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Inside will fail to remind you of prison films that have become crowd-pleasers over the years. For instance, Cool Hand Luke, The Green Mile, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and my favorite, The Shawshank Redemption. Of course, the fact that these are now classics with mass appeal means they have catharsis rather than anything that resonates with authenticity.

Very few films like Dead Man Walking present a clear perspective that can be examined through a trauma-informed or structural systems theory lens. However, Charles Williams’ Inside is different. It’s brimming with poignant regret, bubbling over with chaotic trauma, and offers no easy answers on where to go after its devastating conclusion.

There’s no magnanimous swig of beer on a hot summer day atop a prison rooftop. No woman driving men mad while washing a car—because she knows exactly what she’s doing. No euphoria of performing “I Am...

One of the most underseen gems of the year is finally coming to theaters in the United States. Guy Pearce, who recently starred in the Oscar-winning picture The Brutalist, has another heartbreaking film on the way. The actor is featured in a new crime thriller set in an Australian prison, which wowed audiences during its North American premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. After getting a theatrical release in Australia earlier this year, theater audiences can finally go see the film in the U.S. later this week starting Jun. 20.

Directed by Charles Williams in his feature-length directorial debut, Inside is a heartbreaking crime drama that dissects themes of violence and self-acceptance. As of this writing, it has a 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 20 critic reviews. The Hollywood Reporter raved about the thriller, stating the film makes "astute observations about mental health, inherited trauma, self-determination and absent or unfixable fathers.

In writer-director Charles Williams’s Inside, Cosmo Jarvis delivers a flinty performance as Mark Shephard, a prison inmate who becomes a father figure of sorts to his new cellmate, Mel Blight (Vincent Miller). Mark is notorious inmate who, imprisoned for the rape and murder of a child, found religion behind bars and now sermonizes at the prison church about miracles. Spellbound by his cellmate, the teenaged Mel plays the organ, feeling a sense of purpose, if not the spirit, that Mark speaks so rapturously about.

Williams’s prison drama is at once a nervy thriller and intense character study. Also at the center of the film is Warren Murfett (Guy Pearce), who, after Mel becomes his new cellmate, orchestrates a plan to erase his gambling debts if he can get the teenager to kill Mark, who has a sizable bounty on his head. As each man processes their thoughts about sin and redemption,...

Premiering in Tribeca, “Inside” (2025) is an Australian psychological crime drama about three prisoners in desperate need of human connection. It takes place in a harsh and distant environment that underlines their painful past every passing minute. Unlike the characters usually explored in similar films, these three men are not in denial about what they have done. They know that they are guilty and may never be absolved of their sins, making it even harder for them to venture out into the world. So, they constantly fight an internal battle not to be cynical about their future.

Needless to say, “Inside” isn’t about the hopes of leaving prison but about the attempts to figure out what to do with the life they have left with all their emotional baggage. So, leaving prison seems less liberating and more limiting or demanding to them. Inside, they know the rules of their world...

Charles Williams’s feature-length directorial debut, Inside, centers on a trio of dangerous men who are forced into each other’s orbit, leading to an outcome that’s both violently chaotic and tragically predictable. And the more this prison drama reveals about the three of them, the more that contradiction seems to describe their entire lives.

Warren (Guy Pearce) is set to be released on parole in just a few days, but he won’t make it out the door alive unless he can find a way to pay off his considerable gambling debts first. He learns that a massive bounty has been placed on the head of Mark Shepard (Cosmo Jarvis)—a particularly notorious criminal who’s taken to delivering bizarre religious sermons in the prison chapel—but doesn’t want to jeopardize his release by shanking Shepard himself. When a volatile, impressionable teenager named Mel (Vincent Miller) becomes Shepard’s new cellmate,...

"It's a crazy dog-eat-dog world. I don't know if there's something broken inside or if we choose to be like this..." Quiver Distr. has revealed an official US trailer for an indie film from Australia titled Inside, from director Charles Williams making his feature debut. Not to eb confused with the other film titled Inside with Willem Dafoe from a few years ago. This film premiered at the 2024 Melbourne Film Festival last year, and will open in the US starting in June this summer season (in theaters and on VOD right away). After being transferred from juvenile to adult prison, Mel Blight is taken under the wing of Mark Shepard, a despised criminal, and Warren, a near-parole inmate. As a paternal triangle grows between them, we see that even the worst of men have a little bit of good inside that will be their undoing. The film stars Guy Pearce and Cosmo Jarvis,...

