Webcast (2018)

Director: Paul McGhie
Starring: Samantha Redford, Joseph Tremain, Nicola Wright .UK. 1h 35m

It’s way too easy to summarise this as a found footage version of the Wicker man meets Kill List however I feel that it would be going the classics a bit of an injustice.

Webcast is a mockumentary/found footage film made by a couple of young lovebird students when they realise that some kind of cult is operating next door, and make all the wrong decisions in trying to uncover a deadly plot.

The Wicker Man (1973)

Director: Robin Hardy
Based on: The Ritual by David Pinner
Starring: Edward Woodward, Christopher Lee, Britt Ekland, Ingrid Pitt, Diane Cilento .UK. 1h 27m

In the past decade Horror Folklore as a genre has raised its curious demonic fiery head. This new dawning, pioneered by new cult directors such as Ben Wheatley, Ari Aster, Gavin Liam and Roger Eggers to name a few haven’t been able to make a movie without it being likened to the pioneering game changer, Robin Hardy’s slow-burning chiller The Wicker Man.

Looking back at it’s small budget and menial takings at the cinema, numerous cuts and actors paying for critics seats, it’s rise to cult status wasn’t a simple one but what it achieved was truly unique, not even it’s remake was able to mimic it’s true sense of dread and horror.

The Seventh Son (2014)

Director: Sergei Bodrov
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes, Alicia Vikander, Kit Harington, Olivia WIlliams, Djimon Hounsou, Julianne Moore. USA/UK/Russia 1h 42m

Based on The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delaney

In principle the story is ok, I’m pretty sure the better selling novel by Joseph Delaney is worth a read if fantasy is your thing, but in this bizarre adaptation there’s no longer anything particularly outstanding. Which is totally bizarre as it has all the ingredients, great actors, many who have starred in many fantasy movies, a Russian director, and without prejudice some of the most inventive fantasy movies have come from the region, topped with a lavish story, this should have blown many pairs of socks off, but it could barely figure out how to put them on.

Opening at a weird stage in the story, we see a man locking away a screaming woman in a remote hold in a vacant landscape, is alludes to this being the outcome of an epic battle between Mother Malkin (Moore) an evil witch and Gregory (Bridges) a member of a knightly order called the Falcons who dedicate their lives defending mankind from supernatural threats.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Director:Eduardo Sánchez, Kevin Foxe
Starring: Heather Donahue, Michael C. Williams, Joshua Leonard. USA. 1h 21m

It feels strange reviewing this so long after it gave me such a wild night out at the cinema, so this review is going to be a trip down memory lane, so grab you member berries and hop on the fuck train.

I was the gothist kid in my highschool, just one step away from shooting the place up if only I had some other trench coat kids to help me out, I might have been on the news, instead being the loner I was, I had to make do with being the go to person with horror movie info, by the time the Blair Witch had hit my radar, the magic was nearly over, it had already been screened and the amazing movie website showed images of people out searching the woods for the missing students, while the message board were filled with links to stories titles “Blair Witch is an elaborate hoax” or conspiracy stories claiming that “the story is real, ignore the hoax stories they are trying to stop you from finding the out the TRUTH”  

Sadly I realised that this was just a modern day wicca version of Cannibal Holocaust (1980), yep I knew about all these classics already, I was an early horror bloomer. I sent the main website link to my bestest friends on MSN and ICQ and we arranged to meet up and see the film at the Odeon. It was a late night horror screening on a weeknight and therefore the cinema was filled with kids, I rarely remember anyone checking us in the Odeon, it was like a creche.

The Witch (2015)

Director: Robert Eggers.
Starring : Anya Taylor-Joy, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Harvey Scrimshaw, Wahab Chaudhry. Canada. 1h 32m.

In this conscientious and terrifying horror, the age old concepts of witchcraft, magic and possession and brought together in this bleak forest folklore film. A family are exiled by the church and forced to scratch a living on the outskirts of an ominous forest where evil is believed to lurk. Strange and devastating things begin to happen. An infant goes missing, crops fail, and the livestock starts taking on strange personalities. The family are taken to the limits of their faith and sanity as they are starved and tormented on a daily basis, the mother (Kate Dickie) seems to become possessed by an evil spirit and suspicions fall upon the eldest daughter Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) who is suspected to be a witch but denies the charges. As loyalties become frayed and each family member is tested in unforgettable ways, the true nature of the haunting becomes apparent but at what costs to his pious family!?

A New England Folktale