|
3/5
|
Predator 2
(1990)
|
John Ferguson
|
The action sequences are ably staged by Blown Away director Stephen Hopkins, but it lacks the sweaty, claustrophobic tension of the Arnold Schwarzenegger original.
Posted Oct 31, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Rec
(2007)
|
Alan Jones
|
Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza pool their wayward cult horror talents to work the Blair Witch faux documentary aesthetic - with added 28 Days Later-style rage victims - to urgent perfection.
Posted Oct 30, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Rabid
(1977)
|
John Ferguson
|
This disturbing film lacks the stomach-churning claustrophobia of Shivers, but is an altogether slicker affair, and the spiralling, random violence still shocks.
Posted Oct 30, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Pyewacket
(2017)
|
Alan Jones
|
MacDonald's menacing morality tale explores the dangers of casual occult belief with flair and confidence.
Posted Oct 30, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
The Power
(2021)
|
Andrew Collins
|
Rose Williams swaps her Sanditon bonnet and beachside promenades for a nurse's wimple and a decaying Victorian hospital in this jumpy British chiller from writer/director Corinna Faith.
Posted Oct 30, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
The Plague of the Zombies
(1966)
|
Alan Jones
|
A vintage bloodcurdler from Hammer's golden era.
Posted Oct 30, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
The Pit and the Pendulum
(1961)
|
John Ferguson
|
Corman creates a suitably gothic air and works wonders with a limited budget.
Posted Oct 30, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Parents
(1989)
|
Alan Jones
|
If the horsemeat scare hasn't put you off eating beef, then Close Encounters actor-turned-director Bob Balaban's grim horror comedy certainly will.
Posted Oct 30, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
We're All Going to the World's Fair
(2021)
|
Calum Baker
|
Melancholy and carefully paced, it's a strange and remarkable debut.
Posted Oct 30, 2025
|
|
3/5
|
Scream 3
(2000)
|
Josh Winning
|
Scream 3 often feels like a spectre of slasher-movies past, but it features an engagingly prescient mystery about the dark side of Hollywood, and builds to an enjoyably tense climax in director Wes Craven's version of a haunted mansion.
Posted Oct 30, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Scream 2
(1997)
|
Josh Winning
|
Scream 2 successfully takes the rules of a sequel - higher body count, bigger set-pieces - and delivers a film that intensifies everything from the self-aware humour and the death scenes to the emotional connections between its cast of characters.
Posted Oct 30, 2025
|
|
5/5
|
Scream
(1996)
|
Josh Winning
|
With its genuinely bone-chilling opening and utterly fresh take on the genre, Scream is nothing short of a modern classic.
Posted Oct 30, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
The House of Mirth
(2000)
|
David Parkinson
|
The film echoes Wharton's disgust at the behaviour of the moneyed Fifth Avenue set, while also passing acerbic comment on America's one percent at the turn of the new millennium (and beyond).
Posted Oct 30, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Rec 3: Genesis
(2012)
|
Alan Jones
|
This third film in the jolting Spanish zombie franchise is deftly directed by Paco Plaza.
Posted Oct 30, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
A Reflection of Fear
(1973)
|
David McGillivray
|
Director William A Fraker creates chills, Ã la Cat People, by never quite revealing the menace; primarily a cinematographer, everything looks great. Performances are also strong, especially from the ethereal-looking Locke.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
The Ring
(1998)
|
David Parkinson
|
Artfully mixing footage formats to achieve a visual texture commensurate with both the tone of the story and Kinji Kawai's eerie score, Nakata inexorably builds the suspense right up to the chilling climax.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
3/5
|
Plainclothes
(2025)
|
Tom Dawson
|
There are convincing performances here from both Blyth and Tovey, even if the film stumbles in its final act, relying on a melodramatic confrontation for its conclusion.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Lake George
(2024)
|
Steve Morrissey
|
Ultimately its success comes down to the interlaced playing of Coon and Whigham, two actors often in supporting roles proving they have what it takes as front-and-centre leads. A little gem.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
3/5
|
John Candy: I Like Me
(2025)
|
Jayne Nelson
|
It's an interesting, often poignant watch.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
2/5
|
The Woman in Cabin 10
(2025)
|
Terry Staunton
|
A look at the talented cast list for this stagnant murder mystery promises riches that never surface.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
3/5
|
The Twits
(2025)
|
Calum Baker
|
The CG picture-book aesthetic varies in quality, but the voice cast is largely excellent, with Martindale and Vegas especially enthusiastic as the crazed, slapstick villains.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
3/5
|
Good Fortune
(2025)
|
Steve Morrissey
|
The casting is choice and Reeves is vastly entertaining as he takes shots at his own image, while Ansari's jokes about lives run ragged by apps, bots and endless demands to rate and review every interaction really hit the spot.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
2/5
|
Ballad of a Small Player
(2025)
|
Terry Staunton
|
Farrell makes a good fist of his portrayal of a man on the verge of a breakdown, but not enough attention is paid to his combative relationships with the criminally underused Swinton and equally shady rival high-roller Alex Jennings.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
3/5
|
Hedda
(2025)
|
Patrick Cremona
|
Unfortunately, the adaptation suffers from some frustrating pacing issues, and at times DaCosta's preference for overblown theatricality gets in the way of a more considered and affecting exploration of the work's characters and themes.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
3/5
|
Kim Novak's Vertigo
(2025)
|
James Mottram
|
Philippe is adept at selecting archive footage and with editor David Lawrence slides some lovely clips of Novak into proceedings, confirming what a talent she was.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
3/5
|
Father Mother Sister Brother
(2025)
|
James Mottram
|
The cumulative effect will leave you in a thoughtful, if perhaps not enlivened, mood.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
3/5
|
Marc by Sofia
(2025)
|
James Mottram
|
Despite colourful archive material, Coppola ducks questions on his branding and empire-building, or even his personal life, and so skates dangerously close to hagiography.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
5/5
|
The Stranger
(2025)
|
James Mottram
|
It adds up to a resonant study of historical French-Algerian tensions.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Dead Man's Wire
(2025)
|
James Mottram
|
Bill Skarsgård leads this thoroughly gripping based-on-fact kidnap drama.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
3/5
|
The Shadow's Edge
(2025)
|
Jayne Nelson
|
Writer/director Larry Yang's script only lags a little when attempts are made to give the bad guys backstories. But when it needs to build tension - such as during a long, awkward elevator ride - it's superb.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
(2024)
|
James Mottram
|
Best of all, Davidtz acutely captures the sun-baked rhythms of rural Rhodesia (snakes being just the first danger to wake up to). An impressive, considered first feature.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Roofman
(2025)
|
Alan Jones
|
Both Tatum and Dunst shine at the centre of this fun and bittersweet film, which delivers entertainment through the roof.
