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: 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: Paul Crowder Starring: Michael Fassbender, Niki Lauda, James Hunt, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Michael Schumacher. USA.1h 52m
An insanely personal insight into the creation and golden years of formula one, the world’s most glamourous and dangerous sport, the characters who have pioneered the safety and key changes in the sport are honored in a well crafted documentary.
Being less on the side of stats and figures, dates and events, the main focus of the film is to connect some of the lifelong players’ memories of the sport and some of the fallen heroes with a humbling dedication to their hours of daring death on every corner.
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: Patrick Picard
Starring: Joe Adler; Lian Aiken .USA. 1h 12m
A great alternative title for this movie would be “A nice guy deals with an entitled cunt”, but there’s a little more to Patrick Picard’s sleek thriller, loosely based on Edgar Allen Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher.
The film is a steady paced psychological breakdown of “the nice guy” Francis (Aiken) by his supposed school friend, Jen Paul Luret (Adler), a privileged, rude and cruel young man who’s bordering on crazy. Living in a high tech and lavish home in the remote wilderness with his sister, who’s rarely seen throughout the movie, almost as frequently as the Bloodhound itself, which seems to be a strange masked man that hides around the home and is honestly the freakiest aspect of the entire movie, i found a clip here to wet your whistle.
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.
Director: Tony Sebastian Ukpo Starring: Eke Chukwu. Haruka Abe. Gabby Wong, Anthony Ofoegbu .USA. 1h 30m
This subdued experimental movie seems to tell a pair of harmonious stories, set in a bleak future where space travel is everyday and our social norms are quite alien from what we understand today.
Initially an astronaut has crash lands in a tranquil field and attempts to find help but the social dynamics is unsettling to him, families seem to be “clumped” together any male plays a father, any child adapts to the family they find themselves with that day, language isn’t a barrier, it seems everyone is adapted to all human languages and it just rolls off the tongue.
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