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Ti West's X is many things, it is: a return of a full-throttle slasher, Ti West's first horror feature since 2013 as well as being A24's first ever slasher feature, which would be shifty followed by Bodies Bodies Bodies and X's own prequel, Pearl in the same year.

Perhaps where X finds it's mastery is in how it both respects and embraces classic slasher tropes and formats while reinventing them as well. The movie opens like no other slasher movie before it, opening to the morning after the killings. The police at the scene, walking on blood stained floors which are littered with covered dead bodies before finding something disturbing in the basement below, all of that just before the audience is greeted with a title card of '24 Hours Earlier'. This ingeniously creates a claustrophobic time packet of tension for the reminder of the feature as the audience is has an estimate how many will die and where they will die but are left clueless as to who will it be and when it will happen. Furthermore, this adds to the mystic of who will survivor during the third act as once half the group is gone, the writing and camerawork of the movie suggests it could be any of the three remaining.

The script is simply immaculate, expertly playing with the themes of the correlation between age and worth as well as the rise of independent filmmaking. Every scene is important and necessary. The characters are given depth and dialogue beyond the clear slasher trope in which they represent, each death not only foreshadowed but standing as a genius metaphor for each character's shortcomings or arc so therefore when a character's time comes, their death doesn't feel rushed or like it cheated in audience, it feels right as though it was written in fate for the character to pass that way. On a different note, the camerawork is frankly stunning, to the point where every single shot feels like it could be a painting, as well as homaging camerawork techniques of the 1970s era of cinema. The star-studded cast is just perfect. Mia Goth shines in her dual leading role with Brittany Snow and Martin Henderson delivering scene-stealing iconic performances.

With X, A24 proves why they are the saviours of modern cinematic art. I cannot encourage you enough to watch X, it is truly a slasher masterpiece which will be looked at by future generations in the same light as the Original 'Texas Chain Saw Massacre' and 'Halloween'. Ti West and Mia Goth truly created something special with this film.

Following up from the smash-hit that was 'Until Dawn', Supermassive Games turned to the independent route and created their own "make your own path" horror game franchise, commencing with this very game. However, Until Dawn is the best and worst thing for this game - best as it simply wouldn't exist without Until Dawn but worst as it led everyone to wrong expectations, everyone expected another slasher story but that's not what this is - this is a ghost story.

The plot of the game is somewhat well-crafted as dives into interesting themes such as: paranoia and disenfranchisement of cultures following WW2, however the ambitious over-focus on alternating pathways with no thought of plot armour for specific characters in certain situations (which allowed Until Dawn to have a naturally flowing plot/pace no matter what you've chosen) is gone now - often leading the ending chapters of the game, especially the epilogue, to feel rushed, clumsy and unfinished. The big plot twist simply does the game no big favours, while it is clear what they were trying to aim thematically (with it presumably being a metaphor for how we create our own fears of a past we didn't witness), it simply doesn't work as good as just having a traditional ghost story would have done for this plot. It is also worth noting that despite there being so many ways for the lead protagonists to die, the actual feeling of trying to make the characters survive the night is gone as the game makes it really easy for the player to save them all.

However, on a gameplay aspect, I have no huge quarrels with the game apart from the fixed angle perspectives making it occasionally difficult to navigate your way through the ship. The character models and environments are all beautifully designed, perfectly convey accuracy while creating a perfect atmosphere for the game, the ship literally feeling dead and lifeless which is very apt, as well as some eye-catching aesthetics. Sadly, the facial motions of the character models are nothing to write home about as they are often very hit-or-miss which doesn't compliment the actually decent voice acting on display.

Overall, Man of Medan is a decent launching pad for the franchise and while the it isn't Supermassive Games' strongest, it is an enjoyable experience nevertheless.