Posted Oct 29, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
The Other
(1972)
|
David McGillivray
|
A commercial flop, with no stars, too "arty" for popular taste, this highly atmospheric spook drama is much admired by aficionados.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Curse of the Demon
(1957)
|
Alan Jones
|
This remarkably well-constructed essay on the realm of the supernatural from Cat People director Jacques Tourneur is a superb adaptation of the MR James short story Casting the Runes.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Mystery of the Wax Museum
(1933)
|
Alan Jones
|
Lionel Atwill stars in this golden era fright classic as the mad sculptor re-populating his burnt-down museum with wax-covered murder victims.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
The Monster
(2016)
|
Jeremy Aspinall
|
Bertino ekes out the suspense meticulously - the constant thrumming of rainfall and a subtly insistent score adding to an already unsettling atmosphere.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Monkey Shines
(1988)
|
Alan Jones
|
Intense yet surprisingly tender, Romero's confident and uncompromising chiller is an intelligent nail-biter that takes a highly unusual look at the warped laws of the jungle one man must combat to survive.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
The Masque of the Red Death
(1964)
|
Alan Jones
|
Shot in England by Nicolas Roeg, who went on to direct Don't Look Now, among others, this gloriously colourful horror is a classic excursion into demonology.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Martyrs
(2008)
|
Alan Jones
|
Yet as unpredictably nasty as it gets, there is a stark controversial point to the strangely beautiful excess as well as an astonishingly profound conclusion.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Malpertuis
(1972)
|
David Parkinson
|
All in all, a glorious curio.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Maggie
(2015)
|
Dave Aldridge
|
Maggie is a film of subtlety with a different kind of horror that tears at the heartstrings more than the flesh, and which also sees Little Miss Sunshine star Breslin make the seamless transition from child star to serious actress.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Mad Love
(1935)
|
Alan Jones
|
Peter Lorre made his American debut in this, one of the all-time classic horror stories, the first sound remake of the 1925 silent shocker The Hands of Orlac.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
The Love Witch
(2016)
|
Jeremy Aspinall
|
The multi-tasking Biller, who wrote the music, designed the lavish sets, made the costumes and edited the film, walks a fine line between pastiche and pulp homage here, but pulls it off in spectacular fashion.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Love at First Bite
(1979)
|
Alan Jones
|
The fast and furious fun is superbly scripted by Robert Kaufman and wonderfully pulled together by director Stan Dragoti.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
The Living Dead
(1934)
|
Ronald Bergan
|
Set in a shadowy England, it was based on two Edgar Allan Poe stories and one from Robert Louis Stevenson's The Suicide Club.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
The Foreigner
(2017)
|
David Parkinson
|
Chan is magnificent as the ageing, surly Quan, clearly feeling every knock he takes, while Pierce Brosnan turns in one of best performances as a former IRA man who is now deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
2/5
|
Design for Loving
(1960)
|
David Parkinson
|
Amidst the clunky dialogue and contrived situations involving society snobs and continental aristocrats, there are peculiar performances from James Maxwell as Murray's doltish best pal and Michael Balfour.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
3/5
|
Silent Invasion
(1962)
|
David Parkinson
|
Brian Clemens's script offers thoughtful insights into the relationship between occupiers and the oppressed, while there's something disarming about the film's cheap street sets.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
The Last Viking
(2025)
|
James Mottram
|
Mikkelsen is glorious, but so is Kaas as a man with serious anger management problems. Somehow, despite the bloodshed, this is a genuinely sweet story about sibling love.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|
|
4/5
|
Chain Reactions
(2024)
|
Matt Glasby
|
Ultimately, as Kusama notes - and this clever tribute shows - the film is both unapologetically grindhouse and a great piece of art.
Posted Oct 15, 2025
|