Exclusive: Quiver Distribution has acquired North American rights to Inside, an Australian prison drama starring The Brutalist Oscar nominee Guy Pearce, Cosmo Jarvis (Warfare), and newcomer Vincent Miller, slating the film for release in theaters on June 20, following its U.S. premiere at the Tribeca Festival.

World premiering last summer at the Melbourne Film Festival, Inside marks the directorial debut of Charles Williams, who also penned the script. The film follows Mel Blight (Miller), who after being transferred from juvenile to adult prison, is taken under the wing of both Mark Shepard (Jarvis), Australia’s most despised criminal, and Warren Murfett (Pearce), a soon-to-be-paroled inmate. As a paternal triangle grows between them, we see that even the worst of men have a little bit of good inside that will be their undoing.

Marian Macgowan and Kate Glover were the producers on the project, the trailer for which you can view above.

Inside unfolds in an Australian prison setting, offering a window into local societal dynamics and penal traditions. The film presents a stark environment where the structure of confinement mirrors deep-rooted cultural attitudes toward authority and personal transformation.

Charles Williams, in his first long-form project, constructs a story marked by visual understatement and measured narrative devices. His choice of a letter-based voiceover invites viewers to interpret the internal struggles of characters with minimal exposition, emphasizing mood and visual cues over lengthy dialogue.

The narrative follows Mel, a young offender transitioning from juvenile detention into a high-security facility. His path is marked by encounters with two influential inmates who serve as unconventional guides.

One figure carries the weight of a troubled past with an almost mythic reputation, while the other exhibits a calculated, persuasive demeanor. Their interactions with Mel create a dynamic interplay between personal responsibility and the influence of the institution.

The ocean serves as the ultimate setting for suspenseful thriller movies, ranging from shark attacks to psychological encounters. Films like Dead Calm and Sea Fever showcase the ocean as a character, shifting from therapeutic to threatening. The Abyss and Jaws use the ocean's vastness to create tension, showcasing the fear and danger that lurks beneath the surface.

Throughout the years, the intimidating vastness of the ocean has captivated filmmakers and audiences alike. Its mystery and the creatures it holds (both fictional and real) help it serve as one of the most terrifying and suspenseful settings for some of the best thriller movies ever released.

These ever-present bodies of water help audiences explore from the best action movies to the worst claustrophobic nightmares. Shark attacks, pirating, or even psychologically-filled encounters all happen within the best thrillers that take place on the ocean.

Related 10 Most Underrated Psychological Thrillers From The 2010s

The...

Melbourne International Film Festival has revealed the 10 titles in the running for its $94,500 competition prize.

Debut and second features are eligible for the Bright Horizons competition, which was introduced in 2022.

The line-up includes several Cannes titles; Leonardo Van Dijl’s tennis misconduct drama Julie Keeps Quiet which won the Critics’ Week Sacd award; Mo Harawe’s The Village Next to Paradise, the first Somali film to ever screen at Cannes (in the Un Certain Regard section) this year; and Un Certain Regard animation Flow from Gints Zilbalodis, recently a prizewinner at Annecy.

More Cannes titles are; Rungano Nyoni’s second...

Chasing Asylum. The first nominees for the 6th Aacta Awards have been announced, with the Australian Academy revealing those up for gongs in three categories: Best Feature Length Documentary, Best Short Animation and Best Short Fiction Film.

Nominees in feature film and television will be named later this year.

Under consideration for Best Feature Documentary is Eva Orner.s expose of Australian offshore detention, Chasing Asylum, and Dan Jackson.s debut In The Shadow of the Hill, which follows locals living in Rio de Janiero.s largest slum and their fight for justice.

They will vie against Nikolas Bird and Eleanor Sharp.s Remembering the Man, about couple Timothy Congriave and John Caleo — whose love story was the subject of feature film Holding the Man, and Snow Monkey, a portrait of daily life in Jalalabad, produced by Lizzette Atkins and directed by artist George Gittoes.

