly at his wits end and often beats the kids more from anger than from being a tough parent but the family get along in their own troubled way, Finney’s best friend is the toughest kid in school, Robin a kid who’s got a mean right hand but needs Finney’s help with his math homework so they look after each other.
Director: Michael Pataki Starring: Richard Basehart, Gloria Grahame, Trish Stewart, Lance Henriksen, Al Ferrara, Jojo D’Amore .USA. 1h 29m
Pataki was a much loved, versatile actor but during his fullfilling career he also directed 3 movies including a risque Cinderella involved a black gay “fairy” godmother who helps Cindereally meet prince charming at a blindfolded orgy, and this crazy gory mad scientst thriller.
For the most part the film rolls out as a reverse Eyes Without a Face, instead of having to replace a face, this crazed doctor is attempting to replace a girl’s eyes. Burdened with guilt the renowned LA Ophthalmologist Dr Leonard Chaney (Basehart) becomes obsessed with restoring the sight of his only daughter, who had barely survived a near fatal crash. Unable to find the willing donors or the raw materials, the Doctor’s dark basement is a gresome reminder of his now blind human experiments.
Director: Michael Petroni Starring: Adrian Brody; Sam Neil; Bruce Spence. USA/Australia. 1h 30m
Surprisingly dull supernatural thriller starring a couple of big names, refuses to make a splash despite having the makings of a depressingly creepy horror but it’s just too long winded and lacking on many fronts which is a shame as usually the cast shine above others.
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