Up for the Best Short Animation gong is Joel Best,...

Josh Lawson.s feature film The Little Death as well as two short films and an online documentary will be showcased at the 22nd South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival in Austin, Texas, next month.

The Little Death is a sex comedy dealing with a number of different couples who are each grappling with different problems in their relationships and sex lives. Having premiered internationally at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, The Little Death will screen in the Narrative Spotlight category at SXSW.

Yianni Warnock.s short film Happy with Bear (produced by Charles Williams) will enjoy its world premiere at the festival screening in the Narrative Shorts section. Running at six minutes, 28 seconds, Happy with Bear explores the loneliness of a Singaporean exchange student and her attempts to find solace by posting fictional images of herself online.

Also in the Narrative Shorts section is Australian...

Art by Donato Giancola

The legendary author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is getting his own feature length biopic! The project is set up at Fox Searchlight and Peter Chernin’s Chernin Entertainment is producing it.

According to THR, the movie will "chronicle the key moments in Tolkien’s life that shaped him and led him to write Hobbit, the classic children’s book, in 1937 and then starting in 1954, his Rings trilogy."

The film already has a script written by David Gleeson, who wrote a sci-fi spec called The End of History. The movie is currently in development, and there's no word on whether the Tolkien estate will be involved.

Here's a little information on Tolkien from the report:

Tolkien led a fascinating life. He saw combat in World War I in which he saw countrysides torn to shreds and friends killed. He was close friends with C.S. Lewis,...

Jrr Tolkien is coming to the big screen. The man himself, this time, rather than just his creations.The La Times have broken word that producer Peter Chernin is working with writer David Gleeson to develop a feature film telling the story of The Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings creator Jrr Tolkien's life, including time spent as a soldier in the first World War, time spent as a codebreaker in WWII, his friendship with fellow authors Cs Lewis (The Chronicles Of Narnia) and Charles Williams (look him up, he's amazing) and the creation of his signature works.The project is in early days yet, with no director or schedule currently in place....

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

There’s only so many bankable classic works of fiction out there for Hollywood to pillage and water down that lately they have turned their attention to making movies based on the mysterious and fantastical hidden truths about the authors themselves. Some of them are so hidden, they are just plain made up.

We’ve seen biopics of Beatrix Potter (Miss Potter) and Jane Austen (Becoming Jane) in recent years as romance movies, John Cusack has recently shot The Raven – a movie about the capturing serial killers exploits of Edgar Allen Poe and there’s even a screenplay out there for a detective film based on an amateur sleuth team of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini!

In fact this week’s announcement that a movie based on the fictional adventures of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit author J.R.R. Tolkien isn’t even the first to have the idea!

Google turns up nothing. The Wikipedia page has been deleted. The "IMDb" page included in the mail out is actually a very clever knock off. And the chances of Richard Matheson, Rod Serling and Kurt Vonnegut ever having worked on a script together are pretty much nil. Looks and smells like a hoax to me, but damn, it's a good one, the sort that appears to have professional backing, so clearly there's something else going on here. Check the press release below and chime in on your thoughts on what this could really be ...

Get Your Dirty Hands Off Me is a 1975 epic Thriller science fiction film directed by Tom Gries loosely based on the Story 'Dark Races' (Weird Tales, Dec 1932) by Robert E. Howard . The film stars Perry King and features Karen Black, Frank Langella, John Saxon,... The script was originally written by Richard Matheson and Charles Williams about...

 

I like to imagine that, in some fantasy parallel universe, there's a similar story this one, complaining about the exploitation of actual dragons to turn a quick buck. The biggest difference there is that the author of that story is probably drinking a big stein of grog and not a Super Big Gulp of Dr. Pepper. But I digress...

The Heatvision Blog has spotted dragons. Specifically, a series of young adult dragon novels called The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica, built on the conceit that the young characters are really fantasy authors C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkein and Charles Williams and that their real-life dragon adventures were the impetus behind their respective novels. This is beginning to sound like Doctor Who fanfiction.

Travis Adam Wright, the fellow who wrote Eagle Eye, will adapt James A. Owen's novels, combining the first two (Here, There Be Dragons and The Search...